Top Diet Plans

Out of the hundreds of diet plans available and are endorsed by doctors, celebrities, friends and family, how does one know which one to try?  If you are new to the diet arena, you may get completely overwhelmed by all the suggestions and information you’ll find and all of the diet plans seem to work.  But the real question is will it work for you?  Here is a shortlist of diet plans to help narrow down your search.

After searching the internet for top ten weight loss/diet plans, I have discovered that there are only a few that keeps recurring.

Weight Watchers

Yes, it’s a classic, which proves that this celebrity endorsed diet plan works.  Weight Watchers is basically a calorie-controlled diet where a dieter gets a daily points allowance.  You can eat anything you want as long as you keep within the given allowance. Probably the best feature of this diet is its flexibility, availability of the recommended meals and support.

The DASH Diet

This diet was designed to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the main goal was to help people find a healthy and natural way to lower blood pressure and reverse heart disease.  The diet features calorie counting, exercise regimen and a set of Health Food and a Low Sodium Diet.  The reason why it works it that it is based on health sciences.  The diet is highly recommended for people dealing with heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The PALEO Diet

It can be a little restrictive but it works, especially for men.  The Paleolithic Diet simply encourages people to avoid any kind of food that is processed in any form, which include cooking oils.  The diet also encourages that food be cooked in open fire.  The general idea is to revert back to the ways of the caveman.  Though people find it very restrictive, it is also simple enough to follow.  What makes it work is the community that it has created where recipes are being shared and passed around.

The Volumetrics Diet

This diet is all about soups and large salads and other kinds of food that is low calorie but has “high-volume” - The kind that keeps you full for hours. The Volumetrics Diet offers recipes that are healthy and fiber-packed. The idea is to keep your body from gaining too much weight by stopping the constant craving that you get when you feed on calorie packed foods or simple carbs.

The Jenny Craig

The reason why it works is because it is a highly personalized plan. The one to one consultations provide support and help dieters keep their goals on track.  The meal delivery service is a big plus of course, especially for people who have very little time to plan meals let alone cook them.  The only set-back is the tag price that goes with it.

How to Get Past Your Weight Loss Plateau

It is normal.  Everybody gets frustrated when despite that fact that an enormous amount of effort is poured into the work out and an incredible extent of restraint was exerted just to make sure the diet plan is followed, we hit a weight loss plateau.  We keep our resolve and another week passes by and still no progress.  This is especially exasperating when you are just 10 pounds shy of the goal.  It happens.  But it does not mean that what you are doing is not helping you get better, it does not mean you need to drastically change your regimen either.  There are just things that are happening in your body that you need to understand. 

                It has a lot to do with our basal metabolic rate or BMR.  It is the rate at which our bodies metabolize to keep our bodies’ vital functions working – digestion, breathing, heart beating etc., while the body is at rest.  The calories required to make everything work lowers as we lose body mass.  And it takes much less effort to do things (and burn fewer calories) because there is less of you that you carry around. 

                It can also be that you have gained muscle mass as lose weight.  Which is why measuring your waistline is also a good thing.  Sometimes, our progress registers better there than on the weighing scale. 

                It is nature’s way of telling you that you have reached a certain balance between your calorie/food intake and your calorie burning activities.  So, calm down, assess your progress, and appreciate how far you have gone.  Ask yourself if this is a good weight (and look) to maintain but if you need to get farther, you need to make a few changes.

                If you have not done it yet, you need do more weight training than aerobic exercises.  It helps the toning and tightening of muscles.  It may surprise you how easy it is to do weight training now that your body is stronger.  There are fitness experts who will tell you that a sudden change in the intensity of the work out and changing diet regimen may give your body a jumpstart. 

                If you are not taking any weight loss supplements, you may want to try some now. They may just give you the boost that you need.  Most natural weight loss supplements do not have side effects so it is safe and will not disrupt your schedule (unlike ones that are synthesized in the lab that make you want stay home and keep in close proximity to the comfort room). 

                Some of the best weight loss supplements come from natural sources such as the African Mango extract, Green Coffee Bean extract, Garcinia Cambogia or Brindleberry and Raspberry Ketone supplements.  These supplements have fat burning properties that you may need to bust out of your current weight loss plateau.

References:

http://www.dbbe.fcen.uba.ar/old/materias/fac/PaperMetabolismo(2).pdf

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152