A Review – US News & World Reports Best Diets Rankings

June 8, 2011 1 Comment

US News and World Reports just completed an excellent and fairly comprehensive ranking of the best diets to meet various goals. For our purposes we are going to focus on their top five and also give you our top five. Their ranking was based on analysis froma panel of experts looking at ease of following, short & long term weight loss, nutritional value and safety. Our list is based on what we have used and seen work in the real world.

YOU CAN SEE THE FULL US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT RANKING OF WEIGHT LOSS DIETS HERE

Their top 5

1) Weight Watchers – A point system based on a thorough health value ranking of every type of food

2) Jenny Craig – personalized diet plan (1200 -2300 calories) & exercise plan from a consultant built around their prepacked meals

2) Raw Food *tie you eat food that hasn’t been cooked, processed, microwaved, irradiated, genetically engineered, or exposed to pesticides or herbicides.

4) Volumetrics – eating high amounts of low calorie foods

5) Slim-Fast you eat 1,200 calories a day from three snacks, two Slim-Fast meal replacements and one 500-calorie real meal

I can see why Weight Watchers came in first place, the program is reasonably priced, comprehensive, offers support to keep you on the program, and actually teaches people to eat real food so that even once they reach their goal they learned the skills to keep their weight in check and can easily lose any unwanted pounds that might creep on. With that said I don’t know how Jenny Craig took second and Slim- Fast took second and fifth respectively since they are based on prepackaged foods. I am not against prepacked food diets, I actually used and have recommended Medifast (which ranks at the bottom of their list) for quick weight loss, but not as a long term option. A long term option needs to be built around real, healthy foods and the dieter needs to be in control of their selections that control is empowerment and that empowerment is key to substaining a long term weight loss plan. Volumetrics and The Raw Food diet are interesting top five placers since both can be cumbersome to follow.

Instead of ranking my top five I am instead going to do two sets of top threes, one for fast short term weight loss and another for long term weight loss.

Short term top three

1) Medifast – myself and a dozen people I know have lost a lot of weight in a 8-10 weeks on this program, so I know it works. It is easy to follow (they basically take the thinking out of the equation for you) and it can be an excellent way to kick of a weight loss program as long as you have a long term plan behind it otherwise any weight you do lose will come back and then some.

2) Slim-fast – same as above, 1200 calories a day should take weight off anybody

3) Nutrisystem – takes the thinking out of it with prepacked foods.

Top Three for long term weight loss

1) Mediterranean diet- you get to eat the best foods out there and have a host of seasoning options, can easily modify it to increase or continue your weight loss, and it is great for heart health. I have been on this type of diet for a couple months and I can’t imagine anything more customizable, satisfying or better for overall health and well being. I can even use it with a carb cycling program to shed unwanted pounds. You do have to take ownership of what you eat because to much of even the best of foods will put weight on.

WHY I AM ON THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

MY FIVE WEEK REVIEW OF THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

2) Weight Watchers – basically it teaches you to make smart decisions in the real world by taking complicated nutritional information and simplying it into a points system.

3) Ornish diet – teaches you to make smart decisions by simplying your food choices into five groupings based on health value.

As you can see quick diets take the thinking out of the equation for you (afterall if we were capable of making smart food decisions on our own we wouldn’t be overweight) and long term plans empower the dieter to be able to make smart decisions on their own (the key to long term weight loss success is owning your decisions). I used and have recommended using a short term approach to get the weight loss ball rolling and then follow it up with a long term approach so you can continue to see progress and adapt a healthy eating lifestyle. The short term plans shouldn’t be used for more than 8 – 10 weeks before you adapt a long term plan. As with most things in life the best long term approach will come down to your individual situation, lifestyle and preference.

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