TEN THINGS ABOUT DIFFERENT WEIGHT LOSS PLANS

(1) 3-Hour diet. Motocross racers are always planning on dieting, starting a diet on Monday or cheating on their diet. Weight is horsepower, so here are 10 popular diet plans, starting with the 3-Hour diet. The 3-Hour diet is the opposite of fasting. The creator of the 3-Hour diet, Jorge Cruise, claims that if you don’t eat often enough, your body will conserve calories, store fat and burn muscle (not fat) for energy. He claims that eating small, balanced meals every three hours (five times a day) will put your metabolism in high gear. The recommended portion sizes are around 400 calories. There’s one caveat: you must stop eating three hours before bedtime.

(2) Atkins diet. The Atkins diet is based on the research of Dr. Alfred W. Pennington. Dr. Robert Atkins used Pennington’s diet research on himself to lose weight and then wrote a book about it. The Atkins diet has become a huge hit, but it is controversial. The diet states that starchy carbohydrates are the culprit in weight gain. The Atkins plan cuts out sugar and carbs while increasing the intake of fat and protein. Atkins did experience cardiac arrest at the age of 71. Many speculate it was due to his high consumption of saturated fats, which the diet calls for.

(3) Best Life diet. This diet makes a lot of sense. Why? Because most weight issues are caused by lifestyle choices more than anything else. Underlying personal issues, whether from stress at work, emotional pain or a negative thought process, cause people to overeat. They eat because it hits their feel-good button. The Best Life diet is more than just a food plan; it changes the way you live at a gradual rate. This slow pace of change allows people to ease into losing weight rather than radically change the way they eat and live. It is a more sustainable way to lose weight and keep it off.

(4) Blood Type diet. Peter D’Adamo believes that the food you eat reacts chemically with your blood type. He claims that eating the right foods for your blood type will help you digest food better, lose weight, have more energy and aid in preventing diseases. He suggests Type A blood types should eat a meat-free diet. Type Os need a high-protein diet. Type B requires avoiding corn, wheat, buckwheat, lentils, tomatoes, peanuts and sesame seeds. Type AB should focus on seafood and dairy while staying away from caffeine, alcohol and cured meats. Does it work? Some people swear by it, but regardless of your blood type, focusing on what you eat always has potential benefits of weight loss and improved energy.

(5) Caveman diet. The Caveman diet, also called the Paleo diet, recommends you eat the same type of food that cavemen did. Hold on, didn’t cavemen only live to their mid-20s? The idea of the diet is to consume higher quantities of real, unprocessed, non-packaged foods, such as meat, eggs and vegetables, with a limited quantity of fruit and nuts.

(6) Fat Flush diet. The Fat Flush diet was developed by Ann Louise Gittleman, who has a PhD in holistic nutrition. According to her theory, the liver is where fat is burned, but toxins in the liver slow the metabolism down. To speed up the liver’s metabolism, you must detox with a cranberry juice and water mixture, restrict calories to 1200 per day, and avoid all wheat and dairy. As the diet progresses, you can raise the caloric allowance by small increments and slowly add carbs back into your diet.

(7) Glycemic Index diet. Unlike the Atkins diet, which cuts out carbs completely, the Glycemic Index diet allows carbs depending on where they rank on the Glycemic Index. This index was designed to help control blood sugar for diabetics. Foods high on the index, such as white bread and cookies, make your blood sugar rise quickly. Foods that are low on the index produce a steady rise in blood sugar and have more fiber, making you feel full longer. Does it work? There’s not a lot of research on it as a weight-loss diet, but it has helped people control their diabetes.

(8) Master Cleanse diet. Can you go 10 days without food? The Master Cleanse diet is a modified juice-fasting diet. Its recipe is fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper and fresh water. You are required to drink 6 to 12 glasses of this mixture a day for 10 days while flushing your system with a glass of salt water each morning and night. You get fast results, but it is not sustainable for long-term weight loss.

(9) Nutrisystem diet. Nutrisystem is a prepaid meal plan that includes 28 days’ worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert) delivered to your door. Menus provide a mix of low-glycemic carbohydrates, fiber and lean protein. Daily caloric allowances are restricted to 1200 for women ($9.82 per day) and 1500 for men ($11.25 per day). The price is right if you think about how much you actually spend on food. There is nothing special about this diet; it just takes food choices out of your hands. It is a dummy-proof plan—if you don’t cheat.

(10) Shangri-La diet. Do you enjoy the taste of extra-virgin olive oil or sugar water? The Shangri-La diet suggests that the body learns to associate flavorful foods with calories, leading to overeating and weight gain. To curb overindulgence, consuming olive oil or sugar water twice between meals, which have calories but little taste, will teach your body to stop associating flavor with calories, thus you will crave less food.