U.S. News & World Report ranks top five easiest diet plans
WASHINGTON — The U.S. News & World Report on Wednesday named the top five "easiest" diets New Year's resolutionists should follow — Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Mediterranean Diet, Slim Fast and Volumetrics — out of a total field of 25 diet plans.
Best Diets 2012 featured six other rankings: Best diets overall, best commercial diet plans, best weight-loss diets, best diets for healthy eating, best diabetes diets and best heart-healthy diets. All six rankings were first published in 2011, when U.S. News evaluated a total of 20 diets. The five new diets added for 2012 were the Abs diet, Biggest Loser diet, Dukan diet, Flat Belly diet and Macrobiotic diet.
Big winners across the rankings included:
DASH Diet, which ranked No. 1 in best diets overall, best diets for healthy eating and best diabetes diets (tie);
Weight Watchers, which ranked No. 1 in best weight-loss diets, best commercial diet plans and easiest diets to follow;
Biggest Loser Diet: ranked No. 1 in best diabetes diets (tie); and
Ornish Diet: ranked No. 1 in best heart-healthy diets.
"The Best Diets rankings are designed to guide each dieter to the diet or diets best suited to his or her goal, whether that's weight loss, management of diabetes, healthy eating or something else," stated U.S. News' Lindsay Lyon, who directed the project.
To create the rankings, U.S. News profiled each diet using information culled from scientific journals, government reports and other resources. A volunteer panel of 22 nationally recognized experts in diet and nutrition review each diet profile, conduct independent fact-finding, and rated the diets on seven criteria, such as their ability to produce short-term and long-term weight loss. U.S. News converted panelists' ratings to scores and constructed the rankings. For the "easiest diets to follow" list, panelists assessed likely taste appeal, ease of initial adjustment, ability to keep dieters from feeling hungry and special eating restrictions.
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