Good For: Anyone who wants to follow a strictly organic diet.

Overview:

Actress Kirstie Alley has lost a staggering 100lbs and credits it in part to her weight loss system, Organic Liaison. The actress launched her certified organic system hot on the heels of her Dancing With The Stars appearance, which helped to kick start her weight loss.

Billing itself as an organic lifestyle as opposed to a diet, Kirstie claims the products she sells can help you to tackle your appetite, promote restful sleep, give you more energy, help you to relax and replenish nutrients.

The plan promotes only organic food and shows you how to live your life free from toxins, providing meal plans that allow you to eat six times a day and recommending exercise for 45 minutes to an hour each day. It also provides a calorie calculator, meal planner formatted to your personal calorie needs and preferences, daily journal, organic recipe database and the Body Game, a way of connecting you with another dieter or dieting buddy in a friendly competition to lose weight.

You can also buy the exclusive Organic Liaison weight loss supplements and products. Products include Rescue Me™, an elixir which claims to help reduce your cravings for carbohydrates and sugary food. Rescue Me™ is the first-ever organic weight loss solution certified by the USDA and is made of organic ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, herbs and fibre.

Organic Liaison offers three membership options:

The Monthly Online Plan (with no supplements) for a one-off sign-up fee of $18.95 (£12 approx) and a monthly fee of $15.95 (nearly £11). For this, you get the complete step-by-step programme, online tools, iPhone tools and access to Organic Liaison’s Health Director.

The 3-Month Online Plan (with no supplements) costs $15.95 monthly (nearly £11) and offers the same as the above but waives the initial sign-up fee.

The Premium Plan costs $119 a month (£75) and includes the free online plan with monthly Rescue Me ™ refill kits and other supplements. The first kit will actually cost you $139 (£88).

Pros:

• Offers weight loss tools via your iPhone or iPad so you can access them when on the move.
• Monthly fee for the meal plan itself is fairly reasonable.
• Promotes organic and nutritious meals
• Ability to customise your meal plans to take allergies and dietary preferences into account.
• Online tools can be accessed at any time of the night or day.
• It is apparent that Kirstie is heavily involved in the programme, offering motivation and support from someone who knows what it’s like to battle with weight problems.

Cons:

• The Rescue Me ™ elixir and other supplements don’t come cheap and the diet plan is very focused on them.
• The constant promotion of their products can feel very commercial.
• The programme doesn’t offer a set exercise regimen.
• While you are encouraged to eat organic, you still need to follow a reduced calorie diet and regular exercise in order to get the best effect.
• Organic food isn’t necessarily cheap.
• Takes significant commitment to change your eating habits and turn to organic food.
• Eating only organic food at all times may limit your food options or take extra work to identify organic sources near you. The website offers an organic store locator for members, but it is not clear if this is U.S-based only.

Exercise:

There is no set exercise plan included, though you are encouraged to devise an exercise plan with your online weight loss buddy and exercise for up to an hour each day.

Summary:

There are few people more knowledgeable about the perils of weight loss than Kirstie Alley, and it’s obvious that a lot of thought has gone into her organic weight loss programme.

While the Food Standards Agency may not appreciate the potential weight loss power of organic food, studies have shown that there may well be something in it. According to a study from the University of Newcastle, fruit and vegetables grown without artificial fertiliser contain significantly more nutrients, in particular vitamin C.

It therefore suggests people may be healthier and live longer eating organic, plus highlights higher levels of certain compounds within organic food that help the body to burn fat and can potentially shift pounds.

There may well be something to the potential weight loss power of eating organic, therefore, particularly if mixed with a reduced calorie diet.

The main drawbacks to the programme, however, include its lack of a set exercise plan and its insistence on pushing its own proprietary weight loss supplements and products, some of which like the Rescue Me ™ refill kits can be pretty expensive. Notwithstanding whether the supplements would have the desired effect or indeed induce unwanted side effects, there seems to be no independent studies proving the effectiveness of the remedies it is selling or much in-depth information about them at all.

