Category: Diets Articles
Slim Fast Diet Plan
Slim Fast has been around for a long time. It started when the liquid diet was growing in popularity. People followed plans that offered very little caloric intake and that was through beverages that were tasty but provided no lasting substance. Liquid diets are starvation diets that promise quick weight loss.
The Slim Fast plan advocates meal replacement. Flavorful shakes replace breakfast and lunch meals. Dinner is a sensible meal that represents all of the food groups in healthy portions.
The plan has evolved quite a bit over the years. Slim Fast offers not only shakes but also snack and meal replacement bars. They have expanded what can be eaten for the Slim Fast meals. The Slim Fast plan promotes weight loss through eating less and exercising more.
The Slim Fast bars are nutritionally balanced. They contain vitamins, minerals, and protein to help dieters fight off hunger during the day. The plan encourages participants to stay away from high fat foods like fast foods, fried foods, and processed snack foods. By eating healthier foods, weight loss occurs.
The shakes on the Slim Fast plan are measured and ready to drink. There are no powders to mix and no measuring to be done. Each shake contains a list of all of the vitamins and minerals they contain. When they started, the only flavor was French Vanilla. Now there are several chocolate varieties plus strawberry, banana, and orange cream. Slim Fast recognizes that taste is important for people trying to lose weight. A diet plan that sacrifices taste is prone to high failure rates.
Slim Fast also offers support for its dieters. Visit the Slim Fast website to find out more about the tools available to those that follow the plan. The program doesn’t leave dieters stranded after weight loss. They can learn how to replace those Slim Fast products with regular food and maintain their new weight.
Exercise is encouraged on the Slim Fast plan. Be careful about the activity that you choose. Walking is still the best exercise for overall body conditioning. Choosing an exercise program that is high intensity can lead to problems with hunger. The low calorie count of this plan does not fit with those who are professional athletes or who follow an exercise program that requires a greater amount of protein from their diet.
Participants can shop for food as normal. The shakes can get pricey since you are drinking two each day. The sensible dinner suits the entire family since well-balanced meals are healthy
Rice Diet
The name makes it sound like just another gimmick but this diet plan is anything but. The Rice Diet is a weight loss program that is run from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Participants in the plan have experienced great success.
The Rice Diet is a medically supervised plan. The diet can be followed for as little as two weeks depending on the needs of the participant. The program requires that the participants live in the facility for the duration of the program.
The diet was developed almost eighty years ago. The doctor that developed the diet wanted to see if certain diseases could be affected by what we eat. He was hoping to find that by changing the diet, the progression of conditions like diabetes could be reversed.
The diet emphasizes rice as the main staple of the plan. It was observed that people, who ate a diet of foods where rice was consumed on a regular basis, enjoyed a life with few instances of hypertension, stroke, or diabetes. This can be seen in Asian countries where rice is eaten at almost every meal.
The participants eat plenty of fruit, vegetables, fish and of course, rice. The food choices are quite specific which accounts for the quick loss of weight. Portion size is regulated so that patients learn how to eat and what is normal for serving sizes. Portion sizes have gotten so out of control in this country that everyone needs to be retrained to understand how much they should actually be eating.
Fat and salt consumption are kept low. Salt is not recommended in particular for patients with high blood pressure. This can be a problem for “salt-a-holics”. But, using a lot of salt to season food leads to fluid retention and bloating. Patients are shown how to season food with spices other than salt. Fat is kept low so that the body will use it’s own stores as fuel.
Patients have access to classes that teach all about food and how to eat properly for optimal health. Support is available for those who need help during their stay and how to manage after the program is over. Since the program is supervised, the health of the patient is watched for any major problems.
The program is costly. Staying in a program of this sort for any length of time will require big bucks. You may need to take out a personal loan if the program is what is needed in order to lose weight.
