Diet Reference Archive: a book-based eating approach and a paid commercial program
Mayo Clinic Diet
A weight-loss approach from Mayo Clinic that is sold in 2 forms: a book, and a paid digital program run by a company under license from Mayo Clinic. The book and the program's core plan start with a 2-week phase of 15 habits and move to a long-term phase built on a food pyramid with unlimited vegetables and fruit; the program's other meal plans and condition tracks change parts of that eating advice.
ON THIS PAGE
- In brief
- Overview
- In practice
- For the coach
- The evidence (opens on request)
- Mechanisms (opens on request)
- Risks, contraindications and myths (opens on request)
- Key terms
- Review questions
- References
- Evidence rating and review record
The summary and sections 1 to 3 are the short version and are open when the page loads. Sections 4 to 6 hold the research detail, the biology, and the cautions. Each of those opens when you select its heading, and you can read the page without opening them. The searches behind this page found very little research on the program itself; the evidence section says what was searched and what was found. Back to the Diet Reference Archive index.
In brief
What is it? Two things share the name. One is a book from Mayo Clinic, now in its third edition, that teaches a 2-week start called Lose It! and a long-term phase called Live It!, built on the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid (Mayo Clinic Press, n.d.; Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). The other is a paid digital program on a website and app, with meal plans, trackers and group coaching, run by Digital Wellness US LLC for the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). The book and the program's core plan share the same 2 phases and pyramid, but some of the program's other meal plans change the eating advice: its Healthy Keto plan is about 50 grams of net carbohydrate a day (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d).
Does it work? The eating pattern itself asks for things heart-health guidance also asks for: plenty of vegetables and fruit, whole grains, healthy fats, little added sugar and regular activity (Lichtenstein et al., 2026). Whether the program helps people more than other approaches is not known. The searches for this page found 2 published studies of Mayo Clinic Diet programs, each asking a different question, and neither had a group without a program. This page rates both comparisons very low. A randomized trial against usual care is registered and recruiting, with no results posted (Mayo Clinic, 2025).
A look back at records found that adults who used the 2022 digital program and kept entering weights for at least 3 months had lost an average of 5.3 percent of their starting weight at 6 months, against 2.9 percent in Mayo Clinic's in-person version; only about 1 in 5 digital starters stayed long enough to be counted (Anazco et al., 2024). A nonrandomized trial found that the standard book-based, in-person program did less well over 12 weeks than a program tailored to each person's measured traits (Cifuentes et al., 2023).
Is it safe? The searches did not identify a dedicated or long-term safety study of the book or the program. The nonrandomized trial reported no adverse events in either group over its 12 weeks (Cifuentes et al., 2023), a short and limited finding in 165 adults. The eating pattern removes no food group, and Mayo Clinic describes it as generally safe for most adults, noting that more fiber can bring gas at first (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026).
The cautions that matter most concern medicines: eating less can bring on low blood sugar in someone taking insulin or a sulfonylurea (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b), and more leafy greens can change how warfarin works (National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, 2021). A person taking these medicines keeps the prescriber informed before a substantial change in eating; a possible low blood sugar episode is treated first under the person's own plan, with emergency help if symptoms are severe or the person cannot manage the episode under that plan, and the prescriber is told afterward. The program's terms say it is not intended for anyone under 18 (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h).
Who should not do it without talking to a doctor or dietitian first? Anyone taking insulin, a sulfonylurea, blood pressure medicine, warfarin or a weight-loss medicine such as a GLP-1 drug. Anyone with kidney disease, whose needs depend on the stage of disease, lab results and dialysis, and anyone with diabetes, heart disease or another condition that eating affects, as Mayo Clinic itself advises (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). Anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding, and anyone under 18. Anyone with a current or past eating disorder or disordered eating, because the program sets calorie levels and asks people to track food, weight and habits.
Related pages: DASH Diet, Mediterranean Diet, Very Low Calorie Diets and Whole30, plus WeightWatchers, Noom and Meal Replacement Programs. Full list on the archive index.
1. Overview
What you eat
The first 2 weeks, called Lose It!, are organized as habits rather than a menu. A person adds 5 habits: eating a healthy breakfast; making vegetables and fruit the main part of meals; choosing whole grains; choosing healthy fats such as olive oil, avocados and nuts; and moving for at least 30 minutes a day. Five bonus habits are optional: keeping a food record, keeping an activity record, working up to 60 minutes of activity a day, eating mostly unprocessed or lightly processed food, and setting a small daily goal (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026).
The long-term phase, Live It!, uses the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid. Vegetables and fruit sit at the base and can be eaten in essentially unlimited amounts; carbohydrates, protein and dairy, fats, and sweets sit above them in smaller daily amounts. Instead of counting calories, a person learns serving sizes for each group and plans meals around them (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). In the digital program studied in 2022, each member was assigned one of 4 calorie levels, 1,200, 1,400, 1,600 or 1,800 calories a day, depending on starting weight, with daily servings set for 6 food groups: fruits, vegetables, protein and dairy, carbohydrates, fats, and sweets (Anazco et al., 2024).
U.S. News & World Report gives one example of how that works out: on a 1,400-calorie plan, 4 or more servings each of fruits and vegetables, 5 of carbohydrates, 4 of protein and dairy, and 3 of fats (Burdeos, 2026). The current program offers 8 meal plans: Simple, Mediterranean, Healthy Keto, Original, Higher Protein, Vegetarian, Heart Smart Superfoods, and a plan for people taking weight-loss medicines (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d). Its pages describe the Original plan as DASH-style menus from the book and the Healthy Keto plan as about 50 grams of net carbohydrate a day. So the eating advice differs by plan, and a study of one plan or version does not describe the others.
What you avoid or limit
During Lose It!, a person breaks 5 habits: eating in front of the television or a screen; eating sweets, including table sugar, honey, jam and desserts, with fresh fruit in their place; snacking on anything other than vegetables and fruit; eating high-fat foods, aiming for about 3 ounces of lean meat, poultry or fish a day, more protein from plants, and moderate amounts of skim and low-fat dairy; and eating at restaurants unless the food fits the plan (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026).
These are firm rules for 2 weeks and looser guidelines afterward. In Live It!, no food group is off limits, and a person may occasionally break the Lose It! rules (Burdeos, 2026). The upper part of the pyramid still has daily limits, and the program's own pages suggest keeping sweets to about 75 calories a day, counted as a weekly allowance (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i).
Where it came from
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization based in Rochester, Minnesota (Luckstein, 2022). Its weight-loss book, The Mayo Clinic Diet, went on sale on January 1, 2010, from the publisher Good Books, which said it had been written entirely by Mayo Clinic experts and shaped with Mayo over 2 years. It reached the top of the New York Times hardcover advice list in its first weeks, with 300,000 copies in print, along with a companion journal (Andriani, 2010; Open Library, n.d.-b). A second edition followed in 2017, with Donald Hensrud, a Mayo Clinic physician, as medical editor (Open Library, n.d.-c), and a third edition, from Mayo Clinic Press, is the one sold now (Mayo Clinic Press, n.d.).
The program came to the web as a paid subscription. In 2022, Mayo Clinic described the New Mayo Clinic Diet as built on an all-new digital platform from Digital Wellness, a company that powers weight-loss brands and works with drug companies, employers and government on chronic disease programs (Luckstein, 2022). The current terms of use say that Digital Wellness US LLC operates the website, the apps and services such as health coaching on behalf of the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, which licenses the program (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). The program now offers versions for heart health, diabetes and people taking weight-loss medicines (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-f).
Books by other authors and independent publishers also carry the name in their titles (Open Library, n.d.-d), so a copy or printout a client has been given may not come from Mayo Clinic. The sources opened for this page do not establish the history of diets passed around under the Mayo name.
What it claims to do
Mayo Clinic says the diet "is designed by Mayo Clinic experts and is based on solid scientific research," that Lose It! is designed to help a person "lose up to 6 to 10 pounds" in 2 weeks, and that Live It! can help a person lose 1 to 2 pounds a week until reaching a goal weight and then keep it there (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). It adds that losing weight through a healthy diet such as this one "can reduce your risk of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and sleep apnea."
