On any given day, millions of people in the U.S. are trying to lose weight. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that a little over 40% of adults in the U.S. have obesity. And a new report in the Lancet shows a stunning rise in obesity since 1990 among all ages and finds that 3 in 4 adults aged 25 and older in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Having obesity or being overweight can increase the risk of many chronic diseases and health issues, including joint problems, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.
Yet, the truth is losing weight is hard. Many fad diets don’t work. And some can even threaten your health. Digging through mounds of information about dieting and deciphering whether particular plans live up to the hype can be overwhelming.
While the new weight loss drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro promise to make weight loss efforts more successful, they are not a replacement for healthy eating and exercise. In fact, studies show that prescription weight loss drugs are most effective when combined with the right foods and exercise. (If you’re interested in finding diets that support and/or offer prescription weight loss drugs, you can find them here.)
[READ: Factors That Contribute to Weight Loss and Weight Gain]
The Best Nutrition Advice for You
Best Diets 2025 cuts through the science and diet chatter to get to the bones of which plans are most likely to help you reach your goals — whether that’s weight loss (with or without a weight-loss drug), managing a health condition like high blood pressure or diabetes, or simply wanting to eat healthier.
Now in its 15th year, U.S. News Best Diets offers in-depth profiles for 46 popular eating plans. Many diets, like WeightWatchers, are household names, while others, like the DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) diet and Flexitarian diet, should be.
In-Depth Diet Profiles
To create the latest edition of the ratings, U.S. News Health editors spent months considering potential additions to our roster of diets. For 2025, our team added 13 new rated diets:
— AIP Diet
We mined medical journals, government reports and other resources and interviewed leading health and nutrition experts to create in-depth profiles for each diet.
Each profile explains how the diet works, determines whether its claims are realistic, scrutinizes it for possible health risks and reveals what it’s like to live on the diet. Each diet profile includes a sample meal plan, foods to eat and avoid, tips to succeed on the diet and scientific studies that support any health benefits.
[READ: Best Healthy Foods You Should Be Eating]
The Methodology
Our Best Diets panelists, 69 experts — medical doctors, registered dietitians, nutritional epidemiologists, chefs and weight loss researchers who are leaders in their field — evaluated and rated 38 diets across 21 different categories. (The full list of panelists and their credentials can be found here.)
Best Overall Diet Category
The Harris Poll, our partner for this year’s Best Diets, presented all 38 diets to each expert, who rated them all on a 1-5 Likert scale to determine the Best Overall Diet. The overall ratings reported are the average rating for each diet on this question.
When considering the category of Best Overall Diets, panelists considered the following criteria:
— Nutritional completeness
— Health risks and benefits
— Long-term sustainability
— Evidence-based effectiveness
[See: 11 Cheap Plant-Based Meals.]
20 Categories Based on Lifestyle Goals or Health Conditions
Our panelists also considered 20 other categories based on general lifestyle goals or on managing, preventing or treating specific health conditions. Panelists were asked to pick the diets they would most recommend for each goal or health condition.
The percentage of recommendations for each diet are expressed in decimals in the range between zero and one before being multiplied by five to get a scale between 0 and 5. For example, if the percentage of recommendations for a diet is 54.69%, the score for the diet would be 0.5469 multiplied by 5, which would be a rating of 2.7. Similarly, a percentage of 0% would result in a score of zero, and a percentage of 100% would result in a score of 5. This process was done for each of the 20 lifestyle and health condition categories.
In addition, we asked our panelists for their thoughts on the most important dietary characteristics for consumers to keep in mind when considering each category. These open-ended responses were not factored into the ratings of each diet. However, a summary of that feedback is available to read on the Expert Review tab for all rated diets.
Growing evidence shows that dietary interventions can be effective at treating or delaying some diseases. Similarly, unhealthy diets can increase the risk of other health conditions, such as cancer, osteoporosis and cognitive disorders. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, around 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life years were attributable to dietary risk factors between 1990 and 2017. Such risk factors include high sodium intake, low intake of whole grains and low intake of fruit and vegetables.
Recognizing the strong connection between diet and certain health conditions, the Health team at U.S. News added 12 new health condition categories for 2025. Below is the list of the 20 lifestyle and health condition categories. (New categories are indicated with an asterisk.)
