10 Popular Diets Work 2011 Better Than Others.
As millions seek to ditch the holiday flab, The Daily Beast analyzes the most up-to-date clinical studies on 10 major diets for our second annual ranking of weight-loss effectiveness.If your list of New Year’s resolutions includes weight loss, you should know that all diets are not created equal. With the promise of fast weight loss comes faster weight regain, just as eliminating entire food groups increases the chances of giving up altogether. So, what diet really works?
In 2010, dieters didn’t even have to chew, as juice cleanses and the baby food diet, both popularized by celebrities, caused many to shun solid food for fast weight loss. Another fad diet best left undone: the junk food diet. Designed by a nutrition professor at Kansas State University, the diet consisted of Twinkies, Ho Hos and Doritos and left him 27 pounds lighter after two months. Even the effectiveness of exercise was called into question.
To once again try to clarify all the conflicting information on weight loss, The Daily Beast revived a resolution from last year involving the latest scientific proof: Let’s figure out, as definitively as possible, which diets really work.
For our second annual ranking of the most effective diets, we took the largest, most recent clinical studies for the nation’s most popular diets, and compared the raw data using consistent criteria: six-month and 12-month figures for weight loss and participant retention, as well as 12-month change in body mass index. For 2011, we added clinical results published in 2010. (The last time, as best we can tell, that anyone undertook a similar exercise was back in 2007 by Consumer Reports, but they did not measure for BMI changes.) In doing so, we were able to find some clear differentiations in terms of which of 10 popular diets work better than others.
The answers were surprising. Mainstays like Jenny Craig and the Zone fared relatively poorly, while Weight Watchers and the Mediterranean diet did well. “To me, a diet is something that you count the days until it’s over and you miss the big picture,” says Dr. Connie Guttersen, nutritionist and author of The Sonoma Diet, and the new update The New Sonoma Diet, released this year. Guttersen says a diet should instead be “a way of eating that becomes a lifestyle.”
Experts agree that the most effective diets are feasible over an extended period of time, but there’s not a single solution for the entire population. “What I believe makes a diet ‘effective’ is that you can stay on it and that your body feels good on it. This will not be the same for each person,” says Brooke Castillo, a weight-loss coach and author of Why Can’t I Lose Weight? “Any diet that makes you feel hungry (liquid shakes) or tired (Atkins) may work temporarily, but won’t last long-term because they put you at war with your own body… cooperation with our bodies is what lasts.”
1, Volumetrics
The Trick: Lots of water in everything you eat
Pioneered by nutritionist Dr. Barbara J. Rolls, who co-authored The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan with journalist Robert A. Barnett in 2000, the Volumetrics diet focuses on eating foods that have high water content to promote the feeling of satiety and combat feelings of hunger and deprivation. Foods such as soup and non-starchy vegetables are favored over calorie-dense foods like chips and cookies. “It’s not a gimmick where you’re giving up a whole food group,” says Rolls. It teaches people to “eat for optimal health and eat what they should be eating.”
Breakdown:
6-month attrition rate (n/a),
6-month mean weight loss (19.6 lbs.)
12-month attrition rate (27%)
12-month mean weight loss (17.4 lbs.)
12-month BMI decrease (2.9),
Nutrition score (n/a),
2, Low-fat diet
The Trick: Plenty of fat-free and low-fat foods
In a 2008 clinical study, researchers studied a diet based on the guidelines of the American Heart Association, in which a limit of 30 percent of calories comes from fat, 10 percent comes from saturated fat and 300 mg of cholesterol. The regimen is designed to reduce the risk for heart disease and stroke. When participants stuck to the diet with a limit of 1,500 calories per day for women or 1,800 cals/day for men, the diet produced the second highest short-term weight loss and the lowest short-term attrition rate among the clinical studies included in the rankings.
Breakdown:
6-month mean attrition rate (2%)
6-month mean weight loss (12.9 lbs.)
12-month mean attrition rate (6%)
12-month mean weight loss (11.3 lbs.)
12-month BMI decrease (1.0)
Nutrition score (n/a)
3, Weight Watchers
The Trick: Every calorie counts, plus weekly meetings and/or online support
In 2008, consumers spent more than $4 billion on Weight Watchers services and products, according to the company, and each week 1.4 million members attend weekly meetings around the globe. The 46-year old, publicly traded company offers everything from branded pastries and frozen dinners to mobile phone applications and cookbooks, and is currently in the middle of a successful campaign with slimmed down spokesperson Jennifer Hudson. The program recently revamped its point system based on calorie, fat and fiber count in an attempt to simplify the complicated factors in nutrition and weight. “We’re really good at translating science into a method that real people can use in their everyday lives. That really was the impetus behind the points system,” says Karen Miller-Kovach, the company’s chief scientific officer.
