Keeping a diet - Scientists who were working to find out how diet affects the operation of the liver put 14 overweight people on either a low carbohydrate or low calorie diet. They found those eating fewer carbs lost almost double the weight over two weeks, and several changes in liver function were identified as part of the reason why. 'Energy production is expensive for the liver,' says Dr Jeffrey Browning, assistant professor at the UT Southwestern Medical Centre, in Dallas, Texas. 'It appears that for the people on a low-carbohydrate diet, in order to meet that expense, their livers have to burn excess fat.'