The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports obesity is a serious public health crisis. The CDC adds that someone with obesity has a much higher likelihood of suffering from life-threatening chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Some obese people turn to unsafe dieting practices to lose weight that yield only temporary results, the American Heart Association reports. Fortunately, you don't need to risk your health to reach a healthy weight. A number of safe and effective diets can help you lose weight.
Mediterranean Diet
According to research published in the July 2007 "New England Journal of Medicine," a Mediterranean diet outperforms both low-fat and low-carb diets in terms of improvements in weight and overall health. In this study, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Health and Nutrition's Iris Shai took a group of 322 obese volunteers and assigned them one of three diets: a low-fat diet, a low-carb diet, or the Mediterranean Diet. After two years, those on the Mediterranean Diet lost significantly more weight than the other two groups. The Mediterranean dieters had improvements in total cholesterol at the end of the study, and volunteers with diabetes boosted their sensitivity to insulin, while adhering to the Mediterranean Diet.
Caveman Diet
A caveman diet, which only includes foods eaten by our cavemen ancestors, may be an ideal weight loss diet, according to Tommy Jönsson of Lund University. In his study published in the July 2009 issue of "Cardiovascular Diabetology," obese diabetic subjects on a caveman diet, also known as a Paleolithic diet, lost significantly more weight and improved heart disease risk factors more than those on a typical American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet. The caveman diet group lost an average of 6 lb., dramatically lowered their triglycerides, and slimmed down their waist by 4 cm circumference -- all of which was significantly better than the ADA diet.
Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers has been a weight loss mainstay for decades. Sure enough, the Weight Watchers program is a safe way to lose weight, according to Michael L. Dansinger of Tufts University. In a study he published in the January 2005 issue of "The Journal of the American Medical Association," a group of obese volunteers who followed the Weight Watchers diet lost significant amounts of weight over a two-year period.
References
- CDC: Overweight and Obesity
- "New England Journal of Medicine": Weight Loss with a Low-Carbohydrate, Mediterranean, or Low-Fat Diet
- American Heart Association: Quick-Weight-Loss or Fad Diets
- Cardiovascular Diabetology: Beneficial effects of a Paleolithic diet on cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes: a randomized cross-over pilot study
- JAMA: Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction
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