When we read the paper or a magazine we might be challenged to ask the question "What is the best diet to help me lose weight?" Never a week goes by without a new diet launched on television or in the newspaper. They seem to proliferate in women's magazines which compete to find the most weird or "celebrity-driven". But do they work? For most of us that is all that matters. Let's look at the different diets and see if we can work out a diet that will work for most of us.
Diets fall into several categories. Very popular over the past 15 - 20 years have been the low fat diets. The argument goes that a gram of at contains 10 calories of energy. A gram of protein contains 4 calories and a gram of carbohydrate also contains 4 calories. Therefore if we reduce our fat intake we are sure to lose weight. This is just bad application of logic. We cant just treat calories like beans to be counted and applied. This is because the body treats these three in different ways after digestion. But supposedly educated dieticians and nutritionists have been plugging this line for many years. It is not only wrong. It is also unhealthy.
The problem is that it assumes all calories are equal and the body treats all calories the same, and it doesn't. Protein is digested and broken down into amino acids used to rebuild muscles and skin. The four calories does not contribute one iota to your overall body fat content. Likewise fat is used to absorb vitamins and minerals and the excess is simply flushed out of the system via the liver and gall bladder. Too much fat may contribute to heart disease but there is clear evidence that this only happens in the presence of too many carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the dietary evil making us fat as will be clearer later.
Another category of diet is the famous food-combining diets so often favored by Hollywood stars (who can afford the luxury of finding the right foods and combining them to lose weight). The argument is that the different foods act in concert to produce unusual weight loss because they enhance each others effects. It is really questionable and no true dietician advocates them. They fall into the fad diet category.
The most famous low fat diet is the Pritikin Diet. This is a super low fat diet designed by Nathan Pritikin when he was diagnosed with cancer. The diet removed all saturated fats and most unsaturated fats from the diet and restricted food to a very limited diet of sprouts, greens, nuts in small quantities. It essentially reduced eating to a necessary evil with little enjoyment for me when I tried it. Certainly Pritikin advocates healed themselves of advanced heart disease in the process but the dropout rate was enormous. This is a type of super restrictive diet that just doesn't work in the long term for the vast majority of people. I found it very limiting and even more boring.
Fad diets come in all shapes and sizes and we all recognize them when we see them. If it feels weird, it probably is. Let your common sense be your guide.
Dr. Atkins, using the research of another doctor who had studied the insulin response of the body to carbohydrate intake realized that this was the key to creating the best diet. Using existing research that demonstrated that when we digest carbohydrates our blood sugar levels rise, he went on to describe the way the insulin response leads to obesity when our carbohydrate intake is too great. The more quickly we digest carbohydrates, the more quickly the blood sugar increases. The bodys reaction to this is to release insulin which converts the blood sugar into glycogen to be stored in the liver. If the liver's glycogen store is full the body stores it as fat. Because high blood sugar levels are bad for the body maintaining a steady blood sugar is vital for good health. Unfortunately when we eat highly processed carbohydrates such as sugar, our blood sugar levels spikes very quickly and we overproduce insulin to correct the problem. The result is that our blood sugar levels plummet and we feel hungry again. Needing sugar we eat something high in processed sugars and so the cycle perpetuates itself.
Atkins realized from the research that severely restricting carbohydrate intake would lead to the body going to its own store of energy, its stored fat reserves. So the Atkins Diet was born. Atkins also realized from research that high sugar levels in the bloodstream contributed to heart disease far more than fats in the diet. This was demonstrated in research many years before the fad that led to the low fat diet which was based on a flawed premise. For many people the Atkins Diet was a savior and they have taken on the diet as a long term lifestyle.
As effective as the Atkins diet was, many found the first month just too hard to get through. For these people an alternative diet was needed that would help them lose the weight without the strict self discipline the Atkins Diet required in the beginning. For most, which is the majority of us, a diet that worked in the real world was needed. An effective diet should include food, exercise and a meal planner to help make life easier. Food can be our greatest ally in losing weight because some foods are better at helping us lose weight than others. We need to be educated as to which foods to avoid and which to include, correct portion size and eating habits.
In addition to this we need an exercise program that gets us moving and the fat burning off. Exercise is the cornerstone of any effective and successful diet. When combined with sensible eating and good advice it can put us on the road to success. The best diet programs also include a meal planner which gives you meal suggestions and prepares a shopping list for the week's food. That way you don't spend the day worrying about what you are going to eat that day. Obsessing about food is the poor preparation for losing weight!
So if you are looking for the best diet look at the programs that include a good balance of foods, from the different food groups and not unbalanced on their avoidance of any one group. Also look for a good exercise program included that will work for you and a male planner is a must. Good luck is just a matter of research, commitment and dedication. The more committed you are, I bet the luckier you become.
