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What is the difference between low fat and low carb diet? Our expert nutritionist Richie Kirwan, talks about which is better for fat loss.
Richie also dives deeper into how our body stores and burns fat with these two diets and how weight loss and weight gain can happen.
p.s this video is not here to recommend any specific diet but more to talk about the different approaches and which is better, if any, for fat loss.
So, now that is settled.... let the battle commence.
Which diet is better? Low Carb or Low Fat.
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0:00
is a low-carb diet better than a low-fat
0:02
diet for fat loss let's talk about that
0:07
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:08
kirwan and today we're going to talk
0:10
about one of the greatest nutrition
0:12
rivalries of all time you see people
0:14
always want to know which is the best
0:16
approach be it conventional versus sumo
0:18
deadlifts it's conventional by the way
0:20
cardio versus weights weights one's
0:22
hands down vegan versus carnivore
0:24
personally i'm a big fan of the kearney
0:26
vegan diet and today we're going to talk
0:29
about the difference between low-fat and
0:32
low-carb diet approaches and which if
0:34
any is better for fat loss along the way
0:37
we'll also talk about how our body
0:39
stores and burns fat and how weight loss
0:42
and weight gain happen before i go any
0:44
further i want to point out that i'm not
0:46
going to recommend any specific diet in
0:48
this video in my opinion one of the most
0:50
important factors of any diet is
0:52
someone's ability to enjoy it and stick
0:54
to it long term that means that the diet
0:56
one person can stick to really easily
0:58
may be very different from a diet that
1:00
someone else enjoys and can adhere to if
1:02
you take anything from my videos i
1:04
really hope you learn that you don't
1:06
have to restrict yourself to believing
1:08
in one single dietary approach for
1:11
everyone humans don't work that way and
1:13
neither do diets so first off i think
1:15
it's a good idea to talk about how we
1:17
actually burn fat in the first place our
1:19
body fat is called adipose tissue and
1:21
one of its main functions is to store
1:23
energy in the form of triglycerides a
1:25
triglyceride is a molecule made up of
1:27
three fatty acids joined to a molecule
1:29
of glycerol triglycerides or fats are a
1:32
really great way of storing energy
1:34
because they can store a lot of energy
1:36
compared to other macronutrients one
1:38
gram of triglycerides or fat stores nine
1:40
calories whereas one gram of either
1:42
protein or carbohydrates stores only
1:43
about four calories meaning they're less
1:46
than half as efficient for energy
1:47
storage that said our body does store
1:49
some carbohydrate in the form of
1:50
glycogen in our muscles and liver and
1:52
uses this to maintain our blood glucose
1:54
levels when we haven't eaten and as a
1:56
fuel for high intensity exercise when we
1:59
haven't eaten in a while when blood
2:00
glucose levels are normal and when we're
2:02
not exercising intensely our body gets
2:05
energy from our body fat an enzyme
2:07
called hormone-sensitive lipase breaks
2:10
down triglycerides to glycerol and fatty
2:12
acids those fatty acids get exported out
2:14
of the fat cell and are transported in
2:16
the blood attached to a protein
2:18
transporter called albumin these free
2:20
fatty acids travel around the body to
2:22
provide fuel for cells simple right now
2:25
if we burn more fat from our fat cells
2:27
than we eat over time we lose body
2:30
weight now when we eat a meal with a mix
2:32
of protein carbs and fats something
2:34
different happens when we digest our
2:36
food protein and carbs get absorbed
2:38
directly into our bloodstream from the
2:39
gut in the form of amino acids and
2:41
sugars the increase in blood sugar and
2:43
amino acids causes our body to produce
2:45
insulin which is a really important job
2:47
it helps to bring our blood sugar back
2:49
down to normal levels because high blood
2:51
sugar for a long time can be bad for our
2:53
health so there are a few ways that
2:55
insulin brings our blood sugar back down
2:58
the first thing is it inhibits hormone
3:00
sensitive lipase so we don't get any
3:02
more fat britain this means our body has
3:05
to burn carbohydrates or amino acids
3:07
instead for energy this means your body
3:10
is in a glycolytic state burning glucose
3:13
for energy insulin also increases
3:15
storage of both glucose and free fatty
3:17
acids to help get them out of your
3:19
bloodstream glucose can be stored as
3:20
glycogen and if your glycogen stores are
