The Special K Diet is another meal replacement diet. Instead of eating your usual breakfast and lunch, you should eat a bowl of Special K or one of their other products…protein snack bars, protein water, cereal bars, and snack bites. You are also allowed to snack on fruits and vegetables throughout the day. Dinner should be a normal, sensible dinner.

This diet can work, assuming that the foods you are eating are not all that healthy to begin with.

For example, if you usually swing by Starbucks on your way to work and grab a grande White Chocolate Mocha (470 calories; 18g fat) and a reduced fat muffin (380 calories; 8g fat) for breakfast and then go to McDonald’s for a cheeseburger (300 calories; 12g fat) and a medium fries (380 calories; 20g fat) for lunch, then it’s easy to see how switching to Special K can save you a lot of calories.

However, if your diet is already fairly healthy, then you probably won’t see much change.

The Special K Diet is certainly easy to understand and follow. It’s also easy and doesn’t require a lot of cooking or planning, which is great for people that are busy. It could be a [...] Continue Reading…

Sparkpeople is a great resource for people who don’t want to pay money for diet advice. It’s an absolutely free diet plan. You enter in your current and desired weight and the rate at which you’d like to lose weight and Sparkpeople will generate a plan for you.

For diet, they will determine a range of calories, carbohydrates, protein, and fats that you should eat daily. You track your food. If you would like, they will show you a meal plan (which can be vegetarian).

Sparkpeople also expects you to track your exercise and to work on resistance training. You can choose whatever aerobic exercise you’d like to do and they will give suggestions of resistance exercises, based on the equipment that you have available to you.

You can find a wealth of articles and other resources at the Sparkpeople site, not just on fitness and nutrition, but on goal setting, planning, and achieving in general. After all, once you begin to get your diet under control, the rest of your life starts to fall into place as well. Sparkpeople also has an active community which can help out with any questions that you have.

In addition to all of this, they have [...] Continue Reading…

The Sonoma Diet is based upon the eating styles of two different regions–the Sonoma Valley in California, and the region around the Mediterranean Sea. It stresses eating very healthy foods and has a list of 10 “power foods” which they incorporate in many of the recipes.

One of the major components of the Sonoma Diet is portion control. You should use a 7 inch plate or 2 cup bowl for breakfast and a 9 inch plate for lunch and dinner. They’ll tell you how to divide up those plates so that you’re getting a good amount of the right kinds of foods.

There are three “waves” to the diet. Wave 1 is the most restrictive and lasts only 10 days. It’s during this time that you’ll be cutting out refined sugars from your diet. You should expect the largest weight loss during Wave 1. Wave 2 takes you into a slightly less restrictive weight loss phase. During this wave, you are encouraged to have a glass of wine with your meals. You remain in this wave until you have reached your goal weight. After that, you move on to Wave 3, which is based on healthy eating with occasional treats.

This diet [...] Continue Reading…

The Slim Fast Diet is very famous and has been around for many years. Back when the diet first came out, you’d have “a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and then a sensible dinner”. This created a very low calorie diet which people would lose weight on. However, they were likely to hungry most of the time.

The Slim Fast Diet has been updated for the modern day though! Recent research has shown that eating five or six smaller meals every day helps your metabolism work faster. Now, if you want to follow the Slim Fast Diet, you use one of their meal replacement options for breakfast (shake or bar), combine a small size lunch with a meal replacement, and then eat a sensible dinner. Healthy snacks are also allowed.

You can sign up at the Slim Fast website for access to free programs and tools.

The Slim Fast Diet is certainly easy to follow, which is one of the main reasons that it appeals to so many people. It’s great for busy people who may not have the time to prepare healthy meals. They also encourage you to exercise which is a key component of any successful plan.

However, it [...] Continue Reading…

Protein Power is written by Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades. I highly recommend reading the book if you’re at all interested in low carb diets. It explains the science quite well.

This diet is slightly less restrictive about carbs than Atkins, but it’s still quite low by normal standards. On Phase I, you should eat 30g or less of carbohydrates a day and in Phase II, you should eat 55g or less. After that, the number of carbs you are “allowed” is based on your lean body mass.

The book also contains a method for figuring out your body fat percentage, your lean body mass, and the amount of protein that your body requires. To help with meal planning, they have included charts listing ways that you can get that amount of protein as well as lists of the amounts of carbohydrates in common foods (conveniently broken up into 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g, and 35g servings depending on the level of carbs that you want to eat.)

There is also a message board regarding the diet located at The Protein Power Forums.

There is a subtle difference between Protein Power and other low carb diets. Most low carb diets focus on counting [...] Continue Reading…