As we wouldn’t advise anyone to buy supplements or weight loss medicines without fully investigating the potential benefits and drawbacks, it makes it hard to fully support Organic Liaison one hundred per cent. That said, it does seem possible to do the basic diet plan without the supplements if you can tune out the constant selling.

Good For: One of the healthiest diets around.

Overview:

There is no one Mediterranean diet but all variations have three key factors in common – a diet rich in plant food and full of healthy fats (think olive oil), backed up by regular exercise. The Mediterranean diet has often been branded one of the healthiest diets around and that still rings true today.

The diet has been influenced by the lifestyle of residents along the Mediterranean coast who typically enjoy a balanced diet, regular physical activity and leisurely dining. They may not call their lifestyle a ‘diet’ but there is considerable evidence that the food they eat and how they cook it helps to fight obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, some forms of cancer and can also lead to a longer life.

The health effects, studied extensively over the past 10 years, come from the entire Mediterranean lifestyle and not just the diet alone.

While the Mediterranean diet is not designed for weight loss, it usually encourages slow and sensible weight loss anyway, usually up to 10lbs in five weeks.

How to Follow the Mediterranean Diet

The truth is, there is no single version of the Mediterranean diet. Different countries and cultures, from Spain to Turkey, take the basic diet and add their own twist, taking into account cultural preferences, availability of food and traditions.

Key attributes of the Mediterranean diet include eating primarily plant-based foods such as plenty of vegetables, beans, nuts, olives, fruits and whole grains, alongside eating fish and poultry at least twice a week. Yoghurt, eggs and cheese are also popular.

It’s fair to say that the diet is as delicious as it is healthy – and it’s certainly the latter. The food mentioned above is packed full of nutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, fibre and minerals.

The food is even healthier because it tends to be seasonal and fresh; food is very rarely processed. Neither is it deep fried. As an extra benefit, the diet is low in saturated fat, with butter replaced by healthy fats such as extra virgin olive oil and canola oil, and herbs and spices used to flavour food as opposed to sodium. Red meat is limited to just a few times a month, while sweets are also kept to a minimum.

Don’t forget that the Mediterranean attitude – leisurely dining and regular exercise –is also an important part of the plan. Red wine in moderation is also common but optional.

Pros:

• The Mayo Clinic in the U.S. cites the Mediterranean diet as ‘heart-healthy’. Indeed, research based on more than 1.5 million adults who followed the diet proved that it was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality.
• The same study also demonstrated that the diet reduced the risk of cancer, as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
• The Mediterranean diet is also associated with lower levels of LDL cholesterol (the ‘bad’ cholesterol) that causes deposits and build-up in the arteries.
• No banned foods; instead, moderation is encouraged.
• The diet is easy to follow with some solid basic principles.
• No weighing, measuring or calorie counting is needed.
• The diet doesn’t ban fat as many other diets attempt to do; it just seeks to replace the bad fat with good fat. Extra virgin olive oil is the primary source of fat, which can help to reduce your LDL levels and provide antioxidants.
• The diet includes fish on a regular basis. Fatty fish such as tuna, mackerel, sardines, herring and salmon are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids which help to improve your blood vessels, moderate blood pressure, reduce blood clotting and reduce the risk of sudden heart attacks.
• The diet is flexible; you can choose to eat three large meals a day or more smaller meals throughout the day to keep your metabolism going.
• The diet is a healthy long term lifestyle option.
• You’ll find plenty of Mediterranean cookbooks online and in the shops to give you recipe inspiration.
• Suitable for family meals.

Cons:

• If you’re thinking of customising the Mediterranean diet, take care: it would only take small changes to reduce the heart-healthy impact of the diet.
• Red wine may trigger migraines in those prone to it.
• Typically, the Mediterranean diet doesn’t state exact quantities needed per day which may be confusing.
• Anyone wanting to follow exact calorie recommendations will be at a loss on this diet as they are not given.
• Drinking a moderate amount of red wine (one to two glasses a day) may not be suitable for people on certain medication or who have pancreatitis.
• May not be suitable for people with little time as all meals have to be freshly prepared and cooked first.
• The plan was not originally designed for weight loss.

