Most people choose artificially-sweetened soda over regular soda to avoid packing on extra pounds. But what if you already choose diet? Would it be helpful to quit that too?

Dr. Jim Hill says he gets this question all the time from patients in his weight loss program at the University of Colorado's Anschutz Health and Wellness Center.

With funding from the American Beverage Association, Hill helped design a study that divided approximately 300 adults into two groups: One group would continue drinking diet, and the other group - referred to in the study as the "water group" - would go cold turkey. The study was published in the journal Obesity.

Both participant groups received intensive coaching on successful techniques for weight loss, including regular feedback on the meals they logged in journals.

"The results, to us, were not at all surprising," says Hill.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Happy This Year! If, like me, you’ve already broken a few of your resolutions, you might be done with new diets in 2014.
 
If, however, your will to lose weight is stronger than ever, US News & World Report has some helpful intel. It ranked 32 current diets for effectiveness and simplicity, naming the DASH Diet (developed to fight high blood pressure; the focus is on fruits, vegetables, lean protein, low-fat dairy) and the TLC Diet (focusing on increasing fiber intake and cutting back on saturated fat) as the winners.

Tied at the bottom of the list are the Dukan Diet (the super-strict high-protein diet that claims you’ll lose 10 pounds in the first week) and the Paleo Diet (followers eat like cavemen: lots of meat, fish and vegetables; not a lot of refined sugar, beans, grains).
 
And then there are a few new weight loss plans that somehow missed the rankings, like the Mushroom Diet and the God Diet. Read on to learn how to lose weight according to the Old Testament.
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Amy Chillag is a CNN Writer/Producer.

At 5’ 1” my small, 42-year-old frame was taking on a dreadful Body Mass Index. I'd start in on a pint of coffee ice cream at three in the afternoon, every day.  Not just any ice cream, but Bon Appetit top-10-rated best-in-the-nation ice cream that just happens to be a five minute drive from my house.

I didn’t know how to stop. I'd sit on my couch and scoop one creamy spoonful after another. It was never enough. I could not put the spoon down.  I'd feel sick after downing three-quarters of a pint of that coffee temptress.

My psychologist would later explain I'm trying to fill a void. What void? I have a good job, a thoughtful, handsome and loving boyfriend, two Boston Terriers who love me. But these things, as they always do, go back to childhood.

What I didn't realize is I've been depressed for a couple of years, gradually getting worse and relying on sweets to give me a high that buzzed a pleasure center in my brain increasing evidence shows could be as addictive as cocaine.
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"Trying to get me to cry by looking at this ugly picture? There are worse ones..."

That's how Richard Blais reacts to a photo taken 10 years ago, when Blais was almost 60 pounds overweight - and 60 pounds heavier than he is today.

"I just really lost control of myself because I was tasting food all day long and partaking in the social aspect of our industry," Blais, 41, tells HLN.

The acclaimed chef - "Top Chef: All-Stars" winner, the owner of Trail Blais and operator of Atlanta-based restaurants The Spence and Flip Burger Boutique - lost all that weight and kept it off, he says, by overhauling his lifestyle.
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