Types Of Diets

Your diet is all the food you eat and liquids you drink. It’s the amount of food and drinks that you normally take in every day.

Dieting is what you call the attempt to lose weight or maintain a certain weight by limiting what you eat or controlling how much you eat.

Your choices of food are sometimes affected by a variety of factors, including ethical or religious beliefs, clinical or medical needs, or a desire to control your weight. Usually, people only get concerned about what they eat when they want to lose a few pounds.

There are literally thousands of “diets” out there and not all of them are considered healthy by the medical profession. The type of diet you select depends on your short term and long term goals.

Most often, some dietary choices (usually unhealthy) are made out of habit or convenience rather than through a conscience choice. How many times have we stopped at a fast food restaurant for lunch? We learn to eat certain foods and never change the habit.

Some generally accepted diets are considered unhealthy by medical professionals and may pose significant health risks and very little long-term benefit. This is particularly true of “crash” or “fad” diets – short-term weight-loss plans that involve making drastic changes to a person’s normal eating habits in order to achieve a short term goal.

Weight control diets

A desire to lose weight is the most common motivation to change eating habits, or a desire to maintain an certain weight. Many weight loss diets are considered by some to entail varying degrees of health risk, and some are not widely considered to be effective. This is especially true of “crash” or “fad” diets.

What type of diet do you need?

Some examples of different types of diets (from wikipedia) include:

Vegetarian diets

A vegetarian diet is one which excludes meat. Vegetarians also avoid food containing meat or products derived from animals.

• Fruit diet: A diet which predominantly consists of raw fruit.
• Lacto vegetarian: A vegetarian diet that includes certain types of dairy, but excludes eggs and foods which contain animal protein.
• Vegan diet: In addition to the requirements of a vegetarian diet, vegans do not eat food produced by animals, such as eggs, dairy products, or honey.

Low-calorie diets

• Intermittent fasting: Cycling between eating and fasting as a method of calorie restriction.
• Body for Life: A calorie-control diet, promoted as part of the 12-week Body for Life program.
• The Hacker’s Diet: A calorie-control diet from The Hacker’s Diet by John Walker. The book suggests that the key to reaching and maintaining the desired weight is understanding and carefully monitoring calories consumed and used.
• Nutrisystems: This system distributes low-calorie meals, with specific ratios of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
• Weight Watchers: Foods are assigned points values and dieters can eat any food with a points value provided they stay within their daily points limit.
• Noom:  Noom uses psychology to help you build new lifestyle habits to crush your weight loss goals. Designed by psychologists, Noom helps you change your habits, so you lose weight and get healthy for good.
• Golo: The GOLO diet helps people achieve a slow and steady weight loss pace of 1 to 2 pounds a week, and It also teaches healthy lifestyle habits such as portion control and regular exercise necessary to lose weight.

Low-carbohydrate diets

• Atkins diet: A low-carbohydrate diet, popularised by nutritionist Robert Atkins in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Thе Atkinѕ diеt соnѕiѕtѕ оf fоur рhаѕеѕ (Induсtiоn, Bаlаnсing, Finе-Tuning and Mаintеnаnсе) with a grаduаl inсrеаѕе in соnѕumрtiоn оf саrbоhуdrаtеѕ аѕ thе реrѕоn gоеѕ thrоugh the рhаѕеѕ. Proponents argue that this approach is a more successful way of losing weight than low-calorie diets; critics argue that a low-carb approach poses increased health risks.
• Dukan Diet: A multi-step diet based on high protein and limited carbohydrate consumption. It starts with two steps intended to facilitate short term weight loss, followed by two steps intended to consolidate these losses and return to a more balanced long-term diet.
• South Beach Diet: Diet developed by Arthur Agatston, M.D., who says that the key to losing weight quickly and getting healthy isn’t cutting all carbohydrates and fats from your diet. It’s learning to choose the right carbs and the right fats.

High Protein Diets

A high-protein diet is one where more than about 20% of your daily calories comes from a protein source, usually meat. the downside is that most high protein diets are high in saturated fat and restrict intake of carbohydrates that you need.

Some foods that may be included in a high-protein diet include beef, chicken ( any poultry), pork, fish and eggs. It could also include some some high protein from vegetables or nuts. High-protein diets are considered a type of fad diet and have received criticism from the medical community for increasing health risks and promoting misconceptions about carbohydrates.

Find more information about high protein diets here.

Crash diets

Crash and fad diet are general terms used to describe diet plans which involve making extreme, rapid changes to food consumption. This can include anything from fasting to eating more of specific foods.

Crash or fad diet is also used as slang negative terms for eating habits which are considered unhealthy. Both are often considered to pose health risks. Some examples include:

• Beverly Hills Diet: An extreme diet which has only fruits in the first days, gradually increasing the selection of foods up to the sixth week.
• Cabbage soup diet: A low-calorie diet based on heavy consumption of cabbage soup. Considered a fad diet.
• Grapefruit diet: A fad diet, intended for rapid weight loss, in which grapefruit is eaten in large quantities at meal times.
• Israeli Army diet: An eight-day diet. Only apples are consumed in the first two days, cheese in the following two days, chicken on days five and six, and salad for the final two days. Despite what the name suggests, the diet is not followed by Israel Defense Forces. It is considered a fad diet.
• Junk food diet: A diet largely made up of food considered to be unhealthy, such as high-fat or processed foods

Final Thoughts

Your diet is one that you can follow and live with on a long term.  The best diet is one that you understand and can follow.  If you’re trying to lose (or gain) weight it’s really important to find the type of diet you want to follow. Do your own research and maybe consult with a doctor or dietician to find one that will give you the results you want..