Weight Loss Article - The Traffic Light Diet

February 15th, 2007 webmaster

The Traffic Light Diet relies on what may probably be the best-known color code around to teach the user which foods should be avoided and which should be consumed in greater proportions. This diet focuses on cutting down the amount of calories contained in the daily food, instead of carbohydrates. Nothing new here, for that matter; a lot of diets are based on low-calorie foods. The cabbage soup diet, the Cambridge diet or the Ann Collins 14-day Diet come to mind when discussing this issue.

According to the Traffic Light principle, the foods are split into three categories. Red Light foods are high-calorie foods which contain few nutrients and should be avoided. Yellow Light foods are high in calories, but also high in nutrients, which makes them good to have around in moderate quantities. Green Light foods, of course, have plenty of nutrients for only a low amount of calories.

The basic idea is to eat as much Green Light food as you like, eat some Yellow Light foods and only touch Red Light foods once in a while, when the urge becomes unbearable. The less Red Light foods you eat, the more successful your weight loss process is going to be. We all know that sticking to a diet is hard, but if you really want to lose weight, then there are ways of motivating yourself and going through the whole diet. Not to mention that Red Light foods are not banned outright, but accepted in small amounts. This means that, yes, it’s OK to have some cake once in a while.

The list of Green Light foods includes vegetables, fruits, fish (white meat only), seafood, yogurt and low-fat milk. Yellow Light foods are potatoes, cheese (the low-fat version), oily fish, lean meat, bread and cereals (high-fiber), pasta, rice, seeds, nuts, beans and poultry. Red Light foods are everything else. Buying the book describing the diet will get you some helpful 7-day eating plans grouped according to lifestyles and information on portion sizes for many of the foods listed in the three categories. There’s also a large section of answers to frequent questions, recipes and exercising advice.

The best thing about this diet is the fact that it’s easy to understand and also easy to follow. It’s not based on any kind of complex reasoning that requires the help of a trained professional every step of the way and it’s not based on foods that no store from your neighborhood has ever thought to market. If you manage to stick to the diet’s principles you can expect to lose at least 1 pound a week, which means that you will probably shed the actual fat and not the water stored in your body. Don’t overdo it, though, because trying for 2 pounds a week can prove to be a major health risk.

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Weight Loss Article - The Sugar Addicts’ Diet

February 14th, 2007 webmaster

Sugar seems to be addictive to a certain degree. The human body learns fast that sugar means energy and that a lot of energy running through the system translates into a good overall mood. Unfortunately, the good mood lasts just as long as the amount of sugar in your blood stays above a certain level. Once the amount of sugar drops below that particular level, the mood changes and the body starts craving the next sugar fix that will make everything look good once more. In this respect, sugar seems to operate just like any other psychoactive substance or like adrenaline. You can learn to get high on all these substances.

The Sugar Addicts’ Diet focuses on breaking the addiction to sugar in order to prevent the mood swings that prompt the addict to reach out for one more sugary treat. These mood swings are hard to resist and the promise of the next fix is so tempting that many people have no idea they’re hooked on something that is not healthy. Truth be known, most addicts don’t want to face reality and understand the truth about their addiction and many people hooked on sugar or adrenalin have absolutely no idea that they’re using a substance to prop up their moods.

This diet is largely based on the Glycemic Index approach because its purpose is to weed out the sugary foods and replace them with foods belonging to a lower Glycemic Index that release their sugar content slowly into the bloodstream and do not trigger the rush. The basic idea is to identify hidden sugar in the foods you eat. Many people don’t know that it’s not just sweets or soft drinks that contain sugar, but also a lot of sauces, dips, yogurts and ready-to-eat foods have enough sugar in them to cause the mood swings.

It’s pretty easy to figure that this diet is more of a lifestyle choice than a proper diet. Of course you will lose weight by avoiding the foods rich in sugar, but we cannot be sure if this is the best way to go for a committed user. If you want to lose a certain number of pounds in a certain number of weeks, then you’re probably better off choosing another eating plan because nobody knows how fast you can lose weight under this one. Still, as a long-term maintenance solution, this eating plan is a good idea, especially for those who are used to eating a lot of sweets and are afraid that all those lost pounds will come back.

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Weight Loss Article - The South Beach Diet

February 13th, 2007 webmaster

The South Beach Diet is one of the odd fishes swimming in the treacherous waters of the international weight loss industry. Many people love it and are perfectly willing to swear by the good name of M.D. Arthur Agatston, while others find it hard to stick to the obligatory induction phase. The South Beach Diet belongs to the low-carbohydrates group of diets and has been derided as a fad diet, although its fans claim that it is not a fad diet and that it is, in any case, much more responsible and healthy than Atkins. Then again, not many diets manage to be less healthy than Atkins.

Dieters who choose the South Beach Diet can expect to see their food intake restricted to lean meat, seafood, eggs, low fat dairy products, nuts, vegetables (most of them, anyway), artificial sweeteners and a couple of carbohydrates of the low glycemic variety. During the first phase of this diet, the shock phase, most fruit and vegetables are still on the banned list, just like the rest of carbohydrates. Unfortunately, some people find it hard to cope with the low energy level, the fatigue and sometimes nausea that accompany this phase. However, it should be noted that not all dieters experience these symptoms. It’s all in our genetic make-up.

The bets part of this diet is the focus on removing simple carbohydrates (sweets, pasta, bread) from the diet and replacing them with the healthier complex carbohydrates from wholegrains and vegetables. The worst part is the marketing jargon that makes it sound like a fad diet and the tough first phase of the diet, which sacrifices the long-term healthy eating approach for an instant gratification technique based on the catch-all slogan “lose weight fast”. Any such approach will have the dieter lose a lot of water and not that much fat.

On the other hand, the second phase of the diet is a bunch of quite sensible eating advice and the recipes provided by the author are very good. There are also pre-packaged South Beach foods for those who lack the time or the inclination to cook for themselves. All things considered, the South Beach Diet is not a bad idea if one could clear away the hype and marketing lingo and focus on the healthy eating part and the good food choices. This information is something that should stay with you through the years if you’re looking to keep that weight from returning.

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