A report by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey claims that over 30 percent of Americans are at least moderately overweight. Carrying too much weight places individuals at risk of coronary heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, elevated blood pressure and diabetes.
Diet programs help you drop extra pounds by providing a guideline of acceptable foods and portion sizes. Unfortunately, not every diet program will work for every individual. By choosing the diet program best suited for your needs and preferences, you can begin the journey to a healthier weight.
Weight Watchers
The Weight Watchers program assigns "points" to various types of foods. If you choose to participate, you can eat any of the foods you like, provided you remain within your allotted number of daily points. Weight Watchers also offers group support through regular meetings, during which you can discuss your goals and progress with other dieters. CBS News reports that approximately half of all dieters who used the Weight Watchers program to lose weight were able to maintain results over a five-year period.
Nutrisystem
Nutrisystem delivers pre-packaged, moderately sized daily meals and snacks directly to your home. With Nutrisystem, you have no need to count calories--each package contains a complete, low-calorie meal, and all you need to do is heat it up. Your daily calorie intake on Nutrisystem ranges from 1,200 calories to 1,500 calories a day, depending on the plan you choose. By limiting your daily caloric intake, Nutrisystem can help you lose weight. If you wish, you can even substitute Nutrisystem's daily snacks with fresh fruit from home.
The Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet requires a drastic reduction of your carbohydrate intake and increase in your consumption of protein and fats. The Atkins diet works by "tricking" your body into producing lower amounts of insulin. When insulin is no longer readily available, the body burns, rather than stores, additional fat.
The Zone
The Zone diet requires carefully balancing your food intake to ensure that 40 percent of your daily calories come from carbohydrates, 30 percent from protein and 30 percent from fat. The Zone does dictate that the majority of your carbohydrate intake should come from fruits and vegetables, and your protein intake should consist of lean meats. This reduces your caloric intake while keeping you full, resulting in weight loss.
Liquid Diets
Liquid diets may be prescribed by a physician to help those who are significantly overweight lose pounds prior to an medical procedure or as an alternative to bariatric surgery. These diets usually consist of specialty drinks and soups that contain enough calories, vitamins and minerals to sustain your body. Solid foods are prohibited throughout the duration of a strict liquid diet.
South Beach Diet
Like the Atkins diet, the South Beach Diet requires you to reduce your carbohydrate intake. South Beach dieters, however, consume a greater amount of carbohydrates than those strictly adhering to the Atkins plan. The South Beach Diet consists of three phases: The first helps eliminate your cravings, the second is geared toward active weight loss while the third helps you maintain your goal weight.
The Cookie Diet
The Cookie Diet, developed by Dr. Sanford Siegal, requires you to eat six low-calorie cookies each day and follow the cookies with a meal of 6 ounces of lean meat and 1 cup of vegetables. The cookies are specially fortified with amino acids to reduce hunger. Participants following this diet shed approximately 15 pounds each month.
Sugar Busters
Sugar Busters was developed as a healthy diet alternative for diabetics, but anyone can benefit from its premise. When participating in Sugar Busters, you must reduce the amount of sugar in your diet and eat primarily whole-grain carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables high in fiber. Weight loss is the natural result of the switch to this healthier eating style.
Raw Food Diet
If a raw food diet, three quarters of the foods you eat must be unprocessed and uncooked. Since cooking can destroy enzymes that aid digestion, the raw food diet helps your body process foods more easily. Because a large portion of your food intake will naturally consist of raw fruits and vegetables, the raw food diet requires you to make healthier choices; as a result, you shed excess weight.
The Sonoma Diet
The Sonoma Diet promotes weight loss with an eating plan that includes Mediterranean-based foods, such as feta cheese, olives and brown rice. You achieve weight loss on this diet by restricting your caloric intake. Because of the flavorful, low-calorie choices available, the eating plan may be easier for dieters to stick to.
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