Weight Loss Secrets Revealed

Quick and Fast Ways To Lose Weight Rapidly

Are Diet Programs Effective And Safe?

Are diet programs effective and safe?

For people who have excessive pounds should consider diet programs in order to learn how to lose weight quickly and safely. Many weight loss programs will establish what kind of plan will suit your situation, how much to lose, over what period of time, and how to maintain the weight loss. Once you have completed the program, you are better informed about nutrition and exercise to make positive changes to your lifestyle.

Facts about some popular diet programs:

Atkins Diet

The Atkins Diet operates from the premise that the main cause of obesity is refined carbohydrates, especially sugar, flour and corn syrups and rejects that saturated fat is a major nutritional problem. While most of the emphasis in Atkins is on the diet, nutritional supplements and exercise are considered equally important elements. As a consequence, Atkins Diet restricts carbohydrates in order to switch the body's metabolism from burning glucose to burning stored body fat. Preferred foods are whole, unprocessed foods with a low glycemic load.

Sonoma Diet

The Sonoma Diet plan is about managing portion sizes and eating approved foods centered around 10 items known as the "power foods". According to the creator of the diet these foods were chosen for their nutritional value and intense flavors. The power foods are:

Whole grains
Almonds
Bell peppers
Tomatoes
Broccoli
Grapes
Spinach
Blueberries
Strawberries
Olive oil

This diet is not classified as a low-carbohydrate diet or low sugar diet. People following the diet are allowed to eat whole grains, breads and cereals during all three stages of the diet. The plan does recommend avoiding white flour, saturated fats, and recipes with additional sugar.

At the heart of the Sonoma Diet is about eating with joy with emphasis on flavour and wide selection of recipes. The challenge is in knowing about eating right foods in the right proportion.

Mediteranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of some of the countries of the Mediterranean basin, particularly Greece and Southern Italy where their diet is cited as beneficial due to low saturated fat and high monounsatured fat and dietary fibre.

The use of olive oil is thought to be good for lowering cholesterol levels in the blood. It is also known to lower blood sugar levels and blood pressure. In addition, the consumption of red wine is considered a possible factor, as it contains flavonoids with powerful antioxidant properties.

South Beach Diet

The South Beach diet emphasizes the consumption of "good carbs" and "good fats". Dr. Agatston developed this diet for his cardiac patients and believes that excess consumption of so-called "bad carbohydrates", such as the rapidly-absorbed carbohydrates found in foods with a high glycemic index, creates an insulin resistance syndrome — an impairment of the hormone insulin's ability to properly process fat or sugar.

He also believes that excess consumption of "bad fats", such as saturated fat and trans fat, contributes to an increase in cardiovascular disease. To prevent these two conditions, this diet minimizes consumption of bad fats and bad carbs and encourages increased consumption of good fats and good carbs.

Negative Calorie Diet

In a negative calorie diet, dieters are to eat and drink food products that are nutritious but are said to have a negative caloric effect; i.e., provide fewer food calories than the calories needed to digest them. The energy that the body needs to digest the food is usually given as a certain amount of calories, whilst the energy content of the food is given as kilocalories - often written "Calorie".

The effectiveness of the above foods are linked to their nutritional value. One of the most often mentionned negative calorie foods is celery, due to its' extremely low nutritional value.

Ice cubes have been used as a negative calorie source, in that water contains no calories in the first place, and the body must expend energy to compensate for the slight decrease in temperature it experiences as the ice is consumed. Certain sugar-free juices and broths have also been claimed to contain negative calories.