There are so many fad diets out there these days. When you want to lose a quick pound, it’s hard to know where to turn. This is just a short review of popular fad diets, and a solution to the fad diet problem.
Fad Diet Principles
Many diets promote certain principles that will make you fatter. Super restricted calorie diets will only slow down your metabolism so that when you start eating again you will balloon right back up. Liquid or juice diets tend to follow this idea. High carbohydrate diets will just bulk you up with carbs and will negatively impact your insulin resistance over a long period of time, possibly leading to adult onset type II diabetes. Zero carbohydrate diets will leave you with no energy and nasty protein bi-products floating around in your system. Plus when you go back to eating normal, the increased carbs will be stored as fat right away and you will balloon back up again.
Proper Diet Principles
From now on your diet refers to the way you eat on a daily basis. Instead of going on a diet, you will change your daily eating habits. You will increase your protein consumption, decrease your fat and carbohydrate consumption, eat 5 small meals, and drink a gallon of water a day. These four actions will inherently function to both reduce your daily caloric intake, increase the calories burned by the metabolic processes in your body, and control your cholesterol. It is your responsibility to exercise 3-5 times per week for 45 minutes, and eat fewer calories than your body uses in a day.
Popular Fad Diets
Medifast – Read a great review of the Medifast Diet at DietsInReview.com
Low Carb Diet – The basic concept of a low fat diet is to replace the simple carbohydrates in sugary and starchy foods, with high protein, high fat, complex carbohydrate foods. Low carb dieting forms the basis for most successful personalized weight loss diet strategies. A-
Atkins Diet – An extreme version of the low carb diet that sets a limit on the amount of carbs in a day to 20 grams coming only from fibrous sources. This is generally considered to be a moderately dangerous diet, which should only be followed for a month at a time. C+
Low Fat Diet – Since fat has significantly more calories than carbohydrates and protein, this diet aims to keep calories low and eliminate harmful trans fats and saturated fats from the diet, opting to eat mostly carbohydrates instead. The low fat diet craze is single handedly responsible for the rise in Type II diabetes in Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. F
Zone Diet – The zone diet centers on a 40:30:30 ratio of calories obtained daily from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, respectively. This is a good diet to follow, as long as proper food choices are selected, for healthy lifetime eating habits. There is also some scientific evidence to suggest that this ratio is ideal for controlled fat loss. B+
South Beach Diet – The South Beach diet focuses on limiting ‘bad’ fats and ‘bad’ carbohydrates from the diet and instead focuses on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. The South Beach Diet does not focus on counting calories or nutrient ratios, making it less favorable for fat loss but more favorable for proper daily eating habits. B-
The Healthy Living Diet – To kickstart your new diet if you are overweight, you will follow a restricted eating plan for 3 months or until you are within 10 lbs of your desired bodyweight. Multiply your current bodyweight by 12 to find your daily caloric intake goal. In order to arrive at a safe but effective caloric intake, you must increase that number by 100 calories at the end of each week if you lost more than 5 lbs that week, and decrease that number by 100 calories if you lost less than 1 lb that week.
You should eat 40% protein, 40% fat, and 20% carbohydrates (from whole grains, fruits, and vegetables), along with plenty of water and a multivitamin supplement. Eat 3 small meals and 2-3 low carb, high protein snacks every day. The majority of carbs should be consumed at breakfast, as well as before, during, and after a workout. If you don’t workout then keep the carbs restricted to 60% at breakfast, 30% at lunch, 10% at dinner.
The goal of this diet is to condition you to minimize your carbohydrate intake, and to target those carbs for the time of day when they are most useful to the body. Breakfast is still the most important meal of the day. Don’t forget to also drink 8 full glasses of water a day on the Healthy Living Diet. A+
Supplements That Will Help
When we are altering our eating habits, whether eating fewer calories or eating different foods, we tend to get the munchies or get cravings for nasty food. One product that I talk about all the time on Project Swole, is Biotest Hot Rox Extreme.
Hot Rox Extreme is a proprietary fat loss supplement that will give you more energy, curb your appetite, improve your mood, and increase your focus. I only take capsule in the morning and sometimes one in the afternoon if I’m dieting or really tired. If I am not dieting or tired, I take one as necessary for the benefits listed above, maybe 2-3 times a week. If you are a big dude dieting hardcore, you could take up to 4 a day but I couldn’t handle such a dose.
If you want the all powerful version, buy 110 caps of Biotest Hot Rox Extreme now for $39.99.
If you want to save a little money and/or get a Hot Rox product that is not quite as strong, buy 72 caps of Biotest Hot Rox now for $19.99. Note: this is not the ‘Extreme’ version.
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Yep I’m back reporting again!
STILL going strong!! Gained yet another 7kgs+
I started lifting in early 2006, but gained only 10kgs in 2 years!
“By Tom on Oct 20, 2008” Was when I started to get serious; it has almost been a year and I’ve packed on an extra 20kgs of pure muscle.
I weigh 90kgs now; I want to gain another 10kgs (new goal! haha), so far I have packed on a total of 30kgs.
