There are many different kinds of diet, but almost all of them aim to achieve the same thing: to help you lose weight and be healthier. Being overweight leads to many health risks, which means that losing weight can help you not only live longer, but live better. If that isn’t enough of an incentive, then how about the fact that many insurance companies these days will charge higher premiums for overweight clients (because they pose a higher risk), which means that a great diet can help save you money, as well as saving your life! If you're thinking about losing weight, then we're here to give you a short glimpse of the top 12 most popular diets around. Maybe one of these will be your diet of choice!
1. The Paleo Diet
The Paleo Diet is the most popular diet around right now, and it's a very simple concept. On the Paleo diet you eat as our cavemen ancestors ate – which means only food that can be hunted or gathered, no processed foods at all. Fish, meat, grains, fruits and vegetables are fine. Dairy products, processed products and cereals are not. Perhaps because the rules are so simple to follow, the Paleo has been a big hit in recent years.
2. The 13 Day Diet
The 13 Day diet involves following a very strict eating plan, where each day's meals for 13 days are already chosen for you. The diet is designed to help you lose weight in a short period of time, without putting that weight back on when the diet has ended. The 13 Day diet is very strict, and there are no meal choices, but it does promise a significant amount of weight loss in just under two weeks.
3. The Atkins Diet
The Atkins Diet became popular in the 1970s and is named after Doctor Atkins. This diet is high-protein and high-fat, but severely restricts the amount of carbohydrates that you can eat. That means that meats and cheeses, for example, are fine, whilst bread is not. The aim is to create a stable blood sugar level, which is optimum for burning fat and means that you don't feel hungry even though you are eating less.
4. The Dukan Diet
The Dukan Diet is a French invention and has four stages. During the first you can eat only lean protein and 1.5 tablespoons of bran each day (for 1 to 10 days). During the second you can add to that as many non-starch vegetables as you want as well as an extra 0.5 tablespoons of bran. During the third you add in fruit, other vegetables and bread, and finally, during the fourth you eat whatever you like for six days a week whilst eating the first stage diet for one day a week. Dukan is heavy on protein, but has a big following, especially in Europe.
5. The 3 Day Diet
The 3 Day Diet is another very strict plan with a specifically designed menu that you must eat for three days. The diet promises weight loss as well as lower cholesterol after this period, though many people choose to repeat the 3 Day Diet after a four or five day break to increase weight loss.
6. The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet is exactly what it sounds like! For seven days you eat only cabbage soup, which is low calorie and low fat.
This diet does result in weight loss, though it's not sustainable for more than a week. Many people choose to do the Cabbage Soup Diet first as a kick starter, before moving on to a more sustainable diet after.
7. The Blood Type Diet
The Blood Type Diet is more focussed around correct nutrition than actually losing weight. It's based on the idea that different blood types (A, B and O) need different kinds of nutrition. Therefore, different kinds of foods are recommended depending on what your blood type is.
8. The Low Carb Diet
Although many people think that the Low Carb Diet is a specific diet, it is actually a collection of many different diets, that all centre around the same idea: that by cutting down the amount of carbohydrates you eat you can lose weight. Carbohydrates include grains, starchy vegetables and fruits, so many of these diets emphasise eating non starchy vegetables and proteins such as lean meat.
9. The Metabolism Diet
Again, the Metabolism Diet isn't just one diet, there are many different kinds. All of these diets have the aim of speeding up metabolism (the speed at which your body digests food and turns it into waste and energy). There are many ways of doing this, though most of these diets work around the concept of eating different sizes of meals at different times of day, or on different days of the week.
10. The Detox Diet
The Detox Diet is again a collection of different diets, all of which are designed to eliminate toxins from your body. There are various methods of doing this, with some detox diets requiring that you drink special cocktails, and other recommending things such as colonic cleansing or lymph massage. Detox diets are more for making your body healthy, and some people recommend doing them twice a year, however people often also lose weight when doing a detox diet.
11. The Protein Diet
High Protein diets include diets such as the Atkins diet or the Ducan diet, in that these kinds of diet require you to eat lots of protein and few carbohydrates. High protein diets are very popular in general, and quite sustainable even over long periods of time.
12. The Juice Diet
The Juice Diet involves drinking only fruit and vegetable juices for a week, without eating anything else. This diet is designed to kick start weight loss, so many people use it before moving on to another kind of diet. Juice diets in general are a little controversial, and it's recommended that dieters at least take daily vitamins along with their juice.
So, if you're looking to lose weight, to be healthier, and maybe even to lower those health insurance premiums, these are the top 12 diets, or groups of diets, that you have to choose from! Of course, combining exercise with your diet will make it much more effective, and improve your fitness levels too!
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