Influence of Negative Calorie Foods on Atherogenic Indices in Overweight Women

The present study aimed to determine the effects of diet of negative calorie foods (NCF) on weight, atherogenic lipids, and atherogenic ratio and compare its efficiency with diet of low calorie foods (LCF).

In this randomized clinical trial, the participants were randomly selected from inactive overweight females (age 45-75 years) by parallel assignment were distributed randomly into two groups: NCF group that received a high-carbohydrate (75%), and low-fat (10%) diet, and LCF group had a dietary recipe with 55% of carbohydrate and a little fat (30%) content. Both groups had a healthy calorie restriction (15%) from their daily caloric requirements within three months. Evaluation of body weight, atherogenic lipids (total-C, HDL-C and LDL-C), and atherogenic ratio (total-C to HDL-C) were performed pre- and post-intervention for all subjects and compared to each other.

The results of the within-group comparison of NCF and LCF on weight (respectively, P-value= 0.04; P-value= 0.03), total-C (respectively, P-value= 0.02; P-value= 0.03), HDL-C (respectively, P-value= 0.04; P-value= 0.01) and LDL-C (respectively, P-value= 0.01; P-value= 0.03) revealed significant effects. Also, significant differences were observed between groups in atherogenic lipid profile, total-C (P-value: 0.03), HDL-C (P-value: 0.001), and LDL-C (P-value: 0.03). The result of the between-group comparison was also significant in atherogenic ratio (P-value: 0.04).

Contrary to expectation, dietary regimen demonstrated a similar pattern of weight loss in females. The NCF when compared to the LCF, is not a healthy choice for weight loss in sedentary females with overweight.