Which diet is the best kind for losing weight and keeping it off?

WASHINGTON — Further frustrating the health conscious, two new studies appear to reach conflicting conclusions on what is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

One study published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine reveals that following a high-fat, Atkins-style diet with fewer carbs led to more weight loss than a low-fat diet, but another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found it doesn’t matter which diet people followed.

Conventional wisdom holds that the best diet is actually the one a person will stick with, according to Deborah Kotz, Boston Globe health reporter. For most people who are dieting, feeling deprived of favorite food groups means they won’t stick to an eating plan for very long.

“I think that basically the message here is that a diet really needs to be a long-term eating plan, not something you go on and off of,” Kotz said.

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