Over the last decades, health and fitness has become an increasing concern for most of us. Some people crave a killer body and the attention that comes with it. Others want the perfect abs, a tighter bottom, or bulging biceps. The result of this movement has been a proliferation of gyms, health centers, spas, and personal trainers.
Ads for exercise equipment, weight loss products, and star-sponsored fitness routines dominate television, and it’s hard not to think you’re the only one out there who isn’t working on your body. In fact, the perfect body is one part of a healthy, quality life.
Being truly healthy requires a healthy lifestyle and a proper, balanced diet. Diet for fitness provides the nutrition and energy we need to restore tired muscles and maintain a positive productive energy level. Think of the diet approaches – high-carb, low-fat, all-protein, sugar-free, all-chocolate, Scarsdale, Atkins, South Beach. There is no shortage of great-sounding fad diets out there.
If you pay attention to advertisements and special programs that focus on dieting and weight loss programs, you may not know where to turn for dependable, honest facts about nutrition and health. In fact, most fad diets don’t work, and they sure don’t support your health. So, what can you do to find out what’s best, and most healthy, for you?
In reality, there are two basic diet approaches: high-carb diets and high-fat diets. High-carb diets focus on eating lots of carbohydrate-rich foods, and high-fat diets endorse fat-rich foods. High-carb diets use burn the glycogen in your liver and muscles. This glucose complex provides quick energy that you use in anaerobic exercises.
Fats are the richest source of calories, containing more than twice as much calorie value than either carbohydrates or proteins. When metabolizing carbohydrates, the human body burns 24 calories, yet it only takes three calories to burn the same amount of fat.
So, which one is best? Neither. Each diet approach yields results, as long as you stick to one type. You can adopt a high-carb, low-fat diet or a low-carb, high-fat diet. Just don’t try both at the same time unless you want to gain weight.
But diets shouldn’t be just about losing fat. A healthy balanced diet maintains a healthy weight and avoids weight gains. Successful weight loss can only be realized when the daily diet reflects lifestyle, individual food preferences, unique physical needs, and feeling satisfied with what you eat. There’s really only one diet that will work for you. That’s the diet that helps you stay fit, feeling healthy and satisfied with who you are. And that diet is unique to you.
When you diet for fitness, there are three things to remember: moderation, variation, and balance. Plan your meal schedule so that you don’t get too full or too hungry at any time of day. This may mean three meals, five meals, or one meal. It depends your schedule and your physical needs.
Moderation means eating when you need to and eating the amount that satisfies without adding calories your body will only store as fat. Balance means selecting a healthy diversity – the basic food groups. It means getting the proper amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and fiber to keep your body functioning at its highest potential. Variation means giving yourself enough choice to keep interested in the foods you eat. Eating the same things all the time is not only boring, it’s unhealthy. Having a salad one time and chicken the next will assure you get both the nutrition and the diversity you need.
The bottom line is that your important decision isn’t what diet program will work. It’s about what diet program will work to keep YOU fit and healthy. It doesn’t mean going on a fad diet for a few weeks or months and then going back to your old habits. It means adopting a well-balanced, nutritious diet in combination with regular exercise and a healthy lifestyle and sticking to it – for life!
One last word of advice: experiment. Try new foods to keep your diet interesting and nutritious. Try new recipes to get a new take on the familiar. Who knows? You might even learn to love spinach!
Top Diet Tips To Stay Fit And Healthy
5 Fad Diets To Avoid
There are so many fad diets out there these days that attract people with there fast weight loss and celebrity lifestyle image. The fact is that nearly all of these diets only really offer short-term weight loss solutions and can be extremely unhealthy. Iv’e put together a list of 5 popular fad diets – along with reasons NOT to try them!Detox DietClaims to lose a stone in 10 days, defeat cellulite, give glowing skin and no more bloating. This diet is meant to compliment other detox methods such as massages, colonic irrigation, saunas, fasting etc. Food such as fish, meat, eggs, dairy, wheat, salt, sugar etc are banned, while fruit, veg, beans, seeds, nuts are allowed. This results in a lack of nutrients, lowered immune system, a temporary weight loss, mainly water. It can lead to yo-yo dieting, nausea, sickness and headaches. It is said to causes food cravings, resulting in eventually giving up! It can also cause eating disorders and there is no good evidence of it actually working!Low Carb / Atkins DietThe aim of low carb diets is to force the body to use its own fat as its main energy source. This produces something called ketone bodies to fuel body parts that can not use fat as an energy source such as the brain and red blood cells. This puts you in a state of ketosis – resulting in smelly breath and side effects like fatigue and nausea. These diets do produce short term results, which actually come from loss of muscle tissue and water. They are not a long term weight loss solution and are unhealthy if sustained.Starvation DietStarving yourself is one of the worst diets that you could try. Ok, you may initially lose a lot of weight but the effect this has on your body is drastic! You will be extremely