The program's sales pages go further. They call it "The weight loss program that works" and "a clinically proven weight loss program," say members "lose 3x more weight with our digital platform" and "lose 80% more weight than participants of an in-person program," report "13% average weight loss of responders," and say the heart-health version can "naturally reduce blood pressure by 5-13 mm Hg" (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d; n.d.-f; n.d.-i). Testimonials on the same pages include members who say they no longer need blood pressure medicine. These are the company's claims; section 4 says what the searches for this page found behind each one.
The program's meal-plan page also says it was "Voted #1 Best Diet Program by U.S. News & World Report," without a year (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-e). The U.S. News page of expert-recommended diet programs opened for this page lists WeightWatchers, Noom, Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem, not the Mayo Clinic Diet (Burdeos, n.d.-a). U.S. News does list the Mayo Clinic Diet among its 10 top expert-recommended diets overall, and its profile of the diet shows an expert rating of 4.0 in that category (Burdeos, 2026; Burdeos, n.d.-b); U.S. News says its overall ratings average 1 to 5 scores given by its expert panel and were released in January 2025 (Schueller, 2025). That is U.S. News's rating, a summary of expert opinion rather than a study.
What it gets right
Much of the eating advice matches current guidance. Among the features of a heart-healthy pattern, the American Heart Association lists matching energy intake and expenditure to keep a healthy body weight, eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, choosing mostly whole grains, choosing healthy sources of protein, using unsaturated fats in place of saturated fats, choosing minimally processed foods, minimizing added sugars and reducing sodium (Lichtenstein et al., 2026). The Mayo Clinic Diet asks for most of these, removes no food group, and pairs eating with daily physical activity.
Its program also has most of the features a federal health agency tells consumers to look for in a weight-loss program: a healthy, reduced-calorie eating plan, a physical activity plan, guidance and support for building habits, and a plan for keeping weight off (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-a). It asks no one to buy special foods or supplements, and Mayo Clinic tells people to talk with a health care professional before starting, especially with an ongoing condition (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). These are the parts a coach can honor in a client's reasons without endorsing the whole package.
How clients describe it, and what it gets confused with
Clients say "I'm doing the Mayo Clinic Diet," "I'm in the Lose It! phase," "I'm following the Mayo pyramid," "it's the doctor-designed one," or "I got the app my employer pays for." Some mean the book, some the paid program and one of its meal plans or tracks, some the in-person program at Mayo Clinic, and some a book or printout that uses the Mayo name without coming from Mayo Clinic. Ask which one before assuming.
It is confused with the fad diets that have borrowed the Mayo name; with the Volumetrics Diet, which also builds meals around foods that are filling for their calories; with the DASH Diet and the Mediterranean Diet, which shape two of its meal plans; with other paid programs such as WeightWatchers, Noom and the Cleveland Clinic Diet; and with Calorie Counting and Tracking Apps, since its program includes a food tracker. It is not a meal-replacement program, a category listed on the archive index as Meal Replacement Programs, and it is not a medically supervised total diet replacement, which the Very Low Calorie Diets page covers.
2. In practice
A typical day of eating
Mayo Clinic's own sample day at the 1,200-calorie level starts with a smoothie of 1 percent milk, fat-free plain Greek yogurt, an apple, a banana, rolled oats, almond butter and cinnamon. Lunch is a vegetable wrap with roast beef in a whole-wheat tortilla, dinner is broiled salmon with a cabbage and tomato salad, and the snack is 15 cherries (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). The program's sample Mediterranean day at the same level is overnight oats with berries and pear, Tuscan white bean soup with a little pesto, sheet-pan roasted chicken with broccolini, onion and tomatoes, and sliced bell peppers with a banana as a snack (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i).
Nothing on either list is unusual food. What changes for most people is the proportion: more vegetables and fruit, less meat, smaller portions of grains and fats, and very little added sugar, along with daily physical activity. Higher calorie levels add servings rather than different foods.
Cost, products, and who profits
The book and the program cost very different amounts. On October 11, 2026, Mayo Clinic Press listed the third edition of the book at $29.99, offered at $14.99 plus shipping, with a companion journal and a 30-day money-back guarantee; the order page says proceeds from Mayo Clinic books are used to further medical education and research at Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic Press, n.d.). The book teaches the full Lose It! and Live It! plan, so a person can follow the eating approach without paying for the program.
The same day, the program's pricing page gave a standard fee of $49.99 a month and offered discounted plans paid upfront: $49 for 3 months, $79 for 6 months and $120 for 12 months, against standard fees of $149.97, $299.94 and $599.88. Its overview page also offered monthly payments of $39.99, $29.99 or $19.99 on 3-, 6- or 12-month commitments (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d; n.d.-g). Membership includes the meal plans, trackers, unlimited live group coaching sessions on Zoom, 2 ebooks and a private Facebook group; one-on-one sessions with a dietitian are described as optional or for eligible members (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-c; n.d.-i). The pages opened for this page did not give a price for those one-on-one sessions. Prices and offers change; these are what the pages showed on October 11, 2026.
The terms of use matter as much as the price. Monthly plans are commitment contracts; every plan renews automatically at the end of its period, and the terms say no notice is sent before renewal; a discounted plan renews at the regular price; a member who cancels before the end of a commitment is charged the remaining balance; and the program does not offer refunds (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). Members may be able to use health savings or flexible spending accounts if a doctor writes a letter of medical necessity, and financing is offered on purchases of $200 or more (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-b; n.d.-g).
Several parties make money when a client joins. Digital Wellness US LLC operates the program and collects the fees, under a license from the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). The program is also sold to employers, insurers and health care providers, with the company citing an estimated $900 in health care savings for members after 24 weeks (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-a). Mayo Clinic Press sells the books, and the program's own pages promote them. Donald Hensrud, the book's medical editor, declared in a 2023 paper that he receives royalties from the book and consulting fees from the app (Cifuentes et al., 2023), and in a 2025 paper that he is a co-inventor of the Mayo Clinic Diet, which Mayo Clinic licenses to Digital Wellness (Cifuentes et al., 2025).
The food itself is ordinary grocery food. The searches for this page found no study of what following the plan costs at the store, so what follows is observation: the plan's emphasis on fresh produce and fish can cost more than a typical diet, while beans, oats, frozen vegetables and seasonal fruit fit the pyramid and cost less. The program says its meal plans are meant to work "at any budget" (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-e); no study of that claim was found. For someone with little money, the book or a library copy delivers the eating advice without a subscription.
Environmental footprint
The searches for this page found no study of the environmental footprint of the Mayo Clinic Diet, and because its meal plans run from vegetarian to higher-protein and keto, the footprint depends mostly on which plan and which foods a person chooses.
Cultural fit
The pyramid is described in food groups rather than cuisines, so many food traditions can be fitted to it, and the program lets members swap meals and exclude foods for allergies or preferences (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d). U.S. News & World Report says halal guidelines can be followed on the plan and many recipes can be adapted to be kosher (Burdeos, 2026). Two features fit some lives less easily. The Lose It! rules about restaurant meals, snacking and sweets collide with shared and celebratory meals, and a family that eats from one pot has to adapt portions rather than menus. The book and app are available only in English, which the researchers running the registered trial list as the reason they enroll only English readers (Mayo Clinic, 2025).
The people studied so far are also narrow. In both program-specific studies, about 9 in 10 participants were White and most were women (Anazco et al., 2024; Cifuentes et al., 2023). A physical activity and nutrition program for immigrant and refugee families, built by Mayo Clinic researchers with community partners, drew on the Mayo Clinic Diet among other manuals when it wrote its content, together with focus groups from the communities themselves (Bronars et al., 2017); that is one example of the approach being adapted rather than adopted whole.
What makes people stop
The 2 program-specific studies show how many people drop out of the data, though not why. In the records study, of 47,193 people who started the digital program in 2022 and met its starting criteria, only 9,603, or 20.3 percent, recorded a weight at least 3 months after starting and so were included; among those 9,603, about a third, 32.5 percent, had no weight recorded at 6 months. In Mayo Clinic's in-person version, 133 of 331 people had the needed records, and 45.9 percent of those were lost to follow-up by 6 months (Anazco et al., 2024). In the nonrandomized trial, 146 of 165 people had a 12-week weight (Cifuentes et al., 2023). Neither study asked people why they stopped.
