"Long-Term Effects of a Ketogenic Diet in Obese Patients" (Dashti et al., 2004)

Dr. Lee The paper to examine next is "Long-Term Effects of a Ketogenic Diet in Obese Patients" (Dashti et al., 2004). This study followed a 24-week ketogenic diet. Protein was provided at 1 gram per kilogram of body weight, daily carbohydrate was 30 grams, and the rest came from fat. Of the fat, 20 percent was saturated and 80 percent was unsaturated. There were 83 obese participants in total—39 men and 44 women.

As shown in Table 8-2, mean age was 42.6 years for men and 40.6 years for women. Mean body weight was 102.4 kg for men and 99.8 kg for women. As Figure 8-3(a) shows, BMI averaged 35.9 for men and 39.4 for women.

Dr. Lee Now let's look at the blood markers. As Figure 8-3(b) shows, before keto, the so-called "good cholesterol" HDL was 1.15 mmol/L, but after keto it rose to 1.4. In panel (d), the "bad cholesterol" LDL fell from 4.1 to 3.4 by week 24. In panel (c), total cholesterol fell from 5.4 mmol/L initially to 4.8 mmol/L at 24 weeks. Triglycerides in Figure 8-4(a) also fell from 2.75 mmol/L initially to 1.25 by 24 weeks.