WHAT DO DIETS THAT WORK HAVE IN COMMON

There are thousands of them.  Every day there is a new one.  Every library has entire sections for them.  Everyone is talking about them.   We spend billions of dollars every year trying to find the perfect one.  People of all ages are experimenting with them.  Men and women are searching their whole lives to find the right one for them.  The diet that is going to finally give them the results they are dying to see.  The truth is, many diets result in weight loss. In fact, many of them have more in common with each other, and may be more similar than someone would think.

Diets that work have a means of limiting calories.  They do this by either eliminating an entire macronutrient, or an entire category of food.  Examples are low carb, low fat, no grains, no dairy, etc.  This alone, no matter how many ways they explain the science behind their method, is going to reduce a person’s overall caloric intake, thus resulting in weight loss.  They also may have a way of limiting calories by tracking or recording your diet.  They could also limit calories by providing specific meal plans for you, or even providing the actual food for you.  Each diet plan puts their own spin and research into the method, but in the end, calories are being saved somewhere.

Diets that work emphasize exercise.  Although 80% of weight loss is due to diet, exercise is the key that helps you develop the lean muscle that will help you keep the weight off.  Long term studies of people who have lost weight and kept it off long term average 60 minutes of exercise per day.  Diets that work do not dismisses this critical element to long term weight control.

Diets that work have behavior strategies.  A diet that tells you never to eat birthday cake, but then doesn’t give you strategies to help you at the next birthday party you attend, will be a tough one to stick with.  If the program works, there will be coping mechanisms that help you identify trade-offs, substitutions, and strategies for those tough days when you are extra vulnerable to temptation.  Weight Watchers is a good example of this.  They have a class for their followers to role play situations in their mind before they get to the event, and what their response will be.  As with the birthday example, they would picture themselves at the party, and decide before they get there if they will have one piece of cake, or just sip some seltzer water, while the focused on socializing.

Diets that work have clinical evidence to back up their claims.  There is a big difference between  your neighbor down the street come up with a diet plan because it worked for him, and a scientist who has been studying fat loss in a lab for three decades and came up with some solutions?  Clinical trials do produce measurable results and will have a greater success rate on a larger group of average people, rather than effective for one, out of the ordinary individual.   I generally am not a fan of diet books written by reporters or Hollywood figures.  Give me an author with a PHD or M.S. R.D by their name, and there is a better chance the diet will be better practical and effective.

Diets that work focus on lifelong changes.  Diets that emphasize weight loss over 7 days and include a disclaimer that it is not safe to stay on longer than 7 days, do not work for more than 7 days!   A diet plan that is safe to stay on for 80 years, and will contribute to a long, quality life will work for the long term.  The diet plans that are so rigid and difficult to follow have an extremely high dropout rate.  People cannot make drastic changes and live in the real world.

CONCLUSION

I think its great there are so many diets that work.  It gives consumers flexibility and ownership in choosing a diet that fits their lifestyle and follows their beliefs.  Many diets are capable of helping people lose weight; it’s just a matter of finding the one that works for you.  Just remember, the diet that works, is the one you can stick with.

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Medifast has been around for over 27 years. It started off by offering meal replacement programs available only through doctors. Today the Medifast diet is now widely available and includes 70 meal-replacement options, including the popular shakes. When you join Medifast an array of support services and educational material — including exercise guides, nutrition information, online communities, personal trainers, and registered dietitians — are made available to you online, in person, or over the telephone to help you in reaching your weight loss goals.
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Jillian has combined years of training experience with the weight-loss secrets from her success on NBC's hit series The Biggest Loser to create her new online program. This is your real solution to weight loss. Change your life by following Jillian's triple-threat approach to success: self, science, and sweat. Jillian Michaels is best known as the fitness trainer and life coach on NBC's hit series, The Biggest Loser. Jillian's newest book, Master Your Metabolism, shows you how to make your body's hormones work for you — not against you — so you can lose weight and get healthy once and for all!
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The South Beach Diet is truly a food lover's diet. It's about living well and loving what you eat. But it's also practical, flexible, easy, and effective. The South Beach Diet is more than a diet — it's a way of life. Unlike other plans, which emphasize calories, carbs, fats, or portion sizes, the South Beach Diet emphasizes delicious foods. It explains how to make the best food choices so you can improve your health and lose weight. Because this is the healthiest way to eat, and because the diet includes a tremendous variety of delicious whole foods, people can happily enjoy eating this way for life. In fact, people who have adopted the South Beach Diet lifestyle often refer to it as the food lover's diet because the eating plan is truly flavorful and satisfying.
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