When it comes to long-term weight loss, it's calories, not grams of fat, that count, a new study finds.

Low-fat diets are often recommended for weight loss, but a new study finds that type of eating plan no better than higher-fat diets when the amount of calories were kept the same, the researchers found.

Researchers looked at the effectiveness of low fat diets in comparison with higher-fat diets and found the difference in weight loss insignificant when the amount of calories were kept the same. 

They analyzed 53 studies, involving more than 68,000 adults, and compared average weight loss among reduced-fat diets, higher-fat diets and no specific diet regimen.

The study, though, did give the edge to people who were enrolled in plans that were more intense as compared to those that were not.  The plans varied from some in which participants were only given instructions on what to eat, while others involved intensive programs including meetings with a dietician, counseling sessions, cooking lessons and the maintenance of food diaries.

"Despite the pervasive dogma that one needs to cut fat from their diet in order to lose weight, the existing scientific evidence does not support low-fat diets over other dietary interventions for long-term weight loss," said Dr. Deirdre Tobias, lead author of the study, which was done by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in conjunction with the Harvard School of Public Health.