With so many diet plans out there today, it may be difficult for you to select which one is right for you or one that fits your life style. All diets if properly followed will probably result in some weight loss. However, most diets are so restrictive it is difficult if not impossible to maintain them over time and eventually we either cheat or give up all together and the lost weight returns.

For a lot of us dieters its not that we aren’t disciplined but that we get tired of the same old food plan, or the diet plan doesn’t fit into our daily schedule especially if you work and or travel.

However consider this; there are different diets for different goals. For example an individual whose desire is to lose weight and build muscle strength might want to try my favorite, the Body for Life program by Bill Phillips. I personally got very muscular and lost twelve pounds in 30 days on this program in 2002. His diet related book was the first one I had ever picked up in my life. I was so inspired by the contents; I read it cover to cover.  Here are some diet plans that work and have been around for some time because of it.

1. The Zone Diet

The Zone Diet created by Dr. Barry Sears, a leading authority on the dietary control of hormonal responses, uses food to regulate insulin, glucagon and eicosanoids in the body. To burn fat, you have to lower insulin levels, since insulin hinders the release of stored fat. The diet considers food like a drug – take the right food at the right time in the right amounts. So according to the Zone if you eat the right foods in the right proportions these hormone levels in your body are adjusted automatically resulting in permanent weight loss.

You will not deprive yourself on this plan but the goal is to control your hunger on fewer calories while getting the nourishment your body needs. The diet achieves the hunger and hormone control by balancing three macro nutrients in every meal and snack – protein, carbohydrates and fat. Each meal will consist of approximately 1/3 protein and 2/3 carbohydrates.

A Zone meal starts with making sure that you have an ample serving of low-fat protein like skinless chicken, turkey or fish. If you are vegetarian or you are not in to animal protein there are substitutes like egg whites, soy meat products and low fat dairy products to achieve the same result. Once you have the proper low fat protein you balance it with the proper carbohydrates and you do so with a lot of vegetables, almost any fruit and a small amount of grains and starches. Add a little fat to the meal like olive oil and you’re done.
By the way the plan does encourage physical exercise 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week.

You can see that it doesn’t take a chef to put the meal together but the key is consistency. That’s where the Zone 7-Day Meal Planner is so beneficial in that it provides you with simple meal recipes to jump start you into the Zone way. If you’re not handy in the kitchen, Chefs 5 Star Diet will deliver the Zone meal plan directly to your door for a fee.

Millions of people have had success on the Zone Diet and have found it to be simple and easy. It’s free to sign up and take advantage of the excellent resources related to healthy eating on the Zone website.

2. The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet, like the Zone is another equally famous fat burning diet. Miami, Florida cardiologist Arthur Agatston researched and founded the South Beach Diet to help his heart patients lose weight in a healthy and permanent way. The South Beach Diet book became a best seller and the diet was endorsed by celebrities and movie stars as well.

The diet is basically about decreasing the consumption of bad carbohydrates and fats, thus improving cholesterol and controlling insulin. It involves 3 phases where you will learn to eat in an entirely different way but not feel deprived or hungry. Here is the way the diet jump starts you into a new way of eating:

1. It begins with a 2-week induction phase wherein carbohydrates are avoided and replaced with plenty of high quality proteins such as fish, chicken, turkey, eggs, salads, nuts and vegetables. You have three normal size meals every day during this period.

2. The 2nd phase involves healthy meals and recipes determined just for you for a specified length of time. In this phase, some of the foods avoided on the first phase such as bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, and fruit, are now allowed, in restricted amounts, until you have reached your desired weight.

3. Maintenance is the 3rd phase where you will simply follow a healthy South Beach Diet personalized meal plan, allowing you to maintain your ideal weight permanently.

Just like the Zone Diet, the South Beach Diet is also advocates exercise and balancing the foods you eat. The South Beach Diet has motivated thousands of people to eat healthy and lose weight. There website has a number of resources to help you achieve your weight loss goal such as a personalized meal planner, recipes for each phase, access to online registered dietitians, and much more.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots

The Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet is becoming another popular fat burning diet that focuses on what you eat and when you eat it. There plan states you can simply lose weight by eating the right foods at the right time of the day. Like the Zone and South Beach Diet the Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet uses food to regulate hormones in your body to control weight loss.

The plan focuses on losing 9 lbs in 11 days by calorie shifting. Body builders have been using this technique for some time to lose body fat and explode muscle growth. By shifting the types of calories you eat throughout the day and from one day to the next, you regulate hormones and trick your body into keeping your metabolism revved up.

To help you with calorie shifting the Fat Loss for Idiots program provides you an online personalized menu generator to create an 11-day, 4 meals (2 ½ hours a apart) a day menu. All you have to do is input from a list (7 to 15 food combination’s) the food that you like and it will automatically create a calorie shifting cycle plan for you. After the 11 day cycle you have 3 cheat days where you can eat anything you want and then start the cycle all over again.

People are losing weight on this relatively new diet and it is an unconventional type of weight loss program. Visit their website at FatLoss4Idiots.com for more information to find out if this plan maybe right for you.

Why Diets Fail – There is no one diet that works for everyone!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am and is filed under Diets and Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.