
We’ve long blamed carbs for making us fat. What if that's wrong? - roarktoohey
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/6/12105660/do-low-carb-diets-work
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geezerjay
Taken from the article:

> But before we throw out the low-carb approach to weight loss and load up on
> a bowl of linguini, let’s be clear: This study had some important
> limitations, leading some researchers to react more cautiously. It lacked a
> control for comparison, and while the baseline diet was designed to keep
> participants at about the same levels of energy burn they experienced
> outside of the study, the participants started to lose weight on that diet
> too. So they were already slimming down by the time they started their low-
> carb month.

Essentially the study took obese participants and placed them in a controlled
environment, forcing a change in their real baseline diet, and decided to
define the newly enforced diet as the baseline. Yet, apparently researchers
failed to account for the fact that enforcing the baseline diet was already
leading the subjects to lose weight, and thus decided to register the initial
weight loss as the baseline.

So, in the end they compared the weight loss caused by the low carb diet with
what researchers decided to consider the baseline result (the transition
period to the new diet which was already causing weight loss in subjects).
Then, as the weight loss observed during the low carb diet hadn't accelerated
that much when compared with the weight loss observed during the diet
transition period, they somehow concluded that low carb diet isn't that
effective.

