Low-fat vegan diets can help aid in weight loss, but the mechanisms behind this have been unclear.Adults on a low-fat vegan diet reduced dietary energy density by 30% compared with controls in a secondary analysis of a randomized trial.Reductions in dietary energy density were significantly associated with greater weight loss after adjusting for overall energy intake.
Adults with overweight who adopted a low-fat vegan diet ate fewer calories per gram of food without intentional calorie restriction, a secondary analysis of a randomized trial showed.
Among 244 participants, those assigned to a low-fat vegan diet for 16 weeks had an approximate 30% reduction in dietary energy density -- or the amount of calories in a given weight of food -- while those in the control group had no change (effect size -0.28 kcal/g/d, 95% CI -0.38 to -0.19, P<0.001).
Energy intake decreased in both groups, but more so in the group who ate a vegan diet (effect size -357.1 kcal/d, 95% CI -521.9 to -192.3, P<0.001), reported Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.
Reductions in dietary energy density were significantly associated with greater weight loss after adjusting for overall energy intake (r=0.21, 95% CI 0.08-0.34, P=0.002). A 1-kg weight loss corresponded to a 0.36-unit decrease in energy density after adjustment (P=0.002).