Sample Meals

Breakfast – Olive Oil Toast and Yogurt with Blueberries and Almonds.
Lunch – Mediterranean Bean Salad with Cheese and Kiwi.
Dinner – Lemon Pepper Salmon with Lentil Rice and Spinach Salad.
Snack – Apple with Goat Cheese.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Yes, moderate.
Caffeine: Yes, but try not to exceed three cups of caffeinated coffee a day. Less is better. No need to limit your decaffeinated coffee or tea. Beware your sugar intake.
Eating Out: Yes, if you make the right choices.
Family-Friendly: Yes.

Exercise:

Regular physical activity is a crucial part of the Mediterranean diet.

Summary:

We have no qualms in wholeheartedly recommending the Mediterranean diet to anyone who wants to be healthy, look good and look after their health in the long term.

Granted this diet wasn’t intended for weight loss and doesn’t make any promises in that regard, but experts point out that eating a healthy balanced diet and exercising regularly are two of the best prescriptions for sensible weight loss anyway.

The chances are that you will lose weight while enjoying the Mediterranean diet and, what’s more, you should keep it off if you adopt the diet for life.

The plan is easy to follow, flexible and delicious. Even if you don’t stick rigidly to the plan set out for you, as long as you adopt the general principles and make more of an effort to be active, to eat the foods on the plan and dine leisurely, you’re already improving your health.

There’s a reason that diets recommended by the American Heart Association are very similar in nature to the Mediterranean diet.

Where to Buy:

You can find many cookbooks on the Mediterranean diet in all good book stores and online at Amazon.co.uk.

Good For: Losing 20lbs, according to its promotion.

Overview:

Also branded as the Maple Syrup Diet or the Lemonade Diet, the Master Cleanse Diet is one of the most severe detox cleanses around.

First developed by the late Stanley Burroughs more than 50 years ago, it has been a consistent favourite throughout the decades despite its extreme nature and has enjoyed even more popularity in recent years after Beyoncé credited it with helping her to lose 20 pounds ahead of her movie, Dreamgirls.

The Master Cleanse itself only needs four simple ingredients – water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Lemon is supposed to help your body detoxify, while maple syrup adds flavour and provides an energy source and cayenne pepper supposedly boosts your metabolism.

This mix is drunk throughout the day, six to 12 times, with no solid food or other drinks allowed. (The exception is a quart of water mixed with two teaspoons of salt in the morning, and an herbal tea with laxative properties at night, if necessary).

Intended to detox the body of toxins and waste, you can make the cleanse yourself or buy it a kit from a health food store. This fast should supposedly be followed for up to 10 days for the best effect (beginners should reduce that to no more than seven), and claims to help you lose up to 20 pounds.

After the cleanse, you are encouraged to slowly move back to solid food, starting with soups followed by fruits and vegetables.

You probably don’t need us to tell you just how dangerous this cleanse is, though it certainly hasn’t stopped thousands of people from taking the risk and following it anyway.

There’s no question that you will lose weight from it – how could you not, you’re on starvation rations? – but it is missing pretty much everything that you need from your diet, namely, vitamins, minerals, calories, fat, fibre, carbohydrates and protein.

How to Make the Cleanse

There are a few different recipes out there, but they all offer mostly the same ingredients.

To make a single portion of the cleanse, you will need 10 ounces of filtered water to which you will add two tablespoons of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, the same amount of grade B organic maple syrup and one tenth of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

Variations on the Cleanse

There are certain variations of the cleanse floating around the internet. The full cleanse is as described above, while a relaxed version suggests substituting just one or two meals a day with the Master Cleanse. At the same time, you are encouraged not to eat processed foods, sweets, red meat, white bread, fried food, dairy, coffee and alcohol for your remaining meals.

A once a week version allows you to detox only on one day a week, while a ‘master plan’ encourages you to detox once a week, plus do the full detox twice a year.

For our purposes, we are going to look at the traditional 10 day full detox.

Pros:

• You will lose weight
• Fans of the cleanse claim it also helps to improve skin tone, vision and increase energy.

Cons:

• Experts point out that there is no medical evidence to prove that cleanses actually rid the body of toxins.
• They also point out the fact that the liver is already responsible for removing toxins from the body.
• The Master Cleanse does nothing to offer a long term weight loss solution.
• Very deficient in the minerals and vitamins you need to maintain normal bodily functions.
• As a result, it may have an adverse impact on your digestion, metabolism and organ functions.
• The weight lost will usually come from water and muscle; without protein in the diet, the body burns its own muscle mass in order to replace the protein it is lacking. As such, you may end up thinner after the cleanse but your body is likely to be lower in muscle and higher in fat than it was before.
• People who have done the cleanse have reported side effects including stomach irritation, headaches, fatigue, sluggishness, insomnia, nausea, irritability, constipation or diarrhoea.
• The cleanse is extremely strict and takes excessive willpower to stick to it.
• While the cleanse promises an energy boost after 10 days, it is hard to see how it can deliver when the sheer lack of calories would normally mean you don’t even have enough energy for normal bodily functions.
• You may suffer from low iron, zinc, calcium and vitamin C if you follow this cleanse for any length of time.
• The sugary acidic drink may also increase the danger of dental decay.

Exercise:

Exercise is not covered by the Master Cleanse Diet but it would be near impossible to exercise on such a starvation diet anyway.

Health Warnings:

Our health warning would be to stay away from the cleanse, no matter how healthy you are beforehand.

Summary:

Crash diets are never good. This cleanse may sound alluring to those desperate for a quick fix who want to drop a few pounds, but it’s based on very poor science (or to be frank, no science at all) and will cause many more problems than it solves.

You’re risking indigestion problems, vitamin deficiencies, immune system problems, constant overwhelming hunger and probably an extreme binge the second that you come off the cleanse, not to mention many more health concerns.

All for a diet that has absolutely no evidence that it really cleanses the body, say the experts. Not that it really needs to, of course, because that’s what your liver does anyway.

So do yourself a favour – ignore the Master Cleanse and put your energy into finding a diet that has some potential for lasting weight loss in the long term. The Lemonade Diet, Maple Syrup Diet or the Master Cleanse, whatever this detox wants to call itself, just can’t offer that.

Where To Buy:

The Master Cleanse Diet is availabe to buy online at www.MasterCleanseSecrets.com. Maple Syrup Diet products are also sold at Evolution-Slimming.com & Slimming Solutions.

Good For: A good choice of personalised meal plans.

Overview:

Connected to Closer magazine, Closer Diets pledges to help you drop a dress size in just four weeks. It says your weekly personalised weight loss plan should help you to lose up to 2lbs each week.

There are eight Closer Diets plans to follow: the four week Total Body Blast plan (nicknamed the diet-lite diet); the Closer Diet plan (eating the food you usually eat but with a few healthy adjustments); the GI diet; low-fat diet; vegetarian diet; the Totals plan (giving food and drink a ‘Total’ value and keeping to a set limit each day); the low-carb plan and the healthy eating plan. There is also a gluten-free diet plan available.

Most diet plans can be tailored to your personal preferences, indicating any specific dietary requirements you may have (low cholesterol, dairy free, underactive thyroid, diabetes, low salt, low sugar and more) as well as excluding any food you don’t like (beef, lamb, pork, shellfish, eggs, fish, dairy, soya and more).

The plans pledge to work with you and your lifestyle as opposed to against you; for this reason, they take into account whether you want to drink alcohol during your plan or if you would like the occasional ‘guilty pleasure’.

Fill in a simple questionnaire and be sent weekly personalised meal plans and shopping list to follow.

Pros:

• Online diet coaches and experts on hand to help.
• Peer to peer support from other dieters on the forums.
• Private online weigh ins.
• Encourages a healthy weight loss of 2lbs a week.
• No need to count calories or points as your suggested meal plans do it all for you.
• Ability to personalise your plan according to your preferences and dietary requirements is a significant bonus.
• Can take into account the supermarket of your choice or none at all.
• Includes the option for budget meals on the plans.
• Pledges to respond to emails within 24 hours aside from at the weekend.
• A number of celebrities such as Lucy Benjamin, Suzanne Shaw, Lucy-Jo Hudson and more have seemingly endorsed Closer Diets.

