Losing weight is a battle for many people. To be successful, a weight loss plan has to lower the number of calories that you eat, encourage you to make healthier food choices and include foods you like. Every person is different, so there are many different diet plans on the market. Look for one that matches your personality and includes foods that you'll like. You will find it much easier to succeed.
Losing weight is a battle for many people. To be successful, a weight loss plan has to lower the number of calories that you eat, encourage you to make healthier food choices and include foods you like. Every person is different, so there are many different diet plans on the market. Look for one that matches your personality and includes foods that you'll like. You will find it much easier to succeed.
Calorie Counting
Calorie counting is the traditional way to lose weight. The goal is to get a 500 to 1,000 daily calorie deficit between what you eat and what you burn. To achieve this goal while feeling full, you'll have to choose low-calorie, healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables. The benefit is that no food is off-limits. You can still eat ice cream, cookies and candy, as long as you stick within your calorie range. The My Pyramid website can help you determine how many calories to eat.
Low Fat
Fat contains 9 calories per gram (g), while protein and carbohydrates contain just 4 calories per gram. This makes fat a calorie-dense food; there are more calories in a smaller amount of food. Some diets aim to lower the amount of fat that you eat, which reduces the number of calories overall. The McDougall Maximum Weight Loss Plan, described on the Dr. McDougall website, is an example of a low-fat plan that focuses on eliminating all added fats to food.
Low Carb
Low-carb diets reduce the number of carbohydrates that you eat, and the Mayo Clinic states that the decreased insulin level as a result of this could account for faster weight loss. The most-famous version of a low-carb diet is the Atkins diet, but The Zone and The South Beach diet are also low-carb diets.
Group Support
People can be more successful if they have the support that they need to lose weight. A group support weight loss plan offers weekly meetings where members can get together and share problems and ideas. Weight Watchers offers group support for those who attend meetings. Overeaters Anonymous and Taking Off Pounds Sensibly are other examples.
Meal Delivery
Some companies offer portion- and calorie-controlled meals, which allows busy people to lose weight without having to worry about finding the time to cook healthy meals. Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem are popular meal delivery plans.
Fasting
Fasting is not eating any food–drinking only water or sometimes juices. Though the Mayo Clinic states that fasting is not a good solution for weight loss, some people believe that it is a good way to kick-start a healthy eating plan. For example, CNN reports that Victoria Maizes, M.D., executive director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, recommends sticking with a one-day juice fast and consulting with a doctor if you want to fast for longer than three days. The Master Cleanse is one of the most famous types of fasting diets. You drink only a lemonade mixture and eat no food at all for 10 days.
Very Low Calorie Diets
In a very low calorie diet, you eat fewer than 800 calories per day, usually in the form of protein shakes. Very low calorie diets are only for people who need to lose weight quickly due to medical issues. You should only follow this plan under the care and advice of your doctor.
Meal Replacement
In a meal replacement diet, you replace one or two meals with a shake or a bar, then eat a healthy third meal. The replacement shakes and bars are low-calorie, but nutrient-dense, designed to give you the nutrition that you need in so few calories. Slim Fast is a meal replacement plan.
Vegetarian or Vegan Plans
Some meat eaters can lose weight by switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet, which is typically lower in calories. It's important to focus on eating healthy foods when you make this type of change. There are many junk foods that you can still eat as a vegetarian. Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live plan is a vegetarian diet that you can follow.
Surgery
For those who are severely obese, weight loss surgery is an option. Weight loss surgery limits the size of your stomach through different methods, causing you only to be able to eat small amounts of food at a time. The resulting low-calorie diet allows you to lose weight quickly. Many potential risks are involved with this weight loss surgery; it should only be used as a last resort.
