American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 26, 197-204, Copyright © 1973 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Response of body weight to a low carbohydrate, high fat diet in normal and obese subjects

¹ Medical University Klinik, 8700 Wurzburg, Luitpoldkrankenhaus, West Germany

In normal subjects, the fat content of a formula diet in the form of corn oil and olive oil (but with constant carbohydrate and protein intake) was raised continuously up to a daily ingestion of more than 6,800 fat calories. Under normal utilization of fat in the gastrointestinal tract, it was seen that there was only a slight weight gain, compared with the caloric intake. This effect was particularly conspicuous with corn oil and less so with olive oil. The two oils differ by their linoleic acid content. Based on these results, we treated obese subjects with high fat, low carbohydrate diets. If the carbohydrate content of the diet was not more than 50 to 60 g/day and the fat content approximately 150 g/day, an average daily weight reduction of 0.3 kg was achieved. The cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations in the serum, which had been raised at the beginning of the experiment, invariably showed a tendency towards normalization under this dietary program.