Cons:

• Some participants of Closer Diets have complained of feeling hungry all the time.
• The exact nature of each diet – and how they differ from one another – isn’t explained very well.
• Offers only online support and no face to face contact.
• Doesn’t point out any potential side effects of the diet you choose up front.
• Have to pay extra (75p per week) to join the recipe club, as opposed to competitors who throw in their recipe sections for free. Minimum membership is eight weeks.

Sample Meals:

Total Body Blast Diet
Breakfast: Probiotic yoghurt with dried apricots & walnuts
Lunch: Turkey & avocado open sandwich
Dinner: Zesty lemon chicken with brown rice
Snack: Fresh melon with strawberries & mint

Healthy Eating Plan
Breakfast: Muesli with milk and fruit scone
Lunch: Pitta pocket with Greek salad and yoghurt
Dinner: Sweet and sour chicken with rice and crispy vegetables
Snack: Fruit mousse

GI Diet
Breakfast: Porridge with fruit and yoghurt
Lunch: Mixed bean salad with granary bread
Dinner: Italian chicken with fettuccine and greens
Snack: Wholegrain pitta with hummus

Exercise:

Can buy extra fitness tips at £1 a week.

Health Warnings:

Recommended to consult your doctor if you have any medical issues influenced by diet. Not suitable for breastfeeding or pregnant women, nor any women who has had a child in the past six months.

Summary:

Closer Diets does offer flexible meal plans, with the ability to personalise them to your own tastes a big bonus. Its weekly meal plans and attached shopping lists will certainly make life easier for busy dieters.

Perhaps its biggest downfall, however, is the lack of information about each diet plan upfront on its website. It isn’t immediately apparent how certain diets, such as the Closer diet plan and the Healthy Eating diet plan for instance, differ from each other, nor exactly what you would get under each.

Likewise, it doesn’t tell you why you would be better choosing this diet, an offshoot of a women’s celebrity magazine, than the more established Tesco Diet plan, which seems to work in a very similar way.

The conclusion would seem to be that Closer Diets is targeting the same audience as its magazine readership, women who might be impressed by celebrity endorsements. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it is a shame that they don’t give you more in-depth information upfront to allow you to make the best choice for you in the same way that Tesco Diets does.

Nevertheless, while it doesn’t offer personal support other than online or by telephone, the weekly meal plans, shopping lists, recipes and fitness tips that it provides, could be useful to those dieters who are busy and willing to mostly go it alone without organised meetings or a set structure.

Where to Buy:

Sign up at www.CloserDiets.com. Four week membership, including the 25% off, is £14.90; the six month plan is £59.90, while the 12 month plan is £79.90.

Good For: According to its promotion, good health at a cellular level, with the added benefit of weight loss.

Overview:

The newest incarnation of the Zone Diet calls itself an anti-inflammatory diet, not the catchiest title you may expect from a diet that has already proved popular. The principles behind it are fairly basic, even if its presentation isn’t. It is primarily concerned with controlling your hormones and avoiding hormonal imbalances that lead to what the Zone Diet’s creator Dr Barry Sears calls cellular inflammation.

His book The Anti-Inflammation Zone calls cellular inflammation a silent epidemic that is slowly destroying our health. He blames inflammation for many cases of heart disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes and dementia. He believes it is also responsible for weight gain.

According to Dr Sears, this cellular inflammation turns our fat cells into ‘fat traps’. As such, the calories we eat get ‘trapped’ in these cells and cannot be released as energy; as a result, we are constantly hungry and therefore overeat.

The Zone Diet, therefore, involves eating certain types of food in a very specific ratio, alongside the use of fish oil supplements, in order to create balanced meals that help to keep insulin and glucose levels steady, thus avoiding said inflammation.

In a nutshell – though, of course, the diet is much more complicated than this – a typical Zone meal should include two-thirds carbohydrate (fruit and vegetables) to one-third low fat protein, with an added dash of fat. This fat should be low in saturated fats and omega-6; olive oil is a good choice.

To help you with this potentially fiddly combination, the Zone Diet has produced Zone blocks, which groups certain food into the relevant categories (one ounce of chicken is classed as one block of protein). An average woman should eat three blocks for each meal – with matching blocks of carbohydrate and fat (the quantities have already been set for you). Most women will be allowed to eat 11 blocks in one day.

Pros:

• It does encourage you to eat many more fruit and vegetables than you probably already are (it recommends up to 10 portions a day)
• The Zone Diet doesn’t reject any main food group, which is considered a healthier way to diet.
• Looks to a longer term view of weight loss and health, rather than a quick fix.
• Most experts accept that you should lose weight on this diet.
• Allows you to eat all day; in theory you should eat breakfast within one hour of waking and shouldn’t go longer than four hours without eating something.
• Snacks are allowed, as long as they’re accurately balanced.
• The official website offers a two week meal planner in order for you to get started, though it is very American based.
• The diet encourages the consumption of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, which can help to prevent heart disease and lower cholesterol. (Source: The Mayo Clinic)
• Omega-3 (three grams or more a day) has also been found to reduce morning stiffness and help tender joints in those suffering with arthritis, according to research published in American Family Physician.

Cons:

• Certain doctors dispute Dr Sear’s claims, (who isn’t a medical doctor, by the way), about cell inflammation and its impact on certain diseases.
• Likewise, some also dispute his claims regarding insulin and its effects on the body.
• Experts also claim there is no evidence that diet (other than omega-3) can impact arthritis, one of the claims that Dr Sear’s makes in his books.
• Certain experts do concede, however, that anti-inflammation eating may be more effective for some health problems than others.
• People may struggle to eat the recommended 10 servings of vegetables and fruits per day, advocated by the diet. If you cannot eat that amount, the diet recommends you take a capsule of Zone Polyphenols, which supposedly contains the same antioxidants as found in the 10 servings. These can, of course, be bought from the Zone Diet official site.
• The diet may cause some constipation for those not used to eating so much carbohydrate; the advice is to drink more water.
• Will take an effort to understand Zone blocks.
• Very fiddly to ensure every single meal and every snack you eat adheres to the very specific Zone ratio.
• May have to do some basic calculations to establish carbohydrate (minus fibre first), protein and fat ratios in pre-packaged foods.
• You may need to buy a digital scale to weigh out food in order to ensure you’re eating it in the right quantities.

Sample Meals:

Sample day one:
Breakfast: Cinnamon roll with half a tablespoon of butter
Lunch: Cuban sandwich
Snack: Nougat bar
Dinner: Orzo Pilaf

Sample day two:
Breakfast: Bagel with one tablespoon of regular cream cheese
Lunch: Crunchy strawberry parfait
Snack: Granola
Dinner: Green bean salad with Orzo
* Drink at least one glass of water with every meal.

Sample Zone block meals:

Sample lunch for women:
3 protein blocks = 3oz chicken
3 carbohydrate blocks = 3 cups of asparagus
3 fat blocks = one teaspoon of olive oil.
(Men are allowed four blocks per meal).

Sample Zone block snack:
1 protein block = one ounce of canned tuna in water
1 carbohydrate block = 2 cups of celery
1 fat block = a third of a teaspoon of olive oil.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Yes, light consumption is allowed (4 oz of wine counts as one carb block) but must be balanced with protein and fat.
Caffeine: Not recommended, claimed to stimulate insulin production.
Family-Friendly Meals: The Zone Diet says it is suitable for children but make sure they’re getting all their nutrients.
Eating Out: Yes, though it may be a little tricky. As a general rule of thumb, replace starches and grains with vegetables and only eat the amount of low-fat protein you can fit in the palm of your hand.

Exercise:

Exercise is encouraged. In his book The Anti-Inflammation Zone, Dr Sears says that 20 per cent of the work needed to fight inflammation comes from exercise. Your activity level will increase the amount of Zone blocks you are allowed to eat.

