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Choosing the Right Type of Diet for You

As we become more health conscious, the number of new diets promising weight loss continues to grow at a steady pace. Low-carb, low-fat, food-specific and superfood diets are among some of the many types of diets out there.

Some diets work, and some diets don’t. What’s important is to choose the right type of diet for you. The best diet will be one that you can not only stick to but that you can also enjoy while working toward your weight loss and fitness goals.

Types of Diets and Calorie Levels
Different adults need different levels of calories each day, based on their weights and activity levels. Most weight-loss diets call for the consumption of 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day. Before embarking on such a diet, be sure that this calorie level is appropriate for you. As a gauge, the diet you choose should provide weight loss of no more than one pound per week following the first week, when you may lose more due to the lost of excess water weight.

Nutritional Recommendations
Whether you prefer a low-carb diet, a point-system diet or a calorie-counting diet, it is critical to maintain proper nutrition to fuel your body. A healthy diet should include the following:

• Carbohydrates: You should have at least 100 grams of carbs each day to prevent fatigue and to avoid fluid imbalances. Eat six to eleven servings from the bread, cereal, rice and pasta food group.
  
  
• Fat: All types of diets should restrict fat to no more than thirty percent of your total daily caloric intake, with less than ten percent coming from saturated fat. By limiting the amount of fat you consume, you can reduce your risk of heart disease.
  
  
• Protein: Protein helps your body maintain muscle tissue. While the average woman aged 25 or over needs at least 50 grams of protein per day, the average man in the same age group needs at least 63 grams of protein per day. To meet these daily protein requirements, eat two to three servings from the meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts group each day.
  
  
• Vitamins and Minerals: By choosing a wide variety of foods each day, your body will receive many needed vitamins and minerals. To ensure proper nutrition, however, many experts recommend taking daily vitamins and mineral supplements. Ask your doctor or nutritionist for recommendations.
  
  
• Water: Water is a critical component to keeping our bodies healthy. Drink eight to ten eight-ounce servings of water per day.

Types of Diets
Here are a few popular types of diets:

• Fixed-Menu Diets: Some diets restrict the types of foods you can eat to a limited list. While these diets can be easy to follow, the food choices are limited and may be difficult to adhere to away from home. In addition, they do not promote nutrition through a variety of food choices.
  
  
• Formula Diets: A formula diet is a weight-loss plan that replaces one or more of your daily meals with a liquid, often a shake or milky drink. These diets are packed full of nutrients and are usually low in fat. Although formula diets can promote short-term weight loss, they often fail because they do not teach us to make healthy food choices. Another challenge to sticking to a formula diet is that the liquid supplement often leaves us feeling deprived and unfulfilled, causing us to break with the diet.
  
  
• Prepackaged Foods Diets: Several popular diets require that you purchase prepackaged, pre-measured foods. While these diet plans can sometimes be costly, they are usually well-balanced and can help dieters learn portion control.
  
  
• Points Diets: Most diets take into account the number of calories that should be consumed by a dieter each day. In some plans, like the formula diet and prepackaged foods diet, these calories are already accounted for in the foods. In other popular plans, calories are converted to a points system, making it easier to track caloric intake.
  
  
• Cabbage Soup Diet: The cabbage soup diet is based on the premise that low-calorie cabbage soup can help dieters lose between ten and fifteen pounds in a week. The diet offers dieters an unlimited amount of water and cabbage soup, introducing different components each day.
  
  On day one, for example, dieters can have an unlimited amount of any one fruit, except bananas. They can also have unsweetened tea, black coffee, water and cranberry juice and, of course, as much cabbage soup as they can eat. Throughout the week, other foods are introduced to break up the monotony of the cabbage soup and water. While this diet promotes short-term weight loss, it lacks proper nutrients. Because most of the weight lost in this type of diet is water weight, dieters who suffer through this method are likely to gain most of the weight back.
  
  
• The Enzyme Diet™ Superfood: This diet replaces breakfast and lunch each day with a superfood shake that contains all of the necessary nutrients a body needs to function. After drinking the shake, dieters on this plan can eat a sensible dinner that is low in fat and sugar and contains raw vegetables, fiber and a small amount of carbs and protein. The shakes can also be used as snacks, providing dieters with extra nutrients and energy throughout the day.