The Negative Calorie Diet is based on the idea that certain foods use more calories to digest than they actually contain. By eating a diet consisting only of these “Negative Calorie Foods”, you will lose weight.

To use the example on the official website, a piece of cake may have 350 calories and only use up 100 calories to digest. That leaves you with 250 calories that you need to burn, or it will be stored as fat.

An apple, however, may contain only 65 calories, but also use 100 calories to digest. That means that your body uses an additional 35 calories to burn off the apple.

“Negative calorie foods” include:

The term “negative calorie food” is a bit misleading as all foods contain some calories. However, “negative calorie foods” are low in calories and may use more calories to digest than they actually contain. There is much debate over whether “negative calorie foods” really exist or not.

It also should be noted that while the above-listed foods may indeed be “negative calorie”, this also depends largely on their preparation. Making a salad and then loading it with high fat dressings doesn’t do the dieter much good. To properly do the Negative Calorie Diet, you must prepare the foods in their natural form.

The Negative Calorie Diet may be based on questionable science, but it essentially encourages you to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. Frankly, nobody ever got fat eating too many carrots. It can provide a lot of vitamins and minerals, and as long as you prepare the foods without added fat, you can lose weight.

However, the Negative Calorie Diet represents a “diet” mentality rather than a lifestyle change. Few people who practice this diet plan to eat this way for the rest of their lives. If they do not continue a healthy eating plan after losing weight, they will probably regain the weight they lost with this diet.

Additionally, while you can technically eat as much as you want, the Negative Calorie Diet is still going to be low calorie. This can slow down your metabolism on a permanent basis, making it even more likely that you’ll regain your weight later on.

That said, it is a good idea to base your eating habits around fruits and vegetables and you may do well to incorporate some of the Negative Calorie Diet ideas and recipes into a more inclusive healthy eating plan.

During The Master Cleanse (also called The Lemonade Diet), you are not allowed to eat ANY FOOD AT ALL! You drink a special lemonade mixture and herbal laxative teas along with a salt water flush. The cleanse lasts for at least 9 days and can go up to 40 days. It is supposed to cleanse you of toxins in your body.

In our day-to-day lives toxins build up in our system. The Master Cleanse, by Stanley Burroughs, claims that by not eating, you will allow your body to get rid of this waste without adding any more waste to it. The drink consists of lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. They say that all the nutrition you need is in this “lemonade” (but I find that a little hard to believe).

Here’s the recipe for the lemonade:

The Master Cleanse Recipe

* 2T lemon or lime juice (about 1/2 lemon)
* 2T genuine maple syrup
* 1/10t cayenne pepper (or to taste)
* water, medium hot or cold

Mix all of the ingredients in a glass. It should be a glass and not a plastic bottle. This tastes better if it’s made as needed, not in bulk. It’s best to use fresh lemons, preferably organic.

You can drink from 6-12 glasses of the lemonade in a day. NO FOOD SHOULD BE EATEN!

At night, you should drink a laxative tea and in the morning you should drink another cup of the laxative tea, or use a salt water flush.

To prepare the salt water flush, mix 2t of uniodized sea salt into a quart of warm water. Drink it quickly in the morning on an empty stomach. It will stay together and flush through your system very quickly. This tastes nasty. A friend of a friend used salt capsules and drank plain water and this seemed to work just as well, without the bad taste.

Warning! The first time you do this, you may need to be near a toilet for the next two hours.

Do this for at least 9 days, up to 40 days. Some suggest doing The Master Cleanse a few times a year to cleanse your system of it’s toxins.

When you are ready to come off of it, you must be very careful of what you start eating.

The first and second day, you should have nothing but orange juice. Drink it slowly. This will prepare your stomach for digestion.

The third day, drink orange juice in the morning, have raw fruit for lunch, and raw fruit or a raw salad for dinner.

You are now ready to begin eating normally.

The Master Cleanse isn’t meant to be a diet, though many people use it as such. It’s meant to be taken as a way to cleanse your body, both physically and mentally. As you go through the days, you’ll begin to realize how much time you usually spend thinking about food.

During the first few days, you may feel sick. You will probably feel week and have headaches. This is supposedly clearing your body of toxins. After three or four days, many people report feeling full of energy and life.

If you’re thinking about doing this solely as a weight loss method, I suggest you look elsewhere.

However, many people do have a lot of toxins built up in their body from a lifetime of bad eating habits. If you have been thinking about changing your eating patterns and following a more healthy eating plan, then this could be just what you need to break old habits and get your body ready for a healthy lifestyle. Really, it’s up to the person.

Medifast is a meal replacement diet company which has been around for over 25 years. They have helped millions of people lose weight. They are recommended by over 15,000 doctors and the results of their diet have been proven at Johns Hopkins.

There are more than 60 meal replacement options to choose from–shakes, bars, pudding, oatmeal, soups, etc. Each meal replacement option is less than 200 calories and offers a high amount of protein with a low amount of fat. You are required to eat 5 of these per day.

