A Staggering Number of Weight Loss Diet Programs Are Out There

Frantic people who are suffering with unwanted extra inches and pounds have probably perused lists of popular and even esoteric diet plans trying to decide which program will be 'the one!' Not surprisingly there are thousands of weight loss diet plans available to the consumer. Taking a look at just the categories and then imagining all the specific weight loss diets that fall under each of these categories is mind blowing. There are fads diets galore, which usually require the consumption of just one particular food or nutrient group while avoiding the other nutrient or food groups. Let's look at two such fad diets. The fiber rich, and low fat /low-carb Cabbage Soup Diet permits as much soup as one wants with variations of fruit and vegetables. On day four of the diet you may eat as many as 8 bananas and as much skim milk as you desire. On day six you eat as much beef and vegetables as you want. And on day seven it is brown rice, unsweetened fruit juices and vegetables with the exhortation to stuff, stuff, stuff yourself. The diet is followed for one week with a resulting weight loss of 10 pounds. Then there is the lemonade diet, fundamentally a liquid detox diet, where one survives solely on lemonade to eventually suppress your appetite. An issue with these idiosyncratic fad diets is that some weight may be lost, but in the long run they are not viable and certainly are not helping you maintain healthy eating patterns.

A number of programs offer Meal Replacements where two regular meals a day are switched out and instead you exchange their products, usually in the form of shakes, soups, bars, cookies, and drinks. The meal replacements are developed to curb one's appetite resulting in reduce caloric intake. Dinner is the one meal allowed that has controlled portions of nutritious food. Slim-Fast, Medifast, Smart For Life are names of some of these weight loss diet programs. Other plans provide all your meals via a diet meal delivery system. Sounds great since it takes decision making out of the dieter's hands and are specifically great if one has little time for cooking and food shopping. The price, portion size, choices of foods, and availability all range according to the program. Jenny Direct, Nutrisystem, and Nukitchen, which is available on in certain metro areas, are a few such plans.

Most everyone who has contemplated dieting probably has looked at Low Carb Diets, Raw Food Diets, Low Fat Diets, High Protein Diets, or Liquid Diets. While bypassing the other nutrient or food groups, these dietary programs have certain food or nutrient group restrictions depending upon their specific emphasis. The basis for many well-liked diet plans such as South Beach, Nutrisystem, The Zone, and Sugar Busters is the use of low Glycemic Index foods. Originally, developed as a tool to help diabetics manage blood sugar control, a GI diet along with Ketogenic Diets, which limit carbohydrate intake sufficiently to cause ketosis, and Gluten-free Diets that excludes all protein gluten found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale often overlap diets that are in the medical diet category.

Effective medical diets address the needs of diabetics, folks recovering from bariatric surgery, people who have chronic kidney disease and need to be on dialysis, people with celiac disease who need a gluten-free diet, folks who have allergic reactions to certain foods such as eggs, peanuts etc, and folks who experience difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy, among others

A few people's dietary choices are molded by their religious, or philosophical beliefs such as conservative Jews who prepare and eat only food permissible under Kashrut, the set of Jewish dietary laws, Muslims who observe a diet consisting solely of food that is halal, or followers of Hinduism and Jainism who follow lacto-vegetarian diets, based on the principle of Ahimsa. Serious vegetarians known as vegans not only do not devour meat, but also do not consume food produced by animals, such as eggs and dairy products. Other vegetarians prefer diets that exclude only meat, while lacto-ovo vegetarians who are the most common type of vegetarian, adhere to a diet that includes certain types of dairy and eggs.

A great number of weight loss diet programs include elements from a number of medical and belief based diets. Selecting a weight loss program that helps you reach your goals, but is also workable and guides you onto to a path towards a healthier life style is a far better choice than a fast weight loss fad diet that could instead result in yo-yo dieting position.

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