It wasn’t all that long ago that the South Beach Diet was the hottest diet plan around. But then, as often happens, other diets started getting more attention. However, you may be surprised to know that the South Beach Diet is still being used by a lot of people to lose weight. It may not be the one getting the most notice, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is whether or not it’s an effective diet for losing weight, and on that count it works very well.

A good place to start is learning a bit about how the South Beach Diet works. It’s a fairly basic concept, but one that other diets have overlooked. What it does is change your cravings. You will retrain your body to stop craving bad food, and start craving good food instead. The other thing the diet does is it slowly lowers the amount of bad fats and carbohydrates that you are currently taking in.

Doing it this way allows you to make the needed changes to your diet without feeling like you are being deprived. That means you are much more likely to stick with it for the long term, and not only can you lose weight, but you will also keep it off. That’s certainly a good thing as far as diets are concerned.

The South Beach Diet has often been compared to the Atkins Diet, but they are not the same. Yes, they are both high protein diets, but that’s where any similarity ends. The Atkins Diet is noted for allowing people to eat as much fat and protein as they want, with the idea that calories aren’t the main problem. But this overlooks the fact that the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. The South Beach Diet let’s you eat plenty of eggs, cheese, vegetables, beef, fish and poultry, but there are also portion sizes (though these are generous).

The diet is divided into phases which are designed to help you make the transition from unhealthy eating habits to healthy ones. For example, the first phase will help you to get rid of things like white rice and bread, ice cream, alcohol (including beer), and baked goods. Now, that may sound like a tall order, but it can be done if you follow the diet. Remember, one of the aims of the South Beach Diet is to actually reset your cravings. If it helps any, Phase 1 of the diet is made to last for only two weeks.

Once you are done with Phase 1, you move on to Phase 2. You will be able to eat a wider range of foods, but there is no time limit on this second phase. That’s because Phase 2 of the South Beach Diet is meant to be followed until you reach your target weight. But the whole beauty of the diet is that Phase 1 actually sets you up to succeed at Phase 2.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that the Atkins Diet was making the news. People were excited about the idea of being able to eat all the meat they wanted and still lose a lot of weight. The interest in the diet was staggering, and enough people saw impressive results to keep the diet at the forefront for quite some time. It seemed to be more than just a regular fad diet. However, it didn’t take long for people to start questioning the potential bad effects of the Atkins Diet.

Well, the Atkins Diet is still around. It may not get nearly as much attention as it used to, but there are plenty of people who start the program on a daily basis. This is a mark in its favor as it shows it is more than just a fad diet. In fact, a lot of other diets have come and gone since Atkins made its initial splash. But what about the supposed bad effects of the Atkins diet?

Let’s clear one thing up right away: there is no consensus in the medical community as to the long term effects–good or bad–of the Atkins program. They are still worthy of debate and further research, and you should at least be aware of them before deciding to try the Atkins Diet.

On the one side, you have people who have lost a lot of weight on the diet. They are happy with how much weight they have lost, and how quickly (a loss of 5 to 10 pounds in the first week is not unheard of). They also enjoy being able to eat high protein foods, regardless of how much fat they contain. This means eating things like steak, bacon, fish, pork, chicken, beef and eggs. As long as people on the Atkins Diet take supplements and exercise while on the program, they continue to lose weight. One thing is for sure, it’s hard to argue with results.

Results are one thing, and how those results are achieved is another. Critics state that one of the bad effects of the Atkins Diet is that the weight loss comes from not only a loss of fat, but also a loss of water and muscle. So, while they’re not necessarily questioning whether or not people are losing weight, they are asking if the type of weight loss is good or not. There is also evidence that any diet that is high in saturated fat can lead to an increased risk of heart disease. If this is the case, then you need to decide if the higher risk of getting heart disease is better than risk of developing other diseases associated with obesity. Or, to put it another way, the more overweight you are, the more you may want to try the Atkins Diet.

As of now, there is no final word as to all of the effects of the Atkins Diet. The best advice is to talk to your personal doctor so you can discuss your options and see if Atkins is a good choice for you.

