Nutritional Diet Plans that Help You Lose Weight and Get Healthy
When you’re looking for a diet plan, it’s true that you want one that will help you lose weight. But you also want to be sure that it’s a plan that’s nutritional. While there are many diet plans available, there are some that stand out as being great for eating healthy.
Paleo
This diet is based on the way cavemen once ate. It follows the teaching that people following the plan should eat just like their ancient ancestors did. The premise is based in the fact that back in those days, junk food and fast food as well as food with additives and preservatives did not exist.
What you can eat are the same type of foods that would have existed back when men and women had to hunt for what they ate – whether it was animals or food that was plant-based.
So that means you can eat meat and you can eat vegetables. You can also have fruit and seeds and fish. One helpful thing about this diet is that you don’t have to stress about watching your carb or your calorie count.
All you have to do is eat all natural. If you want proof that this diet will work, just look back through history at the strength of the caveman and compare that to the amount of overweight people today.
It used to be in ancient times that people had to expend energy – and a lot of it – to track down something to eat. Now, it’s only a few steps away to a refrigerator or a pantry. Your body wasn’t made to eat the way food is prepared today and it wasn’t made to be sedentary.
The nutritional needs of a person’s body haven’t changed from the days of the cavemen to now. But because the diet has, people have all kinds of health problems and weight issues.
Back then, caveman didn’t eat processed grains so they didn’t have to deal with a lot of extra weight or obesity. Not only that, but grains can cause reactions in some people that show up in things like skin problems or digestive problems.
On the Paleo diet, eating healthy is simple. You won’t eat grains. You also won’t consume any processed foods, including processed meats. You’ll cut out sugar. Those are only three things to watch out for but they make an amazing difference in your weight and your health as well.
Once you begin to eat Paleo style, your body will start to shed fat because that’s what it will burn for fuel. You are allowed to have carbs but the ones that you eat will come from foods that are good for you like the ones found in vegetables and fruits.
And if you think that a carb is a carb, you’re wrong. The carbs from vegetables and fruit do more good for your body and give you more energy than carbs from a donut can.
Choosing what to eat on a Paleo diet is pretty straightforward and easier to follow than diets that require several steps.
You just have to keep in mind that if the food isn’t natural, you don’t eat it. So you can eat meat, vegetables, natural oils, fruits, eggs, fish, chicken, and nuts. Some people on the Paleo diet go completely dairy free, which means they don’t consume milk or any milk based products.
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean diet is a great diet to follow. It’s based on eating the way that people who live in Mediterranean countries eat. Past studies have shown that people who live in areas in that part of the world tend to have fewer health issues than people who don’t.
One study showed that there was a direct link due to the types of foods consumed in the Mediterranean versus people who live in other areas. By using this diet, you can do a lot for your body.
You’ll lose weight, but you’ll also lower your risk of developing certain types of health conditions and diseases. Eating this way does a lot for your heart. You can lower your risk of getting Type 2 diabetes.
You can also prevent heart attacks and strokes and protect your arteries. What’s so great about this eating plan is that you get a lot of choice when it comes to food and you don’t have to stringently count calories, either.
You can choose to follow the guidelines from a diet book that features this eating plan or you can mix and match foods to create your own. Regardless of the way you do it, the Mediterranean diet is based on the same principle for food.
You’ll be able to eat plenty of vegetables. You can have things like potatoes, broccoli and carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and more. Fruits are a staple on the diet, too – like apples, oranges, strawberries, pears, apricots, avocados, peaches and more.
Nuts and seeds are allowed. Unlike some diets, you are allowed to have bread. The diet also includes beans and peas, fish and other kinds of seafood – and even dairy foods are on the plan.
With dairy, though, you’ll want to be careful with portion size. While you can eat red meat with this diet plan, it’s encouraged that you don’t eat it often and instead choose meats that are either poultry or fish.
Certain foods aren’t found on this diet. These are foods that not only add pounds, but can also lead to health problems. You’d cut out processed foods, including lunch meat, sugar, sodas – anything that’s sweetened with sugar, and that includes cookies, cake, and candy.
If a food is made with refined grains, then you would cut that out as well. You can eat foods that are made with whole grain. You would also change the kind oil that you used with cooking or in meals to ones such as olive oil.
This diet has a heavy focus on eating all natural foods with an emphasis on vegetables and fish as your main meat. The type of drinks that you can have if you follow this diet include red wine, which has known benefits for the heart. You can also drink tea or coffee as long as they’re not sweetened width sugar.
South Beach
This diet is popular because it’s a low key, yet effective way to lose weight and get fit. It’s based on following a low carb way of eating, which is known to help keep weight off for the long term as well.
Dr. Arthur Agatston is the inventor of this diet and he created it based on his research as a doctor. If you follow this one, you’ll cut out saturated fats and focus on eating lean meat and low carbs.
The goal of the diet was to eat foods that were good for the heart, while at the same time helping people to lose weight. People who have heart health issues or are at risk for developing cardiovascular events have to have a diet that’s low in saturated fat.
If not, eating a lot of saturated fat adds to the chances of them having a heart attack or stroke. The diet is one that’s good for those who are heart disease candidates, as well as for people who have diabetes, want to prevent diabetes or simply want to get rid of unwanted pounds.
Unlike other diets that have carbs on the menu, the South Beach diet has an emphasis on specific carbs. It’s based on using low glycemic-index carbs. The lower a carb is on the glycemic index, the better it is for your blood glucose, your weight and your heart.
