Could a High Fiber Diet Help With Weight Loss?

A diet high in fiber yielded similar weight loss in obese patients after 1 year to those following the traditional American Heart Association (AHA) dietary guidelines, according to a recent study.

In the past, few studies have compared diets to find if a program focused on 1 dietary change impacted other unhealthy diet components.
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To further explore this issue, researchers randomized 240 adults (ages 21 to 70 years) with the metabolic syndrome and body mass indexes of 30 to 40 kg/m² to either a high fiber diet or to a diet based on AHA dietary guidelines in a controlled trial that lasted from June 2009 to January 2014.

The adults in the high-fiber group had an average total dietary fiber intake of 19.1 g/day.

Overall, 12 patients dropped out of the high-fiber group and 15 participants left the AHA diet groups during the trial.

The average change in weight after 12 months was -2.1 kg for the high-fiber group compared to -2.7 kg in the AHA group.

Investigators noted that 8 participants manifested diabetes during the trial (7 in high-fiber-group, 1 in AHA group).

“The more complex AHA diet may result in up to 1.7 kg more weight loss; however, a simplified approach to weight reduction emphasizing only increased fiber intake may be a reasonable alternative for persons with difficulty adhering to more complicated diet regimens,” said the study’s authors.

The complete study is published in the February issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:

Ma Y, Olenzki BC, Wang J, et al. Single-component versus multicomponent dietary goals for the metabolic syndrome: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med. 2015 February [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.7326/M14-0611.