lacking much needed nutrition and this will lead to fatigue, lack of sex drive and hormones, sleep loss, possible hypothermia, poor concentration and judgement, depression, anxiety, personality changes, social withdrawal, your metabolism will dramatically slow down, you will lose organ tissue and muscles, you can get shakes, feel the cold more, and feel very week. Low calorie intakes actually slow down weight loss.Hollywood DietThis is basically a 24 or 48 hour ‘Juice Fast’ where you eat no food in this time. This diet has the same cons as the starvation diet. You are really just losing excess water in the body with this diet and it does’nt last long, you will soon put that weight back on. It is expensive to buy the juice, around $25! You will get no protein or iron in the body, and will be taking lots of sugar and carbs. Tastes good at first but soon turns very sickly.Cabbage Soup DietThis is a 7 day diet plan which supposedly offers a fast weight loss solution. This is a very short term solution and is not sustainable so is’nt a viable option for long term weight loss. There are a few benefits to this diet which include fast weight loss, a healthy beneficial change from eating junk food, and research has shown that cabbage helps to prevent cancer. However, the drawbacks do outweigh these benefits somewhat significantly. The soup is high in salt, lacking in good overall nutrition – low in protein, calcium, essential fatty acids, high in sodium and MSG, requires much will power as the soup tastes very bland and is extremely repetitive, gives you gas!, and most of all this is not a healthy sustainable solution to long-term weight loss. This diet will most probably make you GAIN weight as it has a very low calorie intake and you can get bloated!There really is no substitute for a healthy diet and regular exercise if you want to lose weight and live an overall healthier and more active lifestyle.
High Protein Low Carb Diet Plan – Is it Worthy It?
High Protein Low Carb diet plans are very popular. Many people have used this kind of diet plan and many people are considering it too. People who want to lose weight have tried to diet to lose weight and have been disappointed by high protein low carb diet plans. Before I recommend anything, any low carb diet plan is not good for you.Here is a review of these kind of diet plans and if they are healthy for.
A high protein low carb diet plan promotes weight loss in some cases but I has many disadvantages that dieters overlook or sometimes they are not informed about. I want you to keep reading because I have some quick facts for you about low carbohydrate diets with high proteins in them. With this kind of diets, weight loss can be rapid and unhealthy sometimes.
A low carb diet plan tends to be very hard to stick to.The luck of eating enough carbohydrates can cause problems with your healthy. Before you get into any of these kind of weight loss diets, consider your health first. Did you know that you can lose weight dieting a healthy way without using a high protein low carb diet plan? We will get into that later.
Most people have found it extremely hard to get into a high protein low carb diet plan and stick to it. These diet plans are very popular and with a click of a mouse, You will see them everywhere. For an average person who wants to lose weight, They are too hard and too strict to follow. Since you are required to eat low carbs, You are much likely to rob your body’s energy and this will make it very difficult to stick to them. This is one of the major reasons many dieters give up on these kind of diets.
Many low carbohydrate diet are so strict that they won’t let you eat a normal restaurant meal! These diets tend to make you think that food is your enemy, That you need to be restricted from the most important foods in order to lose weight. Let me tell you something, I am not claiming that you should eat anything edible in order to lose weight, All am saying is that if you are looking for a healthy way to diet and lose weight, Then a high protein low carb diet plan should be the least to consider. You see what I mean? You don’t need to waste your energy, time and money on this kind of diet plans and then give up on them.
Low carb diet plans restrict carbohydrates in order to lose weight.It is ok to restrict calories for this purpose but while you are doing it, Make sure your body is getting enough carbohydrates, enough proteins,vegetables and other classes of food. My point is that you need a balanced diet and enough food while on your weight loss journey.
Long term weigh loss and maintenance is important. You want to lose weight and at the same time eating healthy foods. You also want to lose weight and maintain it. This should be your whole focus as a dieter. Any diet plan that is healthy must recommend exercising too. So don’t forget to exercise and you don’t have to go to the gym. You can do low intensity exercises in order to lose weight. For these reasons in this article, I recommend a different weight loss diet plan you can find on the link below. Personally, I don’t recommend a high protein low carb diet plan.
Top Ten Diets That Work- The 3 Critical Keys To Avoiding Diets That Don’t Work
I recently completed months of research to compile a list of the top ten diets that work. I put together the list at the request of MANY personal training clients. In performing my research, I not only uncovered key aspects of successful diets, I also found shared characteristics of unsuccessful diets.
1) Starvation Is NEVER Successful
Never means NEVER!I discovered one diet, for example, that limited individuals to 500 calories a day. The diet was developed by an Italian doctor, and combines the 500 calorie diet with injections of HCG, which is a growth hormone found in young boys. Despite a lack of creditable evidence that the combination “aids” weight loss, the diet has been around for years.
