Jumat, 29 Agustus 2014

Weight Loss Diet Plans - What Plan is Ideal For You?

number of calories that is right for you depends on your 
weight and the level of activity you engage in. When a 
diet plan allows this level of calorie intake in a day 
it is called a low-calorie diet and the weight loss is 
achieved by calorie counting and therefore limiting the 
number of calories you consume.

Ideally the calorie level of your diet should allow for 
no more than a one pound per week weight loss. Results 
are more visible after the first week or two because of 
the initial water loss. It is important to remember that 
the recommended calorie level for each individual will 
vary depending on your age and weight, so you may need 
to eat more or fewer calories dependent on your own life 
style and circumstances. To remain healthy and not feel 
lethargic whilst on a restricted calorie diet, it may be 
a good idea to take supplements that will help to keep 
you energized and full of vitality throughout the whole 
day.

Fixed-menu diet plans:

A fixed-menu diet provides you with a list of all the 
foods that you can eat in an effort to lose weight. The 
advantage of this type of diet is that it is easy to 
follow because the foods you can or cannot eat have 
already been selected for you. This helps end the 
confusion of ‘can I eat this or not?' However, the 
drawback of this type of diet is that food choices are 
very limited and this may therefore make the diet boring 
and hard to follow if, for example, you are away from 
home and do not have all the ingredients you may need. 

In addition to this drawback, fixed-menu diets do not 
really teach you the food selection skills necessary for 
keeping weight off, and such skills are crucial when you 
have worked so hard at losing weight. Ideally therefore, 
if you start with a fixed-menu diet there should come a 
time when you switch to a plan that helps you learn to 
make meal choices independently.

Such a limited diet also poses the risk of limiting your 
unnecessary nutritional intake. In this scenario, 
nutritional intake refers to the essential vitamins, 
minerals and micronutrients that everyone needs in order 
to enjoy continued good health. A lack of essential 
nutrients can therefore mean that your weight loss 
efforts will be slowed down, rather than accelerated. 

When you cut out certain foods, it is inevitable that 
you will reduce the amount of some nutrients in your 
diet as well. Food supplements could be the quickest and 
simplest solution to helping you maintain your diet and 
overall good health at the same time.

Exchange-type diet plans:

An exchange-type diet is a meal plan that works with a 
set number of servings from each of the basic food 
groups and within the limits of each essential food 
group. Foods that are about equal in calories can be 
replaced with each other at your own discretion. For 
example, from the starch category you could include one 
slice of bread or half a cup of oatmeal as each is about 
equal to the other in terms of nutritional value and 
calories.

In this diet scenario, if the meal plan recommends two 
starch choices at breakfast, for example, you could 
choose to eat two slices of bread or one slice of bread 
and half a cup of oatmeal. The choice is yours. In the 
case of exchange-type diet plans, you can have more day
-to-day variety and they are easier to follow even when 
you are away from home. However, the most important 
advantages of the exchange-type diet plans is that they 
teach the food selection skills you must acquire in 
order to keep the weight off once you have shifted it!

Prepackaged-meal diet plans:

Pre-packaged meal diet plans require that you buy 
prepackaged meals. Such meals may help you to learn the 

appropriate portion sizes that you should be eating but 
the major disadvantage of this kind of diet is that it 
can be expensive. Also, using this kind of diet it is 
questionable whether you could actually learn about 
proper nutrition and make intelligent meal choices for 
losing weight. There is also the question of 
availability - the meal you want may or may not be 
available if you are out of town, for example. It may 
become difficult to lose the weight and then keep it 
off, which is always the biggest challenge.

Formula diet plans:

Formula diets are weight-loss plans that work by 
replacing one or more meals with a liquid formula. Most 
formula diets are balanced diets in nature as they 
contain a mix of protein, carbohydrate, and usually a 
small amount of fat as well. Formula diets are usually 
sold as a liquid or as a powder that has to be mixed 
with a liquid to make a shake-like drink. Even though 
formula diets are easy to use and do help short-term 
weight loss, many people easily regain the lost weight 
as soon as they stop using the formula. Note that 
formula diets do not teach you how to make healthy food 
choices. We have already established that being able to 
make healthy food choices is a necessary skill for 
keeping your weight off.

Flexible diet plans:

Some diet plans suggest that you should be monitoring 
your fat intake or the intake of calories, or a 
combination of both fat and calories. In the case of 
flexible diets, the choice of the type of food lies with 
the individual and, because of this, such a flexible 
diet plan tends to work well for most people. This is 
because it allows for choice and freedom. However, this 
diet plan is also flawed because it limits food intake 
of a particular food group only. For example, any diet 
plan that focuses only on cutting down the consumption 
of fat will allow people to take in unlimited amounts of 
excess calories from sugars and this pretty much 
guarantees that weight loss will never really happen.

Low fat diet plans:

Fat is recommended to be the lowest consumption food 
group because it leads to weight gain and because of its 
limited nutritional value. In a low fat diet plan, the 
number of calories obtained from your diet must be 
limited. Using a low fat diet, only 30 percent of the 
calories consumed must come from fat, whilst on a very 
low fat diet plan, only 20 percent of calories must come 
from fat. In a typical low fat diet, meat, poultry and 
fish are not recommended. The only dairy products 
allowed are fat free yogurt, milk, cheese and egg 
whites. Banned foods in the diet include all fats, 
seeds, nuts, refined carbohydrates such as white rice, 
sugar and white flour. You are allowed to consume an 
unlimited amount of other food without measure, 
especially foodstuffs like fruits, vegetables and 
grains. However, modern research is increasingly 
skeptical about the claim that fat is the main culprit 
behind obesity and weight problems.

Restricted flour and sugar diet plans:

This is also termed the no flour, no sugar diet plan and 
is a weight-loss program that reduces calories in your 
diet by eliminating flour-based and added-sugar foods. 
Foods that contain added sugar and refined flour are 
nutrient-poor, unlike foods which contain whole grains, 
fruits, vegetables and legumes which are rich in 
vitamins, minerals and fiber. The No Flour, No Sugar 
Diet cuts down on the so-called 'empty' calories of 
refined carbohydrate-based foods. These also tend to be 
foods that are high in fats. The No Flour, No Sugar type 
diet also encourages a lifestyle that involves a 
selection of foods without significant sugar and refined 
flour content, based on the interpretation of food 
labels. No counting of calories is suggested or 
necessary.

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