Obesity is a costly issue, but weight loss can be just as expensive. Trying diet after diet after diet not only takes money out of your pocket, it can lead to frustration, binge eating, and unhealthy habits. It’s important to find a diet that is not only proven, but one that fits your needs, budget, and lifestyle.

To find the right one takes more than a friend’s reference; it takes some investigation and planning.

With that in mind, along with the hundreds of diets that have been developed over the past few decades, there are a number of diets that consistently land in the Top 10, according to a variety of ranking systems.

The ones included in this list are certainly not inclusive but are meant to give consumers an idea of what works for the majority of people. Each one should still be examined for the appropriateness as it pertains to each individual.

• Jenny Craig
• Mediterranean Diet
• Zone Diet
• Weight Watchers
• Volumetrics
• Flat Belly Diet
• Weigh Down Diet
• South Beach Diet
• Atkins Diet
• Sugar Busters Diet

Jenny Craig and the Zone Diet require the purchase of food from the companies themselves to assure caloric intake and portion control. All of the plans can be expensive, though if substituted for a lifestyle that used to include dining out and fast food meals, it may not be that much of a financial burden.

All three do have the benefit of teaching portion control for those who use the diets for awhile and venture out on their own, but staying on the plans allows the added benefit of meeting with counselors, having calories counted by the company tracking food intake, and keeping to a strict regimen.

Weight Watchers is also a popular diet that promotes its own meals for purchase, but more emphasis is put on the points system of counting calories.

Customers pay for meetings, but the knowledge gained about spacing out meals and watching the nutritional intake involved is a tool that can be used well beyond the time spent as an official member.

Several diets focus on the abdominal region, which is one of the most problematic for many seeking weight loss advice. Stomach fat is the easiest to gain and toughest to lose, making diets like the Flat Belly Diet and Abs Diet popular.

The first is geared toward females and concentrates on eating monounsaturated fatty acid-based foods with few calories per meal but meals every four hours. The latter—Abs Diet—focuses mainly on ab-centered exercises mixed with a diet similar to the other with more frequent but smaller meals.

The South Beach and Atkins diet plans have increased in popularity in the last decade due to results that show consumers lose initial weight quite quickly. That happens, though, due to the strict nature of the diets and the focus on proteins.

The Mediterranean Diet, Volumetrics, and Sugar Busters Diet each take unique approaches to their diet suggestions, which work only if the consumer has a penchant for that particular lifestyle change.

The Mediterranean, for example, concentrates on cheap and easy meals with an emphasis on vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry, dairy, and olive oil. Volumetrics focuses on fiber-heavy foods and a watchful eye on various vitamins and minerals, and it eliminates all packaged foods and sugar/fat-based items.

Sugar Busters reduces carbohydrates in the diets with the exclusion of potatoes, white bread, and sugar.

 Most weight loss programs incorporate or encourage exercise, some have monthly fees or mandatory food-purchase requirements. HealthNews editors have reviewed many of the aforementioned diets, along with many others, to help make your research just a little bit easier.

So, if you are in the market for a weight loss plan, take the time to check each out and find out which is right for you.