3:23
at their limit then glucose can be
3:24
converted to fat in the liver and stored
3:26
as body fat free fatty acids get
3:28
converted back to triglycerides and
3:30
stored as body fat too so with this
3:32
explanation it's very easy to think holy
3:34
crap if i eat carbs and raise my insulin
3:36
then i'm going to be storing fat all the
3:37
time all i need to do is not eat carbs
3:40
my insulin will be low i'll start
3:42
burning fatty acids and i won't store
3:44
any more body fat right while that makes
3:45
a lot of sense on the surface it's
3:47
actually way too simple a way of
3:50
thinking about and completely ignores a
3:52
very important point known as energy
3:54
balance you see no matter what fuel we
3:57
use carbs or fats our body still needs
3:59
to use the same amount of energy to be
4:02
alive and active more or less if you
4:04
don't eat enough food to meet those
4:05
needs your body will be in a negative
4:08
energy balance and over time you'll lose
4:10
body fat on the other hand if you eat
4:12
more food than your body needs to burn
4:14
to survive this is called positive
4:16
energy balance that extra energy you get
4:18
from your food needs to go somewhere our
4:20
bodies in general don't like waste so
4:23
that extra energy will get stored as
4:25
either glycogen if there's room or body
4:27
fat which humans have a virtually
4:29
unlimited storage capacity for and over
4:32
time that leads to weight gain so if you
4:35
go on a carb-free diet that doesn't
4:37
spike your insulin and get most of your
4:38
energy from fat while it might be nice
4:40
to think that you won't be able to gain
4:42
body fat because you're just burning fat
4:44
the truth is different if you eat more
4:46
fat you will burn more fat but you're
4:48
burning the fat you're eating and if
4:50
you're eating more fat than you burn you
4:52
will store that extra as body fat
4:55
because you don't need high insulin to
4:57
store fat excess calories is more than
5:00
enough okay so far anything i've spoken
5:02
about is what we call the mechanism of
5:04
fat loss but how does that all play out
5:06
in practice do we have any weight loss
5:08
studies that compare low fat with low
5:09
carb well luckily enough we have a lot
5:12
of such studies so let's talk about one
5:14
of the best controlled low fat versus
5:16
low carb studies which was run by kevin
5:19
hall at the national institute of health
5:20
in the us it had 19 participants with
5:23
obesity the average body mass index was
5:25
35 and it was performed in a metabolic
5:27
ward that means that the participants
5:29
lived in the research center during the
5:31
experiment and all the food that they
5:33
ate and exercise they did was monitored
5:35
to the highest possible level it was a
5:37
crossover design which meant that all
5:39
the participants got to do both the
5:41
reduced fat high carb and the reduced
5:43
carb high fat diet for two weeks each
5:46
with a two to four week washout period
5:47
in between both diets were isocaloric
5:50
which means they had the same calories
5:51
and put the participants in a 30 energy
5:53
deficit both diets also had the same
5:56
amount of protein at about 20
5:58
in nutrition science like this it's
6:00
really important to be able to control
6:01
as many factors as possible so that you
6:03
know that any differences in results are
6:05
caused by in this case the difference in
6:08
carbs and fats so what happened well as
6:11
you'd expect on the reduced carb diet
6:14
insulin dropped more than 20 percent on
6:16
top of that fat oxidation or fat burning
6:19
increased a lot again as you'd expect
6:21
considering the participants were
6:22
getting most of their energy from fat
6:24
now at this point i'm going to remind
6:26
you that the extra fat oxidation is
6:28
going to be a combination of burning
6:30
body fat and burning the fat that they
6:33
were eating but the interesting finding
6:36
was the effect on just burning body fat
6:38
which at the end of the day is what
6:40
people care about when it comes to a
6:41
weight loss study the researchers
6:42
calculated that the reduced carb group
6:44
was burning 53 grams of body fat per day
6:48
but the reduced fat group was actually
6:50
burning 89 grams of body fat per day so
6:54
overall the reduced fat group was
6:55
actually burning more body fat now this
6:57
was just a two week study but it does
6:59
help to show when it comes to burning
7:01
body fat a calorie deficit seems to be a
7:03
lot more important than keeping insulin
7:06
low because remember that low carb group
7:08
had lower insulin but we're burning less
7:10
body fat what about longer term studies
7:11
in the real world do we have any good
