Contrary to what the researchers expected to find, choosing a diet didn’t improve weight loss or make people any more likely to stick to their diet.
There is a spate of diets out there right now. And while the best diet is the one you’re able stick to, a new study suggests it might not be the one that you pick for yourself.
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In an experiment published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a group of more than 200 mostly-male veterans, followed a diet for 48 weeks. About half were given a choice between two diets—low-carb or low-fat—while others were randomly assigned to one diet or the other.
Of those who got to choose, 58 percent picked the low-carb diet, and 42 percent chose the low-fat diet. Everyone in the study got group and phone counseling over the course of the study, and the researchers measured weight loss, adherence, attendance and weight-related quality of life.
Contrary to what the researchers expected to find, choosing a diet didn’t improve weight loss or make people any more likely to stick to their diet. In fact, people who chose their diet actually lost less weight (an average of 12.5 pounds) than those assigned a diet (an average of 14.7 pounds).
The researchers believe this might be because people are more likely to overeat when following a diet that emphasizes the foods they like—which would likely be the diet they’d select. The weight loss disparity could also be due to something the researchers call a “personal trainer” effect: you adhere to a workout program better if you’re told which exercises to do.
So what does this all mean? While the researchers acknowledge that future research is needed, they’re hoping this may one day lead to weight loss interventions that focus on pairing a person with a diet through personality questionnaires, metabolic profiles like cholesterol tests or insulin tests, or even a person’s genetic profile.
Relevant source:
http://time.com/3922095/diet-weight-loss-low-carb/Curated from TIME
