After weight loss, diet higher in protein and low in glycemic index helps to maintain weight. A study in the Nov. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that a maintenance diet higher in protein and with a modest reduction in the glycemic index prevents significant weight regain better than other diets.

    For this study Thomas Meinert Larsen, Ph.D., of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and colleagues enrolled overweight adults from eight European countries. On a low calorie diet the subjects had lost 8 percent or more of their body weight (mean weight loss, 11.0 kg). To prevent weight regain over a 26-week period, 773 subjects were assigned to one of five diets: a low-protein and low-glycemic-index diet, a low-protein and high-glycemic-index diet, a high-protein and low-glycemic-index diet, a high-protein and high-glycemic-index diet, or a control diet.

    In the analysis of participants who completed the study, only the low-protein–high-glycemic-index diet was associated with subsequent significant weight regain (1.67 kg; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48 to 2.87). In an intention-to-treat analysis, the weight regain was 0.93 kg less (95% CI, 0.31 to 1.55) in the groups assigned to a high-protein diet than in those assigned to a low-protein diet (P=0.003) and 0.95 kg less (95% CI, 0.33 to 1.57) in the groups assigned to a low-glycemic-index diet than in those assigned to a high-glycemic-index diet (P=0.003). The analysis involving participants who completed the intervention produced similar results.