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DIET REVIEWS: What is a diet plan?
Good nutrition coupled with exercise is the key to a healthy diet plan. Good nutrition is the key ingredient to improving your chances for weight loss. But we’re not talking crash diets here, or plain old starving yourself. We are talking about eating healthy and making sure your portions match the number of calories you need on a daily basis. It is believed that if you can create a 500-calorie deficiency every day between exercise and nutrition, you can lose up to a pound a week. Below is an overview of some of the best known and most reputable diet plans that are popular with people wanting to lose weight. You are invited to ADD YOUR REVIEW to each of the diet plans we mention here. The more feedback from users that can be read here, the better chance our readers have to select the program best for their needs and lifestyle. But before we start on the actual diet plans themselves, we first need to explain the relationship with calorie intake and calories burned, to achieve any weight management goals you may have.
Your Minimum Calorie Intakes In order to lose weight you need to find a 500-calorie deficiency everyday. Do it through exercise *AND* reducing what you eat. Women should not consume less than 1,200 calories per day, or 1,000 less than your maintenance value (how many calories you need to keep your weight steady). Men should not consume less than 1,800 calories per day, or 1,000 less than your maintenance value. If you try a crash diet, where you are only consuming 1,000 calories per day and working out, or getting exercise, sure, you will lose weight. But, it isn’t going to stay off.
When you don’t give your body enough fuel, it starts to consume the muscles in your body and that is disastrous, as the muscles are an important part of being able to metabolize your foods. • Eating too little is not the way to have sustained weight loss. • You risk burning muscle if you crash diet by not eating anything. Your body will consume your muscle tissue, actually making it more difficult to keep the weight off down the road. • Eating much less slows your metabolism. You aren’t eating enough food to keep your metabolism running on high octane. Tracking your calories It might take a little bit of effort, but each food has a written caloric value on the packaging. If you take the time to notice what is on the package you will be able to monitor what your calorie intake is. When you can do this, you will be able to keep tabs on what you are eating and whether or not you are meeting your target intake levels. If you want to be serious about losing weight, then you need to take the matter into your own hands. Don’t just slap a healthy portion of lasagna on your plate and start chowing down. Calculate how many calories are in a reasonable serving and go from there. Most meals will have you in between 500 and 1,000 calories. This is a good target area. If you can calculate where you actually fit in there with each particular meal, you will be able to get a better idea of your plan for losing weight. What are the Calories in food?
When to seek Medical Advice: Important! You should ALWAYS consult your physician if you are thinking of starting on a new diet plan. You should talk to your doctor about your chosen weight loss program to see if you are on the right track. All of the diet plans below have their pros and cons, and they may all help you lose weight. You will likely find benefit in applying any of these diets. The toughest part is going to be in sticking with it for the long term. You need to make a commitment to nutrition and exercise in order to make your fight against your beltline a successful one. All of the fad diets and support groups are not going to be able to keep weight off like a commitment to changing your life.
Types of diet plan
There are a few well known diet plans out there, each with their own pros and cons. Some require joining a club, and others want you to purge your pantry of all of the ‘bad’ things and move into a different world of food. We won’t get into very specific details about each plan, but rather offer an overview and some of the advantages and disadvantages we have researched while putting together this diet plan review section. It will offer information and hopefully be able to provide you with a better framework for your health.
