Fitness

To get it quickly out of the way, this article and the study do not conclude that a low-carb diet will achieve similar weight loss as cutting calories. Instead, this study looked into whether a low-carb diet without calorie reduction can still deliver benefits to overweight individuals. The article and title are written very carefully to be truthful, even if it does lean into a false dichotomy between low-calorie and low-carb diets.

Abstract: Low-carbohydrate diets and intermittent energy restriction may offer metabolic advantages in fuel utilisation, that are independent of weight loss. The underlying mechanisms for these effects are unclear but may involve extensions of the catabolic phase and/or attenuation of insulin secretion. To address this gap, we aimed to investigate the independent acute metabolic effect of carbohydrate restriction at varying energy levels. Twelve, (six female) healthy overweight/obese participants (27.3 ± 1.8 years; 25.2 ± 1.6 kg/m2) completed this three-way study. .....

Both low-carbohydrate with and without energy restriction diets induced comparable decrease in triacylglycerol iAUC (p = 0.02, p = 0.04, respectively), and respiratory quotient (both p < 0.01) along with increase in non-esterified fatty acids (both p < 0.01) and 3-hydroxybutyrate (p = 0.001, p = 0.01, respectively) levels. .....

These findings demonstrate that carbohydrate restriction, without altering energy intake, can elicit effects similar to those observed in short-term fasting. As such we propose a strategy of repeated carbohydrate restriction cycles alone may be an emerging alternative approach for the enhancement of cardiometabolic health, warranting further investigation.

The takeaway is that a low-carb diet may be more approachable, and that gives options for health practitioners to advise patients, if a low-calorie diet would be complicated by other factors or contraindicated. That said, the size of the study was limited.