Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the diet you choose is not as important as your ability to stick to it.
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“Given the popularity of these diets around the world, there has been a real lack of research to examine their relative benefits. But overall, the differences between the different diets regarding their impact on weight loss were relatively small,” says Geoff Ball, associate professor and an obesity expert who was involved in the study.
The study reviewed 48 randomized clinical trials of branded diets and included data obtained from the weight loss struggles of more than 7,200 overweight and obese adults.
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The study found very little difference between people who followed low fat diets when compared to people who followed low carb diets. Six months into the diet people following a low carb diet had lost an average of 8.6kgs whereas people on a low fat diet lost 7.7kgs. After 12 months on their diets, there was no difference between the two diets.
What did make a difference was behavioral support, which was showed to help people shed an average of 6 kilograms more over six months. People who followed an exercise routine in addition to dieting lost on average 2 kilograms in the course of a year.
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