A study released Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine compares three popular approaches to dieting, with surprising results.

Very few people who go on any kind of diet have results like Tami Mungenast, "I started Atkin's about 5 and a half years ago and I lost about 50 pounds total."

The results out Thursday should go a long way toward showing which diet is most effective and safest in the long run.

Because Atkins and similar diets replace carbohydrates with fat and proteins, some experts worried about their health risks, especially cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease

Dr. Meir Stampfer, of the Harvard School of Public Health said, "We found the opposite. It actually had good effects."

This latest study was run by the Harvard School of Public Health, carried out in Israel, and compared and funded partially by the Atkins Foundation.

The senior researcher told NBC News the funding had no influence on the results. It compared three diets, a low fat diet, where people were told to eat little fat and cut their calories, a mediterranean diet, where people were told to cut calories while eating fruits, vegetables and vegetable fat such as olive oil and an Atkins-type diet where people did not worry about calories but replaced carbohydrates mostly with protein and fat from fish, chicken and vegetable sources.

The Atkins-type diet was the winner, with people losing an average of just over 12 pounds. Participants lost 10 pounds on the Mediterranean diet and just over seven pounds on the low fat diet.

Blood tests showed that bad cholesterol levels and blood sugar dropped the most on the Atkins diet and the least on the low fat diet.

Dr. Stamfer said, "There is really no evidence to show that the low fat diet has any advantage and now there is really compelling evidence to the contrary."

The latest results are not designed for people to lose a lot of weight, but show how they can adapt a life-style over time where they can lose a few pounds safely and keep it off.