Weight Loss Article - The Grapefruit Diet

February 9th, 2007 webmaster

The Grapefruit Diet is one of the fad diets that were really popular back in the 1980s although it has been in one form or another since 1930. Most of the time, the grapefruit diet has been discounted by experts as dangerously unbalanced or simply unable to deliver on its promises. It was generally thought that consuming vast quantities of grapefruit cannot influence weight loss in any way, which relegated this diet to the status of yet another fad, one of those things people go crazy about without any real reason. However, time has passed and new discoveries are about to rock the traditional view.

The basic idea behind this diet is to eat grapefruit whenever you can, drink a glass of unsweetened grapefruit juice with every meal, add grapefruit to cocktails and also to salads. Grapefruit is supposed to go well with the lean meat from crab and chicken and with vegetables, such as red onions, spinach and celery. The biggest advantage is, of course, the fact that grapefruit is virtually fat-free and has few calories. An entire grapefruit has about 70 calories, which means that you can eat about as much as you can stomach and still lose weight.

The best thing about the Grapefruit Diet is a recent study carried out by a team of scientists led by Doctor Ken Fujioka, from the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center of the Scripps Clinic in San Diego. The study has found that, contrary to the opinions voiced by experts in the 1980s, adding grapefruit and grapefruit juice to your diet can actually help you lose weight. And what’s really great about it: you don’t have to change your eating habits at all. Naturally, eating less fat and sweets and doing some exercises is a very good way of speeding up the weight loss process, but you don’t have to go out of your way with this diet.

According to the study, eating half a grapefruit before each meal and exercising a bit every day helped a group of obese people drop an average 3.6 pounds in 12 weeks without any change in their eating habits whatsoever. A second group had to drink a glass of grapefruit juice before every meal and lost 3.3 pounds in the same 12 weeks. While it’s true that losing 1 pound per month gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “slow diet”, you have to appreciate a diet that lets you eat whatever you like and still shed a pound per month. If weight loss is not a stringent affair, then you can stick to this diet for a long time and reap the benefits.

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Weight Loss Article - The Curves Diet Plan

February 8th, 2007 webmaster

Try as we might, we cannot be creative all the time. Not all ideas are original enough and the harder you try, the more difficult it seems to get something decent out of your own head. This is one of the reasons why some people simply use something that has already been proved to work, add a little twist and try to pass it off as a new idea. The Internet, for instance, is choke full of websites, topics, design concepts and blogs are are nothing more than a poor rehash of a good idea. Diets are like that, too.

This one is not particularly original, despite sustained attempts to come across like a whole new and different idea. The theory behind the diet is that a high-protein, low-carb diet coupled with a lot of exercising will help you build muscle in order to keep metabolism high and burn a lot of calories. A high metabolism allows you to lose weight faster and to make sure you stay in shape for years, because it will be harder to put on weight in the future. Nothing new here; it looks like a variation of the Atkins diet (or any other low-carb diet for that matter).

Users can choose between two eating plans, depending on which suits them better. The Carbohydrate-Sensitive Plan reduces the intake of carbs to 20 grams per day for the first two weeks, increasing to 40-60 grams per day after this period. The second plan is called the Calorie-Sensitive Plan and it focuses on limiting carbs to 60 grams per day and calories to 1,200 for the same two weeks, moving up to 1,600 later on. The second phase of the plan is supposed to last for five weeks or until you’ve reached the desired weight and are preparing to return to normal food.

The eating plan is supplemented by exercises and some recommended vitamins and minerals. However, just like in the case of the Atkins diet, most carbs are off limits for both eating plans, which leaves the user eating a lot of low-fat, high-protein foods in order to keep hunger contained. This means no bread, no pasta or wholegrains, no fruit and only a few vegetables. By sticking to this diet you can expect to drop between 6 and 10 pounds during the first two weeks and between 1 and 2 pounds per week in the second phase.

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Weight Loss Article - The Coconut Diet

February 7th, 2007 webmaster

Some people are willing to sell anything and this is why some bad ideas are actually launched on the market, much to the dismay of unsuspecting customers who are duped by the hype and advertising. One such bad idea is the Coconut Diet, which is yet another of those diets that add some kind of miracle ingredient to a strict eating program and hope that everything turns out great. The magic ingredient in this case is the coconut oil and its metabolism boosting capacity. It seems that coconut oil can be rapidly burnt by the body, despite the fact that it is rich in saturated fats.

This diet is in fact a regular low-carb diet, very similar to Atkins. During the first stage of the diet, users are not allowed to eat any kind of carbohydrates and must do with lean foods, such as eggs, nuts, cheese, fish, chicken, turkey and up to 10 glasses of water per day. They also have to swallow 2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil per day. The first stage lasts for three weeks, only to be followed by an optional detox stage. This stage lasts for 4 weeks and focuses on cleansing the liver, kidneys, gallbladder and colon through certain interesting means (such as drinking water mixed with lemon juice and olive oil).

The third stage of the diet is the reintroduction of carbohydrates in the daily eating plan. Starting with fruit, wholegrains and potatoes, the dieter is once more allowed to eat carbs. It is assumed that the dieter has lost more than 10 pounds by this point and still maintaining a weight loss pace of 1-2 pounds per week. The fourth stage of the diet means that even more carbohydrates are added to the eating plan, while still drinking coconut oil.

Unfortunately, the person behind this diet provides no sound explanation for the alleged positive influence of coconut oil on weight loss. While it’s true that coconut oil helps regulate the thyroid gland, it has far too much saturated fat to be healthy. Furthermore, it’s not very clear whether the coconut oil plays any kind of role in this diet, since the weight loss can easily be ascribed to the strict “no carbohydrates” eating plan. Most dieting experts and dietitians agree that access to saturated fats should be limited during diets, so it’s pretty strange to see one that claims the opposite.

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