The Fat Loss 4 Idiots plan is all the rage these days. It’s a diet program that claims you can lose 9 lbs in 11 days, while eating your favorite foods.

To read the reviews, you’d think that the Fat Loss for Idiots program was the greatest thing to happen to the dieting world since…well, ever! The truth, in my opinion, falls a bit flat from the claims.

When you sign up for the program, you get access to an online meal generator. This software will plan your “meals” for the next 11 days. You’re able to select your favorite foods from a pre-defined list of foods. They do have vegetarian options, but if you’re vegetarian, you will have to eat a lot of fake meats (I learned this the hard way). You’ll get to eat 4 times a day…but at each of these “meals”, you are only able to eat one food.

The claim is that you will lose weight through a process of “calorie shifting”. In a nutshell, this means eating your calories from one source each time you eat and then changing it the next time. For breakfast, you’d eat primarily protein…lunch is primarily carbs, etc.

After 11 days of eating like this, you’re given 3 “cheat days” where you can eat whatever you want. This is supposed to shock your metabolism which in turn will help you to lose weight.

Despite the fact that the creators criticize low calorie and low carb diets in their marketing, their own diet program is still low calorie and low carb. After all, if you’re only eating one type of food at a time (say, chicken), four times a day…you’re not going to be eating too many calories.

Additionally, you’ll get access to other weight loss tips and mistakes to avoid…but it’s nothing you’ve never heard before.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots may be relatively cheap as far as diet programs go, but it’s unlikely to hold up over the long haul. You may lose weight initially, but can easily gain it back when you begin eating normally. This type of losing and gaining weight is bad for your metabolism and makes it harder and harder to lose weight.

Additionally, it is never a good idea to reward good eating habits with food, which is what you can do on your three “cheat days”. Of course, the diet encourages you to make healthier choices on those days, but people who have been on highly restrictive diets have a tendency to “go crazy” when they finally loosen the reigns.

In short, you’d have to be an idiot to buy the Fat Loss 4 Idiots program.

eDiets is an online diet portal. They offer over 20 different diet plans ranging from popular weight loss diets (such as Atkins and the Blood Type Diet) to healthy living diets. They also have an award winning meal delivery service, Deliciously Yours.

eDiets is great because it has a little bit of something for everyone. They can help you plan for just about any diet under the sun. Most other diet sites focus on just one type of diet, which makes it difficult to use if you are trying to follow a diet that’s not included.

There have been so many different types of diet books published lately. All of them have their merits, but one of the hardest parts of following them is the meal planning–simply figuring out “What can I eat?”. While they often have a few sample menus in the book, or even different charts letting you know the nutritional content of various foods, many people find it to be confusing or just not enough information.

The website can help you by suggesting meal plans for the various diets, and offering a way for you to track what you eat.

eDiets is the perfect solution for just about anyone. After all, with so man choices, it’s not hard to find a plan that fits with your lifestyle. Diet plans often fail when they do not fit in well with a person’s lifestyle.

Tracking the foods that you eat helps you to stay accountable when losing weight. While some diets claim that you can eat whatever you want, in most cases, weight loss really boils down to calories in vs. calories out. Knowing how many calories you are eating every day is one of the best ways to lose weight and eDiets will help you with that.

But in addition to tracking, eDiets will make meal suggestions for you. This is the perfect solution for anyone who’s ever been overwhelmed by figuring out what to eat when on a diet.

Some people may feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of choices available through eDiets. Fortunately, eDiets offers a free diet analysis that will help you decide which diet is the best choice for you.

You really can’t go wrong when you choose to use the services offered by eDiets.

The Eat to Live program was created by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. The focus is on eating a lot of vegetables and very little starches and meats. Not meant just as a weight loss technique, eating in this manner can reverse a whole host of diseases including adult onset diabetes, arthritis, heart disease and more!

The diet focuses on the idea of nutrient density…that is how many nutrients are packed into a food as a ratio to calories. Fruits and vegetables of course have the highest nutrient density, with something like candy having little nutrient density at all.

According to Dr. Fuhrman, you should start every meal with a HUGE salad, then also eat many other vegetables, which can be cooked. You can eat one cup of a starch per day (rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.) It’s better if you avoid meat and dairy products, but Dr. Fuhrman says that it’s OK to follow a 90/10 rule–if you eat on the plan 90% of the time, you’ll be in pretty good shape.

