Just about everyone wants to lose weight. Many people turn to the latest fad diets at the urging of high profiled celebrity endorsements and the promise of rapid results. Most people who follow these diets to the letter are successful indeed in losing weight.
The problem is not usually in attaining immediate results. The problem most dieters face is that of maintaining these fantastic results with these fad diets. Do these diets give a dieter enough calories to safely maintain a long term goal? If the answer is “no” the long term goals will not be achieved. It is as simple as that.
The reason most people are not successful in keeping the weight off and sticking with these fad diets is that the diet itself is flawed. The downfall of these diets is that they are a diet and not a way of life. A person cannot maintain a healthy body by constantly denying it the proper nutrition it needs to function. Over a period of time, a body will become very damaged by not consuming enough calories.
A person can safely determine the amount of calories that is ideal for his/her daily consumption by factoring in the following:
• Activity levels
• Height
• Weight
• Age
There are many online calculators that a person can input this information into and find out how many calories they can consume/cut each day.
Here is a look at the big fad diets of today and whether or not they give a person enough calories to maintain health and a trim waistline:
Medifast
Medifast is a popular program in which dieters receive pre-packaged food and as a result lose weight. There have been many studies done to show that it works very well. Of course it should work well because Medifast is expensive, even if you use Medifast coupons to buy it. Medifast does not determine calorie intake on an individual basis. Instead, the plan restricts all dieters to 800-1000 calories each day. Despite what the studies say, this is simply not safe for people to do long term, at least in my opinion.
Nutrisystem
Another similar diet is Nutrisystem, a pre-packaged diet that is much less restrictive than Medifast. More thought and care goes into the calorie count for each Nutrisystem dieter and the variety of food options is much more robust. Never is the amount lower than 1500 calories per day for anyone. This is (in my opinion) safer, easier to follow and more effective for the long term.
Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers uses their proprietary point system where each point is worth so many calories. The great thing about this program is that each person is given their individual number of points to eat each day. They can also mix in weekly points that can be used in one lump sum or spread evenly to increase the daily amount. Don’t worry, it’s easier to follow than it sounds. In addition, this is an easy plan to stay with since so many restaurants includes Weight Watcher’s point amount alongside their menu items.