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What The Research Says About Diet Plans?Trying to make sense of all the diet plans out there ? Well, you're not alone, many people are educating themselves about the many plans on offer, before they actually try it. 
The Right Diet Plan For You
So which is best for you. The best answer to this question is that none of them can be said to be beneficial for absolutely everyone who tries it. The best advice I can offer you is to look for one that offers flexibility and the ability to deal appropriately with your medical and physiological background and make-up. When assessing diet plans, you need to get beyond the hype, the pretty pictures of thin people, the before and after shots, and realize that we are all different with different nutritional needs, we need to be mindful of this. So of course while one diet plan will be more beneficial than others, on a general basis, diet plans should be adjusted to your own needs and lifestyle instead of implemented in their set formats. This is one of the reasons why I recommend Lynn's book - Melt The Fat , it is inexpensive at $27 and the meal plans are suitable for different nutritional needs, such as those who have an active lifestyle, or those who have hypertension. What to look for in a diet plan.Appropriate diet plans:
Roughly speaking, there are three main diet trends, the low carb diets, wellness-orientated diets and low calorie diets. Below you'll find the research relevant to the low carb and low calorie diet plans, so that you can identify healthy and beneficial diet ideas. For those who are interested you can read a review of some of the more popular diet plans below: Low Carb Diet PlansThe low carb diet plans are popular - in fact it is estimated that up to 11% of the American population are on low carb diets, which basically accounts for 24 million people! While recently there have been claims that the low carb trend is waning, the low carb industry has recently felt an almighty surge in demand for low carb products. While low carb diets all work on similar theories of insulin resistance, blood sugar sensitivities and ketosis, there are many low carb diets, which all differ from each other in their individual philosophies and regimes. So is there any real truth to the general low carb claims ?While mainstream medicine do not recommend low carb diet plans as beneficial due to the lack of long term safety data on the diets, research has found that low carb regimen may in some cases cause weight loss. The Journal of the American College of Nutrition recently published a review of the low carb diets as they stand. Halton analyzed clinical studies measuring dietary thermo-genesis, feelings of satiety, fat loss and body weight when low carb and high protein diets were implemented. He found that when high protein meals were consumed, lower energy intakes followed. Halton cautions though that while some researchers have found significant weight loss results, not all researchers have consistently found that a low carb diet will automatically cause fat loss. He joins other researchers in calling for further long term studies to be completed. Saris in his review is not so forgiving, he suggests that a low carb, high fat diet increases the likelihood of weight gain. Research Give Varying Results and Conclusions About Low Carb DietsThe outcomes of research have been varied, for example, new research just completed has found that low carb weight loss can be maintained in the long term, suggesting that it can provide long term weight maintenance. One such study that argues against low carb diet plans was conducted by Layman et. al., in 2003 at the University of Illinois who found that when protein was moderately increased and carbohydrates decreased proportionally, the body’s insulin response in adult women were stabilized, however actual weight lost was not significantly different. The protein group lost 7.53 kg while the carbohydrate group lost 6.96 kg – a difference of ˝ a kilogram. Yancy et. al., in a randomized, controlled trial published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2004 found that when two groups were given a “low-carbohydrate diet (initially, <20 g of carbohydrate daily) plus nutritional supplementation, exercise recommendation, and group meetings, or low-fat diet (<30% energy from fat, <300 mg of cholesterol daily, and deficit of 500 to 1000 kcal/d) plus exercise recommendation and group meetings.” those who ate the low carb diet, experienced a greater weight loss at 24 weeks (around about the six month mark) and improved triglyceride levels. High density lipoproteins (HDL's - sometimes referred to as good fat levels) notably increased for subjects who ate the low carb diet, while low density lipoproteins (LDL's - referred to as bad fat levels) were unchanged. He did also note that minor adverse effects occurred more frequently with those subjects who ate the low carb diet. One minor defect of this study is that they couldn't differentiate the effect of supplementation that was given only to the low carb group - so this may have had some effect that cannot be isolated. So while the outcomes of some studies are in favor of the low carb regime, others are not, suggesting that there may be other variables at play that have not been defined and isolated when a low carb diet is implemented. That is, even though low carb diets can work for some, this may be incidental. Weight loss could be the effect of some thing else. The main points of contention with the low carb, high protein diets is that they don’t offer balance and variety and could prove dangerous for people at risk of heart disease. Particularly with diet plans such as the Scarsdale diet, they are not realistic and cannot be maintained in the long term causing yo-yo dieting and no one wants that ! At any rate while many devoted low carb-ers swear by the effectiveness of their low carb diets, research still cannot prove beyond a measure of a doubt that generally low carb diets are firstly effective, and secondly safe in the long term. Low Calorie Diet PlansDiet plans such as these are backed up with a huge amount of scientific data and is generally backed by the mainstream medical community. It is generally the psychology attached to these low calorie diets that make them difficult to maintain. Research has found that with behavior modification, subjects were more able to maintain their goal weights. Such low calorie diets include the 1200 calorie diet, weight watchers, negative calorie diet, and volumetrics. Other Pages of InterestVitaminsDiary.com publishes a plethora of free information about healthy diets including fitness diets, vegetarian diets and more. Sources:[1] Wim HM Saris Sugars, energy metabolism, and body weight controlAm J Clin Nutr 78: 850S-857S. Full Text [2] Donald K. Layman, Harn Shiue, Carl Sather, Donna J. Erickson and Jamie Baum Increased Dietary Protein Modifies Glucose and Insulin Homeostasis in Adult Women during Weight Loss J. Nutr. 133:405-410, February 2003 Full Text [3] Yamashita T, Sasahara T, Pomeroy SE, Collier G, Nestel PJ. Arterial compliance, blood pressure, plasma leptin, and plasma lipids in women are improved with weight reduction equally with a meat-based diet and a plant-based diet. Metabolism. 1998 Nov;47(11):1308-14. Abstract [4] Yancy WS Jr, Olsen MK, Guyton JR, Bakst RP, Westman EC. A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-fat diet to treat obesity and hyperlipidemia: a randomized, controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2004 May 18;140(10):769-77. Full Text [5] Kushi LH, Cunningham JE, Hebert JR, Lerman RH, Bandera EV, Teas J. The macrobiotic diet in cancer. J Nutr. 2001 Nov;131(11 Suppl):3056S-64S. Full Text [6] RL Atkinson, A Fuchs, JG Pastors and JT Saunders Combination of very-low-calorie diet and behavior modification in the treatment of obesity Am J Clin Nutr 56: 199S-202S. Abstract [7] Find Articles on Opinion Dynamics Corporation Low Carb Trends Survey (Released Feb. 2004) [8] Wilkinson DL, McCargar L. Is there an optimal macronutrient mix for weight loss and weight maintenance? Best Pract Res Clin Gastroenterol. 2004 Dec;18(6):1031-47. Abstract [9] Halton TL, Hu FB. The effects of high protein diets on thermogenesis, satiety and weight loss: a critical review. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Oct;23(5):373-85. Abstract [10] Due A, Toubro S, Skov AR, Astrup A. Effect of normal-fat diets, either medium or high in protein, on body weight in overweight subjects: a randomized 1-year trial. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Oct;28(10):1283-90. Abstract Diet & Fitness TipsLike this article on diet plans ? Want more information on diet and fitness ? 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