Bad Weight Loss

Popular Diets: Which One Works Better?

Everyone is looking for a miraculous diet that leads to weight loss with minimum effort, but do those diets really work? If so, for how long, and what are their consequences? Here are some details about diets that have been popular over the past years and their effects:

The Atkins Diet: this diet eliminates glucides considered responsible for the weight gain. The advantage is fast weight loss, but the disadvantages are numerous. Specialists found a lack of essential vitamins and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease among people who followed this diet, and don’t recommend it to women who are on birth control.

The Shelton Diet: it includes only meals with proteins or glucides. The advantage is fast weight loss and the disadvantage is the lack of nutrients.

The Antoine Diet: for this diet you must eat the same food all day. For instance, only meat on Monday, only fruits on Tuesday, eggs on Wednesday, vegetables on Thursday, dairy food on Friday, fish on Saturday, and so on. It causes fast weight loss but also produces imbalances, and the weight is often regained shortly after the diet ends.

The Mayo Diet: it is a difficult low-calorie diet that leads to fast weight loss followed by lack of vitamins, fatigue, or anxiety.

The Victoria Principal Diet: it has low amounts of proteins that lower the muscular mass, and the weight is often quickly regained after the diet ends.

The Scarsdale Diet: created by a cardiologist, it`s a low-fat diet with the same meals for fifteen days. Alcohol, milk, and fruit juices are forbidden. For short periods, this diet is efficient but long term it may cause a lack of nutrients.

The Montignac Diet: this diet is based on the principle of food dissociation but it forbids the combination of glucides and lipids. However, calories are retained as fat even if they are separate from glucides, according to specialists.

The Susan Powter Diet: it reduces the protein and fat intake while encouraging (es the glucides intake. It may result in lack of vitamins.

The Zen Diet: ten days of rice only. It`s difficult to follow and results in a serious lack of nutrients.

The Hollywood Diet: it includes only fruits in any combination. Dieticians agree it`s hard to follow.

The Sulitzer Diet: this diet includes 2.20 oz of proteins per day, 0.3 oz of butter per day, 1.80 oz of bread per day, over three times per week, without other restrictions. It`s quite balanced and close to the regular food, according to specialists.

The Fricker Diet: this diet is based on the amount of weight that you need to lose. Dieticians agree it is a diet without risks or lack of vitamins. Usually, once this diet ends, there is a period of transition to normal food.

Calcium and Workout: A Formula for Health?

Calcium and vitamin D lower the risk of cardiovascular disease for people who follow a weight loss program, according to a recent study. Calcium and vitamin D supplements also have an impact on the level of cholesterol.

The study involved sixty-three overweight women and had them follow a low-calorie diet for fifteen weeks. First, the women had a daily calcium intake of 700 mg, below the 1000 mg recommended.

Later, the dosage was increased to 1200 mg of calcium with vitamin D. The study showed a significant improvement of the HDL, the good cholesterol, and a lower level of bad cholesterol (LDL) for the subjects.

The loss of weight registered by the subjects during the low-calorie diet did not seem to affect the level of good cholesterol. It appeared that calcium and vitamin D may lower the cardiovascular risk for women with low calcium levels.

The same research team previously showed that people may have a higher LDL level, higher fat percentage, or wider waists if their calcium intake is low, and that people with a reduced dairy consumption gained weight and suffered an increase of waist size and body fat percentage.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that people who want to follow a weight loss program but have insufficient calcium intakes should have calcium and vitamin D supplements during their workout period.