Diet Round-up #1 |
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If you’ve been breathing air for any significant time, chances are good you’ve heard about a few weight-loss diets out there. By definition, a diet is what you eat. If you want to eat ice cream and cake all day, you are on a diet - just one that I probably wouldn’t recommend. For the purpose of this article, we’ll refer to diet instead of weight-loss diet. It’s just easier.
There are a breath-taking number of different types of diets available. I’d like to take some time and describe a few of them, their philosophy, and what may or may not work with them. In each series, I’ll cover 2 different types of diets, giving a description, strengths, weaknesses, and my own opinion.
The Zone Diet
- Description: The Zone Diet’s philosophy is a balanced one consisting of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. It is not primarily a weight-loss diet, but the average person would group it in with other weight-loss diets.
- Strengths: The Zone Diet is relatively easy to follow. You aren’t restricting yourself any particular foods. This leads to fewer diet-busting cravings.
- Weaknesses: The McDonald’s hamburger fits closely with the Zone Diet’s description. There is no mention of calorie restriction - the basic tenant of a weight-loss diet.
- Lazy Man’s Take: I did a little research on this and it seems that this diet is more about balancing hormones and any weight-loss could be considered a helpful side effect. If I were looking to lose weight, I’d take a pass.
The Atkins Diet
- Description: The Atkins Diet’s philosophy is weighted very heavily towards proteins and fats while nearly completely eliminating carbs. It’s fairly controversial because it goes against what people have been taught for years with the food pyramid. Philosophies such as “eat as much as you want” and “eating fat is not a problem” are particular problem points.
- Strengths: Despite the controversy the Atkins Diet does some things right. It limits high-fructose corn syrup, which may be the single worst thing in the American diet. It also preaches avoiding trans-fats, which is competes high-fructose corn syrup for the top spot worst in American Diets. Lastly, protein is harder for the body to digest and it is said that a body burns a third of it’s calories just in that digestion process. In theory this would mean that you could eat a lot more and still lose weight.
- Weaknesses: This diet is extremely difficult to follow in the beginning. There is no mention of calorie restriction - the basic tenant of a weight-loss diet. Eating large amounts of saturated fat and protein is against the American Heart Association’s recommendations. The body can have difficulty processing all that extra protein and fat leading to some organ failure down the line.
- Lazy Man’s Take: This is tough call for me. I believe in eating lean proteins in large quantities, but I don’t completely stay away from carbs in true Atkins Diet form. I realize that my kidney and liver might not enjoy how much protein I eat, but it’s probably the lesser of the three evils I mentioned in the above strengths section.
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Propeller7 Responses to “Diet Round-up #1”
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Next: An Hour of Sleep vs. An Hour of Gym?
July 12th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Any diet (such as Atkins) which requires you to restrict your exercise (even if only for the first few months) is one that is not worth doing, in my opinion.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I did Atkins a while back and lost 50 pounds in three months. But after that I just couldn’t stand being on it any more and stopped. I wound up gaining back the 50, plus some more on top of that.
July 12th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
I think you got a couple of things wrong on Atkins… I have never heard the don’t exercise. And it does not totally eliminate carbs — you can each as much salad and other low glycemic vegetables as you can (no carrots no onions).
Follow along as I lose 125lbs on an Atkins/South Beach Low Carb diet.
http://www.weightladder.com
July 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Per Atkins, while I don’t follow it, I have gotten rid of the high-fructose corn syrup that I used to drink all day in my Coke. And honestly, I feel a lot better; less bloated, less tired and less lethargic. After reading about how bad that stuff was I decided it was time to stop drinking soda, and after a few weeks now I feel so good and have already started losing weight because of the absence of these calories.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Carnival of Dieting Tips…
Welcome to the July 20, 2007 edition of a very public diet!. We are so pleased when people send us the links to their articles to share - the tips and tricks and have helped us stay on track -…
July 20th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I completely agree with eliminating high fructose corn syrup from your daily diet. Like David, I also used to feel bloated and very low on energy when I was eating it….actually when I was eating processed food in general. I feel wonderful when eating whole, non-processed foods.
HFCS also serves to block your brain from getting the signal from your stomach that you’re full…hence, when you eat food containing it, you easily overeat.
July 26th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I do the Zone. I lost thirty pounds on it last year when I was working to get in shape for my wedding. After the wedding, though, it was holiday season, and my honeymoon didn’t leave me with any willpower for avoiding holiday treats. Since finally getting myself back on the wagon a couple of months ago, though, I’ve lost ten pounds.
It’s slow going, but if you do it properly (eating mostly fruits and veggies, lean proteins and healthy fats instead of hamburgers, for instance), you burn fat. That’s what I like about this diet as opposed to just restricting calories. You lose weight faster doing the latter, but you also tend to lose muscle mass. On the Zone, if you have fat to lose, eventually, you lose it. Plus I feel ten times better when I eat this way than when I don’t.
It’s also worth noting that when I saw my doctor about hypothyroidism and low blood sugar, she said that this was exactly the way I should be eating, and affirmed that it’s also the best diet for my diabetic husband to be on.
I’m done proselytizing now.