Every couple of years or so, we see a new fad diet pop up. Somebody will come out with their new way of eating and exercising that is guaranteed to make you lose loads of weight in no time at all with very little effort. The diet usually comes along with a bestselling book that will sell millions of copies which end up as unwanted Christmas gifts. Most of the time, those diets don’t really work and you just end up putting the weight back on again, but sometimes they actually do work. These are the fad diets that will actually help you to lose weight and keep it off.
The Atkins Diet
The Atkins diet was one of the most popular fad diets but people will often say that it doesn’t work because they haven’t been doing it right. Most people will tell you that you have to cut out carbs and eat as much meat as you want. It’s not actually as simple as that. True, you have to cut down and eventually cut out your carbohydrates and you can have as much meat and proteins as you like, but that’s only step one. When you do this, your body starts using fat as an energy source instead of the carbohydrates. Once this has happened, you can start adding carbohydrates back into your diet gradually, until you reach a point where it causes you to gain weight. That way, you work out what your personal tolerance for carbohydrates is and avoid exceeding that amount. Where people go wrong is that they either don’t reintroduce the carbs at all, or they start eating too many.
Juicing
Juicing diets are still very popular because they really do work. All of the added extras that we get in our food is one of the reasons that people struggle with their weight but you can avoid that if you’re just eating fresh fruit and vegetables. Juicing helps your body to absorb everything and use all of the nutrients as efficiently as possible. People often discount juicing because fruit juices can contain a high level of sugar and sometimes people feel hungry shortly after drinking their juice. Those problems are easily solved if you don’t overdo it with fruit and stick to vegetables instead. In terms of the hunger issue, that’s likely because you’ve lost a lot of the fiber from the fruit by using the wrong type of juicer. There are two main types of juicer, a centrifugal one, and a masticating one. Here is a buyers guide to masticating juicer to help you get your head around the difference. Basically, a centrifugal juicer spins the fruit at high speeds so the juice comes out of the fruit. A masticating juicer, on the other hand, mashes and grinds the fruit into a pulp. That means that you get all of the flesh from the fruit and vegetables which is where all of the fiber is. Eating the fiber is key to making sure that you don’t get hungry.
Vegan
Vegan diets aren’t really a fad diet but in the past, they weren’t all that popular. It was a pretty niche lifestyle choice but now it’s becoming more and more popular. Lots of people discount vegan diets because they contain no animal products at all and they say that the diet is unbalanced and unhealthy. While it’s true that some people on a vegan diet are unhealthy, that doesn’t mean the diet itself should be avoided completely. Because you’re eating natural foods and hardly any processed foods, you’ll lose a lot of weight. You can get everything you need in your diet without needing to eat animal products so as long as you are careful, there’s no need to worry about your health on a vegan diet.
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet is a fairly recent fad diet and although it has its problems, it can help you to lose weight. Its main focus is on eating the same food that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have done. It’s pretty difficult to follow because it excludes a lot of different foods. Lots of people slate the diet because it’s almost impossible to follow strictly and some people might experience health problems on such a restrictive diet. It’s not a great idea to follow the Paleo diet to the letter but the idea of cutting out processed foods is a good way to stay healthy.
The Zone Diet
The zone diet is an incredibly simple diet that is essentially a guide to eating a properly balanced diet. It works by dividing all of your calories into three areas. 30 percent should come from protein, 30 percent from healthy fats, and 40 percent from carbohydrates. All of that intake has to be eaten at certain times of the day. In studies that have been done, the zone diet is found to have worked but only if you stick to it by the letter.
The 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 diet or the fasting diet is one of the more recent fad diets that’s really taken off because people are seeing great results. People like it so much because for five out of the seven days you can eat completely normally without having to worry about it. Then for the other two days, you have to limit yourself to 500 calories a day. It takes a little while to used to not eating as much for those two days but once you do, it’s not really a problem. It has been suggested that those fast days are just going to cause you to eat more on the other days so you won’t actually lose any weight, however, there is no evidence for that. Actually, the evidence shows the opposite. Those fast days release hormones that curb feelings of hunger so you actually start eating less on your normal days. One of the other benefits of the 5:2 diet is that it helps you to maintain muscle mass which is a big problem with a lot of other diets.
The HCG Diet
The HCG Diet will work nicely in tune with your hormone levels to help you process food correctly and use the nutrients to gain muscle and shed fat. Give this bonus diet a try if you are looking to drop weight quickly.
There are so many fad diets out there that aren’t going to do anything for you, but these ones will actually help you to lose weight.
