The biggest challenge of starting a diet is choosing which diet to try. There are two important questions that need to be asked before researching a diet. What will work best for a particular body type? And is this person willing to cut certain foods out of their life? Diets are advertised through all types of media. The South Beach Diet has stood out from all the low carb craze. It’s a diet that promotes a healthy alternative to cutting carbs by allowing a person to limit bad carbs while still eating good carbs. Another diet that has been popular for years is The Weight Watchers Plan. The diet allows a person to eat any food they want, but keeping with a point system to help minimize daily calorie intake. The South Beach Diet and Weight Watchers both promote healthy, long term weight loss while offering different approaches to eating.
The South Beach Diet was introduced by a cardiologist that designed the diet specifically for overweight patients with heart problems. The diet ended up becoming a popular weight loss diet for everyone. South Beach is made up of three phases that each contain the appropriate type of food for that particular phase. Phase one is two weeks of eating less than twenty carbohydrates a day. It includes all lean meats, low fat cheeses, eggs and unlimited green vegetables. Phase two starts to introduce some of the good carbs, like whole grain bread, and fruits that are low in sugar. Phase three is the maintenance phase of the process. Entering this phase means that a desired weight goal has been achieved. Phase three consists of making healthy food choices while keeping the low carb aspect in mind. Foods that are high in sugar and starch are to remain limited in this new life style. Foods like potatoes and pastas are to be consumed rarely and in small quantities. The diet’s healthy aspect is that it provides three daily meals plans and several snack ideas. It also gives the option of returning to phase one again if weight starts to come back, but by introducing carbs slowly back in to the diet a healthy weight is easily maintainable.
The Weight Watchers Plan is another approach to dieting. The ever popularpoint system allows any food to be consumed as long as it is in a normal daily calorie intake. Weight Watchers point system is based off of body weight and how much bodyweight needs to be loosed. A certain amount of points to be consumed in a day is given out to the individual a long with a book that contains how many points are in what foods. For example the points could be 900 points a day and they want to eat an apple and the books says it’s worth 25 points, then they need to subtract that 25 points from their 900.The trick is to plan the points out for the day, so that is not early afternoon and they’re out of points and nothing to eat. The plan also offers a support group that gives the option of going to weekly weigh ins and meetings. This can be helpful to chart weight loss progress and to chat with others that may have similar weight issues. The diets health approach is that it does not cut out any food and even allows deserts. It sticks to a small
to normal proportion range and involves all nutritional groups.
South Beach and Weight Watchers are easy to stick to when dining out. Now a days many restaurants offer low carb options and foods that are already labeled with the weight watchers points to make ordering a breeze. They both contain healthy food options and stay away from crash dieting . Both plans are designed as a life style changeand not just a temporary weight loss diet. Each diet contains its own line of products to help maintain the diet. Such as South Beach as bars, cereal, and low carb snacks and Weight Watchers has frozen meals and desserts. Both diets are tried by millions of peopleand are backed my several weight loss success stories.
The two diet plans differ in many ways and do not necessarily work for everyone. What maybe an effective eating plan for someone may not work for another, so they need to be sure to choose the plan that works best for their life. South Beach may not be appropriate because limiting carbs can be hard to stick to and give the body low energy levels. Weight Watchers you have to pay for the cost of the point’s book and constantly look up the food you want to eat, which can be time consuming.
The people that tend to lean more towards the point counting system are people who like to visually keep track of what they are eating as well as people who can use the group support system. South Beach tends to attract people who enjoy just being able to look at a list of certain food that they can eat and stick to . They are also people who can benefit on others ways from cutting out sugar like borderline diabetics.
I personally like the low carb diets. Limiting bad sugar intake works best for my body. However, to be successful with any diet plan choosen, weather it be one of these or something else of their choice. Sticking to a diet plan, while constantly eating the
right foods and working out regularly can lead to weight loss goals and a healthier life style.
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