Sorting Through Fad Diets and Losing Weight Safely

One of the biggest struggles any individual will deal with is maintaining a healthy weight throughout their entire life. When an individual hits their mid-twenties to early thirties, their metabolism has slowed down from when they were younger. Their eating habits probably have not changed to match their slower metabolism. This provides a surplus of calories that the body packs on as fat. The big question becomes, is your metabolism simply too slow? Are you constantly hungry because your metabolism isn’t correctly balanced?

The first place to start your search for a healthier lifestyle is to examine what you’re eating. The golden rule for weight loss is 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise. Arguably, the key to weight loss is eating healthy and fewer calories than you use. But then why do so many turn to fad diets to lose weight and improve their metabolism?

In the last 50 years or so, there has been a boom in the types of diets that people claim are the best for a variety of conditions, including losing weight. Below are some of the most popular fad diets, what their benefits and negatives are, and ways to improve your metabolism. The following five have been some of the most popular and prolific over the last couple of decades. 

Originally designed by a cardiologist to help his patients avoid diseases like diabetes and heart disease, the South Beach diet has expanded beyond the original intent. The diet encourages individuals to eat many small meals in order to curb hunger, which can cause overeating and also focuses on eliminating many carbs. It should be noted that the first phase of the diet is very stringent, but phase three is a lifelong lifestyle change meant to encourage healthy eating and keep weight off.

The Atkins diet has been around a long time and gone through several revisions. Even with all thee revisions, lean protein is the pinnacle of the diet and mixes in controlled fats and carbs. The main idea is to count the grams of carbs you’re eating every day.  Initially you’re only allowed to have 20 grams of carbohydrates, which is rather small. The Atkins diet focuses on controlling your macronutrients in order to help you lose weight, and then keep the weight off.

Paleo is probably one of the most difficult fad diets to maintain, but it is also one of the most popular. The paleo diet is framed around eating only foods that would have been available to early humans. This means that dairy, most grains, and starchy vegetables are out of the picture. There are no stages to the paleo diet, if you opt for it, you must be all in. Overall, the paleo diet is nutrient rich and has some favorable feedback, but little in the way of research proving or disproving effectiveness.

One of the biggest struggles that individuals have when trying to lose weight is also maintaining a feeling of fullness. The Volumetrics diet tries to do just that. By focusing on low-calorie foods in sufficient volumes, you’re able to fill your stomach without the extra calories. This approach to eating focuses a lot on the food that you opt to eat and emphasizes lower-energy, less-dense foods as your main source of nutrition.

This fad diet, also known as the Health Management Resources program, has been around over 30 years. Created by a psychologist, the diet focuses on receiving your main nutrition from protein bars and shakes that are part of the program and supplementing with fruits and vegetables to reduce hunger. While many people do see success with weight loss on this program, they struggle to keep it off when they go back to a more normal eating program due to the lack of education surrounding portion control with this program.

As you can see, there are a lot of different fad diets out there, and we barely scratched the surface. It truly can be hard to find the best way to lose weight safely for you and make sure you have a healthy metabolism. Think of diets as tips for healthy living, but make your weight loss eating habits a lifestyle change. Consider your portions. and what categories your food falls into. Consider how you can get the most nutrients for the least amount of calories. Read food labels. Cook at home most of the time. These tips are some of the easiest ways to lose weight and improve your metabolism.

If you’re looking for a natural supplement to support a healthy metabolism, check out SUGARSolve 24/7® online with the Harmony Company. Shop today!