Almost Any Diet Will Work – If You Stick to It

Harvard researchers have just reported the results of their comparative diet study in the New England Journal of Medicine. They wanted to examine the effect of reduced-calorie diets with various compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates on weight loss over a 2-year period.

More than 800 overweight adults were assigned to one of four reduced-calorie diets: the percentages of energy derived from fat, protein, and carbohydrate in these were 20, 15, and 65%; 20, 25, and 55%; 40, 15, and 45%; and 40, 25, and 35%, respectively.

Compliance with the diets was not high. However, at 6 months the subjects had lost an average of 13 lbs, which represented 7% of their starting weight. There were no significant differences in weight loss between the various diets.

The participants began to regain weight after 12 months. By 2 years the weight loss for the different diets averaged 6.5 lbs. Again, there were no significant differences in weight loss between the diets.

About 80% of the participants completed the study correctly; they achieved an average weight loss of 8.8 lbs, and 155 of them lost at least 10% of their initial body weight.

This study shows pretty conclusively that almost any reduced calorie diet will work, if the subject sticks to it. The simple truth: there’s no magic - to lose weight you must eat less.