Individuals do, in fact, lose weight rapidly on the diet. However, common sense tells us that ANYONE would lose weight on 500 calories a day!
H-E-L-L-O!
I discovered that individuals tend to feel tired and weak on the diet, and gaining back the lost weight is the general rule. Frequent periods of no weight loss,(plateaus), are common due to a profound metabolic slowdown. Plateaus were far less common in the top ten diets that work.
2) The Diet Has Little Variety
Diets that offer little variety can be boring and unsafe. If a diet focuses on one food group, for example, such as protein, it lacks essential vitamins, minerals and fiber. Each of these has an important role in an individual’s health and well being
The monotony of eating too much of one kind of food can make sticking to the diet long term, very difficult. Also, if an individual manages to lose some weight, the chances are great that the weight will return when they return to their previous eating preferences.
3) The Plan Has No “Exit” StrategyFor a weight loss program to be truly succesful. a maintenance plan must be included. The top ten diets that work, for example, all had a maintenance plan to hep individuals keep the weight off
Learn How to AVOID Spending Hundreds of Dollars Needlessly, Risking Your Health And GAINING WEIGHT By NOT Going On A Diet
Do you realise that currently American women are spending more than $40 billion dollars per year on dieting and diet related products? Other countries suffering from the current obesity epidemic such as the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Germany are also spending huge sums of money on the same.
When you consider the real risks of going on a diet it is hard to understand why modern women are ready to spend a small fortune seeking the body they crave. Then again, when you look at the scrawny anorexic super models and “media personalities” who stare out of magazines and newspapers at us perhaps it is easier to realise why today’s modern women are prepared to spend nearly the same amount as a bank in trouble demands from the government.
How many of you know that dieting can lead to eating disorders? Those of you that did can have a gold star. Those that didn’t had better pay attention!
If you go on a diet in an attempt to lose weight and you fail then you classify yourself as a failure. When you go on to a diet, the fuel that your body needs to function properly, FOOD becomes your number one enemy. The food that you like, cream cakes, chocolate, McDonalds are forbidden and the foods that you don’t like, rice cakes, low fat cheese are O.K. diet foods. A lot of dieters find that every encounter with food results in tension and stress. In an effort to reach their target weight the dieter is not prepared top stick by their diet. They adopt other tactics and maybe indulge in a bit of bulimia. Or when they look at a full length mirror instead of seeing “skinny Minnie” they see a little fat person and they welcome good old anorexia. Or they might think to themselves “Oh what the heck…” and then go on a binge eating session.
Of course, these are the extreme risks of going on a diet. However, other more common risks that occur include what happens to your body when you try to lose a substantial amount of weight in a short period of time. The heart of this risk isn’t with losing subcutaneous fat, (the pinch an inch fat) but with losing the fat which protects your lean organs such as your liver and kidneys. When this happens it puts a strain on these organs as they try to retain their normal function. Ultimately the dieter can suffer from organ failure. Imagine waiting for a liver transplant and some one asks you how you’re in this position. How stupid would anybody feel if the answer was “I overdid my diet.”
Diets which ban certain food groups such as low carbohydrate diets, nil fat diets, high protein diets etc are all unhealthy because they are depriving your body of the correct combination of essential food groups as are diets that prescribe 800 calories per day or 1000. A healthy diet typically requires 50% of your calories come from healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grains, vegetables and fruit. Similarly 20% comes from protein such as chicken, eggs, cheese and 30% from GOOD fats, mainly poly and monounsaturated fats but some saturated and fish oils.
If you deprive your body of carbohydrates you can actually promote malnutrition. If you go on a high protein diet you can stress your kidneys. A high fat diet can lead to heart disease. Whatever diet you follow, if it brags “lose a kilo a day” remember the initial weight loss will be mainly water. This in turn can lead to dehydration and ultimately muscle waste age. What do you need to help you burn fat? MUSCLE. No muscle equals negative fat burning.
No one who promotes diets informs you of the simplest fact of all, because if they did it would have a negative impact on their earnings. DIETS DO NOT WORK!
When you go on a diet you are cutting down the fuel your body needs for metabolism. (the number of calories your body needs to perform its everyday functions such as breathing, digesting food etc.) When this happens your metabolic rate slows down. (Therefore you don’t need as many calories!) You hit your target weight and you start eating normally again. HOWEVER you r metabolism is still running at its reduced weight. Guess what happens next? You got it! The excess calories you take in are stored as fat and then what happens? Have you got it? That’s right, it is stored as fat and bingo, and you now weigh more than you did when you went on the diet! Ah well, better go on a better diet this time! Guess what, the same thing will keep happening until you change your lifestyle.
Change your lifestyle! What do you mean? What I mean is changing the food that you eat. Cut out the unhealthy sugary, processed, trans fat laden junk that you have been eating in the past and start eating healthily. Don’t sit on your butt all day! Go out and EXERCISE. Start gently and gradually and build up to it. Also do a bit of weight lifting to build muscle. Remember what we said earlier on, muscle helps burn fat!
