A recent study has shown obese people on a six-day diet of reduced fat intake lost an average of 463g of body fat – 80 per cent more than obese participants who reduced their carbohydrate intake, whose average loss was 245g.

Published in the journal Cell Metabolism, scientists from the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases have found that reducing fat intake rather than carbohydrate intake is more successful at reducing body fat.

Nineteen obese people were initially given 2,700 calories a day, then for a period of two weeks they were split into two groups. Both groups cut their calorie intake by a third but one group reduced carbohydrates and the other group reduced fat.

The team at the National Institutes of Health measured the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide being inhaled and exhaled by each participant, and the amount of nitrogen in each person’s urine, to calculate the chemical processes taking place inside the body.

This study shows that there is “no metabolic reason” to choose a low carb diet over a low fat one.

Other studies, however, suggest that when diets are less strictly controlled, people may lose more weight by reducing carbohydrate intake. The Institutes’ specialists therefore still advise that obese people choose the diet they are most likely to stick to.