|
The Top 10 Diets of 2008
or, a look at how America intends to lose weight
By Damon Marturion
New Business News Staff Writer
A look at the top ten is not only amusing, but also an accurate look at how Americans plan to lose weight in the coming years. With the prevalence of the information age, the basics of these diets are readily available online, at no cost to potential dieters. More prolific dieters can find books published on these diets to add to their collection of diet books.
Although there are many familiar diets on the Top 100 list, the top 10, has more adequately peaked my interests. They are, in reverse order:
10) The HCG Diet
This is they diet that diet outlaw, Kevin Trudeau, references in his best-selling book, The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About. It involves injecting a hormone found in the urine of pregnant women on a daily basis, as well as adhering to a strict 500-calorie diet.
9) The South Beach Diet
The South Beach Diet by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, MD, of Miami, Florida is a three-phase diet, where the first phase severely limits carbohydrates, introducing low glycemic index carbs, like, wholegrain cereals, pasta and low-fat milk, in phase two. The third phase, is the weight loss maintenance phase, where a wider variety of foods are added to your diet, lasting the remainder of your life.
8) The 3-Day Diet
Believe it, or not, the 3-Day diet is quite compelling for the individual who just needs to lose a few pound, here-and-there, boasting a 6-pound weight loss in only three days. Since it's nearly impossible for anyone to stick to a diet for any length of time, how about just three days? Most anyone could do that! And the promised 6-pound weight loss, is your reward.
7) The Metabolism Diet
aka The Hilton Head Metabolism Diet, originally authored by Dr. Peter M. Miller in 1983, is still going strong. This diet has two stages, a weight loss stage and a two-week maintenance stage. This low-fat/low-calorie/low-sodium diet is still a strong contender after all these years.
6) The 7 Day Diet Plan
aka The Carbohydrate Addict's 7-Day Plan and The 7-Day Low-Carb Rescue and Recovery Plan, both by authors, Rachael and Richard F. Heller. The authors have generated a cornucopia of low-fat, low-carb titles that fans follow.
5) The Chocolate Weight Loss Diet
This diet is basically a calorie-restriction diet (encouraging dieters to eat all the foods that they want while maintaining control over portion sizes) with a host of tips to further increase weight loss results, while you eat regular servings of chocolate throughout your weight-losing day.
4) The Cabbage Soup Diet
This diet has held on strong since the early eighties, features a soup recipe that includes cabbage, onions, tinned tomatoes, green peppers, celery, carrots, mushrooms and onion soup mix. Eat all the soup you want, plus additional food items, strictly regimented over, a 7-day period - resulting in up to 10-pound weight loss.
3) The Grapefruit Diet
The oldest of the most popular diets dating back to the 1930's, where grapefruit is consumed at least three times a day with a low caloric intake of other meats and vegetables. It is said to produce an enzyme that burns fat and touts a weight loss of up to 52 pounds in 2-and-a-half months.
2) The Mayo Clinic Diet
Has been around since the forties, and is closely related to the Grapefruit Diet. The Mayo Clinic disavows any knowledge or endorsement of this diet regimen that was reportedly designed to help patients with rapid weight loss prior to bypass surgery.
1) The Sacred Heart Diet
Achieving popularity in the eighties, the most-popular diet of 2008, is still going strong. It centers round a vegetable soup base, following 7-day meal planner, eliminating bread, alcohol, carbonated drinks and fried food of any kind. This diet promises a weight loss of 10-to-17 pounds in 7 days.
It is plain to see that there is no shortage of diet programs available to the average dieter, and many of them are redundant, at best, and do not offer lasting results. In most cases, following a diet results in rapid weight gain, where the dieter is faced with searching for yet, another diet to follow.
The optimum solution is to find a lifestyle, a method of eating and exercising - that an individual can live with - for the remainder of their years to truly maintain a healthy weight. That said, the majority of Americans still tend to lean towards the, "quick fix," that diets seem to promote.
. . . watch for more stories coming soon
|
