Diet Plans for Weight Loss
Ever since obesity has been termed as an epidemic, it has attracted
attention throughout the world. In America weight loss has become an
industry. The air is thick with discussions and counter-discussions
about various diet plans being proposed by various people.
There is a 5-Factor Diet, Atkins Diet, Bob Greene\'s Best Life Diet,
South Beach Diet, Cabbage Soup Diet, Carbohydrate Addict\'s Diet, Anne
Collin’s diet and now you have DASH diet and Fat Smash Diet
and Size Zero Diet and …. it goes on!
Proponents of each of these diet plans make claims of how much weight
you will lose and how rapidly you will lose weight. Some go to the
extent of claiming that you will

lose up to 10-12 lbs in a week whereas medical experts
warn that such claims are ridiculous and weight loss of such
proportions can come about only by losing water which is detrimental to
the system. Moreover there is always the danger of gaining weight just
as rapidly when you stop working on the plan.
Essentially all these plans boil down to a few basics! The body weight
is contributed by fat, muscles, bones and water. Excess calorie intake
is responsible for increased weight and so cut down the excess intake
of calories. Increase metabolism so that stored fat can be burnt off;
burn off the fat that is stored in the body by exercises and fat
burning food. But do not starve the body of the essential nutrients.
Basically
diet
plans fall into three broad categories: the “fad
diets”, those that are based on specially processed food and
those that can be called as “
natural
diet” plans.
There is no clear definition of “fad diet”; it is
very subjective. Fad diet is popularly believed to be a poor weight
loss diet. A fad diet generally becomes very popular very quickly and
falls out of favor just as quickly. Fad diets quite often claim very
quick weight loss. Their claims for efficacy are generally not
confirmed by any legitimate scientific studies. Often promoted by
parties that publish books about the diet or those that sell some
supplements or ingredients that are part of the fad diet, a fad diet
may not achieve anything at all or at times may have an adverse effect
on health.
The natural diet plan is based on use of food constituents that are
normally in your diet; it recommends some of the constituents as being
helpful and some others as being harmful from the point of view of
weight loss. For example, it may recommend certain fish such as
Sardines, herrings, etc as providing beneficial Omega 3 fatty acids or
may recommend use of lean meat but not others such as pork; it may
recommend low-fat skimmed milk but not the normal fresh milk.
Natural diet is based on very clearly understood and
recognized scientific knowledge.
The third category of diet plans mentioned above are based on use of
specially processed food ingredients or supplements; this category is
so highly commercialized that even if it has scientific basis at times
lies on the boundary of fad diet plans.