South Beach Diet & Other Weight Loss

Terry Edwards asked:


If you have ever stayed up late and watched television, you have most likely seen one of the many infomercials that promote fad diets. These infomercials are known for showing off people who don’t have a single ounce of fat on them–all of whom claim that the infomercial’s diet is the secret to their weight loss success. Some of these promotional testimonials will probably seem very tempting but the good news is that most of us know that most of what goes into these infomercials is hype not honesty. That doesn’t mean there aren’t excellent diets being promoted, but you need to realize that there will always be some bad that gets paired with the good.

Here are some of the pros and cons of fad diets:

As long as people are trying to lose weight, there will be a fad diet designed to help people do just that. Usually these fad diets are promoted by very persuasive people like actors and models or other people who are familiar to us because they spend a lot of time in the public eye. A lot of people have truly lost weight by following a fad diet and some of them have even managed to do so in a very short time period. If you want to lose weight quickly (perhaps you have an important event coming up) a fad diet might be the right way to go.

Some of the fad diets being peddled are actually very healthy diets. The raw food diet is an example of a fad diet that is very healthy while still being what many of us consider extreme. The fact is that while the raw food diet is certainly a fad diet, it is one of the healthiest fad diets you could ever follow! By ridding your diet of all cooked and processed foods, you will increase your health exponentially. Be prepared to feel amazed at how healthy you feel after spending some time following this diet!

Unfortunately, most of the fad diets being promoted aren’t diets that you could follow for a lengthy period of time, let alone for the rest of your life. The truth is that most fad diets cause a temporary weight loss and you will gain back every ounce you lost as soon as you cheat on the fad diet even a little bit. There are also quite a few fad diets that are extremely unhealthy and dangerous to follow. Sure these diets will help you to drop some weight in a short period of time, but your health could be permanently damaged. When faced with this option, choose for a slower weight loss but a healthier diet.

Kacy Carr asked:


Did you ever hear the likes, a “chocolate diet?” Brace yourself because you hear right. Chocolate acts as a vitamin replacement; if this is true then healthy benefits derived from this particular diet may not be so bad after all

The chocolate diet is just one of many fad diets which include you eating favorite foods. While consuming your specified amount of yummy allowance keep in mind it is supposed to control high blood pressure and prevent heart disease. Although encouraging reasons for using the diet, what of rotting teeth and the people who bang weight on if they as much look at a bar of chocolate.

The diet mainly consists of fluids. Powder or supplements are given to the dieter to mix with milk or water. Is this not cocoa as we all know it?

Chocolate contains anti-oxidants that help prevent arteries clogging. Does this not leave the dieter in a catch 22 situation after being advised to avoid sugary foods because of fattening issues? Weighing up the good and bad is it not healthier to carry a little excess weight to avoid pores clogging or having a heart attack. Chocolate prevents heart disease and obesity increases the risk of heart disease. Is obesity not the same as fat? I am confused.

Chocolate powder shakes are not for replacing or substituting meals, but designed as healthy snacks to stop a rumbling belly. Is this diet so bad when the sugar supply gives us that much needed energy boost?

The question is does the chocolate diet work.. It’s not clear that chocolate stimulates metabolism or helps the fat burning process. Beyond that, too much of anything can be bad. While chocolate does have health benefits, a diet with an emphasis in chocolate may not be the best way to lose weight. To shed pounds stick with a sensible eating plan.

Diet - Throughout the day you can munch two 40 gram bars of chocolate and drink sugar-free coffee with non-fat milk. Make eating exciting and appetizing, mix chocolate chips with strawberries in a glass bowl. Glass allows visibility of the delicious filling which guarantees lip licking. Slice a couple of bananas and drizzle melted dark chocolate over them. You have to take the chocolate diet for 5-7 days and no longer. After one course take a break for 3-4 days. The chocolate diet is a decreased calorie diet that centers on drinking liquid diet shakes to fill the gap. People use it as a replacement for food and if you consume less food this clearly indicate fewer calories.