Don’t look at rapid weight loss, aim for a pound per week. If you don’t like weighing yourself measure your waist, and see how soon you can fit those great pants, skirt or dress you haven’t got in to for a couple of years. If you do weigh yourself do it at the same time on the same scales on the same day every week.
Remember an exercise regime plus healthy diet beats dieting every time (AND you don’t have to go hungry!!)
Finally, a word of caution. If you are seriously overweight before you do anything IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING.
Best Diet – 3 Key Features Your Diet MUST Have For Weight Loss Success
So you’ve made the resolution that THIS is the year you’re going to lose weight and get in the best shape of your life. You’re not going to settle for second best – you’re going to achieve that dream body you’ve always wanted.
Great news – this is actually the best time to make that commitment. Why? Because you can take advantage of the powerful momentum and energy a New Year brings to achieve your weight loss dreams.
But there’s nothing worse than committing to lose weight, only to get lost among the 5 gazillion diets out there. It can get confusing – you may end up wasting a lot of money and effort. You may end up wondering which diet is really the BEST diet for you.
In order to have rapid weight loss success, you have to find the best diet for you (a.k.a. the diet that will speed you towards your dream body at lightning pace). There are millions of diets – but only a few that are best for you and your lifestyle.
The best diet for you will have the 3 key features listed below. Choose your diet with these 3 key features in mind and you’re already halfway to your weight loss dreams.
#1 Proven Success Rate
Are there before and after pictures of people who have lost weight with that particular diet? Are there customer testimonials? Have there been independent studies done on the diet’s success rate?
The diet you choose doesn’t have to have all three of these but try to find at least some kind of proven success rate before choosing that particular program.
Finding a diet with a proven success rate not only lets you know that the diet works but it also helps give you the confidence that the diet will work FOR YOU.
Confidence is one of the most underrated factors in a successful weight loss program. If you’ve tried and failed with diets before you especially need that extra boost of confidence to carry you through the more difficult times in the diet. By reminding yourself that this diet has been proven to work – you’ll be able to keep going and reach your weight loss goals.
A related feature that gets extra points is if the diet has been recommended by an expert or a physician. Again this boosts your confidence that the diet is safe and effective.
#2 Affordable.
Losing weight should not cost you thousands of dollars (unless we’re talking about surgery here and that’s an entirely different article). The best diet will be affordable for the average person.
If the diet costs too much, be very suspicious and look elsewhere. There are too many shady diets out there and as a consumer, it pays to be cautious.
I’ll give you an example of what I mean:
A close friend of mine went to a well-known weight loss clinic in our area and was told she had to pay the yearly fees up front (around $1000 NOT including food). They also told her she had to buy their food in bulk (like $500 for a year’s worth of chocolate). When the chocolate gave her heart palpitations and she had to take it back, they told her it was non-refundable. She was out the money for the chocolate. Plus, she feels she can’t leave the program because she’s paid the yearly fees (which, you guessed it, are also non-refundable).
She unfortunately made the mistake of ignoring her instincts and paying way too much money for a diet program. If you notice you’re being asked for hefty fees right out of the gate, warning lights should be flashing in your mind.
Now on the other hand, the best diet WILL cost you something. It actually is better if you put some cash on the table for your diet program. Why? Because when we invest in something we’re more likely to stick with it. When we invest in something we are more likely to follow through and get the results we want.
For example I did a liver detox several months ago. I’m not really into liver detoxing but I read an article and figured I’d try it.
The detox kit cost me a whopping $50 and when I opened the instructions they told me I had to give up junk food for two weeks. In any other universe I would have laughed and simply forgotten about detoxing my liver. But because I’d shelled out $50, I was invested – I decided that I hopefully wouldn’t starve from lack of junk food over two weeks and suffered through it.
If I’d gotten the detox kit for free there’s no way I would have followed those instructions. But because I was invested, I followed through and now have a healthier liver thanking me for it.
So when searching for the best diet, putting out some money on yourself and your dreams of a better body is actually a healthy thing. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t have to spend thousands of dollars on it.
#3 Compatible with Your Tastes and Lifestyle
This is THE most crucial step however it’s the one where most people go wrong. When choosing a diet, they simply pick one and go, without considering if it is compatible with their tastes and lifestyle.
For example, if you hate feeling deprived or empty you might want to choose a program that lets you eat many times during the day so you don’t feel hungry. If you get bored easily you want a diet program that gives you tremendous variety and flexibility. If you don’t do a lot of cooking or food preparation, you’ll want to look at a program where the food is pre-made for you.
Diets are like cars – there are hundreds of different models out there, each with their own unique features. And they can get you where you want to go. But your personality might fit better with certain features than others.
