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Want To Lose Some Pounds? Let's Rank The Diets

Written by Dr. Dave Hnida CBS4 Medical EditorEverywhere you turn, someone has a quick fix to melt off those excess pounds. But you know as well as I, most diets burn your wallet faster than they do calories.

So US News assembled a panel of 22 health experts (none with ties to commercial diet plans) and asked them to rank 25 diets.

 I'll have the links for more info on what the experts thought, but also what readers said about how well the diets actually worked for them.

Here are the top ten--- ranked according to safety, nutrition, how easy to follow, and effectiveness at moving the numbers on the scale :

1. DASH- this is actually a diet developed to help lower high BP. It's best for weight loss, at least according to this panel.

2. TLC Diet- created by the National Institutes of Health

3. Mayo Clinic Diet- the real Mayo diet, not the one where you eat 40 grapefruits a day

4. Mediterranean Diet- lots of fruits, vegetables, fish, and good oils.

5. Weight Watchers- it blew all of the other commercial diets out of the water

6. Volumetrics

7. Jenny Craig- easy to follow, but cost may be a somewhat of a negative

8. Biggest Loser Diet

9. Ornish Diet

10. Vegetarian Diet- yep, a standard vegetarian diet

So, that's what the experts said. Here' s how readers ranked them. The question asked was: Did this diet work for you?

1. Vegetarian Diet- 92%

2. Weight Watchers- 68%

3. DASH- 23%

3. Jenny Craig- 23%

3. Mediterranean Diet- 23%

6. Ornish- 15%

7. TLC- 11%

7. Mayo Clinic- 11%

9. Volumetrics- 8%

10. Biggest Loser- too few responses

If you'd like more info on making your clothes feel looser, link away. There are recipes and reviews, as well as more info on each plan:

health.usnews.com/best-diet/

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