Contrary to popular belief, low-fat diets are more effective than low-carbohydrate diets to help maintain weight loss...

Fats are 2.5 times more energy dense that carbohydrates, this means if we consume a fatty meal, our body has to work twice as hard to use the energy of that meal. Fat is stored much easier in the body than carbohydrates, and studies have shown that less than one percent of all carbohydrate ingested are actually converted to body fat.

A low-fat diet increases your bodies total energy expenditure, this means your body will burn more energy, thereby helping to facilitate weight loss. Fats have a very weak effect on satiety, and that is why we tend to overeat when we eat high-fat foods as they do not offer any sense of early fullness. This phenomenon is referred to as ‘passive over-consumption’. Fatty meals provide a sensory appeal and thereby exacerbate passive over-consumption, as the meal visually looks appetizing. That is why fast foods always look more appetizing than steamed vegetables.

Numerous studies have shown that obese people have a preference for dietary fats as opposed to sugars and carbohydrate. An excessive intake of dietary fats is what causes weight gain, not the popular belief that carbohydrates causes weight gain. The goal is to avoid all junk food and high-fat meals, especially fried foods, potato crisps, pies and pastries as a snack. Rather opt for higher complex carbohydrate, low-fat snacks such as whole-wheat products, fruit and vegetables, yoghurt, and for a treat, jelly babies, wine gums and marshmallows.