Dieting is hard enough. Don’t make it harder on yourself by choosing a diet not compatible with who you are. Setting yourself up for success will also guarantee that you’ll stick it out until you reach your goal.
And one other thing, the best diet will be one that you can get excited about. Choose a diet that you enjoy, that you believe in, that may actually be – gulp – fun.
Emotional excitement will fade in time, yes. But it can give you enough of an emotional push to get you over the initial hump. By that time your first few pounds will have come off and will serve as your continuing motivation.
So those are 3 key considerations when looking for the best diet. Keep them in mind and you will progress in leaps and bounds towards your dream body. Remember, planning now may seem boring – but it’s the key to your future weight loss success.
Low Carb Fad Diets Revealed
With all of the conflicting studies and open interpretation of advice, it’s no stunner that disorder reigns when it comes to the value and safety of low-carb diets. Whether it’s Atkins, the South Beach or another low-carb set up, as many as 30 million Americans are doing a low-carb diet.
Advocates swear that the elevated quantity of carbohydrates in our diet has led to increasing problems with obesity, diabetes, and other health conditions. Critics, on the contrary, attribute obesity and associate health conditions to over-consumption of calories from any source, and shortage of physical movement. Critics also contend that the shortage of grains, fruits, and vegetables in low-carbohydrate plans may lead to deficiencies of some key nutrients, like fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and several minerals.
Any plan, either low or high in carbohydrate, can generate substantial weight loss during the primary stages of the diet. But bear in mind, the key to prosperous dieting is in being capable to part with the weight for good. Put another way, what does the scale reveal a year after going off the diet? Let’s see if we can debunk some of the mystery around low-carb diets. Further down, is a listing of some relevant points taken from latest studies.
There are several popular diets designed to reduce carbohydrate intake. Reducing total carbohydrate in the diet means that protein and fat will represent a proportionately larger quantity of the whole caloric intake. Atkins and Protein Power diets limit carbohydrate to a point where the body becomes ketogenic. Other low-carb diets like the Zone and Life Without Bread are less restrictive. Some, like Sugar Busters assert to remove only sugars and foods that raise blood sugar levels excessively.
Just about all of the studies to date have been small with a broad range of research objectives. Carbohydrate, caloric consumption, diet length and participant characteristics have varied greatly. Most of the studies to date maintain two things in common: Not one of the studies had participants with a mean age above 53 and Not one of the controlled studies lasted longer than three months. Findings on older adults and long-term results are scant. Several diet studies fail to monitor the amount of exercise, and consequently caloric expenditure. This helps to explain discrepancies among studies.
The weight loss on low-carb diets is a business of caloric restriction and diet length, and not with reduced carbohydrate intake. This discovery suggests that if you desire to lose weight, you should eat fewer calories and do so over a prolonged duration. Little data exists on the long-range safety of low-carb diets. In spite of the medical community concerns, no short-term adverse effects have been established on cholesterol, glucose, insulin and blood-pressure levels amongst participants on the diets. Adverse effects may not be exposed because of the short period of the studies. Researchers have found that losing weight typically leads to an improvement in these levels anyway, and this may offset an increase caused by a high fat diet.
The extended range weight difference for low-carb and other types of diets is comparable. Most low-carb diets invoke ketosis. Some of the potential consequences are nausea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, and confusion. During the first stages of low-carb dieting some fatigue and constipation may be encountered. Ususally, these symptoms go away quickly. Ketosis may also give the breath a fruity odor, somewhat similar to nail-polish remover (acetone).
Low-carb diets do not permit the consumption of more calories than other types of diets, as has been frequently reported. A calorie is a calorie and it doesn’t matter weather they originate from carbohydrates or fat. Study discrepancies are likely the effect of uncontrolled circumstances; i.e. diet participants that cheat on calorie intake, calories burned during exercise, or any number of other factors. The drop-out rate for rigorous low-carb diets is somewhat high.
What Should You Do?
There are 3 significant points I would like to re-emphasize:
The long-range success rate for low-carb and other types of diets is comparable.
Despite their acceptance, little data exists on the long-term efficacy and safeness of low-carbohydrate diets.
Rigorous low-carb diets are generally not sustainable as a routine way of eating. Boredom most often overcomes willpower.
It is clear after reviewing the subject, that more, well-designed and controlled studies are required. There just isn’t a lot of satisfactory information available, especially regarding long-range effects. Strict low-carb diets generate ketosis which is an unusual and potentially stressful metabolic state. Under some circumstances this may cause health related complications. The diet you choose should be a blueprint for a lifetime of better eating, not just a hasty weight loss plan to reach your goal. If you can’t see yourself eating the prescribed foods longer than a few days or a week, then chances are it’s not the proper diet for you. To this end, following a somewhat low fat diet with a healthy balance of fat, protein, carbohydrate and other nutrients is beneficial.
