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A Quick Look at Some of Today’s Most Effective Diets

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

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The Idiot-Proof Diet

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.

When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!

NutriSystem

The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.

However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.

After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.

At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.

The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.

Weight Watchers

Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.

Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.

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It Is About Why You Eat, Not What You Eat

Your weight and food issues aren’t about what you eat. It is about why you eat. It isn’t about if you are hungry physically but your emotional eating. One of the problems with weight loss surgery and diet programs is our belief that they hold the answer. If only we can follow them, they will work for us. Unfortunately for many of us, we didn’t experience long-term weight loss success. Did we fail? No. Absolutely not! The diets failed because they are not the answer. As effective of a tool as weight loss surgery and diet programs can be, they aren’t the answer. What?? I’m a weight loss and weight loss surgery coach, and a weight loss surgery post-op of seven years and I’m telling you that surgery and diet programs aren’t the answer? How can that be?

Actually, I am a weight loss and weight loss surgery coach because you need to develop your own program that is special and customized for you. The answer is inside of you. Organized diet programs and plans make us the same and apply their cooker cutter approach to dieting. We are all different and unique. Rather than a diet plan telling you what is best for you. You need your OWN program that is custom just for you and your needs. You can develop coping strategies to combat emotional eating, food triggers, compulsive overeating, and head hunger that are the answer that is yours.

Food and weight issues aren’t about the food. Food is the symptom, not the problem. The key to weight loss success is to discover for yourself why you overeat. If you do that personal work, food will become a non-issue. Food will be food – nothing more or less, and not a way to soothe, calm ourselves or self-medicate numb ourselves out. It isn’t enough to find the right combination of foods, a certain food or other sort of limiting way to eat. Aside from true physical hunger, it is about becoming aware of what drives you to eat. You may think it is because you are hungry. In your head, you might be. Some of the feelings and emotions that drive us to eat emotionally are anger, lonely, tired, boredom, sadness or other emotions and situations that cause us to feel we aren’t in control. Head hunger can be so strong that it masquerades as physical hunger.

Food doesn’t hold the answer for your food triggers-you do. Food is food. It is nothing more than a source of nutrition and replenishment for your body and energy. We make it an emotional issue of what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat, when not to eat, and the accompanying negative emotions. There isn’t any power or magic component in food.

Pay attention to the emotions and situations that cause cravings, drive you to emotionally overeat and are food triggers. By dealing with the emotions, you put food into its proper perspective. It puts you in the driver’s seat of your diet to move full speed to achieve your weight loss goal.

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Is There a Weight Loss Plan to Beat the Weight Loss Plateau?

Hitting the weight loss plateau isn’t uncommon as many people find that this will happen every time they start a new weight loss plan; most diets and plans are sold on the premise that you will see quick and emphatic weight loss and this is because ALL diets do have this effect. As the body adjusts to a lower calorie intake it still continues to burn calories at the older higher level; result: weight loss.

Unfortunately, weight loss plans generally have great results in the short term and the reason for this is that your body adjusts to survive on the reduced calorie intake and at that the point the body has adjusted and will stop losing weight.

When you reach this point, it is generally known as the weight loss plateau, the only way to counter this effect is to alter your lifestyle; changes to eating habits and the type of foods you eat on a regular basis and of course, regular exercise.

The scary thing about this weight loss plateau is that many people give up once they reach it and then see that their weight loss plan isn’t helping them lose weight anymore.

The problem is if they go back to how they were eating previously, prior to starting their weight loss plan, they will probably become heavier than they were before they started as their body has to adapt yet again, but this time to a higher calorie intake. This normally means that a rapid weight gain replaces a rapid weight loss.
That is why you need to find a weight loss plan that not only helps you lose weight quickly but also will help you lose weight continuously until your target weight is reached.

Most weight loss plans probably consist of the same types of food eaten daily and possibly the same type of exercise routine. The problem is that our bodies are smart and they naturally go into survival mode by adapting to burn fewer calories in order to make the energy reserves, stored in the body, last longer.
In order to go beyond this point, you must change the way you eat and exercise, a complete lifestyle turnaround.

Here are a couple of methods that will help you move off the weight loss plateau and continue with successful weight reduction.

1. Don’t let your Calorie intake drop too low: Never lower your calorie intake to a point where the body stops burning calories altogether, it can and will happen. You need to find foodstuffs that you can eat as much of as you like, that will take more calories to digest than they actually contain. These are commonly known as ‘negative’ calorie foods. There are weight loss plans that can help you understand the use of this type of strategy and you can find out more information by using the links at the end of this article.

2. Exercise: Exercise is vital as is increases your metabolic rate and the higher your metabolic rate the more calories your body will burn hence you lose weight, hardly rocket science, but you would be amazed how many people think that all you need to do is diet!

By using these two methods you will continue to lose weight and reach your target weight sooner than you ever thought was possible.

As mentioned there is a weight loss plan that you may want to consider looking at that concentrates on calorie shifting. Calorie shifting fools your metabolism into burning calories that you haven’t eaten and as a result you can enjoy rapid PROLONGED weight loss, something I’m sure we would all give serious consideration to. You can find out more about this program by following the links below.

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