Imagine for one moment eating chocolate, cookies and ice cream everyday in order to lose weight. How about sipping on a fruity drink for 48 hours to help shed those unwanted pounds? Is there a magic fruit, or vegetable that can help melt your fat melt away? Or is the secret hidden in your blood type? For some of you, these thoughts may seem silly and outrageous. But, there are millions of Americans who will do whatever it takes to have the perfect body, even resort to bizarre eating rituals. I'm not talking about some of the mainstream diets like Atkins or Weight Watchers. I'm talking about the ones that promise miracles!
· Are you a Cookie Monster? Then The Cookie Diet is right for you or is it?
Eat 6 Seigal Cookies* a day and a meal in the evening that contains only a lean meat and veggies. The entire diet, including dinner, cookies, and water supplies a mere 800 calories per day. The diet claims that 3 out of 4 people will lose 15 lbs a month. Here's the catch: You cannot eat the cookies for a "meal", you can only eat them when hunger strikes! What a sweet deal! These cookies are not your typical Otis Spunkmeyer cookies though, these cookies are specially made with protein, oats and whole wheat flour. Tasty, huh? Even the Doc who created the cookies claim that they are far from desirable. Before you get ahold of these precious cookies, pull out your wallet. You will have to pay $200 for a health screening, pay $7 a day for cookies and a $125 monthly fee. One last question: How much of the weight loss comes from eating the cookies versus the appetite supressants and thyroid medications that were prescribed for Dr. Seigal's patients?
· Are you gullible and believe everything you read? If it is backed by a Doctor then it must work. So forget about everything you've learned. The secret lies in the Eating Right for your Blood Type.
Eat foods that agree with your blood type and you will reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, infections, and liver disease. If your blood type is A then your ancestors were farmers, therefore vegetarianism is the way to go; no red meats, dairy or wheat allowed. If you're blood Type B your ancestors were nomads; therefore you should eat red meat and fish and omit corn, chicken and some grains. Type O ancestors were hunters and gatherers; therefore lots of animal protein and very little carbohydrates should be consumed. If you are 4% of the population, a Type AB, you had mixed ancestry. Therefore a combination of Types A and B would be the magic combination! Interesting. how can one be a vegetarian and eat red meat at the same time?!? Sounds like quackery to me! What about populations that don't eat red meat because of their personal or religious beliefs? What about athletes? If you are type O and a marathon runner, don't you need grains for energy to prevent muscle loss? Besides, if there are only 4 basic blood types but there are more than 400 blood markers in our blood, and those markers make our blood as unique as a fingerprint, then how can 4 basic diets satisfy the diets of everyone known to man? Do yourself a favor and ignore the eating for your blood type hype!
· Are you willing to give it all up for the sake of losing weight? Then use this concoction to Flush The Fat!
The Fat Flush Plan is both a detox diet and a weight loss diet. The goal is to provide all the necessary ingredients to boost metabolism, reduce water retention, and promote fat loss in three phases. The magic of the fat flush comes from the "long life" cocktail, which is nothing more than psyllium husks in watered down cranberry juice, and no less than 50 ounces of hot tea with lemon and cran-water cocktails.
Phase 1 - 2 weeks
This is a very restrictive phase that consists of 1100-1200 calories per day. In this phase you are not allowed to eat; margarine, alcohol, sugar, oils or fats (except flaxseed oil), grains, bread, cereal, starchy vegetables, dairy products. Wow, this doesn't leave you with a whole lot of options. This phase even goes as far as limiting some herbs and spices! There is no doubt that omitting these foods will induce weight loss, BUT the majority of this loss is bloat and water weight!
Phase 2 - Ongoing
This is the ongoing phase. Calories are increased to 1200-1500 calories. You eat the same foods as phase one, just a little more food until you reach the desired weight loss.
Phase 3 - The maintenance phase
Finally.maintenance! The calorie intake is 1500 calories or more. Some starchy carbs are gradually re-introduced, along with gluten-free grains, and some dairy.
Surprisingly, this program actually recommends exercising, though I don't know how anyone can have enough energy after eating/drinking so few calories.
If you really want to flush your fat and get rid of the toxins in the body, then skip all of the other "magic" ingredients and keep the water!
· Do you believe that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Do you believe that you can really lose two pounds per day? If so, then The Negative Calorie Diet is for you!
Basically, you eat the foods that are so low in calories that it takes more calories to burn them than the food itself contains! What a novel idea! BUT, all foods have calories and calories add up so if you eat only foods that are negative calories, does that mean that over the course of the day you've had nothing to eat? Why bother? If you enjoy eating ONLY fruits and veggies (aka: rabbit food) and like feeling hungry, then the grapefruit diet and the cabbage soup diet may work for you. But why stop there eat some of the other "negative calorie" foods like: asparagus, broccoli, beets, cucumber, dandelion, carrots, radishes, spinach, pineapples, tangerines, strawberries, raspberries, and onions. Seriously, high fiber diet. yes; but no protein, starch, or dairy will leave you without energy, muscle and a sluggish metabolism.
Studies have shown that a safe weight loss and maintainable weight loss is not more than 2 pounds a week. For every 10 pounds that is lost with a poor diet 6 of the 10 pounds comes from muscle, not fat. Do these diets work? Of course they do, BUT you will end up losing lose muscle not fat. You will not feel tighter and leaner, nor will you're your clothes fit better. Because of the amount of muscle lost, your metabolism will drop and will cause you to store fat faster. These magical diets are not maintainable for long periods of time and you WILL gain your weight back very quickly once you stop following the diet. These are all physical problems, but what does this do to you psychologically? Most people will attribute success to the magical properties of the diet rather than their own effort (or in this case, calorie restrictions). When they go off of the diet (not if) they are prone to regain weight because they feel the factor responsible for their success has been removed. Resist the urge and don't let your curiosity get the best of you. The Peanut Butter Diet, Popcorn Diet or the Ice Cream diet are not all they're cracked up to be, leave those for the dieting tabloids and make life long changes that incorporate exercise and food choices that are manageable. |
