Your doctor knows a lot about your health and your body so he or she is a good person to get an opinion from when considering diets. They will be able to tell you what approach to dieting will work best for you. For instance if you are on medication to prevent blood clots, then you should avoid green vegetables,such as spinach.
The secret to losing weight is to eat and drink the right kind of foods until you are satisfied. Skipping of meals is not the answer for weight loss, it can rather deteriorate your health. A healthy weight loss diet plan should include vegetables, fruits, grains, lentils and beans in your diet.
Muscle tissue as well as new tissue growth need protein for their activities and can receive adequate levels with a protein diet. Protein intake from a high protein diet helps to transport nutrients and oxygen to our cells. The valuable protein diet aids and maintains antibody production.
Diet Shock, initiated by dieting to lose weight, results in weight regain for about 67% of first time dieters. Bottom line...dieting causes weight gain, specifically weight regain! But it gets worse...
How to do the Atkins Diet Right ?
Let me tell you something - if you are doing the Atkins Diet, you might be doing it WRONG. I have been on diet forums for years, have consulted thousands of people on low carb diets, and I am seeing it again and again. People don't know how to implement a low carb diet. Very often people fail to lose weight or to adapt to the low carb life style. Many people give it up after a couple of days because they don't know how to do it right. The Atkins Diet is the most famous low carb diet, but it is full of pitfalls just waiting for you to walk into.
Rule #1: Calories DO count. You must count both carbs AND calories
Some of you may believe that losing weight is just a matter of reducing carbohydrates. In fact, many do. Hunting for hidden carbs and totally neglecting the calories you eat is setting you up for failure. The only reason that low carb diets work is that they reduce your appetite. You end up eating fewer CALORIES, and lose weight. The problem is that not all people start eating fewer calories after switching to a low carb diet. The only 100% bulletproof method of losing weight is by counting calories. Don't rely on simply reducing carbohydrates. Eat less carbs AND less calories. Count calories! It is much easier to restrict calories when you are on a low carb diet, because you won't feel as hungry as with high-carb diets.
Rule #2: Going straight to 20 grams of carbs per day is a NO-NO
The Atkins Diet has you eating only 20 grams of carbs a day during the first two weeks on the diet. After that, you are advised to gradually increase the number of carbs you eat. I strongly urge you to reverse the order of events. Start eating 80 or more grams of carbs per day, count calories and then reduce them more if you want to.
My reasoning for doing so is very simple. During the adaptation period you will lack energy because you have taken out the carbs, and you need time to make the fat burning enzymes to use more fat for fuel. If you suddenly start eating a super low amount of carbs, you will feel totally out of energy, because your body cannot manufacture quickly that many fat burning enzymes. However, when you reduce the carbohydrates GRADUALLY, you give your body a chance to adapt to the diet without the misery of being lethargic.
You can even start by eating 150 grams of carbs a day for the first week, and then reduce them to 100 grams for the second and so on. You won't be so fatigued, and because you count calories you are losing weight.
You should expect a period of about one to two weeks when you won't have much energy, but this will pass. Don't give up just because you lack energy. This is temporary. If you listen to me and gradually reduce the carbs, you will experience a much less-pronounced drop of physical and mental performance.
Rule #3: Calories control your bodyweight, NOT carbohydrates.
If you eat less calories than you burn, you are going to lose weight no matter how many carbs you consume. You don't need to go super low on the carbohydrates to experience the typical loss of appetite that is so important to be successful at dieting. I eat about 50-80 grams of carbs a day year-round, and I have single digit body fat %. That's because I control both carbs and calories.
You won't be able to eat just 20 grams of carbs for a long time. It is too impractical, hard-to-do and unnecessary. You will do fine eating 80 grams of carbs a day, as long as you count calories.
Will this change our fear of the word diet ? May be not but at least I will try and explain a little bit more about diet and dieting that we know it to be.
Let's see if we can debunk some of the mystery about low-carb diets. Below, is a listing of some relevant points taken from recent studies and scientific literature. Please note there may be insufficient information available to answer all questions.
