Find out some of the most popular diet programs out on the market… and which one is right for you!

When you think of dieting, you probably either think about cutting calories, fat, carbohydrates, or eating substandard tasting foods. Almost every conventional diet program ever conceived has one thing in common extremely low calories.

A "diet" can be defined as any temporary change in your eating behavior to help you lose weight. But this definition has a serious drawback. When you say you are “on a diet” the suggestion is that it’s a short-term measure and at some point you’re going to have to “go off” the diet.

According to Tom Venuto, author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, “diets never work. A “diet” is any severe restriction of food or calories that’s temporary. Most conventional diet programs call for extremely low calories: 800-1200 or less for women and 1500-1800 or less for men. Any time you restrict calories drastically like this, you will lose weight."

He goes on to describe that "there are two major problems with this approach: First, the weight loss from very low calorie dieting almost never lasts; 95% of the people who lose weight on conventional diet programs can’t keep it off. The second problem is that most of the weight you lose from low calorie dieting is muscle, not fat. If permanent fat loss without losing muscle is your goal (it should be), then it would be closer to the truth to say “diets never work.”

The only way you'll ever lose fat and keep it off permanently is to adopt new healthy habits and keep them for life. Almost all of these low calorie diets result in weight loss in the beginning. But in the long run, none of them allows you to lose fat permanently at least not by starving yourself.

This section will cover some of the most popular trend diets out on the market. A description of each diet program is provided showing both its good side and bad side.

When you starve the fat, you also starve the muscle… you lose muscle along with the fat. This has the further effect of slowing down your metabolism until your body enters the “starvation mode.”

At this stage, fat loss abruptly stops as your body tries to conserve its energy. You can either give up or gain back the fat you lost, or you can reduce your calories even more.But this aggravates your problem as your metabolism slows down even more… and fat loss comes to an abrupt stop again. It’s a vicious cycle as you realize you just can’t win the very-low-calorie-diet game.

High blood pressure is a significant public health problem, but one that is known as controllable or preventable. One means of control and prevention is by dietary modification. Thousands of documented evidence have shown that many dietary factors affect blood pressure.

Current findings support reducing salt intake, increasing potassium intake, controlling weight, moderating of alcohol intake (among those who drink) and consuming an overall healthy dietary pattern as appropriate modifications to help lower blood pressure.

Additional evidence has shown that increased protein intake, particularly plant protein, and high intake of omega-3 fatty acids can also reduce blood pressure.

The purpose of this section is to actually remind people of what is stated in the beginning: most people fail in their fat loss/diet goals –not because of a single mistake they are making (with exceptions)but too many small mistakes that have a cumulative effect that sabotages their efforts.

Some people are amazed how many extra calories slip into their diet from snack foods that they are not accounting for. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, the person says “I have tried everything and nothing works” is actually saying “I didn’t stay on any one plan long enough for it to have an effect, and sabotage it with small, unaccounted - for negative habits and behaviors.“




Lifestyle solutions

Switching your body from energy storage mode to energy usage mode produces many health benefits. As fat cells stop growing, inflammatory processes slow. A relatively small weight loss (5 to 10 percent of body weight) has enormous health benefits, as fat tissue’s secretion of disruptive chemicals declines. Consume a heart-healthy diet with plenty of fish, fruits and vegetables, and increase energy output with regular physical activity.



Is there a single diet that works?

I have studied and done research on several diets. Translation: Since everyone has a different body type, any diet will work for someone, somewhere, for a limited time.

The best diet health-wise is the diet that is totally balanced in nutrition and low or moderate in total calories. Every diet has this one common factor: It takes discipline and consistency for it to be effective.

Even with a high fat diet where you're eating bacon and cheese everyday, you still have to be consistent for it to work. You must physically and mentally apply yourself for any diet to be successful.

The time is now to get your diet and exercise program moving…



Fat-Free Foods

There are a several pitfalls to dieting. Don't get into the fat-free craze. Foods that claim to be fat-free are always going to be extremely high in sugar and or sodium, or they may even have fat-producing oils.

High sugar and sodium food content promotes a greater chance of fatty stores within the body. In the case of many fat-free foods, you're better off eating the original or regular brand.

A fat-free box of cookies is only fat-free usually per one or two cookies. People look at the product and go, "Wow, these are fat-free? I can eat a whole box and not add any additional fat on my beautiful body!" Most fruit candies are, and have always been fat-free, but they are pure sugar.

In my opinion, the best diet health-wise is the diet that is totally balanced in nutrition and low or moderate in total calories. Even with a high fat diet where you're eating bacon and cheese everyday, you still have to be consistent for it to work. You must physically and mentally apply yourself for any diet to be successful.

A healthy diet is:

low in fat and cholesterol

low in salt

high in dietary fiber, found in foods like bran, vegetables and fruit

high in omega-3 fatty acids found in foods like cold water fish or fish oil capsules

low in alcohol

A healthy diet reduces your:

LDL-cholesterol by 5%

blood pressure by 5-9mm

risk of having a stroke

Before you begin a strict program to reduce cholesterol blood levels, check the total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol ratio first. Years ago, Dr. Linus Pauling's work demonstrated the value of vitamin C in helping the body dislodge and eliminate harmful arterial plaque. (Pauling, Linus & Cameron, Ewan. "Cancer and Vitamin C." Camino Books. Philadelphia, PA, 1993.)

Unfortunately, isolated vitamin C is not in a proper electrical matrix making it as useless to the human body as sawdust. Vitamin C has been known-for 40 or 50 years-to reduce cholesterol levels.