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Diets work, but brands don't make much difference, study finds

 
Published Sept. 5, 2014

Which diet is the best for you? Whichever one you can stick with, according to a new meta-analysis of 48 different trials involving nearly 7,300 overweight and obese adults.

The findings, described in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that there's relatively little difference in the effectiveness of low-fat or low-carb diets, including the branded ones, from Atkins to Zone.

"Our findings should be reassuring to clinicians and the public that there is no need for a one-size-fits-all approach to dieting because many different diets appear to offer considerable weight loss benefits," the study authors wrote.

To provide some data-driven answers, a team led by Bradley Johnston of the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto examined 59 papers involving 48 randomized trials and sized up the examined diets' average weight loss.

Low-carbohydrate diets edged out the low-fat diets. Low-carb diets were linked to 19.25 pounds of lost weight at six months, and 15.98 pounds at 12 months. The low-fat diets were close behind, with 17.61 pounds lost in the first half-year and 16.03 pounds at the one-year mark.

Among individual, brand-name diets, the weight loss differences "were minimal," the study authors wrote.

"This supports the practice of recommending any diet that a patient will adhere to in order to lose weight," the study authors wrote. In other words: Pick the one that's easiest to stick with over the long haul.