Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Nov;7(6):815-27.
doi: 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.113.000723. Epub 2014 Nov 11.

Long-term effects of 4 popular diets on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Renée Atallah  1 , Kristian B Filion  1 , Susan M Wakil  1 , Jacques Genest  1 , Lawrence Joseph  1 , Paul Poirier  1 , Stéphane Rinfret  1 , Ernesto L Schiffrin  1 , Mark J Eisenberg  2
Affiliations
Review

Long-term effects of 4 popular diets on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Renée Atallah et al. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2014 Nov.

Abstract

Background: We conducted a systematic review to examine the efficacy of the Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers (WW), and Zone diets, with a particular focus on sustained weight loss at ≥12 months.

Methods and results: We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library of Clinical Trials to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English with follow-up ≥4 weeks that examined the effects of these 4 popular diets on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors. We identified 12 RCTs (n=2559) with follow-up ≥12 months: 10 versus usual care (5 Atkins, 4 WW, and 1 South Beach) and 2 head-to-head (1 of Atkins, WW, and Zone, and 1 of Atkins, Zone, and control). At 12 months, the 10 RCTs comparing popular diets to usual care revealed that only WW was consistently more efficacious at reducing weight (range of mean changes: -3.5 to -6.0 kg versus -0.8 to -5.4 kg; P<0.05 for 3/4 RCTs). However, the 2 head-to-head RCTs suggest that Atkins (range: -2.1 to -4.7 kg), WW (-3.0 kg), Zone (-1.6 to -3.2 kg), and control (-2.2 kg) all achieved modest long-term weight loss. Twenty-four-month data suggest that weight lost with Atkins or WW is partially regained over time.

Conclusions: Head-to-head RCTs, providing the most robust evidence available, demonstrated that Atkins, WW, and Zone achieved modest and similar long-term weight loss. Despite millions of dollars spent on popular commercial diets, data are conflicting and insufficient to identify one popular diet as being more beneficial than the others.

Keywords: diet, carbohydrate-restricted; weight loss.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles