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Low-carbohydrate diets lead to greater weight loss and better glucose homeostasis than exercise: a randomized clinical trial

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Abstract

Lifestyle interventions, including dietary adjustments and exercise, are important for obesity management. This study enrolled adults with overweight or obesity to explore whether either low-carbohydrate diet (LCD) or exercise is more effective in metabolism improvement. Forty-five eligible subjects were randomly divided into an LCD group (n = 22) and an exercise group (EX, n = 23). The subjects either adopted LCD (carbohydrate intake < 50 g/day) or performed moderate-to-vigorous exercise (⩾ 30 min/day) for 3 weeks. After the interventions, LCD led to a larger weight loss than EX ( – 3.56 ± 0.37 kg vs. – 1.24 ± 0.39 kg, P < 0.001), as well as a larger reduction in fat mass ( – 2.10 ± 0.18 kg vs. – 1.25 ± 0.24 kg, P = 0.007) and waist circumference ( – 5.25 ± 0.52 cm vs. – 3.45 ± 0.38 cm, P = 0.008). Both interventions reduced visceral and subcutaneous fat and improved liver steatosis and insulin resistance. Triglycerides decreased in both two groups, whereas low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in the LCD group but decreased in the EX group. Various glycemic parameters, including serum glycated albumin, mean sensor glucose, coefficient of variability (CV), and largest amplitude of glycemic excursions, substantially declined in the LCD group. Only CV slightly decreased after exercise. This pilot study suggested that the effects of LCD and exercise are similar in alleviating liver steatosis and insulin resistance. Compared with exercise, LCD might be more efficient for weight loss and glucose homeostasis in people with obesity.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission—Gaofeng Clinical Medicine Grant Support (Nos. 20161430 and 20172025), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81873646 and 81670790), and Shanghai Municipal Key Clinical Specialty.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Shanghai Clinical Center for Diabetes, Shanghai Diabetes Institute, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Diabetes Mellitus, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai, 200233, China

    Lingli Cai, Jun Yin, Xiaojing Ma, Yifei Mo, Cheng Li, Wei Lu, Yuqian Bao, Jian Zhou & Weiping Jia

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  2. Jun Yin
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  6. Wei Lu
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Correspondence to Jian Zhou or Weiping Jia.

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Lingli Cai, Jun Yin, Xiaojing Ma, Yifei Mo, Cheng Li, Wei Lu, Yuqian Bao, Jian Zhou, and Weiping Jia declare that they have no conflicts of interest. All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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Cai, L., Yin, J., Ma, X. et al. Low-carbohydrate diets lead to greater weight loss and better glucose homeostasis than exercise: a randomized clinical trial. Front. Med. 15, 460–471 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-021-0861-6

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