Original Article
International Journal of Obesity (2006) 30, 552–560. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0803186; published online 6 December 2005
Randomized, multi-center trial of two hypo-energetic diets in obese subjects: high- versus low-fat content
M Petersen1,11, M A Taylor2,11, W H M Saris3, C Verdich4, S Toubro1, I Macdonald2, S Rössner5, V Stich6, B Guy-Grand7, D Langin8, J A Martinez9, O Pedersen10, C Holst4, T I A Sørensen1, A Astrup1 and and The Nugenob Consortium12,13
- 1Institute of Human Nutrition, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 2School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK
- 3Department of Human Biology, Nutrition and Toxicology Research Centre NUTRIM, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
- 4Institute of Preventive Medicine, Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark
- 5The Obesity Unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden
- 6Department of Sports Medicine, Centre of Preventive Medicine, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Praha, Czech Republic
- 7Department of Nutrition, Hôtel-Dieu, Paris, France
- 8Obesity Research Unit Inserm U586, Louis Bugnard Institute and Clinical Investigation Centre, Toulouse University Hospitals, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France
- 9Department Physiology and Nutrition, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
- 10Steno Diabetes Centre, Gentofte, Denmark
Correspondence: Professor A Astrup, Department of Human Nutrition, Centre for Advanced Food Studies, Rolighedsvej 30, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. E-mail: ast@kvl.dk
11These authors have contributed equally to this work.
12Current address: The NUGENOB Co-ordination Centre, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Oester Soegade 18.1, DK-1357 Copenhagen K, Denmark. E-mail: tias@ipm.hosp.dk or cv@ipm.hosp.dk
13NUGENOB is the acronym of the project 'Nutrient-Gene interactions in human obesity – implications for dietary guidelines' supported by the European Community (Contract no. QLK1-CT-2000-00618), see the web-site www.nugenob.org
Received 7 January 2005; Revised 1 May 2005; Accepted 29 May 2005; Published online 6 December 2005.
Abstract
Objective:
To investigate whether a hypo-energetic low-fat diet is superior to a hypo-energetic high-fat diet for the treatment of obesity.
Design:
Open-label, 10-week dietary intervention comparing two hypo-energetic (-600 kcal/day) diets with a fat energy percent of 20–25 or 40–45.
Subjects:
Obese (BMI 
30 kg/m2) adult subjects (n=771), from eight European centers.
Measurements:
Body weight loss, dropout rates, proportion of subjects who lost more than 10% of initial body weight, blood lipid profile, insulin and glucose.
Results:
The dietary fat energy percent was 25% in the low-fat group and 40% in the high-fat group (mean difference: 16 (95% confidence interval (CI) 15–17)%). Average weight loss was 6.9 kg in the low-fat group and 6.6 kg in the high-fat group (mean difference: 0.3 (95% CI -0.2 to 0.8) kg). Dropout was 13.6% (n=53) in the low-fat group and 18.3% (n=70) in the high-fat group (P=0.001). Among completers, more subjects lost >10% in the low-fat group than in the high-fat group ((20.8%, n=70) versus (14.7%, n=46), P=0.02). Fasting plasma total, low-density lipoprotein- and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol decreased in both groups, but more so in the low-fat group than in the high-fat group. Fasting plasma insulin and glucose were lowered equally by both diets.
Conclusions:
The low-fat diet produced similar mean weight loss as the high-fat diet, but resulted in more subjects losing >10% of initial body weight and fewer dropouts. Both diets produced favorable changes in fasting blood lipids, insulin and glucose.
Keywords:
blood lipids, lipoprotein-cholesterol, drop-out rate, low-carbohydrate diet
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