If you do resolve to follow a low-carb arrangement, bear in mind that certain dietary fats are associated with reduction of disease. Foods high in unsaturated fats that are free of trans-fatty acids such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, and nuts are preferred to fats from animal origins. Even promoters of the Atkins diet now say men and women on their system should curb the amount of red meat and saturated fat they eat. Atkins representatives are telling health professionals that just 20 percent of a dieter’s calories should come from saturated fat (i.e. meat, cheese, butter). This switch comes as Atkins faces contention from other popular low-carb diets that call for less saturated fat, such as the South Beach diet plan.
Another alternative to “strict” low-carb dieting would be to give up some of the bad carbohydrate foods but not “throw out the baby with the bath water”. In other words, foods high in processed sugar, snacks, and white bread would be avoided, but foods high in complex carbs such as fruits, potatoes and whole grains, retained.
How To Lose Weight From A Low Carbohydrate Diet Plan
With the sudden boom of dieting in the country, different diet programs have been introduced in the country. Although many experts believe that proper exercise and not only diet can lose those pounds in a healthy way, many people still believe in the power of diet programs and diet plans. One of the most controversial kinds of diet plans is the low-carbohydrate diet program, which focuses on the reduction of carbohydrate consumption in the body.
According to the theory, when carbohydrates are no longer being taken in, the body will be forced to use fats and water as alternative sources of energy; thereby helping to shed off those unwanted pounds.
Fats, unbeknownst to many, can actually be converted to energy. The body just doesn’t use it as the first priority because it is more complex in structure and therefore, harder to break down and convert into energy. Among the popular low carbohydrate diets in the country is the Atkins diet.
Despite arguments from its critics, low carbohydrate diet has proven its effectiveness in terms of losing that extra weight. To date, it counts millions of followers not only in the country but also outside America.
Actually, cutting down on carbohydrates in the diet is a practice that people have been doing for years. When people cut down on their rice or bread or do not eat rice at all, they are reducing their carbohydrate intake. Of course, because it is not an official diet plan they are not really restricting themselves completely. When you are under a diet plan, you are not allowed to eat any kind of carbohydrates.
One of the advantages of low carbohydrate diet is the fact that it can actually increase the levels of good cholesterol in the body. This is really good news to people who have a heart problem. This is perhaps the reason why Atkins diet was used for cardio patients. This diet plan can also reduce the amount of triglycerides in the body. Triglycerides can be dangerous when combined with a high level of LDL or bad cholesterol. Both can increase the risk for heart attack and heart disease.
Low carb diet plans are also found to be good in balancing mood swings. They will not be prone to extreme lows such as depression or extreme high. People who are under the program are found to have fairly stable energy levels unlike those with high carbo levels.
LOW CARB DIET 101
Indeed, a lot has been said about various diets and how these work for some people. There’ s the Atkins Diet, the South Beach, the After-Six Diet plan and so on goes on the list of diet crazes that swept the western world and even Asian regions. Among all these, one type of diet has become popular than the others it’s called the Low Carb Diet.
Basically, low carb diet actually emphasizes cutting down on from a person’s daily food intake. This diet allows the dieter to take in all foods except those that have carbohydrates. Although there are many testimonies that prove that low carb diet really works, you must be very knowledgeable first about its pros and cons before deciding to go with the hype.
People who have tried low carb diets say that its advantages include:
1. Faster and quicker weight loss compared to fasting.
2. The diet may result to higher protein intake and absorption.
3. It stabilizes blood sugar levels and is extremely beneficial to those who suffer from diabetics.
Experts say that the disadvantages of low carb diets may include:
- High cholesterol levels due to the lack of protein-rich and fatty foods that has saturated fats.
- Increased blood pressure due to elimination of whole grains products that help lower blood pressure.
- It can lead to osteoporosis because there will be no enough supply of calcium.
- In some cases, this diet can lead to diarrhea, constipation, and severe headaches.
- Low carb diets increase the possibility of lower mental acuity.
- Instead of losing weight, this diet can lead to weight gain.
If you are planning on taking low carb diet, here are some helpful tips to keep you in track:
1. Make sure to drink lots of water to avoid dehydration and constipation.
2. Consider taking in more fiber and vitamin supplements.
3. Cease from consuming products that has sugar.
4. Cut down on taking in products that contain caffeine.
5. Monitor your daily carbohydrate intake.
6. Don’t mind calories, they are allowed in this diet.
7. Acquire a carbohydrate counter to keep you updated.
8. Do regular physical activities and exercise to reach ketosis easily.
9. Brace yourself for diarrhea that may last for a couple of days.
10. If possible, avoid eating foods that have saturated fats.
Lemonade Diet vs. Other Fad Diets
There have been many diets recommended by various parties claiming to be effective and promising things that sound too good to be true. However, the definition of a fad diet is simply one that gains and loses popularity very rapidly. Some fad diets include the Atkins Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet, the Negative Calorie Diet, the Low Fat Diet, the 3 Day Diet and the Low Carb Diet, to name a few.
