Consumer Reports has recently published its own report on which weight loss program is the absolute best for people who are trying to beat the bulge. Consumer Reports is a non-biased agency. It takes no money from any business so that their reports can be considered unbiased.
So what is the unbiased opinion of Consumer Reports on which diet is the best one out there? In order to rate the diets, Consumer Reports looked at their effectiveness by evaluating data from long term clinical research studies, checked the diets calorie counts, and checked to see whether or not the diets conformed to U.S. dietary guidelines.
Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers won the golden Consumer Reports award for the best diet program out there. Among the positives, Weight Watchers doesn’t encourage the exclusion of any food, but their point system encourages a low-fat, high fiber diet. Also, the weekly meetings for support with behavioral changes was important. Out of all the diets, this was the one that people lost the most weight on. If you’re going to spend money losing weight–do it here.
Slim Fast
Slim Fast received the 2nd highest overall score out of the all the diets considered. Consumer Reports suggests that this is an excellent diet for people who don’t like to, or don’t have the time to cook. The participants only have to cook once per day and replace breakfast and lunch with a Slim Fast food such as a 180 calorie shake.
The Zone Diet and Atkins
These diets were both rated in the top five. Consumer Reports suggested that they are good for people who are looking for short term weight loss. They encourage the consumption of a high protein diet (which I assume is why they are to be used only for a short time.)
The Ornish Diet
This is a vegetarian diet and is ultra low fat. Again, according to consumer reports this is a good diet for a short term eating plan.
So there you have it straight from the horse’s mouth. If you’re going to spend money on a diet. . .try one of these. You can also check out my Mission Possible Guidelines and join us in the Mission Possible forum for weight loss support and some ideas on how to lose the weight!