Lots and Lots of Diet Plans

by Kristyne McDaniel

There are a ton of diet plans to research. If you are like me and have a need to understand why you're supposed to follow a particular plan of action, it can become a bit overwhelming. Many plans can seem like a one-size-fits-all approach to weight loss, but people come in all kinds of sizes. Men and women alike can be anywhere from 5 feet tall and 90 lbs to over 6' tall and 300 lbs. A single meal plan can't possibly hope to cover people that can be as much as a factor of three different in size! We all have different basal metabolic rates, different exercise routines, different stress levels, different movement patterns in our jobs, different responsibilities in our daily lives, and so on. In my opinion, the best approaches are the ones that can be tailored to the individual from the bottom up. There is no such thing as fast weight loss unless you want to lose less than about 10-15 lbs and are essentially willing to starve to do it. Slow and deliberate seems to be the recommended approach no matter who you consult.

Because of the overwhelming amount of diet information available on the web, I'm working to condense what I find and translate the lingo into forms that are easier to understand and compare. Everyone seems to be all to willing to share their weight loss secrets with the payment of a modest fee. At first it is a bit distressing that everything has a price tag, but then after spending some time digging up information I can see the benefit in paying money for the data. The table below covers just a small subset, and the links in each entry of the table go to a page with more detailed opinions.

We're starting off with the above plans, and will continue to flesh out our coverage to include more in the weeks to come. Weight Watchers is the granddaddy of them all, still going strong after decades of tremendous successes. The Atkins diet was the first major diet to emphasize a focus on almost no carbohydrates with most calories coming from protein and fat. It is not for everyone, and can be expensive, but it is known to get the weight off. The South Beach diet is a new take on low carb dieting that is getting a lot of attention. Another diet that we're looking at is the 3-day diet. For the short term it looks reasonable enough. But for anything more than a few lbs or a few days, there's just no point. There are also cholesterol lowering diets well worth considering.

_{This page was last updated on Tuesday, August 22, 2006}