Beyond those figures, what follows is observation rather than measured data. The likely reasons are the ones any calorie-limited plan creates: hunger at the lower calorie levels, the work of tracking, meals with others during Lose It!, slower weight change after the first weeks, and, for the paid program, the cost and the commitment contract.
What happens when you stop
The searches for this page did not identify a study that followed people after they stopped the book's plan or left the program, or one that followed program members past 6 months. The program is designed not to end: Live It! is meant to last for life, and membership continues until a member cancels (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i). Whether weight, blood pressure or other measurements stay changed after a person stops is not known from the studies these searches identified. The page on Very Low Calorie Diets discusses what happens after other kinds of weight-loss treatment end.
Common variations
The book has appeared in 3 editions, in 2010, 2017 and the current third edition (Mayo Clinic Press, n.d.; Open Library, n.d.-b; n.d.-c), and a companion book, The Mayo Clinic Diabetes Diet, was first published in 2011 (Open Library, n.d.-a). The digital program offers 4 tracks: the core 12-week program, which the company describes as based on the third edition of the book, a 24-week heart health program, a 12-week diabetes program with carbohydrate counts on every meal plan, and a 24-week program for people taking weight-loss medicines such as GLP-1 drugs (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-f). Its 8 meal plans include the Original (Book) plan, a Mediterranean plan, a lacto-ovo Vegetarian plan and a Healthy Keto plan; the Mediterranean Diet, Vegetarian Diet and Ketogenic Diet pages describe those patterns on their own.
Mayo Clinic also ran an in-person version, at least from 2014 to 2021, through its Healthy Living Program in Rochester: a 2-day program on site after a Lose It! phase at home, with a dietitian, a physical therapist and weekly sessions with a wellness coach for 12 weeks (Anazco et al., 2024). That version is the comparison group in the records study described in section 4, and a client who went to Mayo Clinic may describe it rather than the app.
A different program, tailored to each person's measured appetite, stomach emptying, emotional eating and resting energy use, was tested against the standard program in a nonrandomized trial (Cifuentes et al., 2023), and a later review by the same group calls it PhenoDiet (Espinosa et al., 2025). It is a research program; the sources opened for this page do not describe it as part of the book or the digital program.
3. For the coach
Who does what
- The physician
- Decides whether a reduced-calorie plan is medically safe for this person and whether weight loss is the right goal at all. Orders and reads the labs that matter, such as blood sugar, HbA1c, kidney function and potassium, and blood lipids, and measures blood pressure over time. Adjusts any medicine the change affects: insulin and sulfonylureas as eating falls, blood pressure medicine as pressure changes, warfarin around vitamin K intake, and any weight-loss medicine. Evaluates weight a person is losing without meaning to.
- The registered dietitian
- Designs and monitors an individual eating plan, which the book and app do not do. For this plan that usually means checking whether the assigned calorie level fits the person, adapting the pyramid for diabetes, kidney disease or heart disease, planning protein for an older adult or someone on a weight-loss medicine, and fitting the meal plans to a budget, a food tradition or an allergy. The program's group coaching sessions are led by its own dietitians and other experts (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-c); those sessions are group education, not individual care.
- The health and wellness coach
- Helps the client get clear about what they want from the plan and why, and whether the book alone or the paid program fits their life and budget. Helps them choose which of the 15 habits to start with, plan for the meals and events where the rules are hardest, and notice how it is going in their own terms: energy, sleep, mood, enjoyment of food and the habits themselves, not only the scale. With the client's permission, can share general information about what the research does and does not show. Holds the referral line when a question belongs to a clinician.
What a client bringing this diet needs
Clients bring the Mayo Clinic Diet for a handful of reasons: a doctor suggested losing weight and the Mayo name felt trustworthy, an employer or insurer offers the program, a friend sent them the book, or they want a plan that does not require special foods. Some are already taking a GLP-1 medicine and want help with eating while on it. A few have been handed a book or printout that uses the Mayo name but did not come from Mayo Clinic. The reason shapes the conversation, and so does the version: a client with the book has different options from a client on a 12-month contract.
What the coaching conversation can offer that the website cannot is room to separate the client's goal from the program's promises. The coach can help a client decide which habits matter most to them, think ahead past the first 2 weeks, and look at the program's offer the way a federal guide suggests, by asking what it costs from start to finish and whether studies show it works (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-a). When a client says a diet is "ranked number one," a coach can recognize the rating, then ask what drew the client to it.
What to ask
- "What made the Mayo Clinic Diet the one you wanted to try?"
- "Which of the habits feels easiest to start, and which one feels furthest away?"
- "What would tell you, a few months from now, that this is working for you, apart from the scale?"
Referral red flags
A client on insulin or a sulfonylurea who reports shakiness, sweating or confusion may be having a low blood sugar episode right now. The first step is the one in their own diabetes plan for treating it, with emergency help if the symptoms are severe or the person cannot manage the episode under their plan; telling the prescriber is the separate step that follows (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b). Eating fewer carbohydrates, or skipping or delaying meals, makes low blood sugar more likely for people taking these medicines (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b), so the client keeps the prescriber informed before a substantial change in eating.
A client on blood pressure medicine who reports dizziness or lightheadedness, especially on standing, should tell the prescriber, who can work out the cause; the coach does not guess at it. A client who plans to stop a blood pressure or diabetes medicine because the program's stories describe people who did is making a decision that belongs with the prescriber. Before a substantial change in vitamin K intake, a client taking warfarin keeps the prescriber informed, because people taking warfarin need a consistent intake of vitamin K (National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, 2021). A client taking a weight-loss medicine who reports side effects takes them to the prescriber; the coach does not try to solve them with a change of meal plan. Weight a client is losing without meaning to is also a reason to involve a clinician.
Some patterns call for a closer look at the eating itself: distress after a day over the calorie level, tracking every bite long after it stopped being useful, cutting below the lowest calorie level to speed things up, turning down meals with others, or describing foods as good and bad. Many of these have ordinary reasons, from a dietitian's plan to a work schedule to a household's preferences, so on its own a behavior tells a coach little, and none of this is a diagnosis. The coach asks what the behavior is for, whether it causes distress, whether it is narrowing what the person eats, and whether it is getting in the way of daily life. Where the answers raise a real concern about disordered eating, the coach follows their own referral process, or brings the concern to the client's clinician under an existing care plan.
Special populations
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding
- The searches for this page did not identify a study of the Mayo Clinic Diet in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and the registered trial of the program excludes people who are pregnant, planning pregnancy within 6 months, or breastfeeding (Mayo Clinic, 2025). A plan built to produce weight loss is a decision for the obstetric clinician, and any eating plan during pregnancy or breastfeeding belongs with that clinician and a registered dietitian.
- Children and adolescents
- The searches did not identify a study of the program in children or teenagers, and the program's terms say its services are not intended for anyone under 18 (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). A coach works with the adult in front of them; a child's eating belongs to the family and the pediatric clinician.
- Older adults
- The searches did not identify a study designed for older adults, but older adults made up much of the records study's digital group, whose average age was 60 (Anazco et al., 2024); the study did not report results by age. An older adult who takes several medicines, has a small appetite, or is losing weight without meaning to is a client for the physician and a dietitian before a reduced-calorie plan, not after.
- Athletes and people with high activity
- The searches did not identify a study of the program in athletes. The lower calorie levels are set for weight loss, not for heavy training, and whether a plan meets the energy and protein needs of training is a question for a sports dietitian.
- People taking medication for diabetes, blood pressure, or blood thinning
- Insulin, sulfonylureas and meglitinides can cause low blood sugar, and eating fewer carbohydrates or skipping or delaying meals makes it more likely (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b). People taking warfarin need a consistent intake of vitamin K, and sudden changes can increase or decrease its effect (National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, 2021). The standing rule is that the client keeps the prescriber informed before a substantial change in eating, rather than asking permission for every food choice. Mayo Clinic itself tells people with diabetes or other conditions to work with their health care professional to adjust the plan (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026).
