Diet Comparisons
Probably the most important things people want to know when it comes to losing weight are which diet is the best. We are looking for a diet that can make us thin in no time at all. Some sort of miracle pill or eating plan that makes fat go away. We also want to make sure that the weight lost thru the diet will never return.
You can find plenty of diets in various magazines and on the Internet. The more diets you find the more you will be confused about what dieting really means and about the right way of bringing your body back in shape. The growing number of overweight people has turned weight loss into an industry like never before and the market is growing. Nowadays it seems that all you need is some fashionable idea and some marketing skills in order to make a lot of money by proposing some sort of weird diet, despite the lack of professional expertise in this field.
There are a lot of diets out there. Here we will describe some of the most popular ones.
The Atkins diet is one of the most popular diet plans. The Atkins diet has been for a while the most hyped eating plan around and millions of people have tried it at some point. The basic idea behind this diet is that cutting down on the carbohydrates, while allowing people to eat high-fat food is going to work. The biggest thing in favor of this diet is that lets you eat high fat dairy products like cheese and butter. However a large number of the followers of this diet complain of diarrhea, weakness, muscle cramps and rashes. There is also an increased risk of heart disease. The debate over the scientific fundamentals of this diet is still on.
The Zone diet is another well-known eating plan. This diet is the brainchild of Barry Sears and it’s all about eating he right mix of foods in order to reach the proper hormonal balance. This state of balance, which is called the “Zone”, lets the body take in calories and use them throughout the day without storing any body fat. Unfortunately, this diet does some serious discrimination among foods without any scientific basis. Starchy vegetable, whole grains and beans are banned, although these foods are not in conflict with the principles of the diet. The American Heart Association says the Zone diet lacks essential nutrients while promoting high-protein foods.
The Jenny Craig diet has been around since the early 1980s and it’s still popular. The basic idea of this diet is a trade off: you don’t have to choose recipes, do the shopping and the cooking, but you have to buy the Jenny Craig prepackaged food. And runs to some $100 per week. Plus the membership costs. Plus the vegetables and fruits which are not included in the prepackaged food. If you can afford it and if you can stick to it, the diet is pretty good. However, similar low-calorie foods can be bought at the grocery store and you don’t have to discuss this with a Jenny Craig expert that insists on your eating the prepackaged food because he gets a percentage of the sale price.
The South Beach diet is a popular diet plan Florida. This diet has the right idea and wrong approach combination. The firs phase of the diet will eliminate most foods containing carbohydrates from your daily consumption. Fortunately, this phase lasts two weeks. Unfortunately, the second phase focuses on a half-hearted return of whole grains and fruits and lasts… as long as necessary. If reaching the desired weight takes you one year, then that’s exactly how long this phase is going to last. And if you don’t like the foods allowed by this diet then you’re out of luck. There are no alternatives.
Another diet plan is the Weight Watchers, and it has been around for long time. This is actually one of the best diets around because it puts all the management tools in the hands of the user. If you are really committed to losing weight, you have all the information you need to do it. And a lot of people who are going through the same thing are going to be there to help you. If having company during difficult times helps your willpower, then you are probably going to lose all that extra weight. If, on the other hand, you don’t like the idea of being constantly under peer pressure, then this diet is not for you.
As you can see from this short review, there are a lot of diets out there, here we just described a few popular ones. Some of them are hard to follow after a couple weeks. The best thing to do when choosing a diet is to do as much research about it as possible. See what people who tried it have to say. Then see what doctors and dietitians have to say about it. Between those singing praises and those trying to prove the diet wrong you can probably get the truth yourself. Still, pay special attention to what the doctors have to say. If they tell you a certain diet will put your body to risk then think twice before trying it.