Summary:

It’s hard to know where to begin with the anti-inflammation Zone Diet. Experts seem to agree that the diet certainly has some positives but may not quite live up to all of its claims. Advocates of anti-inflammatory diets say that they can reduce heart disease, reduce blood pressure, soothe arthritic joints and generally keep you healthy.

Other experts stress that while it may be beneficial for certain conditions, there is far from resounding evidence that it works for all the diseases mentioned. That said, related diets such as the Mediterranean diet have had positive feedback during research and share many key attributes of the Zone Diet.

The key seems to be that far more research and investigation is needed to see just how effective an anti-inflammatory diet can really be. If you suffer from one of the conditions mentioned in Dr Sears’ book, for instance, don’t assume this diet will be your miracle cure.

The good news for those thinking of starting the anti-inflammatory Zone Diet, however, is that it doesn’t appear to be too unhealthy; it advocates eating more fruit and vegetables, cutting back on unhealthy fats and doing exercise, for instance.

The key to whether the Zone Diet may work for you, however, may also rely in just how determined you are to get to grips with the convoluted and often complicated nature of balancing your meals, weighing out your quantities, understanding Zone blocks and generally learning to understand the complex Zone Diet.

Where to Buy:

Find out more at the official website at www.ZoneDiet.com or buy Dr Sear’s book from Amazon.co.uk.

Good For: Personalised weight loss which has been shown to help you lose weight fast.

Overview:

The Cambridge Weight Plan, formerly known as the Cambridge Diet, is aimed at both men and women and is a low calorie diet that allows you to choose between meal replacement products to speed up your weight loss, or normal meals for more gradual weight loss.

The meal replacement options include bars, shakes, porridge, mouse and soups.

What you can eat depends on how much weight you want to lose. The mainstay of the plan does involve their branded meal replacement meals, said to contain a healthy mix of fat, carbohydrates, protein, fibre and more than 30 other nutrients.

In a departure from many of the other big diets out there, you cannot sign up for the Cambridge Weight Plan, nor buy any of their products, online or even from a shop. Instead you must first arrange a meeting between you and a Cambridge Weight Plan consultant who will visit, measure and weigh you and decide which programme would suit you best.

This personal touch helps to set the Cambridge Weight Plan apart from its less one-to-one competitors and may go some way to explaining why 25 million people have used the plan globally since its launch in 1984.

The Six Stages of the Cambridge Weight Plan

There are six steps to the Cambridge Weight Plan, moving from a very low calorie diet in step one (440-640 calories) through to a low calorie diet in steps two and three (810-1,000 calories) to 1,200 calories in step four, 1,500 calories in step five and maintenance and stabilisation in step six.

Your consultant will determine where you should start from. Step one should last between one to 12 weeks only and has two options: Option one is 440 to 555 calories a day, where you will eat three Cambridge Weight Plan products in place of meals (for men and women above 5ft 8ins, four Cambridge Weight Plan products must be eaten).

Option two is a slightly raised 640 calorie option where you can eat three of the products alongside a 200 calorie meal (recipes will be provided) or four products and 200ml of skimmed milk.

As this step is so drastic, your doctor will first need to be informed. If you have certain medical conditions, a doctor’s signature will be needed before you can take up this diet.

Once you move further through the steps, you will be allowed to eat normal calorie controlled meals. The plan is in essence a low calorie diet with nutritional supplementation.

Pros:

• The diet has been used clinically to prepare obese patients for surgery and has been decreed medically safe.
• Its safety and nutritional values have been reviewed and approved by independent laboratories.
• The plan encourages fast weight loss.
• Use of consultants and one on one meetings guarantees a personal level of involvement and support from the Cambridge Weight Plan experts.
• The diet takes a very sensible stance on healthcare and will involve your doctor whenever your consultant deems it relevant.
• Charts and information on the official website lets you know of any potential ingredients that could cause allergies or intolerance (lactose, gluten, soy, peanuts, milk, egg, fish, yeast etc…) in each product.
• Most products are suitable for vegetarians. Exceptions include most of the calorie controlled ready-made meals (with the exception of vegetarian chilli), the Strawberry Silk readymade shake and the mix-a-mouse.
• No need to count calories, points or measure weight or portion size.
• The Cambridge Weight Plan stresses that the diet should give you your recommended daily allowance of minerals and vitamins if you follow it to the letter.
• Experts recommend this for people with a BMI of 30 and above (the Cambridge Weight Plan says you must have a BMI of 25 plus a stone before you can begin step one).
• Provides lactose-free products if needed.
• Flexible; allows you to start at any stage of the six stage process, should your consultant agree.