This diet is the latest low-carb craze has caught the diet world by storm. Reducing your carbohydrate intake as a means of losing weight. It also provides for the consumption of high-protein foods like seafood, eggs, and meats, along with monounsaturates like cheeses oils, butter, margarine and sausages. The beginning of the Atkins Diet is called the ‘induction phase.’ A person on the Atkins Diet cannot consume more than 20 grams of carbs per day, for two full weeks. The carbs are generally consumed from eating slight amount of vegetables, but no high carb veggies like potatoes, corn, or carrots. Dieters can add five grams of carbs to their meal plan weekly, until they reach a target maximum of between 40 to 90 grams of carbs per week – total. This part is called the maintenance phase. In a study done, 40 per cent of people dropped out of the Atkins Diet plan inside one year, because it is too hard to adhere to. On the good side, the participants that stayed lost an average of 16 pounds in the first six months. But, by the end of the year it was reduced to 10 pounds. Diet Plan Review – Atkins Diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
To the body, whether you consume a spoonful of sugar, or take a bite out of an apple, it doesn’t matter. It all gets converted into sugar. What the low-carb diet (not as substantial as Atkin’s) suggested is that we limit the number of carbohydrates so our body doesn’t have a steady supply of them, and it begins to burn fat. This plan does subscribe to the same school of thought that the Atkins Diet does, but it doesn’t go to the same lengths as the Atkins when it comes to limiting carbohydrate intake. The idea of this diet is to create a sugar deficiency, so your body starts to burn your fat as a fuel, rather than the sugars. According to health experts, your body always burns the sugars before it starts burning fat. So it stands to reason that in order to get your body burning fat, you should limit your carbs. One would think that this is the exact same thinking as the Atkins Diet, so why wouldn’t we have the same things to say about it? The reason for that is the number and type of carbohydrates that are being consumed. The typical low carb diet will take you to the lower end of the recommended daily intake of carbs, or maybe slightly below it. It will also suggest cutting out many of the quick simple sugars that are found in foods. Diet Plan review - Low Carb Diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
This is probably the most common diet that people undertake, mainly because you can still eat a lot of your favorite foods, you just have to eat in considerable moderation, or only once in a while. The reason why these diets are so popular is because they appeal to the masses that say that high fat equals high calories. It does – fat is by far the most calorie dense food we eat. Therefore it makes sense that the less fat we eat, the less calories we consume, and it makes it easier to lose weight. But, health experts will tell you that eliminating all fats from your diet might not be as good an idea as you think. You need to separate your different fats into the good ones and the bad ones. Yes, there are good fats.
Diet Plan review - Low fat diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
These are two popular diet plans that do follow many of the principals in the above dietary methods. But, I think the primary reason for these diets plans is to count calories and fat. They have some of their own foods and supplements to boot that are high in protein and low in fats and sugars. One of the biggest appeals of these diet plans is the ability to have the support from others. Losing weight is not an easy task, and the difficulties are shared with others through these programs. You go to meetings and meet with someone to help you along in this process. Many people find a huge benefit in that. People all over love to have others rooting them on in their battle against obesity or overweight. These organizations provide people with a support system to help them lose weight, along with a weight plan that has been proven to help people to lose weight. Their dietary plans seem to state that the dieter can eat most of their favorite foods, as long as they are watching their calorie consumption and their fat intake. Diet Plan review - Jenny Craig continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Diet Plan review - Weight Watchers continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Diet pills have their supporters and they have their detractors, and both sides have evidence to support their claim. The side against diet pills probably has more evidence to support not using them, but when the bottom line is losing weight, it might swing the balance in the supporters favor. Studies have looked at the long-term risks of taking diet pills and whether they have adverse side effects. Right now, those studies indicate that there might be some obese-related disease that are curbed by using diet pills: • Lowers blood pressure But the long-term studies are as of yet, inconclusive. The intended purpose of diet pills is to help people who are on a diet, to stay on the prescribed diet by suppressing intense hunger and limiting one’s need to snack or eat other food. Diet Plan review - Diet Pills continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Ayurveda is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning science of life, and actually is a branch of traditional Indian medicine. Using Ayurveda means actually changing not only the way you eat, but also the way that you see yourself and your body. In Ayurveda, you don’t objectivize your body as a “thing”, but realize your body as a system of energy that is constantly changing. Realizing that 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced completely within less than one year helps you to understand that nothing about your body is static, and if you wish it to change, then change is actually easy. What needs to be done is to retrain the body and its cells to think differently, and to stop responding randomly to external stimuli. This is putting an end to what is called self-referral. The first step is very simple; when you are hungry then eat, but when you are not don’t eat. Although this seems over simplistic, in this practice is the key to conquering most cases of obesity. Americans eat impulsively more so than any other culture in the world, and that means we eat often when we are not hungry. Diet Plan review - Ayurveda continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Slim Fast is another great diet aid that has been around for quite a while. From it’s origins as a thick and gritty powder designed to help you stave off hunger to it’s current incarnation as a line of weight loss products and meal bar supplements we have seen some amazing transitions and longevity in this particular product. Slim Fast is becoming famous for the new flavors they have introduced and their steady stream of testimonials from those who have met or exceeded their goals by using the Slim Fast system. Using Slim Fast when dieting can assist those with little will power when it comes to chocolate and sweets achieve their weight loss goals by having the higher calorie shakes and snacks throughout the day followed by a sensible meal in the evening and indulging in their craving for sweets throughout the day. It’s a good plan as long as those using it can manage to stick with the plan. In the past Slim Fast would not have been a product I would have recommended for those needing to lose a large amount of weight. That has changed however in the last year or so as they have introduced a much more aggressive health and wellness plan that is appropriate to those who have more pounds to take off than the simple 20 or so vanity pounds that was typical of the Slim Fast user of the past. Diet Plan review - Slim Fast continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
This type of diet became very popular as of recently due to the promotion of the ever-popular Atkins Diet Craze (see above) . This diet is very popular because there is no calorie counting involved, and many foods that many people love to eat are allowed on the diet. Starches of any type, such as white rice, potatoes and potato chips, need to be eliminated. Cereals are mostly carbohydrates and should be avoided entirely during the diet phase. Because of the low-carb craze, there are many low-carb options of sodas, milk, ice cream, bread, beer, and wine available in the average supermarket. If you do consume these, be sure to do so only occasionally and in moderation, even if it is a lowcarb type. Otherwise, the aforementioned foods should be eliminated entirely when not of the low-carb type. Beware of foods that contain hidden sugars, like bacon, barbeque sauce, ketchup, salad dressing, cough syrup, and fruit juice.
