Whether it was the late night infomercial you accidently heard as you tossed and turned in your bed, or the new salads available at every major fast food chain, dieting has never looked better. With the steady supply of different diets and programs, Weight loss seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. Losing a few extra pounds for the beach for most people might not be such a bad idea. So how do we get started you ask? The hardest part of losing weight in this day and age is picking a method.
The diet industry has been flooded leaving many people scratching their heads when it comes to picking out a good diet to fit their own specific needs. The most important thing to consider when picking out a diet is to find one that you can enjoy and stick with. Although there are many diets promising immediate results, only a few will actually perform.
Thriving since 1989, L. A. Weight Loss is a leader in the diet scene in not only the United States, but also in Canada and Europe. If you are someone who tends to pig out and then skip a meal when dieting, the L A Weight Loss plan might help you learn better eating habits as well. With this program, proper portions are heavily stressed, and are considered the key to a healthy diet. Another benefit of this diet is the food you can eat. Although some diet counselors might tend to push the company’s rather expensive products on you, this diet calls for no more than ordinary foods that can be purchased at your regular grocery store. It’s all about sensible portions, and that goes for alcoholic beverages as well. The L. A. Weight Loss diet only allows one drink three times a week. Diet counselors will gather weight, height, age, activity level and medical history in order to design a unique program for each person. Dieters then count their determined portions from different food categories: proteins, fruits and vegetables, fat, starch and dairy. Dieters follow prescribed food plans and learn how to prepare foods with health in mind. With L A Weight Loss, all counseling sessions and weigh-ins take place privately, and at the dieter’s convenience. Although this diet may seem rather simple, it is amazing how beneficial it is for a dieter to put proper emphasis on proper portions and cooking techniques.
If you do not want to drastically change the food you eat when dieting than Weight Watchers might be a good diet plan for you. Available in over 30 countries, this diet works on the philosophy that physical activity, when combined with healthy eating habits, can help shed pounds. Although Weight Watchers has a few diet plans available, its most popular uses a simple points system that allows you to eat basically any food you want based on your daily point allowance. An added bonus to the diet is it allows you to win back extra points by exercising. These points can then be spent on food or left unused. This diet even has a special “Dining out” guide available that helps make eating out as easy as life before dieting. A recent poll taken on America Online reported that out of 67,000 online dieters, 79 percent of the 83 percent that tried it had lost weight.
Although the South Beach Diet may be relatively new, it is quickly capturing more and more dieters concerned with more than simply losing weight. Developed by Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston, M.D., director of the Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center, the diet is meant to promote weight loss without sacrificing heart health. Unlike other trendy low-carb plans, South Beach asks the dieter to watch saturated fats and choose lean meats and proteins over greasy bacon, cheeseburgers and steak. As far as drinking is concerned, beer is shunned as red wine is the choice for this diet. The South Beach Diet consists of three major phases. In the first, carbohydrates are cut back in order to stop cravings. Next, the dieters must keep their blood sugar level even by eating small amounts of slow-to-digest “good” carbohydrates such as grains, fruits and vegetables. Foods are then categorized and favored based on their ability to raise blood sugar. Foods that are favored include high quality lean meats and steaks, seafood, proteins, and even low fat cheese. The South Beach Diet is one of the only diets that is easy to follow and stay with because of the amount of food that can be eaten. This diet is not only good for losing weight, but for both your heart and overall health.
Of the many diets available, these three have passed the test of time. They remain perfect for college students because of their relatively low costs and overall convenience. As America continues to be criticized throughout the world as a place marked by dietary vices and over-indulgence, dieting methods will continue to become more efficient and much more popular.
