This Is the Diet to Go on If You Want to Lose Weight (According to Harvard Researchers)

If you want to lose weight, what’s on your plate is often more important than the minutes you spend in the gym. And if you want to see the most change, a new study from Harvard says you should be cutting carbs, not fat.

Related: Low-Carb Dinner Recipes You’ll Want to Add to Your Rotation

For the study, published in PLoS One, researchers from Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital reviewed 53 randomized trials of over 68,000 patients who had been assigned to either low-fat or low-carb diets. They found that low-carb diets were consistently better at helping patients lose weight than low-fat diets; the participants on the low-carb diets lost 2.5 pounds more than those on low-fat diets, with the average weight loss among all groups at about six pounds.

This latest study on the weight-loss benefits of a low-carb diet adds further evidence that if you want to lose weight, ditching bread — not olive oil — can help you see success. Another recent study, for example, showed that dieters who ate fewer than 40 grams of carbohydrates per day lost about eight pounds more than dieters who were put on a low-fat diet. Other studies have shown that high-carb diets may be the real heart-disease culprit, not saturated fat. All in all, this new review is a good reminder that if you want to lose weight, you should choose a diet rich in healthy fats, lean proteins, and fresh produce. Of course, not all fats are created equal — find out which healthy fats you should be incorporating into your diet here.

Image Source: POPSUGAR Photography / Anna Monette Roberts