As strange as it may seem, fruits and fruit juices should be eliminated while in the weight loss phase of this diet, as they are nearly pure carbohydrates. Anything made with flour needs to be eliminated during the weight loss phase, since as mentioned earlier they are high in carbohydrates. Now what can you eat? Well, the good news is that you can eat all meats, fish, poultry and seafood, except prepared meats like bacon and honey baked ham, which are high in sugar. Skip the bread and have meat and salad, or meat in your salad. Eggs are very low-carb friendly, but be sure to skip the mayonnaise or salad dressing unless it is low-carb type mayonnaise or dressing. Diet Plan review - Low-Carb High Protein Diets continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
The Total Wellbeing Diet started in Australia and focuses, like many diets these days, on a small intake of carbohydrates and more consumption of protein. It resembles diets like the Atkins diet by cutting out processed foods and carbohydrates like bread and pasta, but it emphasizes a balanced amount of carbohydrates like vegetables and fruit. The Total Wellbeing Diet emphasizes consuming about twice as much protein and meat as one normally consumes, with the creators of the diet stressing a larger intake of meat and fish at lunch and dinner. The creators of the Total Wellbeing Diet also stress the restriction of fatty foods. All of this together, they say, creates a well-balanced diet that does not resemble any other diets on the market today. The emphasis on consuming more protein as a weight-loss technique is centered on the fact that protein helps one feel fuller for longer periods of time. Consuming carbohydrates helps one feel full immediately but it only lasts for a short period of time, making you consume more food than necessary. Furthermore, excessive carbohydrates turn into fat in the body if the energy from those carbohydrates is not used. Diet Plan review - Total Wellbeing Diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Another natural alternative is to detoxify one’s body and switch to a live food diet. Although this dietary change has permanent benefits that are excellent for not only losing and maintaining weight, it heightens energy and often eliminates toxins that cause a variety of illnesses and conditions that commonly plague the body. With this lifestyle change, in addition to weight loss, chronic illnesses such as migraine headaches, insomnia, skin problems, brittle hair, constipation, arthritis, and many others are alleviated permanently. The drawback for some is again the level of commitment that it takes to achieve. Far from impossible, this option takes a level of commitment to health and general well being that is strong enough to want to give up foods that are toxic to your body. The first step one should take is to cleanse the body. If you suffer from high toxicity that is currently showing itself as chronic illness, you may want to consult with a natural practitioner before embarking on a cleansing routine, as cleansing may exacerbate many symptoms of the body’s ailments as the body attempts to correct itself.