Breakdown:
6-month attrition rate (17%)
6-month mean weight loss (12.3 lbs.)
12-month attrition rate (17%)
12-month mean weight loss (11 lbs.)
12-month BMI loss (1.9)
Nutrition score (n/a)
4, Mediterranean diet
The Trick: A lot of fruits, vegetables, nuts and olive oil with very little red meat
A calorie-restrictive, Mediterranean diet with a target of 35 percent of calories from fat, primarily from olive oil and nuts, produced one of the lowest attrition rates in a 2008 study among the clinical studies that were compared for this list. The diet was based on guidelines presented in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, written by the chairman of Harvard’s Department of Nutrition, Walter Willett, and published in 2001, one of many books built around the Mediterranean diet pyramid that espouses a fruits, vegetables, olive oil, beans and nuts (which contain mono-unsaturated fats) as a nutritional base. The diet gained mass popularity thanks to the diet book The Sonoma Diet, which landed on bestseller lists in 2006. Author Dr. Connie Guttersen says, “Fats like olive oil, nut butters, nuts are protective of Alzheimer’s and reduce risk factors associated with gaining weight around the waist… and from a culinary standpoint, using flavorful fats means you eat more vegetables.”
Breakdown:
6-month attrition rate (2%)
6-month mean weight loss (10.1 lbs.)
12-month attrition rate (4%)
12-month mean weight loss (10.4 lbs.)
12-month BMI decrease (1.5)
Nutrition score (n/a)
5, Atkins diet
The Trick: Strict limits on all carbohydrates
Dr. Robert Atkins published Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution in 1972, establishing what became one of the most popular diet franchises of the last decade. While the diet’s popularity has waxed and waned throughout the last four decades, a generic low-carb diet has been proven to help keep the flab off once weight has been lost. The program limits dietary intake of net carbohydrates (total carbohydrates minus dietary fiber), which Atkins theorized increases one’s metabolism and burns stored body fat. “When fat is used as fuel, as it is on a low-carbohydrate diet, it gets mobilized. It does not accumulate, so weight and cholesterol drop,” Atkins said in 2000. (Washington Times, July 2 2000). Dr. Atkins started Atkins Nutritionals in 1989, producing low-carb food products for dieters and published Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution three years later. The book and its predecessor sold a combined 18 million copies in the U.S. By 2004, a year after Atkins death, more than 9 percent of the U.S. population was on a low-carb diet and pasta sales declined 10 percent. But by the end of 2005, the fad faded and Atkins Nutritionals declared bankruptcy (it reopened in 2006).
Breakdown:
6-month mean attrition rate (7%)
6-month mean weight loss (12.1 lbs.)
12-month mean attrition rate (11%)
12-month mean weight loss (10.7 lbs.)
12-month BMI loss (1.7)
Nutrition score (42.3 out of 70 (post-induction phase)
6, Slim-Fast
The Trick: Shakes and snack bars instead of meals
While meal-replacement shakes have been available in the U.S. since Metrecal appeared on shelves in the 1960s, Slim-Fast has become a cultural and diet staple since S. Daniel Abraham introduced it in 1977. With just “a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and a sensible dinner,” the program promises rapid weight loss without the complications of… food. The diet company has diversified offerings to include snack bars and powder, but has been declining in popularity in the last decade. Nationwide product recalls haven’t helped the diet company: In 2009, three versions of its snack bars were recalled for potential peanut contamination and all of its canned drink products were recalled for possible bacteria contamination.
Breakdown:
6-month attrition rate (n/a)
6-month mean weight loss (11.5 lbs.)
12-month attrition rate (27%)
12-month mean weight loss (11 lbs.)
12-month BMI loss (1.9)
Nutrition score (n/a),
7, Jenny Craig
The Trick: Packaged food and weekly check-ins
Members of the Jenny Craig program start with the company’s branded food and menu plan, and then gradually wean themselves off the products as weight-loss goals progress. Jenny and Sid Craig, who formed the company in 1983 in Melbourne, created the program. There are about 500 centers in the U.S. and the average customer reportedly spends about $100 per week on Jenny Craig food while enrolled in the program. Among the diets included in the list, Jenny Craig had the highest rate of short- and long-term attrition, but ranked second in terms of total weight loss over one year.
Breakdown:
6-month attrition rate (78%)
6-month mean weight loss (12.6 lbs.)
12-month attrition rate (93%)
12-month mean weight loss (15.6 lbs.)
12-month BMI loss (n/a)
Nutrition score (n/a)
Visit Gbejada Costa for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection
