These were the 10 most popular diets of 2018, according to Google

weight loss body scale

Google released its "Year in Search" trends for 2018 on Wednesday.
The diets that Americans looked up the most fall into one of two camps: high-fat and low-carb, or calorie restriction, like fasting.
Some options, though, were downright bizarre.

Even though research shows that adopting a healthy eating plan you can stick to for life is a better tactic than yo-yo dieting, people are always intrigued by the latest strategy for losing weight in a hurry.

Google has published its list of the trendiest, most searched diets of 2018. According to our Google searches, there seem to be two key strategies. Dieters seem to be curious about various kinds of high-fat, low carb plans like the keto diet, as well as schemes that ask people to restrict their eating to certain hours of the day or certain days of the week.

Given that more than 9 out of 10 internet searches in the world are performed on Google or its subsidiary YouTube, the search engine's list of trends is probably a decent gauge of what diets people were trying this year. But it's worth remembering that Google's annual trends are based on which search terms had the biggest spike in 2018 as compared to 2017. That means some oddball diets may have landed on this top 10 list simply because they're new and novel, so people were searching for information about how they work.

Perennial classic diets like Atkins and Weight Watchers didn't make this list, but here are the 10 eating plans that did.

The Keto diet was the trendiest of 2018, based on Google searches. But the high-fat regimen isn't easy to follow.

It's no surprise that the keto diet kept the internet curious this year — stars like Halle Berry and the Kardashians love it, and so do Silicon Valley tech workers, venture capitalists, and athletes like LeBron James.

Keto diets put people into a fat-burning mode called 'ketosis,' because they don't eat enough carbs to power their body or brain. To get into this mode, keto dieters strictly limit their sugar and carb intake, filling up instead on butter, heavy cream, full-fat yogurt, leafy greens, vegetables, meat, and seafood.

The keto diet was first used clinically in the 1920s to help with tough-to-control epileptic seizures that weren't responsive to other drugs. Lately, some people have also used the diet to help control cases of Type 2 diabetes. But going keto can lead to kidney and liver issues, so consult a doctor if you want to try the plan.

Because it's so hard for people to stay on the strict keto regimen, we don't yet have good data about what the long-term effects of this diet might be.

The Dubrow Diet is a new plan from reality TV husband-and-wife pair Heather and Terry Dubrow. In many ways, it's just an intermittent fasting routine.

Terry Dubrow catapulted to fame on the TV show "Botched," and he and his wife Heather co-starred in "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

They're leveraging that fame to tout a diet plan that's essentially a version of intermittent fasting, a regimen in which dieters spend up to 16 hours a day fasting, and confine their eating to an 8-hour window.

"If you know how to eat in certain timed intervals, you will on a daily basis preferentially break down your fat in a very rapid way," Terry Dubrow told Dr. Phil on his show in October when the book was published (by a company owned in part by Dr. Phil's son). "You'll send your body, physiologically, into an anti-aging state."

One reason the Dubrow plan may be effective is that it keeps people from mindlessly snacking all day. But fasting also has the potential to increase ketone levels in the body.

The Dubrow diet consists of three phases: first, there is an extremely restrictive phase, with no alcohol allowed for the first 2-5 days. Then the diet opens up to include more foods and brings back alcohol. The third and final phase is more relaxed and focused on maintenance.

The couple claims that 100 adults who tried the diet for six months under the Dubrows' supervision lost between 33 to 86 pounds. But rapid weight loss doesn't always lead to long-term results, and yo-yo dieting can have serious consequences for your heart.

Noom is a weight-loss app that provides users with individualized feedback.

App users enter in how much they weigh, along with data on how often they're exercising, eating, and sleeping. Then they get advice in personal and group messages from human coaches, as well as access to online resources (like articles on how to eat local food and tips for sleeping better).

The app is getting good results for people with pre-diabetes: In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed Noom as one of its recommended, evidence-based, Type 2 diabetes prevention programs — a first for a smartphone app.

"We know that the program is above the requirements," Noom president and co-founder Artem Petakov said when the news was announced. "The CDC requires that 40% of participants lose 5% of their weight, and Noom demonstrated that 51% achieved 5% weight loss."

Prices for the program range from $16 to $60 per month, depending on how long you agree to subscribe.

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