Overweight and obesity are well known risk factors for various diseases, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), chronic kidney disease, several cancers, depression or type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle changes are seen as crucial preventive measures to tackle excess adiposity. However, trials using a low-fat or low-carb diet often fail to reduce body weight in the long term due to lack of adherence of their participants to dietary recommendations and the low-palatability of these diets. The PREDIMED-Plus trial is an intervention trial comparing the effectiveness of an energy-reduced Mediterranean diet with exercise versus a normocaloric Mediterranean diet without any calorie restriction or motivation for further physical activity. This trial distinguishes itself, among other reasons, for a highly palatable diet due to components such as olive oil and behavioral support for its participants, both of which ensured a high adherence to this dietary pattern after 12 months of intervention. Preliminary analyses of the weight loss intervention show promising changes in adiposity, glucose metabolism, lipid profile, leptin, and pro-inflammatory markers for both trial arms. So far, the energy-reduced Mediterranean diet seems to be suitable to achieve higher weight loss giving hope that the MedDiet represents a palatable dietary pattern for long-term weight loss.
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