Weight Loss and Fad Diets

Lately it seems that the in thing when it comes to weight loss is fad diets. Losing weight seems to have become an obsession for many Americans in the past few years. There's the Atkins diet, the grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet just to name a few.

The Atkins diet is one of the most famous and most popular diets among the ones listed above. The basic rules for the Atkins diet are to not take in too many carbohydrates; less than 20 grams is all that is allowed on a daily basis. Carbohydrates equal weight gain. However, you can have all the meats, vegetables, and cheeses that your heart desires. The things you need to steer clear of are the cereals, sugars, candies, juice, beer, chips, grains, and fruit.

The grapefruit diet is yet another popular fad diet that promises weight loss. Their promise says that you can lose up to 52 pounds in about two and a half months. This fad diet has rules like all the rest. You drink at least 64 ounces of water per day, eat the minimal at every meal, but eat until you are full. At some point within the diet you should double or triple your helpings of particular items like meats and vegetables.

Apparently you are not to omit anything from your diet. And then the grapefruit comes in either in fruit form or in juice form, but it is supposed to help to start the process of burning away your fat. You're supposed to start the diet and stay with it for about twelve days, stop the diet for two days and then repeat the entire process again. This one sounds more like a joke than a real diet. Do it at your own risk.

The next fad diet for weight loss is the cabbage soup diet. Cabbage is a vegetable and not fattening. The way this diet works is you can eat the soup anytime you feel hungry as well as eat other foods. This diet plan is set up as day one you eat all the fruit you can handle, day two, eat all the vegetables you want, day three, eat vegetables and fruits, day four, bananas and skim milk, day five, beef and tomatoes, day six, beef and vegetables, and day seven, brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice and vegetables. You eat all of these along with eating the cabbage soup.

These are all fad diets that are supposed to be designed to help you lose weight while you are getting your daily nutritional needs. Every day there are more and more of these types of diets popping up all over the world. You see them on television ads, magazines, and billboards as you drive down the street. Don't just jump into one of these new fads if your in need of losing some weight. Always talk to your doctor first and try to come up with a good nutritional program along with a great exercise regimen so that you can lose weight the safe and healthy way.