- People with a history of disordered eating
- The searches did not identify a study measuring disordered eating in people who follow the book or the program, and the registered trial excludes anyone with a history of eating disorders (Mayo Clinic, 2025). The program has features that make caution sensible: calorie levels that start at 1,200 a day, tools for tracking food, weight and habits every day, a 100-point daily Diet Score, and firm rules for the first 2 weeks (Anazco et al., 2024; Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i). In one study of adolescent girls followed for 8 years, dietary restraint predicted later onset of purging disorder (Yamamiya & Stice, 2024); that study measured general dieting, not this plan. A client with this history is referred to their clinician, or through the coach's own referral process if they have none, before the plan is discussed further.
Client misconceptions
Three come up most. The first is that the program has been proven in Mayo Clinic research. The 2 published studies these searches found each compared one Mayo program with another: the digital and in-person versions, looking back at records, and the standard book-based program against a tailored research program, in a nonrandomized trial. Neither had a group without a program, and a randomized trial is still recruiting (Anazco et al., 2024; Cifuentes et al., 2023; Mayo Clinic, 2025).
The second is that the 6 to 10 pounds promised for the first 2 weeks is a typical result that continues at that pace. The company itself calls it possible weight loss whose results vary (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i), and the searches did not identify a study measuring what happens during the Lose It! phase. Over a longer period, the records study measured an average change of 5.3 percent of starting weight at 6 months among the digital users it counted (Anazco et al., 2024).
The third is that any diet carrying the Mayo name is the Mayo Clinic Diet. Books by other authors use the name (Open Library, n.d.-d), and Mayo Clinic's own description of its plan is built on habits, a food pyramid and foods from all the food groups rather than on any one food (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). Each myth is taken up in section 6.
4. The evidence
(select the heading to open or close this section)
The searches for this page, run on October 11, 2026 in Europe PMC, which indexes PubMed, and in ClinicalTrials.gov, identified 2 published studies that report results from the Mayo Clinic Diet program, and neither is a randomized trial. One looked back at records to compare the digital and in-person versions of the program with each other (Anazco et al., 2024). The other was a nonrandomized trial in which the standard Mayo Clinic Diet program was the comparison group for a new, tailored program (Cifuentes et al., 2023). A randomized trial against usual care is registered and recruiting (Mayo Clinic, 2025). No study was found that compares the plan with no program, follows people for longer than 6 months, or measures heart attacks, strokes, cancer or death. The certainty ratings are in the Evidence rating and review record at the end of the page.
Evidence from randomized controlled trials
A trial assigns people to a diet by chance and compares them with people assigned to something else, which is the strongest way to test whether the diet itself causes a result. The searches did not identify a completed randomized trial of the Mayo Clinic Diet, the book or the program, for any outcome: cardiometabolic measures, cancer, body weight, death, or eating behavior and wellbeing.
One randomized trial is registered. Mayo Clinic researchers began enrolling in March 2025 and plan to include about 250 adults aged 18 to 64 with a body mass index of 25 or more. Half are assigned to 12 weeks of the Mayo Clinic Diet, using the third-edition book, a paid app subscription or both, and half to usual care, a handout on healthy eating and a list of tracking apps; after 12 weeks the groups switch (Mayo Clinic, 2025). The registration's summary names weight loss of more than 5 percent as the question, but the outcomes it lists are a 6-question survey of how worthwhile participants found the program and a quality-of-life questionnaire. Its primary completion is expected in March 2027, and no results were posted when this page was written.
Evidence from a records study and a nonrandomized trial
Neither of the 2 studies below can show whether the Mayo Clinic Diet works better than doing nothing, or better than another named program, because neither has that comparison, and neither tested every version now sold: the records study describes the 2022 digital program, and the trial's standard arm was the book-based, in-person program. What each can show is described with its numbers, and the limits come right after.
Body weight, as measured
This archive reports body weight as something a study measured, in that study's own numbers, and not as a goal or as a measure of whether a diet worked; see the standing rule in the review record at the foot of this page.
The records study compared 2 groups who followed the same framework. The in-person group was 133 adults who completed Mayo Clinic's 2-day Healthy Living Program between 2014 and 2021, with weights measured at clinic visits. The digital group was 9,603 adults who joined the online program between January and October 2022 and entered their own weights in the app. The groups differed at the start: the digital group averaged 60 years of age against 46, was 85.0 percent women against 65.4 percent, and had a lower average body mass index, 33.1 against 36.4 (Anazco et al., 2024).
At 6 months, the digital group had lost an average of 5.3 percent of starting weight and the in-person group 2.9 percent, with smaller differences at 1 and 3 months. After adjusting for age, sex and starting weight, the difference was 2.0 percentage points, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 1.0 to 3.0, and digital users had higher odds of losing at least 5 percent, an odds ratio of 1.66, from 1.08 to 2.55. At least 10 percent was reached by 18.0 percent of the digital group and 10.1 percent of the in-person group, a difference that was not statistically clear after adjustment, an odds ratio of 1.75, from 0.97 to 3.15. Missing 6-month weights were filled in by multiple imputation (Anazco et al., 2024).
The authors list the limits themselves: there was no group without a program, the participants were mostly White women, the records were collected after the fact, people with less than 3 months of data were left out, which "might lead to an overestimation" of weight loss, the digital weights were self-reported, and loss to follow-up was large (Anazco et al., 2024). Two more matter. The digital group was the 20.3 percent of eligible starters who kept recording a weight for 3 months, so it is likely to overrepresent people for whom the program was going well. And the 2 groups were enrolled in different years, in different ways, with different information about weight-loss medicines and past surgery, so the comparison cannot separate the format from the people who chose it.
The nonrandomized trial enrolled adults aged 18 to 65 with a body mass index over 30 who were not taking medicines that affect weight. The first 81 enrolled, from August 2020 to February 2021, received the standard program; the next 84, from March to September 2021, received a program tailored to tests of each person's appetite, emptying of the stomach, emotional eating and resting energy use (Cifuentes et al., 2023). The paper cites the Mayo Clinic Diet book for the standard program, its trial registration says the standard plan "will be based on the Mayo Clinic Diet program" (Mayo Clinic, 2019), and a later review by the same group calls that arm "the standard Mayo Clinic Diet" (Espinosa et al., 2025). The trial tested that book-based, in-person version, not the current digital program or its meal plans.
The standard program was a 2-day in-person program with a diet set 500 calories a day below each person's measured resting energy use, 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, and 12 sessions with a health and wellness coach. Of the 165 people assigned, 146 had a weight at 12 weeks. People in the standard program lost an average of 4.3 kg, from 2.7 to 5.8, and people in the tailored program 7.4 kg, a difference of 3.1 kg, from 1.1 to 5.1, in favor of the tailored program; 33 percent of the standard group and 59 percent of the tailored group lost at least 5 percent of their weight (Cifuentes et al., 2023). The authors call it a proof-of-concept study and write that a randomized trial is required to confirm causality.
Cardiometabolic outcomes
Only the nonrandomized trial measured these, and only as changes within each group over 12 weeks. In the standard Mayo Clinic Diet group, whose blood pressure averaged about 121/80 mm Hg at the start, systolic pressure changed by 0.4 mm Hg, from 2.1 lower to 2.8 higher; diastolic pressure fell by 2.1 mm Hg, from 0.2 to 4.0; LDL cholesterol fell by 9.9 mg/dL, from 3.6 to 16.2; and HbA1c, starting at an average of 5.6 percent, fell by 0.12 percentage points, with an interval from 0.31 lower to 0.06 higher (Cifuentes et al., 2023). Changes within one group, without a group that had no program, cannot show what the program caused. The searches did not identify a study of the program in people with high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, and no study measured heart attacks or strokes.
Cancer
The searches for this page did not identify a study of the Mayo Clinic Diet with any cancer outcome. The studies reviewed do not establish whether the plan affects cancer risk.
Mortality
The searches for this page did not identify a study of the Mayo Clinic Diet that measured deaths. The studies reviewed do not establish whether the plan affects how long people live.
Eating behavior and wellbeing
In the nonrandomized trial, the standard group's score on a questionnaire measure of emotional eating fell by 2.3 points over 12 weeks, and its anxiety score on a hospital anxiety and depression scale rose by 0.65 points, from 0.11 to 1.18; the tailored group's anxiety score did not rise (Cifuentes et al., 2023). The paper reports that no adverse events occurred in either group over the 12 weeks; the article text opened for this page does not describe how adverse events were collected, and 12 weeks in 165 adults cannot show long-term safety. The registered trial lists a quality-of-life questionnaire among its outcomes (Mayo Clinic, 2025). The searches did not identify a study that measured disordered eating in people following the plan.
Evidence from long-term prospective cohort studies
A cohort study follows people who already eat a certain way and records what happens to them. The searches did not identify a cohort study of people following the Mayo Clinic Diet, so they supply no cohort evidence about cardiometabolic outcomes, cancer, body weight or death in people who follow it. The 2 studies above followed people for 6 months and 12 weeks.
The company's own evidence, examined
The program's sales pages carry several numbers, and they are what a client is most likely to have seen. Looking at where each comes from is also a useful lesson in reading any product's evidence.
"80% more weight loss." This comes from the records study above: 5.3 percent is about 80 percent more than 2.9 percent (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-f). The program's pages credit the study to "Acosta, et al." and describe it as research showing that members lose more; the first author is Anazco, Acosta is the senior author, and the study compared 2 versions of the program with each other, so it does not show that the program works better than anything outside it. Its adjusted difference was 2.0 percentage points (Anazco et al., 2024).
"Lose 3x more weight." U.S. News & World Report reports company figures of this kind: members who used the app, trackers and accountability tools lost 3 times more weight than people who started but did not complete the program, and members who recorded at least 5 habits a day lost 3 times more in the first 2 weeks than those who recorded fewer (Burdeos, 2026). Those compare engaged members with less engaged members of the same program. People who keep using a program differ from people who stop, so the comparison cannot show that the tools caused the difference. The searches did not identify a published report of these figures.
"13% average weight loss of responders." The program credits a Digital Wellness report from August 2024 that was not found in the searches for this page (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i). U.S. News describes the same figure as the average among people who responded to follow-up (Burdeos, 2026). Either reading describes a selected group, people who did well or who kept reporting, and so it cannot stand for everyone who joins. Neither company page gives how many members were counted or how a responder was defined, so the figure has no published denominator and is not a trial result. The program's business page adds that 45 percent of members have lost 5 percent of their weight after 3 months, without a source (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-a).
"Naturally reduce blood pressure by 5-13 mm Hg." The heart-health page gives no source for this range (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-f), and the searches did not identify a study of the program that measured blood pressure in people with high blood pressure. In the one study that measured blood pressure in the standard program, systolic pressure did not change in people who mostly started with normal readings (Cifuentes et al., 2023). "15% average weight loss with a program like Mayo Clinic Diet and weight-loss medication." The program's own footnote attributes this to a 68-week trial of the drug semaglutide combined with a reduced-calorie diet and more activity (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-j). That is a result for a medicine, not for this program.
The member stories on the same pages, including people who say they no longer need blood pressure medicine, are chosen to be shown, so they cannot tell how common those results are, and a change in medicine is the prescriber's decision. A 2022 mindset survey of 209,269 people who completed the program's free questionnaire describes who is drawn to the program, mostly women with an average age of 52, many of whom had dieted 6 times or more; it does not measure results (Luckstein, 2022).
One more point about the research itself. Both published studies come from Mayo Clinic researchers, and Donald Hensrud, the book's medical editor, is a co-author of each. Each paper's declaration speaks for itself. The records study's declaration lists the senior author's ties, including equity in Phenomix Sciences, and says nothing about the other authors (Anazco et al., 2024). The nonrandomized trial's declaration says Hensrud receives royalties from the book and consulting fees from the app, and that the senior author holds stock in Phenomix Sciences and has a patent submitted for biomarkers of a phenotype-tailored diet (Cifuentes et al., 2023).
A 2025 paper by the same group adds that Hensrud is a co-inventor of the Mayo Clinic Diet, licensed by Mayo Clinic to Digital Wellness (Cifuentes et al., 2025). Tara Schmidt, a co-author of the records study, is named on the program's site as its lead dietitian (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-c). Different authors hold different ties, and ties do not make a result wrong; a reader should know them before weighing one.
Highlighted studies
These 3 sources carry the most weight for this program. Each is described so that a reader can judge it without opening the paper.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Study | Design | Sample size | Duration | Finding | The limitation that matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anazco et al., 2024 | Retrospective cohort comparing the 2022 digital program and the in-person version; no group without a program | 9,603 digital users and 133 in-person participants, selected from 47,193 and 331 who met the starting criteria | 6 months | Weight was 5.3 percent lower than at the start in the digital group and 2.9 percent lower in the in-person group; adjusted difference 2.0 percentage points, from 1.0 to 3.0 | Only people who kept recording a weight for 3 months were included, the groups came from different years and differed in age, sex and starting weight, digital weights were self-reported, and there was no comparison with no program |
| Cifuentes et al., 2023 | Single-center nonrandomized trial, assigned by enrollment period; the standard arm was the book-based, in-person Mayo Clinic Diet program, not the current digital program | 165 adults with a body mass index over 30; 81 in the standard program, 84 in a tailored program; 146 with a 12-week weight | 12 weeks | Standard program 4.3 kg lower than at the start, tailored program 7.4 kg lower; difference 3.1 kg, from 1.1 to 5.1, favoring the tailored program | Not randomized: assigned by enrollment period, with the same unblinded team delivering both programs in sequence; 19 of 165 had no 12-week weight; it compares 2 programs, so it does not show whether either works better than no program |
| Mayo Clinic, 2025, trial registration NCT06862375 | Randomized crossover trial, registered, recruiting | About 250 adults, the estimated enrollment | 12 weeks on the program and 12 weeks of usual care, with follow-up to 52 weeks described | No results posted | The listed primary outcome is a satisfaction survey rather than weight or health measures, though the summary names weight loss as the question |
Head to head
The searches for this page did not identify a study comparing the Mayo Clinic Diet with another named commercial program, such as WeightWatchers or Noom, or with a named eating pattern such as the DASH Diet or the Mediterranean Diet. The 2 comparisons that exist are within Mayo Clinic's own work: the digital program against the in-person program, which favored the digital version in a records study (Anazco et al., 2024), and the standard program against a program tailored to each person's measured traits, which favored the tailored program in a nonrandomized trial (Cifuentes et al., 2023). The second is the closest thing to a head-to-head test found, and in it the standard Mayo Clinic Diet was the comparison that did less well.
Where the evidence is absent
The searches for this page, run on October 11, 2026 in Europe PMC and ClinicalTrials.gov, including a separate search for each special population this archive covers, did not identify a completed randomized trial of the book or the program; a study comparing it with no program, usual care or another named diet; a study longer than 6 months or after people stop; or any study measuring heart attacks, strokes, cancer, death, vitamin and mineral intake or status, or disordered eating in people following it. The nonrandomized trial did record daily calorie intake by 24-hour dietary recall and reported no adverse events over its 12 weeks (Cifuentes et al., 2023).
They did not identify a study testing the plan's health or safety effects in pregnancy, breastfeeding, children, adolescents, older adults as a group, athletes, people taking diabetes or blood pressure medicine, people taking weight-loss medicines, or people with a history of disordered eating, nor one of the book followed without the program, of the program's cost at the grocery store, or of its environmental footprint. The company's figures on engaged members and responders rest on reports the searches did not find. The studies reviewed for this page do not establish that the program has the effects claimed for it, and they do not establish that it lacks them. These searches were not an exhaustive check of every database, regulator, court or special population.
5. Mechanisms
(optional reading; select the heading to open or close this section)
This section explains how the diet is thought to work in the body. You can skip it. Nothing in the coaching sections depends on it.
Established mechanisms
The Mayo Clinic Diet is, at its core, a reduced-calorie eating plan paired with more physical activity. Mayo Clinic describes its 2 main ideas as eating a plan that is low in calories yet satisfying, and burning more calories through activity (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). Matching energy intake and expenditure to reach and keep a healthy body weight is the first feature of a heart-healthy pattern in the American Heart Association's guidance (Lichtenstein et al., 2026). So any weight change on the plan is expected to come from eating fewer calories than the body uses, not from a particular food.
The body also responds to eating less. In the standard Mayo Clinic Diet group of the nonrandomized trial, measured resting energy use fell by an average of 208 calories a day over 12 weeks, while the reported fall in daily calorie intake, 148 calories, had an interval that included no change (Cifuentes et al., 2023). Those are measurements in one small group over 12 weeks, reported here as measured.
Proposed mechanisms
The pyramid's design rests on an idea the program states plainly: vegetables and fruit are filling but low in calories, so filling up on them first makes it easier to eat less without counting (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). That idea, often called energy density, is also the idea behind the Volumetrics Diet. The searches for this page did not identify a study testing the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid itself, so this is the program's rationale, not a tested result for the plan.
The authors of the records study suggest that the digital version's tools, such as frequent self-weighing, tracking and reminders, may explain why its users lost more than the in-person group (Anazco et al., 2024). That is their proposal. Their study was not designed to test it, and the people who keep using such tools differ from those who stop. A proposed mechanism like these never supports a claim in section 4.
6. Risks, contraindications and myths
(select the heading to open or close this section)
Warnings from professional or regulatory bodies
The searches for this page did not identify a warning about the Mayo Clinic Diet from a professional or regulatory body. They covered Europe PMC, which indexes PubMed, the ClinicalTrials.gov registry, and the Federal Trade Commission's cases and press releases, searched for "Mayo Clinic Diet" and "Digital Wellness" on October 11, 2026; they did not cover every regulator, state attorney general or court. A federal guide to choosing a weight-loss program gives warning signs to watch for in any program, such as promises of fast results, very small print and asterisks, and before-and-after photos or endorsements that seem too good to be true, and lists questions to ask program staff about evidence, total cost and staff training (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-a). Those are general cautions, not findings about this program, and a client can use them to look at any program's offer.
Nutrient gaps
The plan removes no food group, and its emphasis on vegetables, fruit and whole grains raises fiber. Mayo Clinic notes that someone not used to fiber may have gas and other short-term changes in digestion at first, and suggests raising fiber gradually and drinking plenty of water (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). The nonrandomized trial recorded daily calorie intake by 24-hour dietary recall (Cifuentes et al., 2023), but the searches for this page did not identify a study measuring vitamin and mineral intake, nutrient status or deficiencies in people following the plan.
The lowest calorie levels leave less room for every nutrient, which is one reason a dietitian is the right person to check a plan for an older adult, a person with a medical condition or anyone eating at the lowest level for a long time. The Vegetarian and Healthy Keto meal plans bring the questions those patterns raise; the Vegetarian Diet and Ketogenic Diet pages discuss them.
Who should not follow it without medical supervision
Anyone taking insulin, a sulfonylurea or a meglitinide, because eating less, or skipping or delaying meals, can bring on low blood sugar (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b). Anyone taking warfarin, because a sudden change in vitamin K intake can change its effect (National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, 2021). Anyone taking blood pressure medicine or a weight-loss medicine, who keeps the prescriber informed before a substantial change in eating and whose prescriber decides whether the medicine still fits as eating and weight change.
Anyone with kidney disease, whose needs depend on the stage of disease, lab results and dialysis, and anyone with diabetes, heart disease or another ongoing condition, as Mayo Clinic itself advises (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). Anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, whom the registered trial excludes (Mayo Clinic, 2025), and anyone under 18, for whom the program is not intended (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-h). And anyone with a current or past eating disorder. The special populations list in section 3 is built from these cautions.
Medication interactions
A coach never adjusts medication. The point of listing these is to know when the client should talk with the prescriber before starting. Insulin, sulfonylureas and meglitinides can cause low blood sugar, and not eating enough carbohydrates, or skipping or delaying meals, makes it more likely (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, n.d.-b); a reduced-calorie plan, and the diabetes program's carbohydrate counts, change exactly those things. Warfarin needs a consistent intake of vitamin K, and sudden changes in intake can increase or decrease its effect (National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, 2021); a plan with unlimited vegetables can add a lot of leafy greens quickly. Blood pressure medicine and weight-loss medicines are managed by the prescriber as weight, blood pressure and eating change.
Signs it is going wrong
Physical signs include shakiness, sweating, dizziness or confusion in a client on diabetes medicine; dizziness or lightheadedness, especially on standing, in a client on blood pressure medicine; unusual tiredness; side effects from a weight-loss medicine; and weight the client is losing without meaning to. For possible low blood sugar, follow the immediate-response steps in Referral red flags: the client's own diabetes plan first, emergency help if symptoms are severe or the person cannot manage the episode under that plan, and the prescriber afterward. Other physical signs are reasons to involve a clinician, not diagnoses, and working out the cause is the clinician's job.
Eating behaviors are a separate matter. Distress after going over a calorie level, tracking that has become constant, cutting below the lowest calorie level, starting Lose It! over and over, turning down meals with others, or talking about foods as good and bad can each come from ordinary reasons, such as a work schedule, food access, a cultural practice, a household's preferences or a dietitian's plan. The coach asks what the behavior is for, whether it causes distress, whether it narrows what the person eats, and whether it gets in the way of daily life. A real concern goes through the coach's own referral process or the client's existing clinical plan. A behavior alone is never a diagnosis.
Myths and where they came from
- Myth: "Any diet with the Mayo name on it is the Mayo Clinic Diet."
- Where it came from: the name appears on books by other authors and independent publishers (Open Library, n.d.-d). The sources opened for this page do not establish where any particular diet using the name began. What is true: Mayo Clinic describes its own plan as 2 phases, Lose It! with 15 habits and Live It! for life, built on the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid, with most food from vegetables and fruit at the base, foods from all the food groups, and portion sizes in place of calorie counting (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). A plan built around one food, such as grapefruit, does not match that description. The paid program's meal plans also differ from one another, so a client's version is worth asking about (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d).
- Myth: "It's clinically proven."
- Where it came from: the program's pages call it "a clinically proven weight loss program" and cite research showing 80 percent more weight loss (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-d; n.d.-f). What is true: the published research found by these searches is a records study comparing the program's digital and in-person versions with each other, with no group that had no program, and a nonrandomized trial in which the standard program was the comparison (Anazco et al., 2024; Cifuentes et al., 2023). A randomized trial is recruiting (Mayo Clinic, 2025). Being designed by clinicians at a respected institution is not the same thing as being tested.
- Myth: "You lose 6 to 10 pounds of fat in the first 2 weeks, and it keeps going."
- Where it came from: Mayo Clinic's own descriptions present Lose It! as a way to lose up to 6 to 10 pounds in 2 weeks, then 1 to 2 pounds a week (Mayo Clinic Press, n.d.; Mayo Clinic Staff, 2026). What is true: the company itself calls the 2-week figure possible weight loss whose results vary (Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i), and the searches did not identify a study measuring how much weight people lose during Lose It! or what that weight is made of. In the records study, average weight change at 6 months was 5.3 percent of starting weight among digital users who had kept entering weights for 3 months, and 2.9 percent in the in-person group (Anazco et al., 2024).
- Myth: "It's ranked one of the best diets, so the evidence must be strong."
- Where it came from: U.S. News & World Report lists the Mayo Clinic Diet among its top expert-recommended diets overall, with an expert rating of 4.0 in that category, and the program's pages repeat ratings from that and other publications (Burdeos, 2026; Burdeos, n.d.-b; Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-e; n.d.-i). What is true: U.S. News says its panel rated 38 diets on a 1 to 5 scale, considering nutritional completeness, health risks and benefits, long-term sustainability and evidence-based effectiveness (Schueller, 2025). A rating is a summary of expert opinion, not a study, and it is not a reason for anything a coach or a client does.
7. Key terms
- Mayo Clinic Diet
- A reduced-calorie, habit-based weight-loss plan from Mayo Clinic, sold as a book and as a paid digital program; the digital program also offers meal plans and condition tracks that differ from the book.
- Lose It!
- The plan's first 2 weeks, in which a person adds 5 healthy habits, breaks 5 unhealthy ones and may add 5 bonus habits.
- Live It!
- The long-term phase, in which a person eats from the Healthy Weight Pyramid in daily servings and keeps the habits for life.
- Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight Pyramid
- The plan's food guide, with vegetables and fruit at the base in essentially unlimited amounts and smaller daily amounts of carbohydrates, protein and dairy, fats, and sweets above them.
- Serving
- A standard portion of one food group, used in place of counting calories.
- Calorie level
- The daily calorie amount a plan is built around; the digital program studied in 2022 assigned 1,200, 1,400, 1,600 or 1,800 calories a day by starting weight.
- Licensing
- An arrangement in which the owner of a name or product lets another company use it under agreed terms; the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research licenses the program to Digital Wellness, which operates it.
- Commitment contract
- A subscription that commits a member to pay for a set number of months, with the remaining balance charged if the member cancels early.
- Retrospective cohort study
- A study that looks back at existing records of groups of people to compare what happened to them.
- Nonrandomized trial
- A study that assigns people to programs by some rule other than chance, such as when they enrolled, so the groups may differ in ways that affect the result.
- Self-reported weight
- A weight a person measures and enters themselves, rather than one measured by study staff.
- Loss to follow-up
- The people in a study whose outcomes were not recorded at a later time point.
- Responder
- A person who meets a set level of response to a program; an average among responders describes those who did well, not everyone who joined.
- Odds ratio
- A comparison of the odds of an outcome in 2 groups; a value above 1 means the outcome was more likely in the first group.
- Energy density
- The number of calories in a given weight of food; vegetables and fruit are low in energy density.
- GLP-1 medicine
- A prescription medicine used for diabetes or weight management, such as semaglutide.
8. Review questions
- What is the difference between following the Mayo Clinic Diet from the book and joining the paid program? Name 3 things the program adds, and 2 terms of its subscription a client should know before signing up.
- Drawing on section 4: the program's pages say members lose 80 percent more weight. Where does that figure come from, what did that study compare, and what 3 features of its design keep it from showing that the program works better than no program?
- A client who takes insulin and a blood pressure pill tells you she has joined the program's diabetes track and hopes to stop both medicines. What does the coach do, and where are the referral lines?
- Drawing on sections 1 and 6: a client hands you a printed "Mayo Clinic Diet" built on grapefruit and high-protein foods. What would you look for to tell whether it is the plan Mayo Clinic describes, and how does Mayo Clinic's own description of its plan differ from it?
9. References
Anazco, D., Espinosa, M. A., Cifuentes, L., Kassmeyer, B., Schmidt, T. M., Fansa, S., Campos, A., Tama, E., Harmsen, W. S., Hurtado, M. D., Hensrud, D. D., & Acosta, A. (2024). Efficacy of in-person versus digital enhanced lifestyle interventions in adults with overweight and obesity. Obesity Pillars, 12, Article 100133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obpill.2024.100133
Andriani, L. (2010, January 21). Good Books' Mayo Clinic Diet debuts at #1. Publishers Weekly. publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/41682-good-books-mayo-clinic-diet-debuts-at-1.html
Bronars, C. A., Hanza, M. M., Meiers, S. J., Patten, C. A., Clark, M. M., Nigon, J. A., Weis, J. A., Wieland, M. L., & Sia, I. G. (2017). Treatment fidelity among family health promoters delivering a physical activity and nutrition intervention to immigrant and refugee families. Health Education & Behavior, 44(2), 262-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198116650668
Burdeos, J. (n.d.-a). Expert-recommended diet programs (commercial diets). U.S. News & World Report. health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-diet-programs
Burdeos, J. (n.d.-b). Top expert-recommended diets overall. U.S. News & World Report. health.usnews.com/best-diet/best-diets-overall
Burdeos, J. (2026, January 30). What is the Mayo Clinic Diet? A detailed beginner's guide. U.S. News & World Report. health.usnews.com/best-diet/mayo-clinic-diet
Cifuentes, L., Anazco, D., O'Connor, T., Hurtado, M. D., Ghusn, W., Campos, A., Fansa, S., McRae, A., Madhusudhan, S., Kolkin, E., Ryks, M., Harmsen, W. S., Ciotlos, S., Abu Dayyeh, B. K., Hensrud, D. D., Camilleri, M., & Acosta, A. (2025). Genetic and physiological insights into satiation variability predict responses to obesity treatment. Cell Metabolism, 37(8), 1655-1666.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.05.008
Cifuentes, L., Ghusn, W., Feris, F., Campos, A., Sacoto, D., De la Rosa, A., McRae, A., Rieck, T., Mansfield, S., Ewoldt, J., Friend, J., Grothe, K., Lennon, R. J., Hurtado, M. D., Clark, M. M., Camilleri, M., Hensrud, D. D., & Acosta, A. (2023). Phenotype tailored lifestyle intervention on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk factors in adults with obesity: A single-centre, non-randomised, proof-of-concept study. eClinicalMedicine, 58, Article 101923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101923
Espinosa, M. A., Rivera Gutierrez, R. J., Villamarin, J., & Acosta, A. (2025). Precision medicine for obesity treatment. Journal of the Endocrine Society, 9(9), Article bvaf102. https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvaf102
Lichtenstein, A. H., Khera, A., Anderson, C. A. M., Appel, L. J., DeSilva, D. M., Gardner, C., Hu, F. B., Jones, D. W., Petersen, K. S., & American Heart Association. (2026). 2026 dietary guidance to improve cardiovascular health: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 153(18), e1285-e1295. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001435
Luckstein, K. (2022, May 25). Weight-loss survey on Mayo Clinic Diet polled more than 200,000 people in the U.S. Mayo Clinic News Network. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/weight-loss-survey-on-mayo-clinic-diet-polled-more-than-200000-people-in-the-u-s
Mayo Clinic. (2019). Individualized lifestyle intervention for obesity management based on obesity phenotypes (Identifier NCT04073394) [Clinical trial registration]. ClinicalTrials.gov. clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04073394
Mayo Clinic. (2025). Weight loss through Mayo Clinic Diet (Identifier NCT06862375) [Clinical trial registration]. ClinicalTrials.gov. clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06862375
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-a). Bring Mayo Clinic Diet to your organization. diet.mayoclinic.org/organizations
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-b). Eligibility for HSA and FSA funds. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/pricing/hsa-fsa-funds
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-c). Group coaching. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/weight-loss-programs/group-coaching
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-d). Healthy diet program by the Mayo Clinic Diet. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/weight-loss-programs/about-the-mayo-clinic-diet
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-e). Original Mayo Clinic Diet meal plan. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/meal-plans/original-meal-plan
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-f). Personalized programs. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/weight-loss-programs/all-weight-loss-programs
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-g). Pricing. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/pricing
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-h). Terms of use. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/terms-of-use
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-i). Weight loss program. diet.mayoclinic.org/us
Mayo Clinic Diet. (n.d.-j). Weight-loss medications program. diet.mayoclinic.org/us/weight-loss-programs/weight-loss-medications-program
Mayo Clinic Press. (n.d.). The Mayo Clinic Diet, third edition. order.store.mayoclinic.com/flex/mmv/mdccb01
Mayo Clinic Staff. (2026, June 4). The Mayo Clinic Diet: A weight-loss program for life. Mayo Clinic. mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/mayo-clinic-diet/art-20045460
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (n.d.-a). Choosing a safe & successful weight-loss program. niddk.nih.gov/health-information/weight-management/choosing-a-safe-successful-weight-loss-program
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (n.d.-b). Low blood glucose (hypoglycemia). niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-problems/low-blood-glucose-hypoglycemia
National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. (2021). Vitamin K: Fact sheet for health professionals. ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminK-HealthProfessional
Open Library. (n.d.-a). The Mayo Clinic diabetes diet. Internet Archive. openlibrary.org/works/OL17440810W
Open Library. (n.d.-b). The Mayo Clinic diet. Internet Archive. openlibrary.org/books/OL24539642M
Open Library. (n.d.-c). The Mayo Clinic diet (2nd ed.). Internet Archive. openlibrary.org/books/OL27224903M
Open Library. (n.d.-d). Ultimate 2022 Mayo Clinic Diet. Internet Archive. openlibrary.org/works/OL31182635W
Schueller, G. (2025, December 30). U.S. News expert-recommended diets: How diets were evaluated. U.S. News & World Report. health.usnews.com/wellness/food/articles/how-us-news-ranks-best-diets
Yamamiya, Y., & Stice, E. (2024). Risk factors that predict future onset of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and purging disorder in adolescent girls. Behavior Therapy, 55(4), 712-723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2023.10.002
Evidence rating and review record
Each row identifies the method, source, outcome or recommendation, and comparison being rated. Ratings from different tools are not interchangeable. The source is either a named published review or this page's own judgment. The rating in the banner is for this diet's main claimed outcome or recommendation, and the banner names the tool that produced it. A high rating means the research is solid; it does not mean the diet is right for everyone, and it does not mean a coach should recommend it.
