Women following the Atkins diet, the once bright star in the galaxy of diets, lost more weight than women following other diets, with no concerns expressed over cardiovascular risk factors.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, may see a revival in low carbohydrate, high protein/fat diets that have lost popularity amongst the public with critics saying that the approach puts followers at a higher risk of clogged arteries and heart attack in the long-term.

Researchers from Stanford University Medical School assigned 311 premenopausal overweight and obese women (average age 41, average BMI 32 kg per sq. m) to follow one of four diets – Atkins (very low in carbohydrate), Zone (low in carbohydrate), Ornish (high in carbohydrate) and LEARN (low in fat, high in carbohydrate, based on national guidelines) – for one year.

Source