What matters most for losing weight isn’t whether you eat low-fat or low-carb—it’s whether you show up to your weight-loss meetings and stick with the program.

The more often overweight people attend weight-loss counseling sessions, the more weight they lose—even if they’re on different diets—suggesting support matters more than what you eat.

When overweight people eat fewer calories and get regular coaching, it doesn’t matter much if their diet is high in fat, protein, or carbs—they lose about the same amount of weight no matter what.

Over 10 years, adults with obesity who participate in a structured nutrition program at an outpatient clinic tend to keep attending appointments and tracking their own progress, but the methods used to measure this consistency have not been scientifically verified or measured precisely.