Diet Plan review - Detoxification And Live Food Diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
The Zone diet was developed in the mid-1990s and popularized by Hollywood celebrities. The diet itself focuses on “eating healthy” by restricting the amount of unhealthy fats and balancing the amount of carbohydrates, protein, and fat. The diet can be characterized by the phrase “40:30:30.” This ratio refers to the ratio of carbohydrates to protein to fat that one should consume at every meal, according to the Zone diet founder, Barry Sears. The Zone diet is based upon Sears’ claim that the body increases its storage of fat because of increased amounts of insulin in the body, and that controlling the amount of insulin will ultimately allow one to lose weight. The science behind the diet requires a certain amount of understanding of the human body and is quite complicated for the average person. However, despite Sears’ claims, there has been no research studies completed showing the diet’s science is correct. Health experts and nutritionists do not necessarily dispute the Zone diet’s ability to help one lose weight; however, they are skeptical about the science behind the diet, and, in particular, its claim that insulin is the leading factor in the body’s storage of excess fat. They are also wary of the amount of time and planning that must go into following the Zone diet. As a franchise, to be “in the Zone,” one must follow certain food guidelines, and this requires books, scales, and sometimes even pre-packaged Zone diet foods. Also, there is little leeway in eating out or being able to throw together a quick snack. Diet Plan review - Zone Diet continued. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
Genetics does play a role in obesity, of course, but not as big a role as you do. One of the known strategies is to take some weight loss supplements. This does not necessarily mean those that are being advertised as diet pills but also those that fall under the category of herbal medicines. Diet Plan review. Click here to add YOUR personal review for this diet plan
We have talked from the beginning that we need to create a calorie deficiency of about 500 calories per day. That is going to require a commitment to eat 250 calories less and burning 250 calories more per day. That is going to take off one pound per week. Not a bad start – in two months you will have lost nearly ten pounds. How you do that is completely up to you. But, we do have some pointers that you should follow in order to make sure that you aren’t starving yourself and you are getting the nutrition you need. • First things first – lower the fat content in the food that you are eating. Lowering fat lowers calorie intake. • Eat in smaller portions and eat slower. This is going to help you overall for two reasons. If you eat smaller portions and you eat them slower it is still going to fill you up. Your brain doesn’t register what is going on in the stomach for a couple of minutes so people that eat fast have a tendency to overeat. If you combine smaller portions with slower eating it translates into one thing – less calories. • Try and exercise three times a week. Minimum. If you can get in some sort of physical activity five times a week, you will be well on your way to solving this problem with your weight. • Eat a well balanced diet. Make sure you have something from each of the four food groups. You also need to have some carbohydrates, ‘good’ fats, and proteins. • Stay away from junk food and empty calories. This sounds like a cliché, but it is the absolute truth. Many of these foods have bad fats and they are simple carbs that turn into fat if you don’t burn them off. Fats also have the most calories. You might have to sacrifice a nice dinner if you have a chocolate bar now.
Diet change strategies:
We’ve been through all of the different reason why you shouldn’t eat this food or that food, when what it really boils down to is the number of calories you eat. And you have the ultimate control over that. You can get a head start on losing weight if you can learn to control your calories. It is that simple. • Find your target body mass index or your target weight, and then you can figure what the number of calories is to maintain that weight. This is where you find your 500-calorie deficit. • You are allowed to eat whatever you want, just as long as you are staying at or below the target calorie consumption. Keep in mind that you want to also get all of your vitamins and minerals in there to stay healthy – so don’t just snack on your favorite sweets. • Don’t skip meals to finish the day under your calorie intake level. If you do this you are going have an adverse effect on your metabolism. If you are going to be over by 100 calories, go ahead, and just work extra hard when you do your exercise. • Don’t consume saturated or trans fats. These are the worst kinds of fats that you can eat. They actually turn into the sludge you see at the bottom of your bacon pan after a Sunday morning breakfast. And they do this in your arteries. Your diet is the second most important part of losing weight. Coupled with your exercise, it will determine your success at trimming the numbers from your bathroom scale.
Vitamin & Nutrient Associations Eating a healthy, well balanced diet is going to get you further ahead in your fight against weight, much more so than diet pills or some other fad diet plans.
The body needs all of the vitamins and minerals that are available to it, and by limiting what you can eat, you are limiting your nutrients.
Further reading through our articles on health issues will give you a body of information that will help you decide what options you have to deal with the underlying causes of your diet or weight loss problem through giving your body the nutrition products that will assist you body to heal from the inside out. We wish you well in your search for solutions to this problem and your movement towards better health in all areas. More Resources available about diet plan : What is a Juice Detox Diet?
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The most commonly used method to determine if a person is obese is to look at his/her Body Mass Index (BMI). A person with a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese, and a BMI over 40 is considered to be morbidly obese. Find out your BMI Level here: BMI CALCULATOR
What is the Food Pyramid?
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The Atkin’s Diet
