Keto Diet

No surprise here: the high-fat, moderate-protein, super low-carb diet continued to dominate in 2018. In fact, it was the number-one searched diet of 2018. By keeping your carbs to 50 grams a day or fewer [4], this diet puts your body into the fat-burning state of ketosis [5] where it uses fat for fuel instead of glucose.

To learn more about the keto diet, check out our Keto Diet 101 [6] explainer.

The Dubrow Diet

Heather Dubrow, the former star of The Real Housewives of Orange County, and her husband Terry Dubrow, a plastic surgeon famous for his show Botched on E!, came out with a diet book this year that got people curious. Titled The Dubrow Diet [7] ($24, previously $26), the plan promises to help you lose weight, reverse aging, and gain energy.

In short, the Dubrow Diet is a form of intermittent fasting [8]. They recommend eating only during a certain window of the day (eight or 10 hours) and fasting the rest of the hours of the day. They call this eating schedule interspersed with "reset" period (fasting window) and "refuel" periods (feeding window). The diet also has three phases to reach your goals.

Considering the book was so popular on Amazon, it's no wonder it was the second-most-searched diet trend of 2018.

Noom Diet

Noom [9] isn't as much a diet as it is a weight-loss program in a convenient app form. After filling out a quick questionnaire, Noom will help you set goals and create healthy habits, all while tracking your food, activity, and progress. It also ranks food on a scale from green to yellow to red, to help you make healthier choices and quiz you on healthy habits.

But Noom doesn't come cheap: it's $60 a month, $99 for two months, $129 for four months, $149 for six months, $159 for eight months, or $199 for a year.

Carnivore Diet

The carnivore diet [10] sounds wild, but it started to gain momentum in 2018. Although the carnivore diet is a blanket term for a meat-based diet, an extreme version of this diet is just meat, salt, and sparkling water: no fruits, no veggies, no grains, and no carbs of any kind. Other versions include meat along with different types of animal products including cheese, eggs, and butter. Followers of this diet argue that meat has all the nutrients you need, and eschewing all other food groups will heal your depression, fatigue, arthritis, and other autoimmune disease.

However, it's no surprise that a diet that lacks whole grains, vegetables, and fruit isn't exactly healthy. You are missing key food groups, and so much meat may impact your digestive system, not to mention that a diet high in red meat is inflammatory. Our experts recommend against this fad diet; "It's not necessary to cut out most food groups to drop pounds," board-certified cardiologist Luiza Petre [11], MD, told POPSUGAR. "I would recommend cutting out processed foods, added sugars, and simple carbohydrates and upping activity levels before trying out a restrictive diet like the carnivore diet."

Mediterranean Diet

On the flip side, the Mediterranean diet is a tried-and-true eating plan favored by doctors, dietitian, and other health experts. Named the number one diet for 2018 [12] by U.S. News and World Report, the Mediterranean diet consists of mostly vegetables and whole grains [13], with lean protein coming from seafood and fish and healthy fats from olives, olive oil, nuts, and seeds. Avoid red meat, sugar, and processed foods (including refined oils and refined grains) on this diet.

Studies have found that the Mediterranean diet can help prevent cardiovascular diseases [14], type 2 diabetes, and breast cancer [15]. And since it consists of a variety of delicious food, including one glass of red wine at dinner, it's easy to sustain.