When you decide to try a new diet, you have two main choices: create one yourself or use a diet promoted by a weight-loss club, fitness professional or author. It's less expensive to create your own diet based on simple calorie monitoring, but requires constant vigilance and a bit of math. Whichever you choose, setting a realistic goal is the key to success.
Weight-Loss Basics
Every weight-loss diet plan is based on the same scientific fact: if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. The rate at which you lose weight is based on how quickly you can burn or cut those calories. Since there are 3,500 calories in a pound, cutting 500 calories per day will result in a 1-lb. per week weight loss.
Practical Strategies
If you want to create your own weight-loss diet plan, MayoClinic.com offers a list of simple, practical strategies for cutting 500 calories per day. Limiting your portion size makes a big difference, as does swapping high-calorie foods with low-calorie substitutes. They note that replacing one 3-oz. bag of tortilla chips with 3.5 cups of air-popped popcorn can save you as many as 326 calories. Other healthy swaps include exchanging whole milk for skim, blended coffee drinks for diet soda, and snacks like fries or cookies for fruit or yogurt.
Popular Diet Plans
The diet industry offers a bewildering assortment of diets from companies such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, as well as diets like Atkins or The Zone, based on best-selling books. However, the government's Weight-control Information Network advises against any diet that makes you give up particular foods or food groups. The best diet plans, they note, allow you choice and flexibility, accounting for your personal food likes and dislikes, as well as food allergies. They recommend you select a diet that promotes slow but steady weight loss, adding up to about 1/2 to 2 lbs. per week.
Fad Diets
Fad diets spring up quickly--such as the cookie diet or the cabbage soup diet--and often disappear just as quickly once people realize they are impractical and unsustainable. The American Heart Association warns against any diet that emphasizes one particular food. These diets do not give you balanced nutrition, they note, and once you stop eating the recommended food, you're likely to gain back any weight you lost. They also warn against diets pushing fat-burning foods and diets that require you to be on them for just a few weeks. The best diets, they note, usually involve fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains and fat-free dairy products in combination with regular exercise.
Considerations
Always talk to your doctor before beginning a new diet. Because some foods and nutritional supplements can interfere with prescription medications, you need her approval before you make major changes to your lifestyle. She can also help you set realistic goals and monitor your weight-loss progress.
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