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The present review examined the evidence base for current popular diets, as listed in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report, on short-term (≤six months) and long-term (≥one year) weight loss outcomes in overweight and obese adults. For the present review, all diets in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report Rankings for “Best Weight-Loss Diets”, which did not involve specific calorie targets, meal replacements, supplementation with commercial products, and/or were not categorized as “low-calorie” diets were examined. Of the 38 popular diets listed in the U.S. News & World Report, 20 met our pre-defined criteria. Literature searches were conducted through PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science using preset key terms to identify all relevant clinical trials for these 20 diets. A total of 16 articles were identified which reported findings of clinical trials for seven of these 20 diets: (1) Atkins; (2) Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH); (3) Glycemic-Index; (4) Mediterranean; (5) Ornish; (6) Paleolithic; and (7) Zone. Of the diets evaluated, the Atkins Diet showed the most evidence in producing clinically meaningful short-term (≤six months) and long-term (≥one-year) weight loss. Other popular diets may be equally or even more effective at producing weight loss, but this is unknown at the present time since there is a paucity of studies on these diets.

As life expectancy in the United States continues to increase, the maintenance of physical independence among older Americans has emerged as a major clinical and public health priority. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify interventions that can maintain or enhance cognitive and physical function with the goal of preventing or delaying the onset of disability. To date, caloric restriction (CR) is the only method that has been consistently found to increase lifespan and delay the onset of age-associated diseases such as cancer and diabetes across multiple species. The promise of calorie restriction as an intervention to improve health and/or maintain function in humans, however, only holds if individuals are able to adhere to this intervention over the long-term. Unfortunately, long-term adherence to CR regimens is notoriously poor likely due to complex interactions between behavioral, physiological, psychological, and environmental variables. Thus, a current challenge for both researchers and clinicians is to identify methods that can assist individuals in maintaining CR over the long-term.

Obesity and diabetes are known risk factors for the development of physical disability among older adults. With the number of seniors with these conditions rising worldwide, the prevention and treatment of physical disability in these persons have become a major public health challenge. Sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle mass and strength, has been identified as a common pathway associated with the initial onset and progression of physical disability among older adults. A growing body of evidence suggests that metabolic dysregulation associated with obesity and diabetes accelerates the progression of sarcopenia, and subsequently functional decline in older adults. The focus of this brief review is on the contributions of obesity and diabetes in accelerating sarcopenia and functional decline among older adults. We also briefly discuss the underexplored interaction between obesity and diabetes that may further accelerate sarcopenia and place obese older adults with diabetes at particularly high risk of disability. Finally, we review findings from studies that have specifically tested the efficacy of lifestyle-based interventions in maintaining the functional status of older persons with obesity and/or diabetes.