Top Ten 2012 Brain Posts: #10 Best Diets

I would like to thank all the Brain Post readers this year for making this the most successful year for the blog.  Over the next few days, I will highlight the posts from 2012 with the most page visits during the year.

The number ten post came from a review of research study comparing three diets following weight loss.  Weight loss maintenance is as important as weight loss in successful weight loss.

This study followed a series of subjects following weight loss who were randomized to one of three weight maintenance diets:

• Low fat diet
• Low glycemic index diet
• Low carbohydrate diet

In this study, the low fat weight maintenance diet had a relatively poor effect.  It tended to produce the lowest resting energy consumption level.  Although the low carbohydrate diet produced the highest resting metabolic rate, it was inferior to the low glycemic diet on stress and inflammatory markers.

This research study suggested the low glycemic index diet might be the best choice for weight maintenance.  Additional randomized weight maintenance trials will be needed to confirm this finding.

Photo of bird from Busch Garden's aviary in Tampa Bay, FL from the author's files.