Posted on 06/24/2026 6:58:45 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
A 3-month randomized clinical trial (RCT) assessed the effectiveness of four dietary interventions compared to a calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet in promoting weight loss in adults with obesity. The study enrolled 160 adults aged 18–65 with a BMI of 30–45 kg/m², excluding individuals with diabetes or other major comorbidities.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of five diet groups, each designed to create a daily energy deficit of 600 kcal:
Key Findings
Weight loss: After 3 months, the following dietary strategies led to significantly greater weight loss than that observed in the Mediterranean diet group:
Body fat mass: All groups showed reductions in fat mass. Compared to MedDiet, significantly greater fat mass reduction was observed in eTRE and mADF.
Lean mass: No significant differences between groups.
Cardiometabolic markers (including glucose, lipids, and blood pressure): No significant differences across groups after 3 months.
Ketosis:
This RCT found that in adults with obesity, a ketogenic diet, time-restricted-eating, or alternate-day fasting resulted in greater short-term weight loss compared to a MedDiet with equivalent calorie restriction. These findings suggest that ketogenic and intermittent fasting strategies may offer effective alternatives for weight management, although long-term adherence and outcomes remain to be evaluated.
Source Information:
I thought this comparison of several popular weight-loss strategies was interesting and other FReepers might find it of interest. It was sent to me by the Keto-Mojo company in an email yesterday. Their emails always have interesting diet, health, nutrition and exercise information. I like their glucose-ketosis meter, but I find I use my Agamatrix Presto glucometer a lot more (cheaper strips and I don't need the ketosis measurement since I'm not extreme low-carb).
I use a free program to monitor my caloric intake: Eating Well. What works best for me is not to eat anything after 4 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next morning. I try to eat about 1600 calories per day.
Thank you for this - very informative. I quit alcohol about 2 years ago, but I still am a sugar and carb (bread/cereal) junkie. The result is not appreciable weight change although I feel 100x better not drinking. The carbs and the sugars are killer (no pun intended) and bad habits are really hard to break. But I do like these posts as they offer hope and inspiration.
“long-term adherence and outcomes remain to be evaluated”
Once I eliminated sugar, processed foods and alcohol, I’m not as hungry as I used to be.
With exercise, it’s enough.
“bad habits are really hard to break”
Indeed. I had read that cravings for junk food, grains, and sugars greatly diminish if you can break through the 6-8 week barrier. I found it to be true; cravings greatly diminished and almost went away. Now I don’t keep any pastries, cakes, cookies, chips, etc in the house at all.
I have an occasional special occasion beer; now maybe 2-3 per month (down from 1-2 daily). I had my first glass of wine in months the other day and felt like crap for the next 30 hours.
I found keto granolas that don’t use grains and really enjoy them at breakfast. I discovered “steel cut oats” and like to make a batch in advance and keep it in the fridge. Simple to warm up a serving in the morning and I use lots of fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and an occasional banana plus a walnuts or pecans on top.
I’ve tried many high-protein recipes I’ve found on X and YouTube and have enjoyed those.
I’m glad you like these types of posts! It’s encouraging that others find them useful.
I use “MyFitnessPal” and pay for the premium version. I faithfully log every single thing I eat. It exports data in a csv format (by meal) which I load into Excel and can evaluate using pivot tables. It helps me keep on track for higher protein and lower carb.
I find the discipline of logging food, weigh-ins every other day, and BP readings every other day keep me on track.
I am almost 80. Cut out sweets and filling my plate and lost several pounds in two weeks before my cruise.
I found that being a little hungry was not the end of thecworld.
Put half back on in the next two weeks!
Re “bad habits”: Those might be more related to neurotransmitters stimulating “hunger” signals as produced by the gut microbiome than a matter of psychology. Sugar cravings by that means are well documented.
With sugar and alcohol, when you get some, all you want is MORE.
I’ve been at this a very long time, decades. First get rid of everything in your kitchen that has carbs. Don’t drink alcohol. Either time restricted to 2 hours of eating a day. Any time of the day works. Or stay very low carb which is less than 20 carbs a day. Fruit is sugar. Juice is sugar. Anything with corn starch or flour in it is sugar. Stay away from sugar. If you remember fruit from the store in 1960’s then you remember that fruit has seasons and even in season it had half the sugar of todays fruit. If its not working, try going a day without eating then go back to 20 carbs. Some people need that day to clear out the system.
Yes. The gut-brain axis is under appreciated. The more I read about the gut and its interconnectedness to every system in the body, the more amazed I become.
It's a huge body of research yet to be fully conducted. Unfortunately, there is so much isolation of variables necessary for quantitative 'cause and effect' analysis that there is no way to appreciate interactive effects of differences in diet, particularly when the ethnicity or genetics of the people under study inflect the response set to dietary variations.
A good example of that is study of 'ketogenic' diets versus study of diets containing lectins that attack the gut lining. The latter have only very long-term but serious adverse consequences. Hence, one might conclude that the oats are fine over the short run, whereas they may be inadvisable over the long run, with the 'leaky gut syndrome' resulting in unwanted weight gain.
It will be a very long time before we settle on what 'the right thing to do' really is, and it will surely vary with the genetic background of each individual.
One trick that helps to break the carb addiction when starting a keto diet is a "steak day", which consists of fasting until 5:00 PM and then eating a large steak (ribeye) followed by half of an apple. The next day the carb cravings are largely gone.
“15% body fat”
That is very impressive. How did you measure that?
I use a “Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis” (BIA) scale at home (an Omron HBF-514C). I’ve been using it for almost 11 years.
In December 2025, I decided I wanted a “gold standard” measurement and did my first DEXA scan. DEXA uses a very low energy x-ray to measure your lean mass, bone mass, and fat mass. I did a second DEXA in April. Insurance paid for the first one and I paid out-of-pocket for the second one.
Body Fat Percentage
12/25. Down 22 pounds from peak. DEXA 31%; Omron 26%.
04/26. Down 35 pounds from peak. DEXA 27%; Omron 24%.
Published literature on BIA scales show they systematically underestimate BF by ~3–5 percentage points which is consistent with my measurements.
Good for you! Good job. That’s a sensible long-term and sustainable approach.
Months ago, I started taking psyllium husk powder to improve digestion. Psyllium plus lots of water fills you up.
At this point I have next to no fat on my limbs and some residual subcutaneous fat on my abdomen. The other benefit of the carnivore diet is that my visceral fat and inflammation appear to be greatly reduced if not completely gone.
Thanks
BFL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.