Thirty-eight percent of individuals who made resolutions for 2019 resolved to lose weight or exercise more. If you are one of the millions of people trying to get healthier, there is a $60 billion diet industry you should know about. Plus, here are the diets that work, according to the experts.
People Spend Hundreds Getting Healthy
Americans spend more than $60 billion trying to lose weight or get healthy each year. Considering there are around 75 million Americans trying to lose weight, that means each individual is spending at least $800 per year.
About $3 billion of that is spent on losing weight annually goes to companies like Weight Watchers and other paid weight loss programs. Another $3 billion is spent on weight loss supplements and diet pills. Home delivery services (like Nutrisystem) account for another $1 billion.
Diets That Work
If you’re putting serious cash into getting healthier, you probably want a definitive answer on diets that work. Over the years it has fluctuated. Is a low carb diet ideal? How does it stack up against a low-fat diet? The five plans listed below are said to work for long-term weight loss.
1. The Mediterranean Diet
Those who follow the best diet plans each year know that the Mediterranean diet was ranked number one last year as well. It is an oil-rich diet and focuses on fresh veggies, whole grains, and healthy fats. Additionally, it encourages dieters to reduce sugar, red meat, dairy, and processed foods. The Mediterranean diet has been known to help lower the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some cancer.
2. DASH Diet
DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. So, it is no surprise many people looking to lower their blood pressure adopt this diet. The DASH diet involves reducing the amount of salt in your day-to-day eating. It also encourages you to eat foods that are full of heart-healthy minerals (calcium, potassium, magnesium). Like the Mediterranean diet, it also limits the amount of sugar and red meat you consume.
3. Flexitarian Diet
This diet is “new” to the list. Many people try to go vegetarian to better their health. However, giving up meat altogether is unthinkable for some. That’s where the Flexitarian diet comes in. This essentially limits the amount you eat meat each week to once or twice. The rest of the time, you follow a vegetarian diet. Doing this has been proven to reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer.
4. MIND Diet
As you may have guessed by its name, the MIND diet is focused on improving brain health through the food you put into your body. MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. People following this diet are encouraged to eat three servings of whole grains, a salad, another form of vegetable, and a glass of wine each day. While it has not yet been determined whether or not a diet can really improve your brain health, the diet certainly changes people’s mindset when it comes to food.
5. WW – Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers, now known as WW, has been around for years and it continues to lead people to succeed with their weight loss goals. In fact, it is number one in the country as far as commercial diets are concerned. If you’re not familiar with the program, it places a point value on foods based on the calories, sugar, fat, and protein content. You are given a certain number of points to stick to each day and you keep a food diary to track them.
The Best Diets in 2019
If you’re looking for a goal-specific diet, these are how each is ranked, according to US News.
See a full list of the best diets here and a list of weight-loss programs here.
While $60 billion seems like a lot, it pales in comparison to the $300 billion fast food industry. However, everyone could save a bit of cash and stay away from fad diets. Instead, stick to these diets that work or consult a health professional to find something that works for you.
Readers, did you resolve to get healthy in the new year?
After years of being effortlessly thin, I had been put on a medication that made me ravenously hungry, gained over 20 pounds and had to stop the drug for that reason. But the weight did not fall off easily. I worked hard at dieting and took it off, but struggled to maintain the loss and gradually gained it back, lost most of it, gained it back…At this point, I found a successful weight loss story (Google ” How Linda Bye 90lbs “) Her method really worked for me. I came to recognize the behavioral pattern that was causing me to yo-yo, a classic combination of over-restriction and over-indulgence, and learned how to interrupt it. My weight does fluctuate a bit, like everyone’s, but the yo-yoing is gone. From the lowest to the top is about 5 pounds, but I almost always fall within about a 2-pound range between 121.5 and 123.5, and most of the time am somewhere in the 122’s.