Brief intervention of low carbohydrate dietary advice: clinic results and a review of the literature.

Abstract

The purpose of the review is to assess the efficacy of a brief intervention of low carbohydrate dietary advice for weight loss in patients with a raised body mass index (BMI) (>25 kg/m2) during routine patient appointments in primary care. Brief interventions in primary care have been shown to be a valuable tool in supporting patients to make lifestyle changes. Low carbohydrate diets have been successful in helping patients lose weight.The authors carried out a retrospective observational study based on the electronic records from a single general practitioner surgery with 7,500 patients in Essex, UK. Low carbohydrate dietary advice was given opportunistically to patients with a raised BMI, over an 18 month period, with advice and weights recorded. In total, 774 patients were given low carbohydrate dietary advice. Overall, 1103 kg of weight was lost by 339 patients, there was a median weight loss of 2.5 kg (interquartile range 0.0-6.0 kg) and a mean weight loss of 3.3 kg. There is no published literature available assessing the efficacy of brief interventions of low carbohydrate dietary advice. Our clinic results indicate that this may be an effective weight loss tool in primary care.