Should I go on low fat diet? How about low carb? And high protein? There is no bad or good diet…the solution is simple: eat less!

A study published on the New England Journal of Medicine compared  4 diet plans which included a variety of combination of fat, protein and carbohydrates and found that no matter which diet you select, you will lose weight if you consume less calories.

In this study called POUNDS LOST, Dr. Frank Sacks and his colleagues recruited 811 overweight or obese people (BMI of 25 or higher), aged 30 to 70 years, various ethnicities and 38 percent male.  At the time of recruitment, participants did not have diabetes or severe heart disease, but could have other risks such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.  The participants were randomly assigned to one of the 4 diets:

Counseling sessions were held at least twice a month for 2 years throughout the study.  Calories goal (raging from 1,200 to 2,400) were given individually to each participant depending on his or hers daily energy requirement.  All of the participants were asked to do some sort of physical activity for at least 90 minutes per week.  All the participants were also asked to enter their daily food intake and exercise information either using a diary format or into a computer program.  Around 80 percent of the participants completed the study.

Interestingly, after six months in the study, the average weight loss in all participants was about 13 pounds in all 4 diets. After two years, the average lost was down to 6-7 pounds.  Moreover, all the diets improved the risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as decreased in triglycerides levels, LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), lowered blood pressure and increased HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).  Furthermore, all the diets decreased the presence of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that increases heart disease risk.

“On average, no one diet was better than another, eat a heart-healthy diet and be very careful about how much you eat” said Dr. Sacks.  In other words, it is not what you eat, but how much you eat.

It is a very simple equation:  your body is a balance of energy.  If you burn more calories (through exercise, activities) than your body consumes daily (through food or drink), you will lose weight. It all comes down to calories count… eat less calories than you use.

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