Study: Any Diet Works If People Stick To It

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta) – According to a new study, any diet will work if people stick to it.

Researchers analyzed data from about 50 different studies, which came to about 7,300 participants. They compared the effectiveness of several diet types, including those that eliminated fats or carbs.

The study showed there was little difference between low-fat and low-carb diets.

“Given that the diets are relatively equal, individuals should choose the diet that they think that they can best adhere to,” Bradley Johnston, an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and a co-author on the study, told LiveScience.  “For example if someone tends to be vegetarian, it might makes sense for them to choose a low-fat diet.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of U.S adults are obese; obesity can lead to heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.

The results also showed that support and exercise helped with weight loss.

Balance is the key with weight loss.  Eliminated certain food groups can have unhealthy effects in the long run.

"The bottom line in weight loss is that you have to eat less calories than you need in order to drive a change in your weight, so whatever diet that's going to help a person accomplish that is the one that they might want to follow," Linda Van Horn, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who wrote an editorial about the study, told LiveScience.

The study was published in the journal JAMA.