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The best diet for successful weight loss

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.

Most diets can be categorized into several categories. The past fifteen to twenty years have seen the rise and fall of low fat diets. This diet was popularized by Nathan Pritikin who used it to overcome his heart disease issues. It was successful because it reduced the intake of all fats to an extreme level and this forced the body to cannibalize the existing fat in the body for energy. Eventually this extended to the arteries and cardiovascular system and the arthrosclerosis in the arteries disappeared as the body ate up all the cholesterol. It was hugely popular and let to the argument that reducing the fat in our diets must the key to weight loss. They forgot that weight loss was a side effect of Pritikins diet, not the reason for it.

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.

Food-combining diets that have been made popular by Hollywood stars is another category of diet. Hollywood stars can afford the luxury of finding the right foods and combining them to lose weight. The rest of us eat normal foods and have household budgets. The diet is based on the argument that different foods work in concert to produce unusual weight loss as they enhance each others effects. It is really questionable and no true dietician advocates them. I think they fall into the fad diet category but some swear by them.

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.

Finally we come to the popular low carbohydrate diets popularized by the Atkins Diet. Dr Robert Atkins worked on existing research of doctors who had studied the insulin response of the body to carbohydrate intake. Through the research he discovered that when we digest carbohydrates our blood sugar levels rise. The more quickly we digest carbohydrates, the quicker the rise in blood sugar. The body reacts to this rise in blood sugar by releasing insulin which binds with the blood sugar and converts it into glycogen to be stored in the liver. If the liver’s glycogen store is full the body stores it as adipose tissue, more commonly known as fat. High blood sugar is bad for the body so maintaining a steady blood sugar is vital for good health. Unfortunately when we eat highly processed carbohydrates such as sugar, our blood sugar levels spike and we overproduce insulin to correct the problem. Our blood sugar levels plummet and we are immediately hungry again. So we eat again and so the cycle perpetuates itself.

Atkins proposed that severely restricting carbohydrate intake would force the body to go to its own store of energy, its stored fat reserves. And the Atkins Diet was born. He also deduced from research that high sugar levels in the bloodstream contributed to heart disease far more than fats in the diet. This information was proven in research many years before the mistakes that led to the low fat diet. Many people found in the Atkins Diet a savior and they have adopted the diet as a long term lifestyle. For them this was the best diet.

The Atkins diet is very effective from personal experience, but many dieters found the first month just too hard. The Atkins Diet is quite strict to begin with and for these people an alternative was needed to help them lose the weight without the strict self discipline the Atkins Diet required. They needed a diet that worked in the real world without the time and effort the Atkins Diet needed. The best diet should include food, exercise and a meal planner to help make life easier. It should not need us to carefully count every gram of carbohydrate and protein and fat that passes our lips. You see food, selected correctly can be our greatest ally in losing weight. Some foods rich is proteins take more energy to burn than they yield. Also proteins help build muscle which is essential for weight loss. A good weight loss program will educate as to which foods to avoid and which to include, correct portion size and eating habits.

The best diet will provide information on an exercise program that gets us moving and kickstarts the fat burning. Sensible and regular exercise is central to any effective and successful diet. When combined with sensible eating and dietary information it put us on the road to successful weight loss. To qualify as the best diet program it must include a meal planner which gives you meal suggestions and prepares a shopping list for the week’s food. Using the meal planner you don’t have to spend the day worrying about what you are going to eat that day. Weight loss and worrying about what you are going to eat at every meal is mutually exclusive. The meal planner lets you get on with life and stop thinking about food.

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 meal 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.