Food Portions V Diets – You MUST Read This Before Starting a Diet
Many fad diets quickly gain a massive following because of the rapid weight-loss experience they claim. The Grapefruit Diet of years ago touted spectacular results from eating grapefruit before every meal. Advertising the health benefits and fat-burning potential of grapefruit had dieters scrambling for the produce section! This was truly a ‘one hit wonder’ to the over-weight individual. It restricted the type of food to be eaten and failed to include correct sized portions of the wide range of foods we need to eat to stay healthy.
The Grapefruit Diet is a 12-day diet plan that restricts caloric intake and requires eating a grapefruit prior to every meal. Although it talks about the weight-losing properties of grapefruit, the real weight loss comes from the restriction of calories. Its proponents say that you can lose 10 pounds in 12 days. Sound good? Sure it does, but imagine what happens once you go off the diet as you crave calories and when you ignore the size of your food portions? Rapid weight loss is not a long-term solution.
The Atkins Diet has weathered the diet storms for years and gained popularity in the late 90’s. Then in 2001, the ‘New’ Atkins Diet surfaced and promoted low-carb bars and food products from Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. Unfortunately, this diet still restricts the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy foods instead of modifying the size of the food portions we eat. Carbohydrates are on the taboo list of The Atkins Diet.
This diet defies everything we have learned from nutritionists and scientists over the years about the importance of a healthy diet, including grain products, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and meat. No single food category provides everything the body needs and the Atkins Diet is no exception.
The South Beach Diet bans fruit, bread, potatoes, pasta, and baked goods during the first phase. You can supposedly lose 13-15 pounds in the first two weeks as you ‘detoxify’ your body. You then add ‘good’ carbs back to your diet and weight loss slows down but continues. And finally, during the last phase of this diet you can eat anything in moderation.
As you can see from the strategy, the first two weeks are really a teaser to get you motivated to diet, but that period of rapid weight loss is unhealthy and can cause serious health issues. The real success comes when you re-incorporate all food groups back into your dietary plan and exercise portion control.
The Zone is a very complex diet plan that requires weighing, measuring, and calculating percentages of food groups consumed each day. It is time consuming to manage and becomes frustrating and difficult to maintain. Although the recommended proportions of food groups consumed are healthy, the process is difficult to maintain. Modifying the size of your food portions from the beginning would be much healthier and far less complicated.
As unlikely as this may sound, dieting in an attempt to control weight is often associated with weight gain. Those people who diet, generally gain more weight than those who never restrict. Healthy weight management means following a healthy meal plan, not a restrictive one and can be achieved through portion control.
You can reach the same weight loss goal as each of these ‘diets’ just by controlling the size of the food portion you eat. Losing weight can happen naturally and healthily not unnaturally when you feel deprived and unhappy. Best of all it can include the right sized portions of the all the food types you should eat and like to enjoy.
Do you remember another Weight Loss journey that you embarked upon that just did not worked for you (or probably anyone else) over the long term? I’d love to hear from you about these as well as and any weight loss success of your own or by others.
Warm regards
Rowena French
For the Team @MightyDigitalDownloads.com
Rowena French uses responsible portion control to successfully manage her own weight and her family’s health. Tired of dieting without success? Read more about the benefits of portion control in my other blog posts. Sign up to my free magazine to learn more about how to modify your food portions for healthy, permanent weight loss. If you haven’t already subscribed to my free product sample, watch my preview video for more information about the whole portion control package.
Tags: portion control, portions
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