7:13
studies comparing low carb and low fat
7:15
diets you bet we do professor
7:17
christopher gardner ran the diet fits
7:18
trial which compared weight loss on a
7:20
healthy low fat diet versus a healthy
7:22
low carbohydrate diet for 12 months this
7:25
was a free living experiment which means
7:27
people were living their normal lives
7:29
and we're told how to eat that means you
7:31
can't monitor what the people do or eat
7:33
as well as in a metabolic ward study but
7:35
the results are a lot more realistic
7:37
because people can't be controlled and
7:39
told how to eat in the real life this
7:40
study also had over 600 participants
7:43
which made the results a lot more
7:45
reliable all the participants were given
7:47
education on how to either lower their
7:49
carbs or fats as much as possible
7:50
depending on the group that they were in
7:51
the low-fat diet group had an average of
7:53
48 carbs and 29 fat and the low-carb
7:57
group had an average of 30 carbs and 45
7:59
fat and i know people are going to say
8:01
that's not very low carb low fat but
8:03
this is what people do in the real world
8:05
and what happened to 12 months well both
8:07
groups on average lost weight the low
8:09
fat group lost 5.3 kilos and the low
8:11
carb group lost 6 kilos on average so
8:14
they lost 700 grams more but this wasn't
8:16
statistically significant and 700 grams
8:18
over a year isn't really a meaningful
8:20
amount of weight loss either also this
8:22
study didn't look exclusively at body
8:24
fat so part of the difference could be
8:26
losses of body water which we know are
8:28
greater on low carb diets on top of that
8:31
the insulin levels of the participants
8:33
had absolutely no effect on weight loss
8:35
either what was really interesting about
8:37
this study is that it was funded by the
8:39
nutrition science initiative or nusei an
8:42
organization that pretty much has the
8:44
goal of proving that carbs and insulin
8:46
cause weight gain so the fact that their
8:47
study didn't show that was a pretty big
8:50
deal i could talk about a lot more
8:52
studies in detail but we have so many
8:54
that we even have meta-analyses of
8:57
studies a meta-analysis is when you
8:58
combine the results of multiple similar
9:00
studies to find out what the overall
9:02
effect is now there have actually been a
9:04
lot of meta-analyses comparing low-fat
9:06
and low-carb and other diets over the
9:08
years and they have more or less had the
9:10
same results one of the more recent
9:12
studies used data from 53 other studies
9:15
with over 68 000 participants and a
9:18
duration of 12 months the analysis
9:20
showed that on average the low carb
9:22
diets resulted in about
9:24
1.15 kilograms more weight loss than the
9:27
low fat diet again 1.15 kilograms over
9:30
12 months isn't a big difference when it
9:32
comes to body weight and we always have
9:34
to think how much of that difference is
9:36
body water and is there much of a
9:38
difference if any in body fat with all
9:40
the evidence that we have we can say
9:42
that when it comes to fat loss low carb
9:44
diets are probably just as effective as
9:46
low fat diets we definitely don't have
9:48
any evidence to say that low carb diets
9:50
have any magic weight loss effect and we
9:52
can also say that lowering insulin
9:54
doesn't affect weight loss either so
9:57
which should you choose low carb or low
9:59
fat well that is completely up to you
10:01
and what you prefer you see the most
10:03
important factor when it comes to
10:04
long-term body fat loss is being able to
10:07
stick to a diet if you can't stick to a
10:08
diet whatever diet it may be because you
10:10
hate the foods you're eating then you're
10:12
not going to be able to maintain that
10:13
weight loss if you want long-term
10:15
success you need to find a way of eating
10:17
that you can enjoy and stick to long
10:19
term for some people that might be lower
10:21
fat for some it might be lower carb find
10:23
what works for you and don't fall for
10:26
all the divisive and dogmatic diet
10:29
that you see on the internet every day
10:30
as long as you eat fewer calories both
10:33
low fat and low carb diets will work i
10:36
really hope that's cleared up some of
10:38
the confusion about low carb and low fat
10:40
diets as always if you have any more
10:42
questions let me know in the comments
10:43
below and let us know about your own
10:45
experience with low carb or low fat
10:46
diets and remember hit that like button
10:49
and to subscribe to the my protein
10:50
youtube channel for more great
10:51
evidence-based nutrition information
10:56
[Music]
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