When it comes to losing weight, there’s no shortage of options on how best to go about it. The grapefruit diet was a bit too “sour” a diet to stand the test of time, but diets like Jenny Craig, Slim Fast, Atkins and Weight Watchers have been around for what seems like time immemorial.

While each of these diets has its own “personality,” all of them are variations of being either low in fat, low in carbohydrate or at least resembling “Mediterranean” – i.e. diets based on consuming lots of fruits, vegetables, seafood for protein and healthy fats found in olive oil and nuts.

That said, inquiring minds want to know: which diet variation is the most effective one? To answer this, researchers from several different universities and schools of medicine collaborated and conducted their research in Israel. The study involved 322 participants living in Israel and the researchers followed their eating behaviors over the course of two years. The participants were split into three groups; each one assigned a low-fat diet plan, a low-carb diet plan or a Mediterranean diet plan.

The goal of the study? Simple: Find out the average weight loss among the participants, and hopefully put to rest the argument of which diet’s best for losing weight.

Two years of being on one of the three diets revealed the low-fat diet – the diet that is arguably the most well-known and most well-grounded in effectiveness – to be the least effective in average weight loss, the low-fat dieters losing an average of 6.5 pounds. The Mediterranean dieters finished in a close tie for first, the average weight loss being about 10 pounds. The winner – perhaps to the detriment of cardiologists who’ve long pooh-poohed Atkins-like diets that OK consuming fatty meats and cheeses – was the low-carb diet, the average participant losing 10.3 pounds. Excluding drop-outs, low-carb dieters’ weight loss was even greater, averaging 12.3 pounds of weight loss. The study is published in the July 17, 2008 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Now, this finding will certainly provide those who’ve long advocated Atkins-like, or low-carb diets the fodder they need to perpetuate their low-carb lifestyle, but as Dr. Nancy Snyderman recently said on the topic while appearing on the Today show, “There’s one equation at the end of the day that allows you to lose weight: it’s calories in, calories out.” In other words, if you want to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than you are burning (This is not to suggest that all calories are built the same; if you’re consuming 2000 calories worth of Oreos and Doritos, it’s not the same as consuming 2000 calories worth of broccoli and cantaloupe).

Despite what this study claims to be the best way to lose weight – a study that was funded by a nutritional research organization affiliated with Atkins, by the way – I and many of my health professional cohorts believe you’re better off living a lifestyle that’s grounded in consuming quality proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables and, yes, carbohydrates. And can we please put to rest this “diet” mumbo-jumbo once and for all?! If you want to lose weight and live a better life, you need to make permanent lifestyle changes that involve eating right routinely and exercising regularly.

But remember, not all carbohydrates (or proteins, for that matter) are built the same way. You want to eat complex carbohydrates, which include virtually every vegetable and fruit on the planet (yes, including potatoes) as well as whole grains like whole wheat bread, multigrain bread, oatmeal, bran flakes, shredded wheat, buckwheat, garbanzo beans, yogurt, wild rice and brown rice. For proteins, opt for lean beef (e.g. top sirloin, tenderloin, top round, shoulder), seafood of virtually every variety and, of course, poultry. Veer clear of the cuts of beef that don’t trim off the excess fat like filet mignon, T-bone, flank, processed meats like sausage and bacon, and organ meats like liver and kidneys.

Diets are quick fixes. If you’re serious about losing weight and maintaining a healthy, lean lifestyle, you need to be consuming complex carbohydrates and lean proteins: no ifs, ands or “butts” about it.