Predictions abound regarding the best weight-loss diet, but it's still early in the game.

The news accounts could have been from a sports section after any big game. Each team had its view of questionable calls, even though everyone saw the same thing. But in this play-by-play, the topic was diet, not football, and the showdown was related to two scientific studies that compared low-carb versus low-fat diets for weight-loss benefits.

In the studies, conducted by Duke University Medical Center and Philadelphia VA Medical Center, approximately 250 people were randomly assigned either a calorie-controlled, low-fat diet or a low-carbohydrate diet with no calorie limit. In the short term (after six months), the low-carb diet participants lost more weight, but at the end of one year, low-fat, calorie-controlled dieters were about equal in weight loss. The results brought out the Monday morning quarterbacks and proponents of both diets who claimed victory.

But, as with football, you learn a team’s true merit after it has met a dozen opponents. And these results are just the first in what will be a long line of studies. Only after more thorough research—longer term, with more people and different variables—will a winner be determined.

Am I going to give up my high-carb, low-fat beer and pretzel the next time I’m at a sporting event? Not a chance. I’ll walk up the stadium steps, and jump up and down cheering for my team—and burn off those calories. Because that’s the bottom line in weight loss: Burn more calories than you consume, and you’ll keep extra weight in its own end zone.