POPULAR DIETARY TREATMENTS

Americans spends millions of dollars each year on diet books, products, and weight-loss plans. With all of this dieting, you would think obesity would be decreasing every year instead of increasing. So, why aren’t they working?

Because people are doing the wrong things! These popular diets often offer promises of quick weight-loss with no hunger, and the majority of those dieters who do succeed end up gaining the weight back plus some within a year. This is because they haven’t properly planned their diet and adopted The Diet Mindset! First, we’ll discuss some of these diets and then talk about what you can do to lose weight and keep it off.

DIETS
Moderate Fat Diets: These diets are made up of about 25% fat, 60% carbohydrate, and 15% protein. They encourage the intake of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and essential fatty acids found in foods like olive oil and salmon. These diets are usually nutritionally balanced if the dieter eats a variety of foods from all categories. For example, Weight Watchers operates on a point system where foods get a number of points based on calorie, fiber, and fat content. Dieters get a specific amount of points they can use for the day.

While it’s not encouraged, they may choose to spend most of their points on carbohydrates instead of balancing it out. This could lead to deficiencies in nutrients such as calcium, iron, and zinc. However, if followed properly, these diets can be successful methods for losing weight and keeping it off.
Low and Very Low-Fat Diets: Diets in this category include the Dr. Dean Ornish’s Diet and the Pritkin Plan, among others. They are made up of about 13% fat, 70% carbohydrates, and 16% protein. These diets are mostly vegetarian diets and don’t recommend eating a lot of meat.

Like the low-carb diets, you can eat unlimited amounts of certain foods. Because you can’t eat a lot of meat, these diets are deficient in zinc, vitamin B12, and essential fatty acids. Also, it is so restrictive that people find a hard time staying on it for life and end up gaining their weight back.

WEIGHT-LOSS RECOMMENDATIONS
So what should you eat if you’re trying to lose weight? The majority of obese people eat too much, and they eat too much of the bad stuff. But even if you’re eating the good stuff, you can still eat too much. So, you first need to know what to eat, and second, you need to learn how to recognize when you’re full and when you’re really hungry.

It’s also important to remember that your weight should be lost gradually. Don’t expect miracles overnight like some fad diets promise. When you first start dieting, you will probably lose more water weight, therefore you may be losing more pounds initially. But, if you’re doing it right, your weight loss will slow down to an average of one to two pounds per week. Studies have shown that you can only lose three pounds of fat per week, so anything over that is water loss or muscle loss, which you need to stay away from.