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Another diet program that is making the rounds in the American dieting circles is the cabbage soup diet.

From the name itself, the cabbage soup diet is a program that involves the cabbage soup as the central figure. It may seem absurd at first and quite different from other diet programs such as the Atkins diet and the South Beach diet but it actually has a rationale.

The cabbage soup diet is based on the assumption that diets that contain high fiber but low in fat can help the body lose weight. The cabbage soup is usually made of cabbage, onions and tomatoes. The soup is supposed to fat-burning as it has a high fiber content. In fact, the more soup that you take in each day, the more calories you will burn and the more pounds you will lose. The taste will be bland so it has to be taken in with other foods.

Unlike other diet programs, there are no restrictions in the food that you take in as long as you drink the cabbage soup with every meal. From low calorie vegetables to potatoes and beef, you can eat anything you want. Of course, dieters under the program are encouraged to take in fruits and vegetables as well as unsweetened fruit juices.

One guideline, however, that must be strictly met is the fact that all meals should be broiled, baked or boiled. No fried meals for the duration of the diet. Another guideline is to avoid alcohol, bread and other carbonated drinks that hastens weight gain.

One downside to the cabbage soup diet is the fact that it not for the long term. It can only be done for a period of seven days. By the end of the week, the person can lose as much as 15 pounds depending of course on the meal that he or she has eaten during the program and how much you have adhered to the guidelines. Beyond the prescribed week, continuing the program can be dangerous to ones health as too much weight will already be lost.

Because of this, dieters often use the cabbage soup diet if they need to lose weight fast. In fact, most people use the program to get into shape before they enroll in a long term diet program. Some get into the cabbage soup diet program when they need to lose extra pounds for a special occasion.

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More and more people are into losing weight because of the physical and emotional hazards too much weight brings. Through the years, dieting has become one of the most popular means of losing weight to almost all overweight people in the world. Although there are seemingly countless testimonies of its effects, many experts agree that there are also side effects when this means of losing weight is not administered properly.

OF DIET AND DIETING

By definition, dieting refers to the practice of eating or drinking in a regulated manner in order to achieve a specific short-term objective of gaining and or losing size or weight. Diet, on the other hand refers to the habit of nutritional consumption and focuses more on a long-term goal.

Studies show that the most common objective of dieting is for a person to lose excess body fat. But, there are also kinds of diet that are prescribed in order to achieve a particular medical objective while some dieting are actually designed and prescribed to increase body fat or add up to muscle weight gain.

Diet is actually categorized into two: the weight-loss diets, which restrict the intake of specific foods or food group in order to reduce body weight and the weight-gain diets, which are usually self-imposed in order to achieve a higher weight class.

Aside from that, special cases also require diets especially when it is related to certain medical conditions. Special diets usually include, exclude, or regulate a set of certain chemicals especially from the foods that contain them.

These special diets are usually given to diabetics to manage the persons blood sugar levels; epileptics who adhere to Ketogenic Diet; celiac disease patients are advised to take gluten-free diet; people who suffer from being lactose-intolerant are advised to veer away from milk products, kidney disease patients are restricted to eat foods that have high-sodium content while people who suffer from mild hypertension are advised to follow a diet low in fat and sodium and rich in fruits and vegetables.

Other specific types of diet to control weight include low-fat diets, low-carbohydrate diet or Atkins Diet, natural diets that include Paleolithic Diet and Evolution Diet, vegetarian diet, and very low calorie diet. Experts say that different diets are designed to on weight loss and weight gain depending on the persons need.

They also agree that if the person would want to use dieting in order to control weight, they must be very careful because different types of food affect the bodys total well being.

They should also seek professional help in losing or controlling their weight because fietingespecially extreme food-intake reduction and rapid weight lossmay lead to prolonged hunger, depression, reduced sex drive, fatigue, irritability, fainting, sinus problems, muscle loss, rashes, bloodshot eyes, gallbladder diseases, and loose folds of skin among others.

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