The kind of diet is not so important as how well and how long one sticks to the regimen, researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center said Tuesday.
A study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined four popular weight-loss plans: Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone.
Forty people were assigned to each plan and required to adhere to the diet for at least two months. The average weight loss at one year was 4.6 pounds on the Atkins diet, 7.3 pounds for Ornish, 6.6 pounds for Weight Watchers and 7.1 pounds on the Zone diet. Each group also improved cholesterol levels. However, many gave up. Zone had the best completion rate at 65 percent while Ornish had the poorest at 40 percent.
"The higher discontinuation rates for the Atkins and Ornish diet groups suggest many individuals found these diets to be too extreme," researchers wrote.
Researchers said there is no one diet plan that's best for everyone but sticking with a plan is key to losing weight. "Our findings do not support the notion that very low carbohydrate diets are better than standard diets, despite recent evidence to the contrary," the authors said.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
