With all the different diets available to help your lose weight, it's hard to know which one is right for you. There are fad diets, diets that are low in fat, low-carbohydrate, vegetarian and even liquid-only diets. According to Medline Plus, approximately 66 percent of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. Obesity increases your risk of developing high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis. Consult with your health care provider to discuss which diet is best for your condition. In addition, combining diet with a physical exercise program helps you to increase the calories the body burns and promotes the loss of body fat, instead of muscle.
Fixed Menus
Food choice when dieting plays an important part when you are trying to lose weight. When the food choices become limited, individuals tend to sway from their dieting routine due to boredom. Or, they have trouble sticking to the diet when away from home. Fixed-diet menus provide you a list of the foods that you will be able to eat. Generally, the diet is easy to follow since the foods are selected for you, but this type of diet does not teach you how to choose and know the right foods to help you lose weight, or during the maintenance process after you reach your goal weight.
Exchange Program
Exchange-type diets offers you more choices in food than the fixed-menu diet, but require you to measure or calculate carbohydrate, protein, fat and calories at every meal. In the exchange program, you have a set number of servings from various food groups, such as starches, meat, meat substitutes and fats, which are exchangeable for other foods whose nutritional content is similar. An example for the starch category for breakfast would be exchanging one slice of bread for a 1/2 c. of oatmeal or 1 oz. of ready-to-eat cereal, according to the Mental Help website. The advantage to the exchange-type program is the freedom of choice with food and it teaches you how to select foods appropriate for you to lose weight and maintain your weight once you reach your goal. However, calculations and measuring the foods are the downfalls to this type of diet program.
Prepackaged Meals
A prepackaged meal in a diet plan offers portion control. Typically, a prepackaged meal program requires you to purchase the meals, which can be costly, especially when you are eating three prepared meals daily. The conveniences of this type of diet program is not having to choose from a list of foods, calculate nutritional content or measure the foods for portion control, since it is already done for you. The disadvantage is that you are not learning the skills to help you select the right foods or methods needed to maintain your weight loss.
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