Timeless Diets

I am one of the millions of Americans that needs to lose weight. I have always had a weight problem. My dieting started in the nineties. The diets were used before the 80's and are still around today with different variations. If the diets are still used they must work, or so you would think. Here are a few of the diets I tried and there results.

One of the easiest diets there is and also the easiest to maintain, is called the Three Day Diet. I remember starving myself for three days on specific food and only being able to eat the food at three sittings. Some meals leave you starving and others make you feel gorged. Somehow the food combination is supposed to cause weight loss.

The good news with the Three Day Diet is after the three days you eat whatever you want for the next four or five days so your metabolism does not slow down. This made me think that the only reason this diet works is the drastic change of eating. Anytime you change what you eat, there is a change in your body. I do not remember an exercise regime with this diet. I do remember my friend losing eight or nine pounds in the first week. I did not fare as well. I lost about three pounds. Who can complain? The diet was only three days. I gave up on it after a couple of weeks with no great losses.

One of the hardest diets for me was the Low Fat Diet. I absolutely loathed calculating 30% of the calories for anything I ate. The Low Fat Diet is based on eating food that contains 30% or less of calories from fat. Most labels say "calories" and "calories from fat". If there are 100 calories, the calories from fat should be 30 or less. It is simple to follow as long as you can calculate percentages in your head in a grocery store full of people.

The Low Fat Diet is still around and is one of the healthier diets. When you reduce the fat in foods, you also reduce calories. There are foods that you should stay away from on this diet and chocolate, my personal favorite is on the list. This diet did not work for me because I love meat and some of the meat was not labeled as to fat content. The other problem with the diet was I do not have much will power and can get bored easily. If you exercise with this diet, you will probably be the healthiest you have been in a long time. This is a diet most people can and should continue for a healthy life.

The Atkin's Diet has been around since the late 1970's. Starting this diet, you only eat up to 20 carbs a day. Anyone with diabetes or anyone who likes to eat anything besides meat can tell you how hard it is to eat ONLY 20 carbs. This will definitely make you lose the weight. The less carbs you, the less calories you are consuming.

If you stick to the Atkin's Diet you easily lose more than ten pounds a week. When I tried this diet, I was still a teenager, always on the go and the diet just did not work for me. I am not sure fast food restaurants sold salads at that time. If you eat a salad at a fast food restaurant, check the dressing's carbs. Some dressings have 20 carbs. Remember that The Atkin's Diet is a lifestyle change that you continue for the rest of your life, if you have the will power.

After ending each diet, I slowly gained my weight back. A few extra pounds were added too. Did the diets work? They did help me lose weight, but I could not maintain the type of lifestyle I had with the diet plans. Any nutritionist (and doctor) will tell you, if you want to lose weight and keep it off you have to change your lifestyle including eating habits and exercise. Before starting a diet, consult your doctor. Each person's body is different and results will vary.