You can eat as many fruits and veggies as you want, but you should strive to eat a pound of leafy (salad) greens and a pound of cooked vegetables a day. This is a ton of vegetables and it may be hard to eat that much when you are first starting out. Sound boring? Not to worry! The book offers many recipes that are compliant with the plan.

Most interesting thing in the book…Dr. Fuhrman points out that PER CALORIE, broccoli has more protein than beef. Take that all you “but where do you get your protein?” meat eaters!

The Eat to Live plan may be extremely difficult for die-hard meat eaters. Many people simply have it ingrained into their brains that their bodies need meat. This is not the case, but meat eaters may want to look elsewhere for an eating plan that’s more compatible.

That said, how could you say that there’s anything wrong with a diet that encourages you to eat primarily fruits and vegetables? It is a perfect diet for those who are already vegetarians, but still want to lose weight (not all vegetarians are skinny…).

Some may be concerned about the lack of starchy foods that make up most people’s diets. Dr. Fuhrman has stated in interviews that once you have reached your goal weight, you can incorporate more starches if your body is able to handle them. Watch the scale to know where you stand.

The Eat to Live plan may seem a bit drastic to many people, but it is an incredibly healthy way of eating. The first few days may be difficult, but once you see how your body reacts positively to this type of diet, you will have all the motivation you need to continue.

Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet is perhaps one of the strangest diets out there. It seems like every dieter’s fantasy, doesn’t it? Eat nothing but cookies and still lose weight?

The sad truth is that you can’t just stuff your face with Oreos or mom’s chocolate chip cookies all day. To properly follow the Cookie Diet, you have to eat Dr. Siegal’s specially formulated cookies.

Dr. Siegal created these cookies to help his patients lose weight. He designed them using certain food proteins to create an appetite suppressant effect. Many people find this to be the case.

If you want to completely follow the Cookie Diet, you will eat six cookies total throughout the day. For dinner, you should eat lean meat and one cup of vegetables. Of course, calorie counts vary based on the choices you make, but in general, this adds up to about 800 calories per day.

The Cookie Diet website fully admits that the cookies are not delicious. They may taste good, but “delicious cookies make people fat”. Which I suppose is true. How many times have you suddenly found that you’ve eaten through the entire box of Thin Mints?

Nonetheless, the cookies should help suppress your appetite, making you lose weight.

This diet is very low in calories, which is not good for some people. Most medical authorities suggest that you eat at least 1200 calories per day, more if you are very active. When you eat less calories, your body may think that it’s starving and try to hold onto your weight. In the end, this could create a yo-yo diet effect which is very bad for your metabolism. Once you stop the diet, you are likely to regain the weight.

However, there’s nothing really wrong with the cookies by themselves and they could work for you as an appetite suppressing snack within a more traditional healthy diet. If you find that you are constantly hungry when dieting, but don’t want to take any risky drugs, then Dr. Siegal’s cookies may be just what you need.

The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, written by Drs. Rachael and Richard Heller, is based on the idea that some people are “addicted to carbohydrates” and have problems losing weight because of this. The two lost a combined 200lbs themselves by following this diet.

To follow the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet, you simply eat two low carb meals each day and one “reward” meal, which can include anything you want. Of course, you are encouraged to make healthy choices for the reward meal, but nothing is off-limits. The only stipulation for the reward meal is that it can only last one hour.

The low carb meals should consist primarily of vegetables or salads with a small portion of cheese or meat. The book of the same name has recommendations for low carb meals.

The Hellers believe that by restricting carbohydrates for most of the day, you will release less insulin, which will help you to lose weight. However, the reward meal is there to keep you feeling satisfied and not deprived. They are also against going into ketosis, and the reward meal will keep you out of ketosis.

The good thing about this diet is that no food is forbidden, so you are not likely to feel deprived. Being able to eat your favorite foods will help people to stick to this diet.

Unfortunately, this could lead to a negative relationship with food. The notion of a “reward meal” subconsciously makes you think that your other meals are not satisfactory. You feel as though you are making sacrifices by eating healthy foods. This could lead some people to overindulge during the reward meal.

Many nutritionists question the idea of a “carbohydrate addiction” and claim that the science used to create this diet is unsupported. In fact, it’s highly likely that weight loss caused by this diet is likely due to a reduced caloric intake.

There is nothing inherently good or bad about the Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet. It all depends on the type of person you are and finding an eating plan that you can stick with. If this seems like a healthy eating plan that you can easily follow, then it could be the diet for you.