Among the many popular diets, weight loss programs and nutritional lifestyles available to dieters today, here are five weight loss diets that tens of thousands of successful dieters have adopted as their nutritional lifestyle. Large numbers of dieters have achieved and maintained long term weight loss with each of these weight loss methods. As a result these five diets are generally not considered to be fad diets. A brief outline of each of these diets follows, along with some insight as to how and why they work. Along the way, some positive attributes and a few caveats for diets on this list are also mentioned.
* The Zone Diet
* Mediterranean Diet
* The South Beach Diet
* The Atkins Diet
* The Macrobiotic Diet
The Zone Diet:
This diet was developed by Dr. Barry Sears (PhD in Biochemistry,) beginning in the 1970′s and culminating in the book “Enter The Zone” in 1995. The diet was first famously used by Olympic athletes training for the 1992 Olympics, yielding 8 gold medals for those athletes who used the diet during training.
The diet centers around a food plan composed of an accurate balanced ratio of carbohydrates (40%), fat (30%) and proteins (30%). Dr. Sears’ diet is purported to reverse or arrest various forms of heart disease, high blood pressure and type II diabetes, by achieving an optimum metabolism through proper food nutrient ratios and portion control. This healthy weight loss plan, offers a diet of nutritious foods with a sensible balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and unsaturated fats, which can be readily followed by the average person with a little education and moderate will power.
The Mediterranean Diet:
This diet lifestyle, is patterned primarily after the living habits and diets of people from the island of Crete, Greece, and parts of Southern Italy. Long known for their health and longevity, people from these lands have been observed to have low incidences of heart disease, no history of diabetes and long life spans. One form of what are actually many diets, spanning 16 countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, has been attributed to Dr. Walter Willett (PhD in Epidemiology,), after he began advocating a version of the diet, based on studies made at Harvard in the 1990′s.
This diet lifestyle includes these components as it’s basis, vigorous daily activity and exercise, low consumption of red meat, consumption of fish or shell fish at least twice a week, a diet high in various healthy grains, fruits and vegetables, the use of healthy fats such as olive oil, consumption of small portions of nuts, consumption of moderate quantities of red wine (optional,) and the use of herbs as substitutes for salt flavoring. While the Mediterranean diet is not generally noted as a method for rapid weight loss, the diet promotes a healthy lifestyle that is easily adapted by most anyone.
A vigorous and active lifestyle, controlling meal portions, and ensuring that a balance of healthy, unprocessed food stuffs are used to prepare meals, are all key to the success of this diet. Adherence to this diet’s principles, coupled with properly sized meal portions to limit overall calorie intake, will result in gradual and long term weight loss over time.
The South Beach Diet:
Developed by Florida cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston in 2004, this weight loss diet program, is an alternative to existing high fat and low carbohydrate diets of the time (e.g., the Atkins diet). The South Beach Diet is a variation of low carbohydrate diets, which differentiates between good carbs and bad carbs. It is often confused with traditional low carbohydrate diets.
This diet is more of a diet lifestyle then a quick weight loss program, and uses the glycemic index for foods to divide foods into 2 groups, those with good carbohydrates and those with bad carbohydrates. Good carbs have low glycemic index values while bad carbs have higher glycemic index values. Dieters begin with a strict regime for a period of a couple weeks to adjust the body’s carbohydrate stores and begin the weight loss process, then progress to a sensible maintenance program within the diet’s established parameters.
The Atkins Diet:
Developed by physician Dr. Robert Atkins , and culminating in the seminal low carbohydrate diet book, “Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution,” published in 1972, this diet promotes weight loss, by increasing protein intake, and lowering carbohydrate intake. Less overall emphasis is placed on regulating dietary fat intake in this program than with other traditional diets. The diet is designed to adjust the body’s metabolism, so that you burn the fat you consume in the diet along with fat that is stored in your body.
This is occurs because a low intake of carbohydrates helps ensure that spikes in the level of insulin in the body are prevented, or are of lower amplitude and duration. As a result the body turns on the fat burning mechanism, once the duration of the diet has progressed to the point that the body’s carbohydrate stores are sufficiently depleted. This diet has numerous satisfied followers, but it’s critics charge that the amount of fat intake allowed in the diet, may be unhealthy for some individuals over long periods of time.
The Macrobiotic Diet:
This diet lifestyle, was developed at the end of the last century by physician Sagen Ishizuka, to help with recovery from serious diseases and illnesses, and was later named and championed by George Ohsawa, in his 1959 book ” Zen Macrobiotics.” Macrobiotics, which means “big view of life.” The diet is based on an ancient traditional oriental diet. Concepts of established western medical sciences have been applied to the diet, in order to help define and explain it’s healing and wellness properties, and to explain how the important attributes of the diet are relevant to healthy living today.
The main daily food groups as practiced in macrobiotics are whole grains, selected vegetables, legumes (beans) and tofu, sea vegetable such as kelp, macrobiotic pickles, macrobiotic tea, along with sesame salt as seasoning. Foods to be avoided in the macrobiotic diet are animal meat and dairy, fish and shellfish, seeds and nuts, processed foods, stimulants and condiments such as table salt, sugar, pepper, alcohol, a large number of other beverages, and some fruits and vegetable.
People who adopt a strict macrobiotic diet often experience a dramatic and rapid weight loss. In part this is due to a dramatic drop in the consumption of fats and simple carbohydrates and the rebalancing of the body’s food metabolism, which tend to lessen urges for dietary excesses and over eating.
Macrobiotics has been shown to be a sensible approach to wellness, weight loss, and a healthy lifestyle, and has been credited with curative properties for many serious Illnesses. However, the diet can be regarded as somewhat austere, and requires a greater level of commitment to incorporate it into one’s lifestyle effectively.
Conclusion:
While they differ in their approaches, all of these diets are based on relatively sound principles and experience. Each diet has demonstrated it’s effectiveness in promoting long term weight loss when properly and consistently practiced. More in depth study of these diets will very likely yield additional weight loss tips to prospective dieters. As with any significant change in nutrition and lifestyle, it is essential to consult with a physician prior to embarking on any of these weight loss diets.
Written by JJHaugh
