On February 6th- the Nursing Research Council at St. Joseph's reviewed a study published in JAMA in March of 2007 (Vol.297, No.9, 969-977). The study was a randomized clinical trial of 4 weight loss programs in which overweight, premenopausal women. Each group had near 80 participants who were given a book of the diet they were to follow along with 8 weeks of instruction and then followed for 12 months regarding adherence, actual nutrients consumed, affects on glucose, blood pressure and lipids as well as actual weight loss.
The diets were:
Atkins- high protein,fat and very low carbohydrate
Zone- low carbohydrate, moderate protein
LEARN- low fat, high carbohydrate based on national guidelines
Ornish-high carbohydrate,low fat
The outcome was surprising-
The Atkins diet had the highest weight loss average at 10.3 lbs
The Zone diet average was 3.2 lbs
The LEARN diet average was 5.72 lbs
The Ornish diet average was 4.8 lbs
The Atkins diet group had the lowest number of dropouts.
The Atkins diet also higher drops in triglycerides, increased HDL-C, no change in LDL-C and greater decrease in BP than the other groups.
Our discussion was lively-
First we verified that the study was not funded by Atkins Corp.- it was funded by the NIH.
We discussed that perhaps protien and fat created more satiety thus more adherance to the diet.
We are hoping the study will continue to follow the same cohorts to see what the long term effects of the diets might be.
Does the weight loss last?
Is the diet sustainable?
Long term effects on lipids?
We felt one weakness of the study was the inclusion of only premenoupasal women.
Overall though the study design was strong and we believe that the outcomes provide valuable information.
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