 Weight Watchers, Fit Female Club, Jenny Craig...etc. whichever weight loss program you choose it seems they all add up to weight loss via their low-fat or low-carbohydrate diets. Recent research has determined that there is little difference among the weight loss programs used (which were unnamed in the study). The important thing was getting people to adhere to the diets and sticking with it; personalizing it to fit the dieter's needs. As is always the case with weight loss, the most important thing the study found was that the diet must be easy for the individuals to stick to and it must be sustainable for an extended period of time. The Study The research, which was published in JAMA, did a meta-analysis on over 50 long term trials (of at least 12 months) which encompassed over 7,300 people. The analysis found (of course) that dieters witnessed significantly more weight loss than non-dieters. After 6 months the low-carb dieters lost a median weight of 19.2 pounds, while the low-fat dieters lost 17.6 pounds, with both having similar results after 12 months (losing around 16 more pounds each). The great part about the study is that it depicts that one size doesn't fit everyone and that you should get on a plan that is tailored to fit your individual needs so you can more easily adhere to it. One member of the research team, Dr. Bradley C. Johnston of the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute said, 'Our findings suggest that patients may choose, among those associated with the largest weight loss, the diet that gives them the least challenges with adherence.' Dieting Evolution This highlights that your diet doesn't have to be incredibly restrictive as this usually leads to dropout. In fact, severely restrictive dieting can have several adverse health effects like muscle loss, nutrition deficiency, episodes of over-eating and even weight gain. In order to teach yourself how to eat healthier it was recently determined that a good way to do this is to keep the things you love in your diet . You can do this by decreasing their portion size while increasing the portion size of healthy foods (vegetables, fruits, quality protein), enabling you to teach your brain (and you) how to eat healthier. It basically helps quench your urges/cravings for the things you love by still letting you have small portions. Wrap-Up It seems that as long as you eat a balanced diet, no matter if you choose a low carb or low fat diet, you can still achieve substantial results as long as you can adhere to it! As Dr. Linda Van Horn, R.D., at Northwestern University said, 'Choosing the best diet suited to an individual's food preferences may help foster adherence, but beyond weight loss, diet quality including micronutrient composition may further benefit longevity.' 