Best weight loss still from Atkins diet.

A randomised trial in overweight and obese American women suggests that the Atkins diet is still the best way to lose weight. Women following the diet for 12 months lost more weight than women following 3 other popular diets and their lipid profiles and other cardiovascular risk factors got no worse. A further benefit was that their systolic blood pressure came down significantly during the year. The three other diets worked about as well as each other. Women on the Atkins diet lost an average of 4.7 kg, compared with an average of between 1.6 kg and 2.6 kg on the other three diets. The difference between the Atkins diet and the others was only significant after 2 months and peaked at 6 months.

The diets were from a continuum of weight loss strategies, with the Atkins diet (low in carbohydrates and high in fats and proteins) at the one end and the Ornish diet (very high in carbohydrates and very low in fat) at the other. Neither diet restricts calories.

However, although researchers say that the Atkins diet is unlikely to be harmful to health in the short term they also warn that the women in the trial lost only 5% of their body weight.

JAMA 2007; 297: 969.

ROSANNA STRAUSS, BA (Hons), MA Director, Student Psychological Service, University of Cape Town 

Rosanna Strauss has been teaching cognitive behaviour therapy to postgraduate students at UCT since 1996. She has acquired psychological assessment and therapy skills after 15 years of working as a clinical psychologist with late adolescents and emerging adults. Her interests include student mental health issues, psychological treatment models, and psychological theories that provide skills for enhancing positive mental health and preventing illness.