The low-carb diet overview will explain how you can best manage your weight. In contrast with the belief that carbohydrates are necessary to build your energy profile, fat may replace carbohydrates in this arena.
You always have to be careful when purchasing some type of dietary supplement. Read the label carefully, look at the ingredients. You should also consult with your doctor to check if some dietary supplement is right for you. Try a well designed diet before you turn to dietary supplements.
Rule #4: Don't give up your coffee
Atkins advises that you avoid caffeine and only drink decaffeinated coffee. This is totally unnecessary. If you are used to drinking coffee, just continue to do so. You will have a much easier adaptation period. Coffee makes your body burn more fat, and helps you adapt to fat burning faster. Coffee also suppresses your appetite, and has a mild thermogenic effect (you burn more calories). Last but not least, coffee is very addictive and hard to give up. I know a couple of people who gave up the Atkins Diet just because he says to stop drinking coffee! I am telling you - coffee will help your weight loss efforts. It is totally unnecessary to give it up.
Rule #5: Don't avoid milk and yogurt products
Eating plain yogurt is associated with weight loss for some mysterious reason. Researchers speculate that it is the Calcium in milk products that helps with weight loss. Whatever the reason, milk and yogurt are good for your health and weight loss. They have some carbs, but as I told you, there's absolutely no need to go super low on the carbs, if you control your calories.
Here's a little known fact, most low-carb dieters don't know. Plain yogurt has 3 times less carbs than labelled! The reason is simple. Yogurt has billions of healthy bacteria called probiotics, which thrive on glucose. These probiotics eat up the carbs in milk, and turn it into lactic acid. Now, when manufacturers measure carbs, they do so by the method of "carbs by difference". They measure everything else(protein, fats, water..), and what's left is ASSUMED to be carbs. But what's left is carbs + lactic acid. To know the real number of carbs in yogurt, divide the number of carbs on the label by 3. Do so only for PLAIN yogurt. Avoid all artificially processed and carb loaded yogurts. Eat plain yogurt!
Rule #6: A low-carb diet is a high-fat diet
By definition a low carb diet is a high-fat diet. Some people turn the low-carb diet into low-carb and low-fat diet. What a mistake! First, if you eat a high-protein low-carb low-fat diet, you are going to get hungry. Second, eating less fat will slow down the adaptation to fat burning and extend your misery. Third, your body needs fat and the fat-soluble vitamins to digest the proteins you eat. Without the fat you are going to get sick, upset your stomach and become severely constipated.
Women should be very careful to eat enough fat. Many women don't like to eat meat or eat only very lean meat. They must find a way to get more fat in the diet by ways of high-fat cheeses.
Fat should represent more than 50% of the calories you eat.
Rule #7: Don't be fooled by the quick initial weight loss
Most of the weight that is lost during the first two weeks on a restrictive diet is WATER. On a low-carb diet, you are going to lose even more water. The rate of weight loss is going to slow down after the first two weeks. Be prepared, it is perfectly natural to happen. Don't expect miracles. As one of the most common causes of lethargy is constipation, learn more about colon detox today
Let's sum it up. Count calories. Hunting for hidden carbs, and neglecting the calories is a major reason for plateaus. Restrict carbs gradually. Eat more fat to control your appetite. Don't go super low on the carbs. Go as low as you feel comfortable. As long as you control calories you are on your way to success. More on detox diets at here.
We are all individuals and as such we need to feed ourselves as individuals, having said this some diet plans will be more beneficial for the general population that others.
Finally, I would like to reiterate that success of these different diet types only depends on the discipline of the person dieting. Exercise to induce fast metabolism is necessary. Oversleeping is also bad discipline for these different diet types.
Avoiding caffeine and drinking lots of clean and clear water also help in the dieting process. Taking fiber supplements and vitamin will help during the initial stage of low-carb dieting, you will understand this need better upon reading the low-carb diet overview.
Most of the studies to date have two things in common: None of the studies had participants with a mean age over 53 and none of the controlled studies lasted longer than 90 days.
By : Alfred Gomez