In addition to the meal replacements, you should eat one “lean and green” meal per day. The “lean and green” meal should consist of a serving of lean meat (or other lean protein source) and green vegetables.

After you have lost the weight that you need, they will lead you through a transition and maintenance phase to help you keep the weight off.

The Medifast company claims that you can lose between 2-5 pounds per week. The high level of weight loss is enough to keep most people motivated to stay on the program.

Many people have gotten fat because they simply do not know how to prepare healthy meals for themselves or they find that they too often give into temptation. The Medifast program helps with both of these situations. First, the five Medifast replacement meals each day means that you don’t have to do much cooking. The only meal you are responsible for is your “lean and green” meal. This means you won’t have to make as many trips to the grocery store, which reduces the temptation to buy (and eat) junk foods.

The program may seem prohibitively expensive at first, but when you break it down to a daily expenditure, you’ll find that it’s probably less than you’re paying for food now.

Medifast is a very low calorie diet and you should talk with your doctor before you start this plan. Once you lose the weight, you’ll still need to eat healthy foods if you want to keep the weight off.

Like other diets, the Medifast plan is not for everyone. However, if you need to lose weight and you don’t have a lot of time to prepare healthy meals, then it may be just what the doctor ordered.

According to Dr. John McDougall, fat makes you fat and you shouldn’t eat any of it. In order to quickly lose weight, you must not eat fat. This is what he says in the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss.

Not eat any fat? How can you do that? Well, you have to follow a strict vegan diet with NO added fats or oils. Meat is, of course, loaded with fat, as are most dairy products. Even fatty plants–avocados, nuts, etc.–are frowned upon in Dr. McDougall’s plan. You can, however, eat unlimited amounts of whole grains, fruits and veggies.

What about protein? Well, Dr. McDougall says that you don’t really need that much of it. He says that the average man needs just 20g of protein per day. The rest is just wasted.

There is also a mini-diet within this diet for faster weight loss. You should pick one type of carb–potato, brown rice, etc. Then eat only that carb for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, combined with various vegetables. By doing this, they claim that you will more quickly lose weight.

This diet is pretty much the opposite of Atkins or other low carb diets, and McDougall has science and results to back up his finding (as does Atkins, so who knows who’s really right).

Exercise is also encouraged, to help round this out and help you to lose weight even more quickly.

Most meat-eaters will find this diet to be a bit extreme. However, if you start to follow the diet, you’ll lose weight and find that you’re feeling full of energy. The large amount of fruits and vegetables you are encouraged to eat give you plenty of the nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy. Plus, there’s no calorie counting, which many people hate doing.

The diet is indeed restrictive and you may have a hard time adjusting at first. For example, you may accidentally buy products at the store that contain milk proteins, which are not allowed on the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss. However, there are a lot of fat free vegan recipes online and if you stick primarily to whole grains and foods found in the produce aisle, things start to get a lot easier.

This is the perfect diet for vegetarians to follow, which is good news because there are few diets that fit in completely with a vegetarian lifestyle.

Additionally, there is a 10-day program in California that you can attend where you can learn about the program and eat an unlimited amount of food at buffet-style meals. This may be just what you need to kick start the plan.

The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss is not for everyone, but if you want to achieve maximum health in your life, you’d do well to check out this program.

If you’re in America, or even Australia, chance are you’ve seen Jillian Michaels in action on the hit TV show The Biggest Loser. Jillian is represented as a tough-as-nails drill sergeant who really pushes her team members to work hard at losing weight. She represents a sharp contrast to the feel-good techniques of Bob Harper, the shows other frequent trainer.

Now, with the Jillian Michaels Diet plan, you don’t have to be a contestant on The Biggest Loser to benefit from her training skills. You don’t even have to spend a small fortune for personal sessions.

On her website, you can get much of the same information that she gives the people that she trains in person.

You’ll get an interactive weight tracker, fitness diary, calorie calculator, meal plans and menus, printable exercises, message boards, buddies and more!

Jillian’s process is based on three things–self, science, and sweat. Weight loss is both a physical and emotional process. You will learn about yourself and what drives you to eat unhealthy foods. You’ll learn the science of eating and which foods work best to help you lose weight and keep it off. And you’ll learn about which exercises work best for you.

When you put all of this together, you’ve got a solid program that should help you to lose weight and keep it off.

The Jillian Michaels Diet Plan is a well-rounded program that encompasses diet, exercise, and motivation. These three things will help most people succeed. Additionally, by focusing on the emotional aspects of eating, you are more likely to be successful because you will know what triggers you to overeat. If you know when you are more likely to overeat, you are better prepared to resist those temptations.

Community support is also helpful to those that are trying to lose weight. If you are not dieting with a friend or family member, your process can seem a bit lonely. The message boards available with the Jillian Michaels Diet plan will help you connect with others just like you. This will motivate you to do better.

Some people many not like Jillian’s style and those people should try to find a different program. But if you’ve ever found yourself watching The Biggest Loser and wishing that Jillian was your trainer, then the Jillian Michaels Diet plan is right for you.