Still counting the calories? New study backs a diet rich in fats to lose weight

COUNTING calories may be a waste of time if you are trying to lose weight – despite years of advice to the contrary.

Researchers have found a calorie-rich diet packed with ‘good’ fats such as those in olive oil saw people lose slightly more weight than those who strictly controlled their calories.

The findings will fuel the dispute about decades-old guidelines that maintain that eating too much fat is linked to obesity and cardiovascular disease.

This latest evidence suggests that not all fats may be bad for you after all. The research, published in the journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, tracked nearly 7,500 men and women in Spain who all had type two diabetes or were at risk of heart disease. They were put on one of three diets – an unrestricted Mediterranean diet especially rich in olive oil, a similar unrestricted diet packed with nuts, or a conventional ‘slimmers’ diet that avoided all kinds of fat.

After five years, all groups had shed a small amount of weight, but people on the olive oil-rich diet lost the most – an average of 0.88kg (1.9lb). Members of the low-fat group lost 0.60kg (1.3lb) while those on the nut-rich diet were 0.40kg (0.88lb) lighter.

The University of Barcelona scientists also found that curbing fat consumption was the least effective way to trim ‘spare tyres’. Waist circumference increased by 1.2cm in the low-fat group compared with 0.85cm for olive oil and 0.37cm in the nuts group.

Study leader Dr Ramon Estruch said: ‘More than 40 years of nutritional policy has advocated for a low-fat diet but we’re seeing little impact on rising levels of obesity. Our study shows that a Mediterranean diet rich in vegetable fats such as olive oil and nuts had little effect on bodyweight or waist cir- cumference compared to people on a lowfat diet.’ But he added: ‘Our findings do not imply that unrestricted diets with high levels of unhealthy fats such as butter, processed meat or fast foods are beneficial.’

British cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, of the National Obesity Forum, who last month published a report claiming that eating fat does more good than harm, said: ‘This robust study provides yet more evidence to abandon the “low fat” and calorie-counting mantra and instead concentrate on eating healthy and nutritious high fat foods.’

But nutrition expert Professor Tom Sanders of King’s College London said: ‘It would be wrong to interpret this study as showing that eating lots of healthy fats does not result in weight gain.’