The Hourglass Diet is a diet and fitness program designed by physicians in Savannah Georgia. The program features certain preset meals, exercise routines and educational material about healthier lifestyles. Reviewed by Diets in Review, the Hourglass Diet is applauded for using fresh foods in its meals, as well as providing a variety of different foods to choose from, unlike some other diets that restrict entire food groups.
Calories and a Variety of Plans
Foods in the Hourglass Diet are foods recommended by both the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association. According to Diets in Review, you are able to choose your caloric base when choosing a meal plan to follow. You can choose a 1,200 calorie plan, a 1,400 calorie plan, a 1,700 calorie plan, or a 2,100 calorie plan. Each one includes three healthy meals and several small snacks, a model designed to keep the metabolism at a high level although you are cutting calories.
Lifestyle Change
One downside to the Hourglass Diet Plan is that it is located in Savannah Georgia. Therefore, the preset meals and fitness programs are only available to those in close enough proximity to the area to use the gym and receive the meals. Each meal costs $7. Those enrolled in the program work with personal trainers to participate in 30-minute circuit training programs designed to speed the metabolism. Unlike other diet plans, the Hourglass Diet does not promise quick, easy weight loss. Instead, it reinforces a lifestyle change that incorporates healthy, fresh foods and regular exercise.
Foods Featured on the Diet
The Hourglass Diet features a chart containing seven zones. You are encouraged to eat from the top of the chart, gathering most of your meals from the top three sections. Starting from the top is the blue zone, which includes water. Water should be a consistent source of consumption all day long. Next is the green zone, which contains low-density nutrient rich foods with proteins and healthy fats. These include vegetables, fruit, lean proteins, fiber, and monounsaturated fats -- the kinds that are found in beans and nuts. The amber zone contains unrefined cereals, which are considered to be high density foods. This means that unrefined cereals and grains are higher in calories in proportion to their weight, yet they are healthy when added to meals based on the green zone. An apple, for instance, is low in calories and high in bulk, so it serves as a filling food that supplies nutrients without tipping the caloric scale.
Foods to Limit or Avoid
In the middle of the chart, the brown zone contains condiments such as milk, mayonnaise, and ketchup. These foods are additives to meals but not features. The zones at the bottom of the diet chart include the red zone, containing flour and sugar, soft drinks, milk shakes, fast food items considered "All-American meals" and other junk food. You are encouraged to limit these foods on the Hourglass Diet as they contribute to poor health, cause you to become overweight, and provide low levels of energy. The purple zone consists of intolerant foods, or foods that the body won't tolerate, and the black zone consists of poisons such as chemicals. The red zone is placed in close proximity to the purple and black, intolerant foods and poisons, to show that red zone foods are not foods that nourish the body. Rather, they fill the body with unhealthy fats and toxins. The chart is shaped like an hourglass. Good foods are placed at the top, bad foods are placed at the bottom, and you are encouraged to eat from the top as often as possible, limiting or omitting foods from the bottom half of the chart.
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