The rated outcomes on this page use GRADE, the same 4-level scale as the clinical guidelines you will meet in practice. High means further research is very unlikely to change the conclusion. Moderate means further research may change it. Low means further research is likely to change it. Very low means the conclusion is uncertain. GRADE rates each outcome separately, so a diet can be high for one outcome and very low for another. A row marked Not rated is an abstention, not a certainty level: where no study addresses a question, there is nothing to rate.
For the Mayo Clinic Diet, every row is this page's own judgment, because the searches did not identify a published review that rated the program. The program-specific evidence they identified is one records study and one nonrandomized trial, both comparing versions of Mayo Clinic's own programs, so neither answers the question most clients bring, whether the plan works better than not using it. Very low means any effect these studies suggest is very uncertain; it does not mean the program has been shown not to work. The banner reflects the first row.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to see every column.
| Outcome | Certainty | Who rated it, and for which comparison | Why it is rated this way |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight change at 6 months, the 2022 digital program compared with the in-person program (the banner rating) | Very low | GRADE, this page's own judgment, from one retrospective cohort study (Anazco et al., 2024). Population: adults with a body mass index of 25 or more. Intervention: the 2022 digital program; 9,603 adults, selected from 47,193 eligible starters because they entered weights for at least 3 months. Comparison: Mayo Clinic's 2-day in-person program; 133 adults from 2014 to 2021. Outcome: percentage change in weight, self-entered in the app or measured in clinic. Follow-up: 6 months. Both groups had a version of the program; neither was compared with no program. | Observational evidence starts at low. Risk of bias is very serious, lowered 2 levels: the digital group was selected for having kept entering weights for 3 months, which the authors say may overestimate weight loss; the groups came from different years and enrollment routes and differed in age, sex and starting weight, with adjustment for only those 3; digital weights were self-entered and in-person weights measured in clinic; information on weight-loss medicines and past surgery was missing for the digital group; and 6-month weights were missing for 32.5 and 45.9 percent and imputed. Inconsistency cannot be assessed from one study and is not a deduction. Indirectness is not serious for this named comparison. Imprecision is not serious: the adjusted difference, 2.0 percentage points, from 1.0 to 3.0, lies at or above the 1-point threshold this page uses for a difference between 2 versions of a program, though its lower end touches it. Publication bias cannot be assessed from one study; not lowered. No factor raises it. Low minus 2 levels stops at the floor, Very low. The unadjusted 5.3 against 2.9 percent is a different number from this adjusted difference. |
| Measured weight change at 12 weeks, the standard book-based, in-person Mayo Clinic Diet program compared with a phenotype-tailored research program | Very low | GRADE, this page's own judgment, from one single-center nonrandomized trial (Cifuentes et al., 2023). Population: adults aged 18 to 65 with a body mass index over 30, not taking medicines that affect weight, mostly White women. Intervention: the standard program, a 2-day in-person program based on the Mayo Clinic Diet book with 12 coaching sessions; 81 adults in 2020 and 2021. Comparison: a program tailored to each person's measured traits; 84 adults afterward. Outcome: body weight in kilograms, measured at study visits. Follow-up: 12 weeks; 146 of 165 had a 12-week weight. This is not a trial of the current digital program or its meal plans. | A nonrandomized trial starts at low. Risk of bias is serious, lowered 1 level: people were assigned by enrollment period, so differences between the 2 periods during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the authors say they could not control for, could favor either group; neither the team nor the participants were blinded, and a team that knows which program it is delivering, in a study led by investigators who declared interests in the tailored approach, could deliver the 2 with different effort; 19 of 165 had no 12-week weight, and those weights were imputed. Weight was measured at study visits, which limits measurement bias. Inconsistency cannot be assessed from one study. Indirectness is not serious for this named comparison. Imprecision is not serious: the difference, 3.1 kg, from 1.1 to 5.1, favoring the tailored program, lies at or above about 1.1 kg, the same 1-percentage-point threshold applied to the group's average starting weight of 110.6 kg, though its lower end touches it. Publication bias cannot be assessed; not lowered. No factor raises it. Low minus 1 is Very low. |
| Body weight or health outcomes compared with usual care, no program or another named diet | Not rated | This page's own judgment. Population: adults. Intervention: the book or any version of the program. Comparison: usual care, no program, or another named diet. Outcome: body weight or health outcomes. Follow-up: any. | The searches did not identify a completed study with this comparison. A randomized crossover trial against usual care is registered and recruiting (Mayo Clinic, 2025); this row should be revisited when it reports. The 2 existing studies compare Mayo programs with each other and do not supply this comparison, and general healthy-eating guidance and rankings do not fill it. |
| Blood pressure, blood lipids and blood sugar, as effects of the program | Not rated | This page's own judgment. Population: adults with or without high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. Intervention: the book or the program. Comparison: no program or another program. Outcome: blood pressure, blood lipids, HbA1c or blood sugar. Follow-up: any. | The only measurements found are changes within the standard group of one nonrandomized trial, in people with mostly normal starting values (Cifuentes et al., 2023), which this page reports as within-group measurements and which cannot show what the program caused. The company's figure of 5 to 13 mm Hg for its heart-health program has no study behind it in these searches, and this page does not transfer a rating from research on other programs. |
| Weight change among members who use the tools most, and among responders, as the company reports it | Not rated | This page's own judgment. Population: program members, as the company reports them. Comparison: members who used the tools or tracked more habits against those who did not, and an average among responders with no comparison group. Outcome: weight change. Follow-up: as reported, up to 6 months for the responder figure. | The reports behind these figures, including a Digital Wellness report from August 2024, were not found in the searches, and an unread original does not carry a rating. As described, they compare self-selected groups within the program or average only responders (Burdeos, 2026; Mayo Clinic Diet, n.d.-i), and the company gives no denominator, so no certainty level is inferred from them. |
| Disordered eating during or after the program | Not rated | This page's own judgment. Population: people with and without a history of disordered eating. Intervention: the book or the program. Comparison: people who do not follow it. Outcome: onset or worsening of disordered eating. Follow-up: any. | The searches did not identify a program-specific study. The cohort evidence on dietary restraint (Yamamiya & Stice, 2024) concerns general dieting in adolescent girls; its result is not transferred to this program. |
How this archive talks about weight. This page reports what studies measured, including body weight, and does not treat weight change as a goal or as a measure of a diet's success. Weight a person loses without meaning to can be a sign of a health problem, and where it is, the page names it as a reason to see a clinician. People are described the way the study described them.
Last reviewed: Reviewed and approved by James Peth, MS, MPH, PhD, on October 11, 2026, after a combined final review of the fourth batch of 5 archive pages, the commercial programs, the repairs it asked for and a targeted recheck. Written October 11, 2026. The judgments in the table are this page's own, assigned from the evidence. Some sources could be read only as abstracts or author manuscripts, and the page says so where each is used. Company prices and terms are a snapshot from the company's own pages on October 11, 2026, and can change.
What changed: After the outside review, the summaries describe both program-specific studies; the page separates the book, the program's core plan, its other meal plans and tracks, and the tailored research program; the safety, nutrient and absence statements report the trial's 12-week adverse-event and calorie-intake findings and say what was searched; the coaching example puts the prescriber conversation before a lower-calorie plan; the myth about diets carrying the Mayo name no longer rests on a newsletter item that could not be read; the 2 rated rows state population, comparison, outcome, follow-up, a threshold and every reason; and each paper's financial declarations are attributed to that paper.
What changed after the targeted recheck: The In brief medication paragraph now calls for emergency help if symptoms are severe or the person cannot manage a low blood sugar episode under their own plan, matching the full safety sections.
Next scheduled review: Each year, because the company revises its programs, prices and terms; the registered trial of the program expects its primary results in 2027 and should be checked then. Pages built on annual guidance are rechecked each year.
Diet Reference Archive | One James
Prepared by James Peth, MS, MPH, PhD
© 2026–2027 One James. All rights reserved.
This page is for education and coaching practice. It is not medical or dietary advice.
