Best Diet Plan For Weight Loss: What Works?

The Mediterranean diet has been ranked as the number one diet plan for seven consecutive years. It focuses on diet quality rather than a single nutrient or food group, with a daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, herbs and spices. It also claimed the top spot in Best Diets for Diabetes, Best Heart-Healthy Diets, Easiest Diets to Follow, Best Diets for Bone and Joint Health, Best Family-Friendly Diets and Best Diets for Healthy Eating.

The Mediterranean diet

The diet is also popular due to its flexibility and the fact that it does not require calorie counting. Most of the foods recommended in the Mediterranean diet are readily available in local supermarkets.

The DASH diet

Overall, the DASH diet is a safe and effective way to improve overall health and well-being, offering a flexible and satisfying eating pattern that can be easily incorporated into daily life.

The MIND diet

The Mediterranean diet is the #1 diet plan. It focuses on diet quality rather than a single nutrient or food group, with a daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, herbs and spices. It is also the best diet for diabetes, heart health, bone and joint health, family-friendliness and healthy eating.

WeightWatchers (WW) diet

The WeightWatchers (WW) diet is ranked as the #1 best weight-loss diet. It is a commercial program for weight loss based on a points system, meal replacement and counselling. The WeightWatchers diet restricts energy to achieve a weight loss of 0.5 to 1.0 kg per week, which is the medically accepted standard rate of a viable weight loss strategy. The dietary composition is akin to low-fat diets or moderate-fat and low-carbohydrate diets, depending on the variant used.

The WeightWatchers diet does not focus on calories but simplifies food selection with a points-based system named "SmartPoints", where each food type is assigned a point value calculated according to its nutrient and energy density. Foods higher in protein, unsaturated fat and fibre will have fewer points, while foods higher in calories, added sugar and saturated fat will contain more points. Even popular fast foods have a point value, with a stack of pancakes having a higher point value than an egg-white omelette, for example.

WeightWatchers offers a library of healthy eating tips, advice, recipes and more that encourage you to cook at home and teach the skills to make it happen. It also aims to teach lifelong healthy habits and skills, like measuring portions and tracking your food intake, which is associated with long-term weight loss success. While measuring portions is important to avoid overeating, learning to eat larger portions of low energy-dense foods (as in ZeroPoints foods) and smaller portions of energy-dense foods is more important for sustained weight loss and weight management.

WeightWatchers is one of U.S. News & World Report's Best Diets of 2025, with plans starting at $23/month (though this is often less with promotions).

Volumetrics diet

The #1 diet plan is the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on diet quality rather than a single nutrient or food group. It involves eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, herbs and spices.

The Volumetrics diet is ranked as the third best weight-loss diet. It was developed by Dr Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Penn State University, in 2000. The diet emphasises eating low-energy-dense, high-nutrient-dense foods that are filling, such as fruits, non-starchy vegetables, broth-based soups, whole grains and low-fat dairy. These foods have a higher water content, which adds volume to food and helps people feel sated. It also encourages limiting high-calorie density foods, including those with a high proportion of unhealthy fats and added sugar.

The Volumetrics diet is more of an approach to eating than a structured diet. It involves learning to recognise a food's caloric density, cutting the calorie density of meals and making choices that fight hunger. It also encourages other healthy habits, such as regular exercise and keeping a food journal.

The key concept of the Volumetrics diet centres on feeling full. Rolls says that people feel full because of the types and amounts of food they eat, not because of the number of calories or the grams of fat, protein or carbs. The trick is to fill up on the right foods that fill you up for fewer calories. In some cases, Rolls claims that following Volumetrics will let you eat more, not less, than you do now, while still slimming down.

Frequently asked questions