Which diet will work for you: Low-carb or low-fat?

Katie Marzullo Image
ByKatie Marzullo KGO logo
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Which diet will work for you: Low-carb or low-fat?
A Stanford professor spent an entire year studying two groups of people -- one group was on a low-carb diet, the other on a low-fat diet.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KGO) -- A Stanford professor spent an entire year studying two groups of people -- one group was on a low-carb diet, the other on a low-fat diet.

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Christopher Gardner, PhD, wanted to figure out if he could predict which diet would be the most successful for an individual person based on their genetic makeup.

Drum roll please --

He couldn't.

Gardner found a person's genes (and other factors, like insulin levels) did not predict which diet would result in the most weight loss. Study participants in both groups lost an average of 12-13 pounds.

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But, Gardner is not giving up.

He said the next level of determining diet personalization could come from what he learned about hunger.

He said some people are more satiated on whole grains and some people are more satiated with healthy fats.

And, in the end, there probably won't be one factor that predicts a person's success on diet, it will be a set of factors, collectively, that will point a dieter in the right direction.

To read more about the study, click here.