Long-term study shows that the best diet is the one you will stick with

Doctors, dietitians, and dieters have all asked the question--not to mention authors, talk show hosts and just about everyone else. What diet works the best? We finally have an answer thanks to the longest, largest and most rigorous test of dieting approaches the results of which were published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The answer showed that despite what you may have heard, there is little long-term difference between all of the dieting approaches. What matters most is which one you stick with. The typical dieter will lose 14 pounds in the first six months but after 2 years will have lost only 9 pounds total. Those that lose more are the ones who've managed to stick to the regimen regardless of which one it was.

The best advice? Whichever approach is more satiating, where you will not be hungry and have cravings, is the one that will work for you.

“This study is saying it doesn’t make any difference what diet you choose. Calories have always been the bottom line,” said Dr. Robert Eckel, a physiology professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and past president of the American heart Assn.

The bottom line has less to do with carbs vs. fat vs. protein than simply how many calories you consume versus how many you burn. But calorie restriction is hard and results show too hard for most people. So if the Atkin's diet is easier for someone who loves red meat to follow that is the one they should follow.

The study refutes the notion that any one nutrient has a special power to accelerate weight loss, said Dr. Frank M. Sacks, lead author of the study and a professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard. “We used to think there could be a biological effect of certain diets. That is probably not true.”

It's surprising that it takes a longitudinal study to tell us that if you consume more than your calorie burn you will gain weight and if you burn more than you bring in you will lose weight. But given the importance of controlling weight added by how hard it is to do, it is not surprising there is a multi-billion dollar industry to help us look for short-cuts where there really aren't any.

Link to original source: LA Times