Its not impossible, you just need to eat properly, sleep well, train hard, and yet again eat eat and eat. Diet is the most important factor to consider as Steve would know 🙂 Oh and determination and motivation is always a good factor to consider.
Peace out.
Sorry for the long response, but I just wasn’t sure if I was really gaining weight because it just seemed too impossible for me, untill just now.
I’ve gained roughly 13.5kgs since my first post on Oct 20, 2008. I eat 5-6 meals a day (big-medium meals) and have a protein shake during the night if I’m not working out and a protein shake after I work out.
I kept in mind what you said about eating my protein at night and carbs around my workout, that works out great.
I still work out 4 times a week, and I mix up my training to keep it interesting ( I don’t like to follow a boring routine). I eat all types of food, fish, meat, eggs, lots of veggies, peanut butter, tuna. Usually have take away 1-2 times a week as well. I try to eat every 2.5 – 3 Hours basically.
My goal is to reach 90kgs, at the moment I’m 83.5kgs. I’ll keep you updated 😀
Cheers,
Tom.
Tom:
That’s awesome news! What kind of diet and workout plan are you ultimately following? Still weight lifting 4 times a week? Congratulations man, keep it going.
Id just like to report back, after two months of my diet I’ve gained roughly 7KGS of solid muscle. Still going strong, and loving all the eating =)
Tom:
“overloading” on carbs is only going to make you fat. Set your protein consumption at no less than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. I recommend starting the day with a healthy breakfast full of whole grain carbs, proteins, and a small amount of healthy fats. As the day progresses you should keep the protein high, decrease the carbs, and keep the fats healthy. Consider timing your carbs around your workouts.
What if I want to gain weight? (Building muscle..) Should I eat more carbs than protein? How many meals a day do you recommend?
So far I’m eating 6-7 meals a day, all I drink is milk and water, my meals consist of eggs, weetbix, tuna, chicken, beef, vegetables, fruit, pasta, whole-grain bread, and so on.. I’ve only been doing this for a week or so.
Previously I was eating junk food and only ate 3 meals a day and no snacks.
I train at the gym 4 times a week, (weight training). My body size is slim, and my sleeping patterns are now finally (hehe.) healthy too.
So my final question is, should I have a consistent intake of protein, carbs and fat, or overload on the carbs but still have a decent intake of protien and fat? Basically what should I have more of? Any input much appreciated.
The Atkins diet definitely has some merit. In fact I use low carb dieting as the basis for any strict diet that I start. The only fault I find with zero carb dieting is the lack of glucose necessary for energy and proper muscle recovery. By staying on an Atkins diet for a month or so and targeting carbs around workouts, I’ve been able to observe the benefits of both worlds.
Real complications for most people occur when then come off an Atkins style diet. It is imperative when coming off Atkins, that you stay on a healthy eating, lower carb diet so that you don’t balloon back up again.
The only successful diet for me has been the controversial Atkins diet.
I’ve done every single one out there from the scientifically-backed ones Low Calorie / Low Fat / GI etc.. to the strange ones Cabbage soup / Maple-syrup etc..
So doing the Atkins i was sceptical that this one would produce results.
To put it bluntly i was highly-sceptical that it would work! Why? Well it just flew in the face of the ‘food-pyramid’ and the so-called ‘way we should eat’.
But i’ll give anything a try if other people have found it has worked for them.
I was shocked – I NEVER FELT HUNGRY – On the Low calorie & Low fat diets I was literally starving my a*s off! I went from 28st to 19st – And i’m still losing weight!
Its a shame Dr Atkins slipped on some Ice outside his house and died – I think he could have contributed a hell of alot more to medical science in weight-loss.
This is a good blog. Thermogenics are great for helping to speed up your metabolism. The healthy living diet isn’t to different from what people in the fitness industry consume.
I learned a long time ago that diets do not work. Only a healthy lifestyle change. great blog.
Fatty M’Gee:
The Biotest links are called affiliate marketing. If someone decides to buy a bottle, I make a couple cents. Do you find anything wrong with that? I have to attempt to make some money so that I can afford to make this blog a bigger and better resource for health and fitness.
On the other hand, I don’t lie. When I say that this is the supplement I use, it really is the supplement I use. I don’t use anything other than Biotest Hot Rox Extreme for thermogenics; in fact I tend to use several Biotest supplements because I think they are high quality. I pretty much only promote stuff that I use or that someone I know has used.
I have heard before that diets do not work and I know many people who have been on diets and none of them have kept the weight off. However, whenever I decide to change to a healthy eating plan I do not lose weight. I am overweight and so need to lose some weight but am stuck for a solution.
Actually most of the people who those fad diet, but tend to forget to exercise. They just follow the diet and when they reach their goal, they will go back on their way of eating.
I can’t help but wonder if the author ‘got something’ out of promoting that diet supplement.. can someone else who has tried it email me and recommend it? I have tried CortiSlim and it was okay but I figured I could get the same results without paying so much, now I’m trying SlimQuick powder drink mix and though the KoolAid taste is something to get used to, I can’t help but wonder if it’s REALLY working, help!!
The Atkins diet is a waste of energy. People will eventually gain the weight back because it’s basically a “quick fix diet”