Nearly half of US adults plan to start a new diet in 2025

Key takeaways:

• Only 7% of adults plan to start a vegan or plant-based diet in 2025 despite the diets’ effects on weight.
• A plant-based diet may be effective for weight loss and can prevent obesity-related diseases.

Almost half of American adults said that starting a new diet is one of their New Year’s resolutions, results of a survey from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine showed.

However, less than one in 10 said they plan to start a vegan or plant-based diet, despite these being some of the most effective approaches for weight loss.

“A reason that so few people are planning to try a plant-based diet could be that they don’t know where to start,” Roxanne Becker, MBChB, DipIBLM, medical editor at the Physicians Committee, suggested in a press release.

The findings come as U.S. News and World Report released their best diet rankings for 2025, which named the Mediterranean diet as the best overall diet for the 8th year in a row. The plant-based Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet — also known as DASH — ranked as the second-best overall diet and finished within the top three diets across several other categories.

Healio previously reported on the results of a study, which showed that a low-fat vegan diet may be better for weight loss vs. the Mediterranean diet because of its ability to reduce harmful advanced glycation end-products.

A total of 2,174 women and men responded to the survey, among whom 46% said they are going on a new diet as part of their resolutions for 2025.

Respondents who lived in urban areas expressed a higher likelihood to start a new diet (51%) vs. those who resided in suburban (42%) and rural (43%) areas. Gen Zers (61%), millennials (54%) and nonwhite respondents (55%) also expressed the highest likelihood to plan to start a new diet.

The data revealed that 40% of respondents said they are going to attempt to consume fewer calories, 26% plan to go on a low-carbohydrate diet like the Atkins or keto diets and 25% plan to go on a low-fat diet.

Just 7% of respondents said they are going to start a plant-based or vegan diet, while 7% also said they are going to start a vegetarian diet.

Asian respondents (15%) and those who lived in the West (11%) and in urban communities (10%) said they are most likely to plan to start a plant-based diet, whereas respondents least likely to start this diet included those from the Midwest (3%), rural communities (4%) and baby boomers (4%).

“Counting calories can be time consuming and create a negative relationship with food for some people. And low-carbohydrate diets come with a range of side effects,” Becker said in the release. “Research has shown that plant-based diets are effective for weight loss without purposefully restricting or counting calories. This is because plants tend to be naturally lower in calorie density and higher in fiber, which promotes a feeling of fullness.”

She highlighted several reasons aside from weight loss as to why a plant-based diet may be preferable over other dietary patterns.

“It also reduces the risk of obesity-related diseases [like] heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol and certain cancers, can save money, and is best for the environment,” she said.

References:

• Nearly half of U.S. adults resolve to start a new diet in 2025. Available at: https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/nearly-half-us-adults-resolve-start-new-diet-2025. Published Dec. 30, 2024. Accessed Jan. 7, 2024.
• New Years resolution study. Available at: https://pcrm.widen.net/s/mbrqrjskcz/pcrm-mc-new-years-resolution-study-12.27.24. Accessed Jan. 7, 2025.