article_snippet.sent: The US researchers say reliable proof of which ones work has become increasingly important as doctors and health bosses come under increasing pressure to tackle the obesity epidemic.
article_snippet.sent: To draw their conclusions, their first reviewed 4,200 studies involving these diets for solid evidence of effectiveness.
article_snippet.sent: However only a few dozen of the studies met the scientific gold standard of reliability - using properly controlled clinical trials.
article_snippet.sent: Because of this, their ended up examining 11 programs in detail.
article_snippet.sent: The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, come with a call for more rigorous tests of the programs for longer periods of time, so effectiveness can be better judged.
article_snippet.sent: The authors added: 'Doctors need to know which programmes have rigorous trials showing Doctors work, but Doctors haven’t had much evidence to rely on. '
article_snippet.sent: Our review should give clinicians a better idea of what programmes clinicians might consider for clinicians patients.'
article_snippet.sent: The researchers looked at the evidence for 11 different weight loss plans .
highlights_snippet.sent: Researchers examined 4,200 studies and selected 11 weight loss plans .
  