The Lemonade Diet is a short term diet that is meant to serve as a detoxification routine, allowing your digestive system to take a break whilst burning excess fat stores as well. The idea for the Lemonade Diet was proposed by Stanley Burroughs in 1976, and is also known as the Master Cleanser Diet. The Lemonade Diet usually lasts 10 days, with a 3 month break before resuming the diet. It is a very strict procedure that allows only the intake of lemonade. Hence, this diet is known also as a cleansing diet or a juice fast.
When on the Lemonade Diet, it is crucial that you consume approximately 12 glasses of lemonade each day. This lemonade has to be made specifically with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 1/6 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. This provides your body with approximately 100 calories per glass, or 1200 calories a day.
In addition to the lemonade, you are allowed to consume only water or peppermint tea to prevent dehydration. The diet begins with a glass of salt water flush in the morning, followed by the consumption of lemon juice throughout the day, as your only source of energy. It ends the day with a glass of laxative tea. When you wish to get back to your normal diet, it is important that you go through the ending process to allow your system to readjust. This necessitates a gradual shift to raw fruits and vegetables for approximately 3 days.
Bear in mind that whilst weight loss will occur with the Lemonade Diet, it may not be healthy, and the diet is used mainly for detoxification purposes. It is not recommended as a weight loss regime, and if used for long periods of time may lead to fat storage. It is also not suitable for children, or people with health problems. Due to the nature of the Lemonade Diet being similar to a fast, you may experience symptoms such as headaches, fatigue and nausea. It is recommended to embark on this diet with a professional or with medical advice, and if the symptoms are too severe the diet should end prematurely.
Whilst the Lemonade Diet will kick start your weight loss plan, it should be viewed as a detoxification routine and not a diet plan. Any weight loss during the diet is a result of fasting, and the weight loss is easily gained back if one is not careful. Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle is crucial to maintaining your weight after you complete the diet.
Psycho Diets
Hey buddy! So you want to lose weight, eh? Its summertime and you want to look all nice and hot for those babes at the beach. Ok, here’s what you have to do if you want this to happen quickly; eat lots of cabbage and drink a gallon of prune juice twice daily at noon . . . no wait. Hmm, try this; eat nothing but ice cream and lard for the next three weeks or until the next full moon . . .no that’s not it either. Aha! Here we go: eat six hotdogs per day (with syrup), while cutting out all meat products and carbs . . . . . what? Why are you giving me that look?? Ok, so maybe that wasn’t quite your cup of tea . . . Did I mention tea? Try this magic herbal-essence tea, with the special fat melting ingredient, Babaganoosh. Of course to ensure its potency, the only additional foods you can eat is two loaves of rye bread with pickles and mayonnaise . . . STOP THE MADNESS ALREADY!!!
You know, one thing that I fail to grasp is why people only worry about looking good during the summer? Sure, looking good in a swimsuit or bikini is nice, but is it not also important to look fit when wearing slacks? And as far-fetched as some of these “diets” may sound, the things people are actually trying nowadays are just as perplexing. The problem is 99% of the weight lost on these diets will be water weight, which the body will quickly regain. What’s worse is that all of these diets promote starvation, which in turn causes the metabolism to slow down. Once you come off a particular diet, you are apt to gain back all the weight you lost and then some! The human body does not take kindly to severe deprivation, and it will do whatever it takes to store energy i.e. slowing down the metabolism.
To get a better idea of what kind of madness people are willing to subject themselves to, let’s take a closer look at some of these diets and their claims to fame.
The 3-Day Hotdog and Egg Diet
Synopsis: Here’s one if you just can’t seem to get enough hot dogs and eggs! It’s easy to remember, and easy to shop for! Day 1) seven hot dogs, no bun, and mustard only. Day 2) eggs any style. Day 3) eggs any style. The Claim: Lose between 8 and 10 pounds in three days. Hey, that’s a lot of weight to be losing in three days, where do I sign up?? Ok, reality check people! For starters, there is nothing denoting the amount of eggs you should be eating, nor does it specify adding stuff like ham and cheese to your eggs, etc. Not only that, but just the thought of eating seven hotdogs in one-day makes most people want to gag. Heck, a hot dog vendor in Brooklyn who owns stock in egg manufacturing would find this diet hard to swallow!
The Cabbage Soup Diet
Synopsis: Every day you can have as much cabbage soup as you desire. In addition to this, you are allotted the following foods on certain days.
Day 1) any fruit, except bananas. Day 2) vegetables plus baked potato for dinner. Day 3) up to eight bananas plus fat free milk. Day 4) brown rice, fruit juice and vegetables. The Claim: Lose up to 10 pounds in seven days. The trouble with this diet is that it seriously lacks in providing for vitamins and minerals. Plus the sheer volume of cabbage would turn a bunny rabbit into a carnivore within a week! Not to mention the irregular bowel movements, as well as a constant case of cabbage-fueled gas. Very potent! Sleep alone, FYI.
