Lots of people who want to lose weight and eat healthy, ask question does the popular weight loss diet plans actually work. If you are following one religiously right now, and you have lost some calories, you must stop and ask yourself if it’s promoting long-term wellness.
Most of the average consumers are likely to ask how to lose weight in a week. They don’t know what they are getting themselves into when they decide to follow a popular diet.
Dieting and Exercising
Experts say that weight loss is 75% diet and 25% exercise. However, it’s true that people see short-term results fast when they eat smart. That’s probably because it is easier to cut calories instead of burning them off.
One day of cheat meal can make you lose track of your daily’s calorie count. So, if you have consumed 500 extra calories, you will probably have to run 4 more miles to burn them. Low carb diets are popular and they show results fast as well but they are difficult to sustain.
People end up cutting their calories too low and this causes their metabolism level to slow down. When this happens, you start losing muscles as well. 10 calories per pound of your body weight are considered a healthy daily calorie count.
What Really Works?
Atkins diets, cabbage soup diet, and other fad diets – we have heard of these names for weight loss. The problem with these fads is that they only offer quick fixes. Most of all, they are developed by people who have no nutritional or health background. This makes them even more harmful than you think.
The fad diets make you restrict your food choices so you are actually eating fewer calories than before, hence the weight loss. Along with losing weight, you will also feel you are losing muscles and water. People are hardly able to maintain these diets over the long run because they are too restrictive. When people stop the diet and go back to their normal eating habits, they gain weight much faster. Sustainable weight loss only happens if you are on track. Here’s what really works:
- Aim for slow weight loss. So, start by losing no more than half to one pound a week.
- You must eat 3 meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- Physical activity is essential for healthy weight loss. Make sure you exercise for 30 to 60 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
- Stay away from diets that limit your food intake. Your body needs essential nutrients that are found in colorful fruits, veggies, dairy product, olive oil, nuts, etc.
- Avoid those diets that claim eating certain foods will make you lose weight automatically.
Before following any weight loss diet plans, ask yourself, can you eat like this the rest of your life. If your answer is NO, then that plan is definitely not the best to follow.
Diets That Actually Promote Wellness
Not all weight loss meal plans are fake. There are some plans that actually promote healthy weight loss and wellness over the long run. Let’s have a look at these:
Mediterranean Diet
This diet promotes non-processed food. You are recommended to eat fresh food that includes chicken, fish, oil, and vegetables.
Also eat white meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese, herbs, nuts, whole grains, and even red wine. You can’t have red meat, processed food, and salt. Research says that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial for cardiovascular health as well. It focuses on your general well-being by making you eat healthy food.
Juice Diet
As the name implies, a juice diet consists of drinking fresh juice of fruits and vegetables. You have to avoid consuming solid foods for a couple of days.
You can’t have alcohol either. It is beneficial to add juice to your diet but you cannot survive on juice alone. It is a great diet to receive all essential nutrients from fresh produce but your body needs solid food as well.
5:2 Diet
In 5:2, you eat for 2 consistent days and go a calorie fast and 5 days of normal eating. So, you can consume 2000 to 2500 calories for 5 days. This diet is easier because you don’t have to restrict eating habits. You are just fasting and that helps improve our cholesterol level, blood pressure, and metabolism.
5:2 diet lets you focus on quality eating by making you forget about how many calories you are consuming.
The next time someone recommends you a fat loss meal plan, before blindly following it, check if it’s actually healthy to continue it in the long run. If you want to follow a meal plan, go for the ones that are safe.