I am not sure I agree this can be called a sensible diet when evidence proves different i.e. pounds piling on instead of dropping off and decaying teeth. Before dieting speak to your doctor or dietician

The sensible thing to do is ignore fad diets and embark on the sensible by following a sensible eating plan. Choose the wrong diet can be dangerous - seek expert advice. The best way to evaluate a diet is by the promises made. Overnight weight loss or miracle cures are promotional pledges you should snub.

Crash dieting is unhealthy. Weight loss is for more than just losing pounds. Exercise for skin and muscle tone is just as important. Exercise is necessary but it won’t replace a diet. A combination of both is ideally the key source to losing weight. Give yourself time to adjust and not to lose focus when you begin your first diet.

Consider a low-key diet that aims at healthy foods:

1 Choose an apple over a chocolate bar.

2 Cut out cordials and drink water.

3 Walk rather than use the car or bus.

4 Limit portion sizes of what you eat. It is easier than counting calories and carbohydrates.

5 Use a smaller plate to serve dinner on.

6 Replace sticky puddings for pieces of fruit

To lose weight, fewer calories have to be burned off than what you take in. Skipping meals and eating fewer calories can cause severe consequences; it can lead to binge scoffing later because of low energy and blood sugar levels. A sensible and healthy eating plan will include between 1200 and 1400 calories daily for women and 1500 to 1800 calories for men. Breakfast being the most important meal of the day is one you must not skip. Eat 4 to 5 times a day but in moderation.

Chicken breast is a good source of protein also low in fat. Two recipes below cooked in 15-30 minutes, low in fat, and under 400 calories a serving

Chicken & Vegetable Kebabs

4 Blocks of egg noodles

2 Skinless chicken breasts

1 Jar/195g yellow bean sauce

3 Button mushrooms

1 Medium courgette

½ yellow & red pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

4 spring onions

1 red chilli

Wooden skewers

Method

1. Fill large pot with water - bring to the boil, add noodles, return to the boil and simmer for 4 minutes.

2. Dice chicken breasts and place in a bowl. Add ¾ jar of yellow bean sauce and stir coating the chicken.

3. Preheat grill.

4. Prepare mushrooms into quarters; slice courgette; deseed. Slice peppers into squares. Size is up to you.

5. Skewer a mushroom quarter followed by chicken, courgette, pepper and so on.

6. Place kebabs on the grill and cook for 10-15 minutes turning frequently.

7. Heat some oil to smoking point in a wok, add spring onions chilli and stir fry for 60 seconds. Add noodles and remaining sauce - stir to coat. Heat through.

8. Serve kebabs over noodles.

Chicken Pancakes

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

3 Skinless chicken breasts

Jar hoi sin spring onion stir fry sauce

Spring onions, sliced lengthways

1 Cucumber

8 Chinese pancakes

Method

1. Slice spring onions lengthways into 3″strips. Cube cucumber and slice into thin batons.

2. Thinly cut chicken into strips.

3. Heat oil in wok till piping hot, add chicken and stir fry for 7- 8 minutes

4. Preheat Chinese pancakes as instructed on packet.

5. Add stir fry sauce to cooked chicken - coat and heat through.

6. Serve chicken spring onions and cucumber onto pancake - roll and serve

Enjoy stay slim and healthy

 

Patricia Zelkovsky asked:


Unfortunately most weight loss diets are actually fad diets. All to often diets that describe themselves as being new or revolutionary are actually diets that are twenty or thirty years old come back for a second or third wave of popularity. Good examples are the Zen diet, which is simply a revival of hippie macrobiotic eating theories from the mid 1960s, the Zone diet which is based on food combining principles that have been around since the turn of the 19th century and the Atkins diet which was initially pioneered in the 1970s and had a Gloria Swanson type comeback not too long ago.