7 Lifestyle Goals
— Easiest Diets to Follow. Diets that don’t require hard-to-remember rules, rigorous calorie counting, hard-to-find ingredients or excessive meal prepping
— Best Diet Programs. Commercial diets with structured programs that offer support for dieters, which can include in-person or online coaching and support books, packaged foods, bars or drinks that help members follow the diet plan, and additional support and/or resources, including food tracking apps, meal plans and recipes
— Best Diets for Healthy Eating. Diets that support overall healthy eating, allow for an optimal intake of essential nutrients and don’t restrict entire food groups; they also provide sufficient calories and don’t fall short on essential nutrients
— Best Plant-Based Diets. Healthy, plant-based diets that range from entirely vegan to those that allow for a flexible mix of plant-forward foods with occasional servings of meat, seafood or poultry, and also ensure an optimal intake of essential nutrients
— Best Fast Weight Loss Diets. Diets that fulfill the short-term goal of losing weight quickly (in three months or less), even if it’s not sustainable for the long term
— Best Weight Loss Diets. Diets that facilitate weight loss at a healthy rate (1 to 2 pounds a week) and maintain it for the long term
— Best Heart-Healthy Diets. Diets for people concerned about improving overall cardiovascular health — from helping control blood pressure to reducing cholesterol
13 Health Conditions
— *Best Diets for Arthritis. Diets that reduce inflammation, improve joint pain and reduce other symptoms of arthritis
— *Best Diets for Brain Health and Cognition. Diets that protect and preserve cognitive function
— Best Diets for Diabetes. Diets that are most effective at managing blood sugar levels for people with diabetes
— *Best Diets for Diverticulitis. Diets that prevent diverticulitis symptoms and flare-ups (not what to eat during a flare-up)
— *Best Diets for Fatty Liver. Diets that manage the symptoms of fatty liver disease (steatotic liver disease) and to prevent this chronic liver condition from progressing to cirrhosis, cancer or liver failure
— *Best Diets for Gut Health. Diets that support a healthy and diverse gut microbiome
— *Best Diets for High Cholesterol. Diets that help reduce buildup of LDL cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol) and triglycerides in your blood, while increasing HDL (the “good” cholesterol)
— *Best Diets for High Blood Pressure. Diets that help manage and may lower high blood pressure
— *Best Diets for IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Diets that reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, such as diarrhea, cramping, gas and bloating
— *Best Diets for Inflammation. Diets that reduce or prevent systemic inflammation
— *Best Diets for Menopause. Diets that minimize the symptoms and side effects of menopause, such as weight gain, hot flashes and bone density declines
— *Best Diets for Mental Health. Diets that support mental well-being and mood
— *Best Diets for Prediabetes. Diets that are most effective at managing and possibly reversing prediabetes to prevent the progression to diabetes
Badge Awards
U.S. News named as “Best Diets” the highest scoring diet(s) in each of the 21 categories. In most categories, the diets whose scores are within 4 standard errors of the highest scoring diet also received a Best Diets badge. In a few categories (Best Fast Weight Loss Diets, Best Diets for Gut Health, Best Diets for IBS, Best Diets for Diverticulitis and Best Diets for Fatty Liver), given the wide variation in scores, those within 2 standard errors (instead of 4) of the highest scoring diet were named “Best Diets.”
Diets whose scores are statistically tied with the highest non-badged diet are designated “Highly Rated” for that category.
[READ: How to Calculate Weight Loss Percentage.]
Expert Sources
In addition to our panelists, we interviewed at least one nutrition expert for each diet profile. Our reporters dug deep, asking them to expound upon their accolades and criticisms for each diet. Each diet profile is also reviewed by an independent RDN or MD who is part of our expert review panel.
Category Ratings
For diet programs offering a range of tracks targeting specific groups, such as pregnant women or those with diabetes, U.S. News selected the most mainstream or popular version.
We could not assign scores to a plan’s cost. Even dieters buying prepackaged meals from diet programs must shop for at least some food. Individual shopping habits and preferences, not to mention dining out, will heavily determine any dieter’s total expense.
More from U.S. News
Best Nutrition Tracker and Calorie Counter Apps for Better Health
Mediterranean Diet vs. Paleo Diet
Foods That Mimic the Effects of Ozempic and Other GLP-1 Drugs
U.S. News 2025 Best Diets: How We Rate Eating Plans and Diets originally appeared on usnews.com
