Popular Diets

More About Popular Diets:

Atkins

Atkins involves restriction of the intake of carbs to switch the body's metabolism to burning fat (particularly, stored fat). This process (called lipolysis) is initiated when the body enters this biological state of ketosis as a consequence of running out of carbohydrates to burn

All Atkins recommended food in all categories are whole, unprocessed foods with a low glycemic load. Atkins suggests the use of Ketostix, which are small chemically reactive strips used by diabetics. These help you monitor when they enter the ketosis, or fat burning, phase.

However, simply watching your weight will work. Losing 1-2 pounds a day means you are in ketosis

After achieving your weight goal, carbohydrate intake is increased again, and the key goal in this phase is to find the "Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance", this is the maximum number of carbohydrates you can eat each day without gaining weight. This may well be above the level of carbohydrates inducing ketosis but varies by individual and exercise or activity level.

Atkins gained huge popularity in 2003 and 2004. At the height of its popularity one in eleven adults were on the diet. This large following was blamed for large declines in the sales of carb-heavy foods like pasta and rice. The diet's success were even blamed for a decline in Krispy Kreme donut sales! Atkins spawned a "low-carb craze" with many companies released special product lines which were low in carbohydrates. Coca-Cola released C2 and Pepsi-Cola created Pepsi Edge, which was discontinued later in 2005.

South Beach diet

The South Beach diet, developed by Miami, cardiologist Arthur Agatston, emphasizes the consumption of "good carbs" and "good fats." Dr. Agatston developed this diet for his cardiac patients based upon his study of scientific dieting research. 

The diet has three phases. In all phases of the diet, Dr. Agatston recommends minimizing consumption of bad fats. In Phase I, lasting two weeks, dieters attempt to eliminate insulin resistance by avoiding high or moderately high-glycemic carbs, such as sugar, candy, bread, potatoes, fruit, cereals, and grains. During this phase, Dr. Agatston says the body will lose its insulin resistance, and begin to use excess body fat, causing the dieter to lose between 8 and 13 pounds.

After two weeks, Phase II begins. Whole grain foods and fruits are gradually returned to the diet, although in smaller amounts than were likely eaten before beginning the diet, and with a continued emphasis on foods with a low glycemic index. When the dieter reaches the desired weight, Phase III begins. In Phase III the diet expands to include three servings of whole grains and three servings of fruit a day.

Zone

The Zone diet is a diet popularized in books by Barry Sears. It advocates "hormonal thinking" instead of caloric thinking as an approach to eating. It is not a weight-loss "diet" (though it can be used quite successfully for that purpose); rather it is a way of eating — the intake of food that produces the best results within our bodies based on a hypothesis of how the human body has evolved to cope with the food intake throughout history.

"The Zone" is Sears's term for proper hormone balance. When insulin levels are neither too high nor too low, the human body is not busy storing excess calories as fat which means that those stores are available when needed. The human body cannot store fat and burn fat at the same time, and it takes time (significant time if insulin levels were high because of unbalanced eating) to switch from the former to the latter. Using stored fat for energy causes weight loss. The diet centers on a "40:30:30" ratio of calories obtained daily from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, respectively. The exact formula is always under debate, but studies over the past several years (including a non-scientific study by Scientific American Frontiers) have shown that it can produce weight loss at reasonable rates.

Low-carbohydrate diets like the Atkins diet became extremely popular throughout the United States in 2003 and 2004, but Sears claims that they miss the point. According to him, they ignore the importance of hormonal balance, as well as the influence of dietary balance on digestion and hormone production. In addition, high-protein/low-carb diets cause the production of some "bad" hormones that the body tries to flush from the system. Much of the initial weight-loss from such diets is water loss. 

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