The best way to identify a fad diet is to determine if it is based on any of the following principles:

It is based on the way Neanderthals eat It is based on foods from the bible It is based on your blood type It is based on eating mostly protein and no carbs It is based on eating mostly carbs and no protein It is based on eating no fat It is based on eating fatty foods It recommends the eating of negative calorie foods It recommends eating only one fruit such as grapefruit It recommends drinking more than three cups of coffee a day It claims that you can eat whatever you want

Perhaps the most popular of these diets are the High protein/low carb diet that are based on the idea that carbohydrates are bad, that many people are “allergic” to them or are insulin-resistant, and therefore gain weight when they eat them. This includes the South Beach Diet, the Zone Diet and the Atkins diet. These types of diets induce ketosis to accelerate weight loss. Ketosis is an abnormal body process that occurs during starvation due to lack of carbohydrate. Ketosis causes fatigue, constipation, nausea, and vomiting, none of which are part of a healthy lifestyle. Long-term side effects of ketosis are documented to include heart disease, bone loss, and kidney damage

The truth behind weight gain in this society is that people are eating more total calories and getting less physical activity. Your body simply doesn’t distinguish between types of calories when it comes to weight gain or loss only the number of them.

Crash diets dehydrate you, low calorie diets put your body into starvation mode so you plateau so you can’t lose one more pound and high protein diets stress your kidneys and clog your arteries.

The truth is that you do need protein and fat in the diet, both serve important metabolic and physiological roles in the body. Fad and crash diets, such as the ones described above are not only unhealthy but they are also cause rebound weight gain. Also most diets, even though diet gurus write them cause an initial weight loss but the ultimate result is that you gain all of the weight back the minute you go off the plan. If you don’t gain it back within a couple of diets, you are likely to gain it all back plus a bit more within a year.

Garen Arnold asked:


There are many fad diets to choose from. Most of them reel you in with the promise of quick weight loss. We lose are rational minds and start a two day diet to lose ten pounds. This leaves us disappointed and probably not feeling very well after the two days. We need to start looking at the dangers of fad dieting. If you really lost ten pounds you would be dehydrated, have an electrolyte imbalance and mineral deficiencies. The promises of fad diets sound to good to be true because they are.

The American Heart Association (AHA) studied fad dieting and came up with some dangers of fad dieting. The AHA says fad dieting violates the rules of good nutrition. Good nutrition is eating a balance of different kinds of food. The AHA goes on to say there are no Super Foods that will take off the weight. They maintain that people should eat a variety of foods from all the food groups. The AHA also says fad dieting takes the best part of eating away. That is, eating the food. You should like what you eat and feel satisfied.

The dangers of fad dieting are they may lead someone to binge. The dieter gets so bored with the food that he or she has a big slip. Some people might binge and purge. Purging is an attempt to get rid of the food you ate by vomiting or use of laxatives. The purger may not eat anything for a few days to compensate for their binge. All of these encompass part of the dangers of fad dieting.

According to the AHA, around 1977, there was a protein diet which use consisted of digested collagen with additives. This diet has been thought to cause 60 deaths over the years. This was over thirty years ago and the dangers of fad dieting are just as strong today.

The AHA suggests that you forget about fad diets and eat a balanced meal to keep your body at a healthy weight. The AHA also has its own healthy way to lose weight diet program, to lose weight sensibly.

The dangers of fad dieting are that they do not teach you the way to eat to deep the weight off. Dieters do not learn healthy diets for long term weight management. It can be a whole lifestyle change for some people.

Another reason dieters should look before they leap is that fad diets can lead to depression. Depression is a mental illness that may need to be treated by professionals.

The fad diet may actually do what it promises losing weight fast; but the dieter returns to their regular weight just as quickly. The weight lost in fad diets is from water in our body, not fat. Your body will naturally return to a state that is out of dehydration.

One of the dangers of fad diets can be that children and teens may try them. A web site called Kid Health, states that one out of every three children are overweight or obese. Teens report that they feel a lot of shame for, being over weight. It leads them to feel bad about themselves. Children need good balanced nutrition to function. A fad diet may affect his so her performance in school. A fad diet may leave the child feeling weak because his electrolytes are out of balance. Finally, the dangers of fad dieting is if the child persists on the diet it can stunt this or her growth. There are healthy ways to lose weight with a balanced diet. Children can learn how to eat a well balanced diet for their lifetime.