Diets fall into several categories. Very popular over the past 15 - 20 years have been the low fat diets. The argument goes that a gram of at contains 10 calories of energy. A gram of protein contains 4 calories and a gram of carbohydrate also contains 4 calories. Therefore if we reduce our fat intake we are sure to lose weight. This is just bad application of logic. We cant just treat calories like beans to be counted and applied. This is because the body treats these three in different ways after digestion. But supposedly educated dieticians and nutritionists have been plugging this line for many years. It is not only wrong. It is also unhealthy.
The problem is that it assumes all calories are equal and the body treats all calories the same, and it doesn't. Protein is digested and broken down into amino acids used to rebuild muscles and skin. The four calories does not contribute one iota to your overall body fat content. Likewise fat is used to absorb vitamins and minerals and the excess is simply flushed out of the system via the liver and gall bladder. Too much fat may contribute to heart disease but there is clear evidence that this only happens in the presence of too many carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the dietary evil making us fat as will be clearer later.
Another category of diet is the famous food-combining diets so often favored by Hollywood stars (who can afford the luxury of finding the right foods and combining them to lose weight). The argument is that the different foods act in concert to produce unusual weight loss because they enhance each others effects. It is really questionable and no true dietician advocates them. They fall into the fad diet category.
The most famous low fat diet is the Pritikin Diet. This is a super low fat diet designed by Nathan Pritikin when he was diagnosed with cancer. The diet removed all saturated fats and most unsaturated fats from the diet and restricted food to a very limited diet of sprouts, greens, nuts in small quantities. It essentially reduced eating to a necessary evil with little enjoyment for me when I tried it. Certainly Pritikin advocates healed themselves of advanced heart disease in the process but the dropout rate was enormous. This is a type of super restrictive diet that just doesn't work in the long term for the vast majority of people. I found it very limiting and even more boring.
Fad diets come in all shapes and sizes and we all recognize them when we see them. If it feels weird, it probably is. Let your common sense be your guide.
Dr. Atkins, using the research of another doctor who had studied the insulin response of the body to carbohydrate intake realized that this was the key to creating the best diet. Using existing research that demonstrated that when we digest carbohydrates our blood sugar levels rise, he went on to describe the way the insulin response leads to obesity when our carbohydrate intake is too great. The more quickly we digest carbohydrates, the more quickly the blood sugar increases. The bodys reaction to this is to release insulin which converts the blood sugar into glycogen to be stored in the liver. If the liver's glycogen store is full the body stores it as fat. Because high blood sugar levels are bad for the body maintaining a steady blood sugar is vital for good health. Unfortunately when we eat highly processed carbohydrates such as sugar, our blood sugar levels spikes very quickly and we overproduce insulin to correct the problem. The result is that our blood sugar levels plummet and we feel hungry again. Needing sugar we eat something high in processed sugars and so the cycle perpetuates itself.
Atkins realized from the research that severely restricting carbohydrate intake would lead to the body going to its own store of energy, its stored fat reserves. So the Atkins Diet was born. Atkins also realized from research that high sugar levels in the bloodstream contributed to heart disease far more than fats in the diet. This was demonstrated in research many years before the fad that led to the low fat diet which was based on a flawed premise. For many people the Atkins Diet was a savior and they have taken on the diet as a long term lifestyle.
As effective as the Atkins diet was, many found the first month just too hard to get through. For these people an alternative diet was needed that would help them lose the weight without the strict self discipline the Atkins Diet required in the beginning. For most, which is the majority of us, a diet that worked in the real world was needed. An effective diet should include food, exercise and a meal planner to help make life easier. Food can be our greatest ally in losing weight because some foods are better at helping us lose weight than others. We need to be educated as to which foods to avoid and which to include, correct portion size and eating habits.
In addition to this we need an exercise program that gets us moving and the fat burning off. Exercise is the cornerstone of any effective and successful diet. When combined with sensible eating and good advice it can put us on the road to success. The best diet programs also include a meal planner which gives you meal suggestions and prepares a shopping list for the week's food. That way you don't spend the day worrying about what you are going to eat that day. Obsessing about food is the poor preparation for losing weight!
So if you are looking for the best diet look at the programs that include a good balance of foods, from the different food groups and not unbalanced on their avoidance of any one group. Also look for a good exercise program included that will work for you and a male planner is a must. Good luck is just a matter of research, commitment and dedication. The more committed you are, I bet the luckier you become.
About the Author:
Author Lyle Neander has studied and assessed the most popular weight loss programs and found the 3 best ones. You can download FREE weight loss reports at best diet . Lyle offers a great home page where the best sites are compared at great comparison website. Successful weight loss is possible and painless. Life is so much better when you are slim and healthy.
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