Participants do have access to support resources once they finish the program. This support ensures they continue to enjoy weight loss or weight maintenance at home. The program is also available online for people to check out what the plan offers and see if it is right for them
Raw Foods Diet
Raw Foods diet sounds like a throwback to the early days of our society when everyone had a garden. The plan is similar to vegetarian diet plans in that most of the foods come from plant sources. Raw foods are thought to contain nutrients that are good for the body but tend to be lost in the canning and preserving process.
The Raw Foods diet emphasizes eating foods in their purest form. Fruits, most vegetables, nuts, and other grains can be eaten without any cooking done to them. Most meals in this diet consist of salads – even at breakfast. Salad dressing can be simple like oil and vinegar or lemon juice.
The carbohydrate count on this diet is low. Any processed food like breads, pastas, and rice are eliminated. Vegetables provide carbohydrates but in low quantities. Large quantities of vegetables have to be eaten to get a high level of carbohydrates.
Dairy products are not on the list unless you make your own cheese. Raw food dieters can drink coconut milk if they want to have milk. It doesn’t have the consistency of dairy, but many claim it tastes just as good.
Drinks consist of only a few options. Water of course is a main part of the diet. You won’t have to worry about getting eight glasses a day since most vegetables have a major water component to them. Fruit juices that are 100% juice can be consumed along with smoothies and the coconut milk.
It’s no wonder people lose weight on the Raw Foods diet. No matter how many vegetables you eat, you won’t eat enough to keep from dropping the pounds. This diet can be rather bland even with spices on the vegetables since there is little or no cooking involved.
Variations do exist on the plan. Some people add processed grains and cooked vegetables in moderation. Others add fish and possibly chicken to their diet plan. Fish can be cooked in acid like lemon juice if dieters don’t want to keep close to the “raw” idea.
Participants of the Raw Foods diet receive the needed protein through nuts and legumes. For people that exercise or want some sort of variety in their eating plan, this diet can be difficult especially coming from a Western society where foods use fat to enhance the taste. Meat and potatoes are the staples of our society and changing that is no easy task.
Like other diet plans that eliminate specific types of food, the Raw Food diet can be hard to maintain. All food has some value. Even the early settlers ate meat along with their vegetables
Nutrisystem weight loss program
NutriSystem Diet
This diet has been all over the television. There is even one spokeswoman who says that she has lost weight twice with the program. People have lost as few as thirty-five pounds and as much as 125 pounds with the program.
NutriSystem started off with most of its clients being women. Now, they offer a men’s plan and a senior adult plan for both men and women. Their website also states that they have plans for vegetarian dieters and those suffering from Type II diabetes.
The NutriSystem diet is based on the glycemic index. This number is based on the affect different foods have on the blood sugar. Foods with a high glycemic index cause more insulin to be secreted therefore causing hunger to return quicker when these particular foods are consumed. Foods with a lower glycemic index lead to a more stable blood sugar and energy throughout the day. There are no spikes in insulin levels so you are less hungry and more satisfied with your meals.
This is a meal delivery plan. Food provided by NutriSystem is shipped to your home every four weeks. The process used to package the foods means that they do not need to be refrigerated. Easy to follow instructions tell you how to prepare each dish.
The food is proportioned to provide nutrients and low glycemic index foods. These “good carbs” cause rapid weight loss with very little effort. According to the commercials, those who use the plan say that the weight literally melted off of them.
The plan does encourage participants to add low fat milk and dairy, salads, and fruits to each NutriSystem meal. The main concern is the carbohydrates that we eat. Protein is protein, but carbohydrates aren’t all the same which is evidenced by the numbers reached through the glycemic index. Processed carbohydrates raise blood sugar, while those that are made of whole grains stabilize it.
The plan doesn’t shun exercise but it is designed to work without it. Exercise can only enhance this program since they are already giving you foods that are optimal for you. Whether weight loss will increase with activity is unknown.
The meal delivery program is expensive, but you may qualify for a payment plan. If you can afford to spend a few hundred dollars on yourself and then the same amount on the rest of your family each month, this may be the plan for you. NutriSystem requires no counting, recording of meals, or anything else like that. You just choose your meal, add some healthy extras, and eat
