Let's face it, there are a tonne of different diets out there available to everyone. You don't have to do much research to find something that promises results and magical weight loss with supposedly not much effort required.
While some of the weight loss options out there may genuinely work, I don't believe any of them are really sustainable long term, which is why they often fail and people end up gaining most of their weight back. This is what has happened to me countless times. What is the worst of all is the promises they all make that suck you in and at the end of it you feel like a failure, disappointed and with a lot less money in your pocket! Handy signs to recognising a fad diet:
I have tried a few of these over the last 10 years in my attempts to lose weight so today I am going to cover the four I had heard were good, but also the most easily affordable and accessible to me in terms of the type of food you had to eat.
I am a firm believer in finding a plan or diet that works for you and sticking with it..so while these may work for some people, I mostly found them terrible and they didn't do much for me and what I would class as a fad!
Low Carb / Atkins Diet
Summary of the plan: Eat lean protein and low-starch vegetables, avoid simple carbohydrates such as flour and sugar. By consuming fewer carbohydrates and keeping your blood sugar levels 'stable' its supposed to allow your body to burn greater amounts of fat.
Foods that should be avoided: Any carbs basically.. pasta, rice, potatoes, bread, bananas, higher sugar veggies like tomatoes, fruits and fruit juices
Method: There are different phases. In the first phase you are not supposed to go over 18-20 grams of carbs per day. And most of those should be made up from allowed veggies and proteins (fish / chicken etc).
After two weeks you move onto the next phase where you are supposed to start reintroducing certain carby foods, but if you gain weight, you cut it back and experiment basically until you reach a balance where you keep losing.
My experience: I found this extremely hard to follow personally because it was difficult to basically cut out all foods that I liked and stick to green veggies and chicken/fish only. Nothing sweet, no potatoes, no rice, and what bothered me the most is lack of fruit as well.
I did this religiously for about 2 months, and yes in the first two weeks I lost quite a bit of weight, but every time I tried to re-introduce certain carbs, I gained weight. So for my body to accept this diet, I constantly had to remain on basically no carbs at all :( This made me sad.
I lost 9kgs on this diet, but it was not sustainable. Which is what is the worst about these sort of diets. They market it as something that you can make into a lifestyle change, but I really didn't feel that way! Too much deprivation doesn't work for me!
Meal Replacement Shakes (I used the Celebrity Slim system)
Summary of the plan: Replace meals with the shakes, soups or bars,
Foods that should be avoided: High carb & high sugar foods like pastas, rice, sweets, chocolates, corn, potatoes and high sugar fruits. So very similar to the above.
Method: There are 2 phases with this. Until you reach your goal weight you are supposed to replace 2 meals with the shakes, eat 1 balanced meal of allowable foods and snack up to 3 times in the day. On phase 2 you switch to 1 meal replacement, 2 balanced meals of allowable foods and 3 snacks.
My experience: I maintained this diet for about 3 months and attempted it about 3 times over the course of about 2 years. I did lose weight, I think I managed about 7 kilos in the 3 months. What I found hard about it is not only the restrictions, but the cost of buying the product which worked out about $3-5 per serving depending on whether you had the shake, soup or bar.
The taste of some of the shakes was quite nice, the soups were floury tasting and bars were not all that great either. It wasn't sustainable for me mainly because having 2 shakes per day which were mainly sweet, actually got really boring and I found myself constantly craving savoury and salty things. The soups never hit the spot, and in the end I just missed having solid food. This is probably ok option if you want to lose a couple of extra kilos, but I personally wouldn't recommend this option if you have a longer term goal in mind.
Reductil (prescribed medicine)
This product was actually pulled from the market in NZ and a lot of other countries due to bad side effects people were experiencing. The main idea behind it was to be an appetite suppressant, allowing you to eat less and therefore lose weight.
I paid quite a bit of money to have a 2 month supply of this and hoped it would work due to it being doctor prescribed, but did not have any results. My appetite may have been slightly reduced.
Weight loss supplements (lots out there..these are the ones I tried)
Slim Shot slimming drink - this product was in a little plastic shot cup, and supposed to help eliminate stored fat, restrict fat absorption and suppress the appetite. I used these about 5 years ago and the product has changed slightly now to an effervescent shot, but the ones I had were kind of milky and oat tasting and basically awful. I could only get through about 2 weeks of doing this as the taste made me want to be sick. In those 2 weeks, I had no results at all.
Raspberry Ketone / African Mango - these supplements are supposed to have 'powerful' ingredients taken from raspberries and African mangoes which either suppress appetite, stop your body absorbing fat or to break it down. You will no doubt have heard about these in the last couple of years. After trying both, I can honestly say they both suppressed the appetite pretty well, but that was it for me.
For me personally, what worked was finding a method that meant I could still eat whatever I wanted, no cutting of entire food groups, no depriving myself, no going hungry, but more just about controlling the portion sizes and making myself accountable by actually seeing what I was putting into my body (keeping track of calories). It certainly was a wake up call. Combining it with exercise was the icing on the cake.. and what really helped me take it to the next level.
I am so happy I finally found something that works and really isn't that difficult. I still eat dessert every night, I can eat any fruit I want, pasta, potatoes and rice and still have treats every now again, it's just about being aware..and making the right choices! :)
What diets have you guys tried? Did they work? What did you think about them?
This is something that I always try to remember and keep in mind when I want to eat naughty food.... ;)
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