One particular area that the South Beach diet is good at for helping people lose weight is in the abdomen. Losing belly fat can help to lower the risk of a heart attack. The way that the diet works is pretty simple.
It consists of three parts. During the first part of the diet, known as Phase 1, you’ll concentrate on getting your glucose levels into a healthy, steady range. So that means that you won’t be able to eat a lot of foods that contain natural sugars – and that includes fruit.
You’ll cut out high carb foods and some grains. This part of the diet lasts about two weeks and you’ll lose a lot of weight here in the beginning. This is the 3/2 stage. You’ll be eating three meals that consist of lean meat, leafy green vegetables and other foods that are low in calories.
You’ll also be able to have two snacks chosen from healthy foods that you’re allowed to have. By the time the second part of the diet begins, you’ll have mastered what to eat and you’ll have lost your taste for addictive foods that contain added sugar – though sugary treats are never completely outlawed if you’re following this as your life eating plan.
Here, you’ll be able to eat fruit again. You’ll still lose weight during this part, but it won’t be as fast as during the first phase. You’ll remain in this stage of the diet until you’ve lost the weight that you want to lose.
When you do that, you enter the final stage of the diet, which is known as the maintenance stage. Here, you can have what you want to eat – including favorite foods. But what you do is keep an eye on how you’re doing to make sure you’re not gaining. If you do start to gain, then you begin again to take the weight off. Exercise is part of this diet.
Atkins
The Atkins diet is hugely popular because of the types of food that you can eat if you’re following it. But it’s also popular because it’s known to deliver results. You will lose pounds and inches if you eat according to the plan.
If you’re someone who loves a good, hearty meal and prefer that over a diet filled with mainly vegetables, then this diet is the one for you. You will be eating a lot of protein as well as fat.
But you won’t be eating meals that are high carb. As a result of the protein to fat ratio, you’ll find that you feel full after meals, despite the lack of high carbs. You will be eating vegetables on this plan, but the vegetables that you’ll eat are ones that give you a lot of benefit for your digestive system.
The foods that you eat will consist of things like meat and seafood. You’ll also be able to eat dairy – including cheese – because these are considered the good fats. You’ll need to avoid junk type foods like cakes and cookies and chips.
Like the South Beach diet, the Atkins diet also consists of different parts or phases. In the first phase, this is where you’ll experience rapid weight loss. You’ll shed a lot of pounds during this first phase as your body adjusts from the way you were eating to the way you’ll be eating now.
During this phase, the amount of carbs that you’ll be eating is extremely low. You’ll only be eating a total of 20 grams. This will take you into ketosis, which is what happens when your body burns stored fat for fuel instead of getting it from the carbs you’re eating.
In the next phase, your food options will grow. This may be a period of adjustment while you get the carb intake in line with the weight loss. Some people end up having to add some carbs to their daily intake while others have to lower it.
For the third phase, you should also be close to or at your targeted weight loss. It’s here that you’ll have learned what you need to know to keep the weight off for your lifetime.
In the final phase of the Atkins diet, you’ll learn about maintenance.
This is the period when people relax their eating style and start to put weight back on or they use what they’ve learned to keep it off. If starting out the diet with just 20 grams of carbs is too restrictive for you, then you can choose to follow the newer version of the diet, which gives you 40 carbs instead. On this diet, you won’t be counting calories, but you will have to count carbs.
Low-Carb
There are many different versions of a low carb diet that you can follow. The key to success is to choose one that fits your lifestyle. Some people can handle a diet that utilizes extreme carb control while other people need a little more leeway with what they can and can’t eat.
Most low carb diets will have you cut out foods that are high in carbs. This is a good idea because a lot of high carb foods don’t offer any benefits for your body. While you might think that all carbs are the same, they’re not.
A high carb fast food meal will not give you the same health benefits as a meal that consists of vegetables or whole grains with high carbs. While the fast food carb meal can contribute to heart health problems, the vegetables and grains will not.
So keep in mind that carbs are not the same. A low carb diet is one that focuses on eating lean protein, healthy fats and a lot of green, leafy vegetables. Any low carb diet will cause you to lose weight and get fit.
But the low carb diet that you choose should not be one that’s a fad. It should include foods from all the different food groups. You can decide just how strict you want the low carb diet to be.
Some are extremely low and limit carbs to less than 30 a day. If you choose an extreme version, you should do so with the intention of only using that extreme to jumpstart your weight loss.
It can help to motivate you if you see that you’ve lost 5 to 7 pounds in the first week alone. Most low carb diets start at around 50-100 carbs a day. The foods that you eat on a low carb diet should be as natural as possible.
In fact, the more natural these foods are, the lower in carbs they usually are. You can eat meat since meat doesn’t have a lot of carbs. But you’ll want to stay away from processed meat which doesn’t offer much health benefit and has been linked to health problems.
The kind of meat you can eat includes beef, pork and chicken. You can also eat fish and other seafood. Eggs are good on a low carb diet and they also make a great low carb snack.
Make sure that you fill up on vegetables. Prepare these in advance along with some boiled eggs so that you have a good snack on hand when you feel hungry. Have crunchy foods available on the diet.
Studies have shown that if people have a crunchy food like sliced carrots or cucumbers, they’re less likely to crave crunchy junk food like chips. On a low carb diet, you can have dairy and you can also have fruit – but if you’re a diabetic, you’ll need to watch how the natural sugar spikes your blood sugar.
You’ll stay away from foods that contain added sugar and junk foods like cookies, candy, ice cream, and cakes. You’ll also have to avoid processed grains and other high carb foods like pizza and pasta.