The Skinny On Those Weight Lose Fad Diets

Everyone on the planet is gullible to try anything that promises to help them lose weight because they want to look or feel better, or because they are worried about getting weight related diseases like obesity and even worse diabetes. All companies that promote fad diets take advantage of this fact. They appeal to people by promising losing inches the easy and quick way. Many people prefer to try the quick fix of a fad diet instead of making the effort to reduce their weight through long term changes in their eating and exercise habits. Just look the diet bars and drinks and pills when you walk into Dominick’s or Jewel the next time you go shopping. Every container has a picture of the man or woman with the perfect body that never looks like they had an ounce of fat on them. If you walk down the magazine aisle you’ll see Oprah in her latest “garb” slim and trim and next to is an advertisement for one of those “sure thing” weight loss diets.

Fad diets become popular because many of them do work for a short time and a fiend or acquaintance will recommend one or more to you. In many cases, this is because when you stop eating certain types of food or eat certain combinations of foods, you are putting fewer calories than you normally would into your body. You are also paying more attention to what you are eating. However, what people don’t realize is that the weight you lose is from water and lean muscle, not actual body fat. In fact, most people who go on these fad diets are not able to keep up with the demands of a diet that inhibits their food choices or forces them to eat the same foods products over and over again. People who go on fad diets most likely end up gaining back any weight that they lost and gaining much more weight back in addition to that.

Don’t go on any weight reduction plan if the products promise to do any of the following:

1) Claim of 1 or 2 pounds per week to help you lose weight very quickly. Remember, it took time for you to gain unwanted weight and it will take time to lose it.

2) Promise that you can lose pounds and keep it off without giving up "fatty” foods or exercising on a regular basis. If a diet plan or product sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

3) Base claims on "before and after" photos.

4) Offer testimonials from clients or "experts" in weight loss, science or nutrition. Remember that these people are probably being paid to advertise the diet plan or product.

5) Draw simple conclusions from complex medical research.

6) Limit your food choices and don't encourage you to get balanced nutrition by eating a variety of foods.

7) Require you to spend a lot of money on things like seminars, pills or prepackaged meals in order for the plan to work

Some examples of Fad Diets include the following:

Controlled Carbohydrates - The Zone
High Carbohydrate/Low Fat - The Pritikin Principle
Controlled Portion Sizes - Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss
Food Combining - Suzanne Somers' Somersizing
Liquid Diets - Slim-Fast
Diet Pills - Dexatrim Natural

Go now and ask a friend or family if they’ve gone on one of these Fad Diets. Then ask them a few weeks later if they were able to stick with it or simply look for the person to get fat again and ask “what the heck happened”. Then you will know that these kind of quick fix diets don’t work in the long run and you are better off following sound advice like limiting food intake, drinking plenty of water and exercising, the way our bodies were meant to do for many thousands of years.

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