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Title: Scientific discourse in the era of an open science: A response to hall et al. regarding the carbohydrate-insulin model

Author
item LUDWIG, DAVID - Boston Children'S Hospital
item LAKIN, PAUL - Boston Children'S Hospital
item WONG, WILLIAM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)
item EBBELING, CARA - Boston Children'S Hospital

Submitted to: International Journal of Obesity
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/24/2019
Publication Date: 10/4/2019
Citation: Ludwig, D.S., Lakin, P.R., Wong, W.W., Ebbeling, C.B. 2019. Scientific discourse in the era of an open science: A response to hall et al. regarding the carbohydrate-insulin model. International Journal of Obesity. (43):2355–2360. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-019-0466-1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-019-0466-1

Interpretive Summary: In an earlier study using the dual isotope method, we found that 57 adults who lost about 12% of their body weight and maintained their new body weight for 20 weeks on a diet made up of 20% sugars, pasta, and grain products used 200-280 kilocalories per day more than 107 adults who also lost about 12% of their body weight but maintained their new body weight for 20 weeks on diets with 40% or 60% of sugars, pasta, and grain products. Our results suggested that diet with low sugars, pasta, and grain products might reduce their chance to regain their body weight over time. Hall and his colleagues disagreed with our finding because of possible weight change during the diet period, the use of the wrong starting body weight, and possible effect of study subjects not eating the provided diets. In this paper, we documented weight change during the diet period was small, averaging 23 g/d, and was similar among the three diet groups. We also justified the use of the post-weight-loss body weight as the starting point of the comparison because it was used in other reputable large-scale national diet studies. We also presented data to show that the effect of study subject not eating the provided diets would not change our finding. Therefore, our original finding is valid and of course, more similar large-scale studies are needed to confirm our exciting finding.

Technical Abstract: In November 2018, we presented the results of a large macronutrient feeding study at The Obesity Society’s Blackburn Symposium [1] and simultaneously in BMJ, with peer review available online [2]. In that study, total energy expenditure (TEE) measured by doubly-labeled water (DLW) at post-weight-loss and at 10 and 20 weeks of weight-loss maintenance was 200–280 kcal/day greater on a low- versus high-carbohydrate diet, consistent with the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of obesity [3]. To facilitate scientific discourse, we made the full database immediately available on Open Science Framework.