Does eliminating carbohydrates make you lose weight? It depends on the duration of the diet. In fact, a diet without carbohydrates is no longer effective in weight loss if we consider a period of over six months of diet. It also could lead to a number of adverse health side effects.

This is what reveals a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic of Arizona , which for a period of about eleven years, or from 2005 to 2016, reviewed the studies carried out on groups of patients who followed a diet high in fat but low in carbohydrates. for a period of not less than six months, and the studies where instead the patients followed a diet rich in carbohydrates for the same period of time. The work of Dr. Field’s team, a systematic review based on 72 studies, therefore summed up the effectiveness of a low or no-carbohydrate diet on weight loss., but not only: in practice, he also analyzed the quality of the diet of both the low carb and high carb groups, concluding that in the first case the type of diet can create adverse effects on health.
Let’s start with the first data, that of weight loss.

On average, it was found that people who ate around 50g of carbohydrates (by estimating diets such as nearly zero-carb banting and low-to-medium-carb diets such as the Zone diet) lost more weight in the first few months of those who ate carbohydrates for over 45% of their daily income. The extra weight lost, however, ranged from one and a half to four pounds over the first six months. Already this difference between the two groups shouldn’t cause much sensation when considering six months of diet. It meant that participants lost about half an extra pound per month on average by cutting out (or eating less) carbohydrates.
However, if you followed the diets after the first six months, and you went to see the differences in weight between one group and another, these differences diminished until they disappeared. What does it mean? That after the first six months, those who had eliminated or reduced carbohydrates lost less weight than those who did not, or lost the same weight. Also, triglycerides were lower in the low carb group, but not blood sugar. Attention, that the improvement of blood sugar is often the typical excuse of low carb diets, in which it is said that eliminating carbohydrates leads to a lowering of blood sugar. This is not the case even in the first six months. Same thing for cholesterol and blood pressure.

In addition to this, the researchers noted that those who followed a low-carb (non-cyclical) diet ate much more meat and processed meat products, especially in those regimes where they eliminate carbohydrates until they used only the vegetable sources (less than 20 g carbohydrates per day) greatly reduced the participants’ food choices.