by funkandjazz

Weight Loss Diet Plans – What Plan is Ideal For You?

Low calorie diet plans:

Most diets that are designed to help you lose weight
provide 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day. However, the
number of calories that is right for you depends on your
weight and the level of activity you engage in. When a
diet plan allows this level of calorie intake in a day
it is called a low-calorie diet and the weight loss is
achieved by calorie counting and therefore limiting the
number of calories you consume.

Ideally the calorie level of your diet should allow for
no more than a one pound per week weight loss. Results
are more visible after the first week or two because of
the initial water loss. It is important to remember that
the recommended calorie level for each individual will
vary depending on your age and weight, so you may need
to eat more or fewer calories dependent on your own life
style and circumstances. To remain healthy and not feel
lethargic whilst on a restricted calorie diet, it may be
a good idea to take supplements that will help to keep
you energized and full of vitality throughout the whole
day.

Fixed-menu diet plans:

A fixed-menu diet provides you with a list of all the
foods that you can eat in an effort to lose weight. The
advantage of this type of diet is that it is easy to
follow because the foods you can or cannot eat have
already been selected for you. This helps end the
confusion of ‘can I eat this or not?’ However, the
drawback of this type of diet is that food choices are
very limited and this may therefore make the diet boring
and hard to follow if, for example, you are away from
home and do not have all the ingredients you may need.

In addition to this drawback, fixed-menu diets do not
really teach you the food selection skills necessary for
keeping weight off, and such skills are crucial when you
have worked so hard at losing weight. Ideally therefore,
if you start with a fixed-menu diet there should come a
time when you switch to a plan that helps you learn to
make meal choices independently.

Such a limited diet also poses the risk of limiting your
unnecessary nutritional intake. In this scenario,
nutritional intake refers to the essential vitamins,
minerals and micronutrients that everyone needs in order
to enjoy continued good health. A lack of essential
nutrients can therefore mean that your weight loss
efforts will be slowed down, rather than accelerated.

When you cut out certain foods, it is inevitable that
you will reduce the amount of some nutrients in your
diet as well. Food supplements could be the quickest and
simplest solution to helping you maintain your diet and
overall good health at the same time.

Exchange-type diet plans:

An exchange-type diet is a meal plan that works with a
set number of servings from each of the basic food
groups and within the limits of each essential food
group. Foods that are about equal in calories can be
replaced with each other at your own discretion. For
example, from the starch category you could include one
slice of bread or half a cup of oatmeal as each is about
equal to the other in terms of nutritional value and
calories.

In this diet scenario, if the meal plan recommends two
starch choices at breakfast, for example, you could
choose to eat two slices of bread or one slice of bread
and half a cup of oatmeal. The choice is yours. In the
case of exchange-type diet plans, you can have more day
-to-day variety and they are easier to follow even when
you are away from home. However, the most important
advantages of the exchange-type diet plans is that they
teach the food selection skills you must acquire in
order to keep the weight off once you have shifted it!

Prepackaged-meal diet plans:

Pre-packaged meal diet plans require that you buy
prepackaged meals. Such meals may help you to learn the
appropriate portion sizes that you should be eating but
the major disadvantage of this kind of diet is that it
can be expensive. Also, using this kind of diet it is
questionable whether you could actually learn about
proper nutrition and make intelligent meal choices for
losing weight. There is also the question of
availability – the meal you want may or may not be
available if you are out of town, for example. It may
become difficult to lose the weight and then keep it
off, which is always the biggest challenge.

Formula diet plans:

Formula diets are weight-loss plans that work by
replacing one or more meals with a liquid formula. Most
formula diets are balanced diets in nature as they
contain a mix of protein, carbohydrate, and usually a
small amount of fat as well. Formula diets are usually
sold as a liquid or as a powder that has to be mixed
with a liquid to make a shake-like drink. Even though
formula diets are easy to use and do help short-term
weight loss, many people easily regain the lost weight
as soon as they stop using the formula. Note that
formula diets do not teach you how to make healthy food
choices. We have already established that being able to
make healthy food choices is a necessary skill for
keeping your weight off.

Flexible diet plans:

Some diet plans suggest that you should be monitoring
your fat intake or the intake of calories, or a
combination of both fat and calories. In the case of
flexible diets, the choice of the type of food lies with
the individual and, because of this, such a flexible
diet plan tends to work well for most people. This is
because it allows for choice and freedom. However, this
diet plan is also flawed because it limits food intake
of a particular food group only. For example, any diet
plan that focuses only on cutting down the consumption
of fat will allow people to take in unlimited amounts of
excess calories from sugars and this pretty much
guarantees that weight loss will never really happen.

Low fat diet plans:

Fat is recommended to be the lowest consumption food
group because it leads to weight gain and because of its
limited nutritional value. In a low fat diet plan, the
number of calories obtained from your diet must be
limited. Using a low fat diet, only 30 percent of the
calories consumed must come from fat, whilst on a very
low fat diet plan, only 20 percent of calories must come
from fat. In a typical low fat diet, meat, poultry and
fish are not recommended. The only dairy products
allowed are fat free yogurt, milk, cheese and egg
whites. Banned foods in the diet include all fats,
seeds, nuts, refined carbohydrates such as white rice,
sugar and white flour. You are allowed to consume an
unlimited amount of other food without measure,
especially foodstuffs like fruits, vegetables and
grains. However, modern research is increasingly
skeptical about the claim that fat is the main culprit
behind obesity and weight problems.

Restricted flour and sugar diet plans:

This is also termed the no flour, no sugar diet plan and
is a weight-loss program that reduces calories in your
diet by eliminating flour-based and added-sugar foods.
Foods that contain added sugar and refined flour are
nutrient-poor, unlike foods which contain whole grains,
fruits, vegetables and legumes which are rich in
vitamins, minerals and fiber. The No Flour, No Sugar
Diet cuts down on the so-called ‘empty’ calories of
refined carbohydrate-based foods. These also tend to be
foods that are high in fats. The No Flour, No Sugar type
diet also encourages a lifestyle that involves a
selection of foods without significant sugar and refined
flour content, based on the interpretation of food
labels. No counting of calories is suggested or
necessary.