Weight Loss- The diet may not matter as much as total calorie reduction.

Most newspapers today are carrying stories about today’s research paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. What they leave out is the intensive supervision of the participants, which due to poor reimbursement by insurers could not be provided in a local medical practice, lack of blinding, and minimal effect over 2 years with losses being between 5 to 12 lbs. It did not matter which diet was used, they spanned the range of the popular diets, and they all required minimal exercise. The main finding the research proved is how difficult it is to lose weight. They again reinforce that it is the eating and exercise behaviors of participants that make the difference. An accompanying editorial points to a current experiment in France where an entire community changed their eating and exercise habits, but is this replicable in the US?