Dieting. The dreaded word is dreaded by women and feared by their husbands. It seems as if almost every person has experienced some sort of ‘dieting’ experience at one point in his or her life. And what for? To lose weight and to get healthier. Like all trends, diets come in fads; fading in quickly and moving out just as fast.
HCG Diet
HCG is a diet that requires drops that you ingest or that you inject. The HCG is full of an enzyme that is found in pregnant women that forces your body to get rid of fat stores quicker than normal. Dieters are also put on strict food portions of around 500 calories a day. The food dieters are only allowed to eat lean meat and certain vegetables. It has promised to help people lose 20 pounds in 30 days. Now what is so important about taking the HCG supplements? Would you not lose weight on a 500-calorie-a-day diet? Experts say that you could not survive on 500 calories a day because your body would cling to fat. The HCG helps the body not cling onto the fat so you can lose maximum amount of fat. Many people will use this diet as a way to jump start a diet (because you see results quickly, it is easier to keep going). But it is difficult to pair the diet with an exercise plan because your body does not have enough calories to handle the physicality of exercise.
Jenny Craig/Meal plan diets
Other diets include meal plans. To help those who need help deciding what food is healthy enough to eat to lose weight, some diet companies such as Jenny Craig provide pre-packaged, prepared meals for purchase. It helps dieters be able to quickly choose meals without thinking too much about making good or bad choices. And with the portion size controlled, the dieters will hopefully not overeat. These plans can be helpful for women, but can be a bit pricey. And they do not teach you the valuable skills you need to determine what constitutes a healthy meal. It can be hard for dieters to maintain their weight after they quit purchasing the meals.
With any diet plan, you must consult your doctor (especially one where you are cutting your calorie count to 500 calories a day!). Get yourself some discount health insurance (put your ZIP code in the box above and get personalized health insurance quotes in your area). Your doctor can help you determine the healthiest way for you to lose weight.
What sticks around? A lifestyle change. Diets do not create sustaining change. That is not to say that diets cannot help you lose weight. But once you lose the weight you must change your lifestyle to keep the weight off. Starving yourself for a month and then celebrating by laying around and eating hamburgers will only return you right back to your previous weight. To successfully lose weight and keep it off requires change.