The Bread and Butter Diet
Synopsis: This diet seems to focus on the joys of getting bread and butter with every meal. Like most of the other diets listed, this one also claims that you can lose 10 pounds in a week. Here is a sample from their menu:
Breakfast: 1 slice cracked wheat bread 1 teaspoon butter or margarineLunch: 1 ounce Muenster cheese 1/2 cup stewed tomatoes 1 cup steamed summer squash 1 slice Italian Bread 1 Teaspoon butter or margarineDinner: 4 ounces dark meat turkey 1/2 cup corn green salad 1 slice pumpernickel 1 teaspoon butter or margarine
As much as I like bread, it is not enough of an incentive for me to starve myself. On average, when following this diet you only get approximately 850 calories per day. Sure, you’ll lose weight, probably even the 10 pounds promised. However, by following a starvation diet of this nature, one will lose more muscle weight than fat. Once the average person drops bellow 1,000 calories consumed per day, the metabolism shuts down, and the muscles will start to atrophy because the body is burning the muscle tissue for energy. In other words, your body starts consuming itself!
Two-Day Liquid Diet
Synopsis: Buy a bottle of magic diet concentrate, mix with water and consume for two days. Did I mention you are not allowed to consume anything else besides water with this? But hey, it claims that you can lose up to 10 pounds in two days! These also claim to detoxify and energize you! Reality: looks like concentrated juice mix, which is really what it is. Plus, I’ve never paid $20 for OJ concentrate! And, I’ve never been “energized” when my tummy was screaming profanities at me for neglecting it. As for detoxification . . . I think a couple of laxatives would do the trick just as well. Bottom line; it is impossible to lose any amount of body fat in only two days. Any weight lost will be nothing but water, which will be regained immediately upon completion of the diet. In reality, diets like this are nothing more than fasting. And if fasting is something you actually enjoy doing, there are plenty of religions out there that offer meditation and some pretty cool chants to focus on, that will take the mind off of the hunger pangs.
The so-called “American Heart Association Diet”
Here’s a doozy of a diet that fools people into thinking that it is actually endorsed by the American Heart Association. Here’s just a sample from one day:
Breakfast: Black Coffee or Tea 1/2 Grapefruit 1 slice toast 2 tbs. peanut butter Lunch: 1/2 cup of tuna (no mayo) 1 slice toast Coffee or Tea Dinner: 2 slices of any meat 1 cup of string beans 1 cup of beets 1 apple 1 cup of vanilla ice cream
The Claim: Lose 3 pounds in 3 days, up to 30 pounds in 40 days
Needless to say, the American Heart Association does NOT sanction this diet. The following is an except from the AHA website:
A weight-loss diet claimed to be from the American Heart Association has been cited several times across the United States and other countries. Many people believe that the three-day or seven-day, hot dog and cabbage soup diets are from the American Heart Association. However, this is not true.
The true AHA diet gives recommended servings per day of various food categories, not specific foods. Most of the diets that are incorrectly labeled as the AHA diet give specific menus or suggest that the diet should be followed for a specific length of time.
One phony diet describes a three-day or seven-day menu, supposedly prescribed by the AHA or by the “Heart Association.” It includes vanilla ice cream, hot dogs, eggs and cheddar cheese. The diet promises a 10-pound weight loss in three days. These bogus diets have been cited as the Spokane Heart Diet, the Cleveland Clinic Diet, Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital Diet and the Miami Heart Institute Diet. The poorly typed and photocopied phony diet has also been offered by mail for $2 per copy.
From time to time other fad diets emphasizing other foods will also incorrectly attribute the AHA.
Bottom line; be extremely cautious about anything that is supposedly endorsed by a national institution such as the American Heart Association. When in doubt, go to the organization’s official website and verify this information. If it sounds like it came out of left field, it probably did.
The Answer
Every psycho diet out there promises a loss of weight, which is fine, however what they don’t tell you is that you’ll be losing water weight, and will gain it all back once you complete the diet. And if you are feeling bloated and are actually looking to dump excess water weight, there are a lot less expensive methods for doing this. Try using water pills, for starters. And if you are looking to shed all that excess flab in time for summer . . . well what can I say, except that you’re too late for this year. Instead of torturing yourself with psycho diets that will only make you suffer and make you fatter in the long run, get a jump-start on next year. Start a long-term eating plan that you can live with every day. Do NOT starve yourself, and be sure that you do not limit yourself to one type of food. Also drink plenty of water, especially when exercising. With proper diet and exercise, the average person can reasonably expect to lose between two and five pounds of actual body fat per month. Remember, results cannot be had over night, and nothing worth having comes easy. But the end result is well worth the effort!
Source: http://www.bodybuildingtoday.com/index.php/nutrition/psycho-diets.html
