Diet Plans
Diet Plan Information: Love to eat? Want to lose weight? Do both; Diet plan info & advice.
There are many diets to choose from in today's society. Every year another batch of books focussing on fad dieting jump onto our bookshelves, feeding the nation's obsession with weight loss and eating.
Many of these diets are based around cutting out certain food groups, at least for a short time, in order to achieve weight loss. However, most of these fad diets are endorsed, not by nutritionists but by celebrities!
The Atkins Diet is one of the most popular fad diets…
Which has gained popularity over the past decade, and is practised by people worldwide, from superstars to the office junior at work. The diet can help with quite rapid weight loss, but it does entail drastically cutting carbohydrates for a period of time - and carbs are in so many everyday foods, this can become a very boring and difficult plan to follow unless you a big meat eater. The plan also condones the consumption of fats and proteins (which are normally quite high in fat anyway), and cuts out things like bread, pasta, fruit, some vegetables, and a variety of other food that you probably take for granted.
The South Beach Diet is…
Another similar diet where carbs are reduced, although not to the level of the Atkins. Again, this diet claims to promote rapid weight loss if followed properly. This diet was developed by a cardiologist, who claims that it helps to lower cholesterol as well as decrease the chance of heart disease and promote weight loss. However, the prohibitive nature of the diet means that, once again, you may miss out on vitamins and minerals.
There are many similar diets on the market, all reliant upon the exclusion of various food groups in order to help dieters to lose weight, such as the Zone Diet and Sugar Busters. However, these 'new-age' diets can be misleading. Like the saying 'what goes up, must come down', if you lose weight by cutting out a food group, then you will put weight back on by reintroducing it - and to think you can live your life without the food group is being naïve. This would mean missing out on valuable nutrients, vitamins and minerals, which could result in illness.
The other thing about these diets is that they can work out to be expensive. Apart from the shed load of books and literature you will need, following a diet like the Atkins and eating fry-ups for breakfast and steaks for dinner can be a big drain on the shopping budget. It's all very well to see Jennifer Aniston having dropped yet another ten pounds, but can you really afford to spend as much as a Hollywood actress at your local supermarket?
The key to a healthy diet is well-balanced nutrition and regular exercise, not radical plans that mean starving your body of various nutrients. Joining a slimming class, such as Weight Watchers, is a good first step, as you will get advice, support, recipes, motivation, and will receive advice on a healthy eating plan that is right for you and your lifestyle.