Cons:

• Some people may not want to go to the effort of having to arrange a meeting and visit with the Cambridge Weight Plan consultant before they are even allowed to begin the diet.
• Not as convenient as many other plans where you can sign up or buy products from a shop or online.
• As weight loss ketosis sets in, namely burning the fat in your body, you may notice bad breath.
• Some people may experience headaches during the first three days on the diet as a result of carbohydrate withdrawal.
• Rapid weight loss may affect fertility and temporarily interrupt menstrual patterns.
• Others may experience diarrhoea if they are not used to the mineral content in the Cambridge Weight Loss products. They are advised to drink water with every meal to dilute the effects.
• Anyone who experiences constipation, which can be a common side effect of a low calorie diet, is encouraged to use Cambridge Fibre to help their body.
• A spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association warns that there will be some inevitable weight gain once the programme is finished.
• Doesn’t help you to tackle your previous lifestyle or eating issues, meaning you may just revert back to the unhealthy behaviour once you finish the programme.
• Step one is incredibly strict and may be difficult to keep to.
• The choice of shakes, soups and food is limited and the diet may get boring very quickly.
• May find it difficult to handle cravings for food as most of the diet is liquid.

Exercise:

Exercise is recommended but it is not the focus of the programme.

Checklist:

Alcohol: No.
Caffeine, as long as it’s black though decaffeinated versions are preferred.
Eating Out: No.
Family-Friendly: No.

Health warnings:

None of the Cambridge Weight Loss programmes are suitable for people with a BMI of 20 or below; anyone with severe depression or bipolar; anyone with a heart condition, kidney or liver disease; anyone who has had an operation or serious accident within the past three months; pregnant or breastfeeding women or women who have given birth within the last three months; anyone with a history of eating disorders; anyone dependent on alcohol or drugs/ substances or children under 14 years of age. People who are taking obesity medication or who have had gastric band or bypass are also not allowed to start this diet.

Summary:

Most experts are in agreement that, despite the severity of this diet in stage one in particular, the Cambridge Weight Plan is actually healthy. They also agree that it will encourage rapid weight loss.

The bad news for dieters on the plan is that the weight is simply likely to come back unless you also learn how to change or deal with the food issues that caused you to get overweight in the first place. The maintenance aspect of stage six does try to help you deal with this, albeit by still recommending that you eat one Cambridge Weight Plan product each day.

That said, the diet can certainly kick start your motivation and weight loss and may well have an important role to play if you are obese and find that you cannot lose the weight via healthy eating and exercise.

The biggest challenge of the Cambridge Weight Diet will be sticking to it over the long term. The sheer boredom and monotony of liquid meal replacement foods may make your motivation wane; no matter how nutritionally viable the products are, it can leave you craving solid food.

Far be it for us to recommend cheating, but you may find it easier and more realistic to allow yourself the odd addition to the diet now and again and just accept that the weight loss will slow a little.

Where to Buy:

The Cambridge Weight Plan is only available through Cambridge Weight Plan consultants and is not available over the internet or anywhere else. Find a consultant at www.CambridgeWeightPlan.com.

Good For: According to the experts, not very much. However they do admit that you can lose weight on this diet in the short term.

Overview:

It’s not a good sign when the British Dietetic Association lists the Blood Group Diet as one of the five worst celebrity diets to avoid in 2012. It certainly doesn’t have a good opinion of the diet, which claims that you can lose weight by eating specific food (and avoiding others) relative to your blood group, and no amount of celebrity endorsement from the likes of Cheryl Cole and Courtney Cox-Arquette is going to make it change its mind.

So how is the diet supposed to work?

Creator of the Blood Group Diet, Dr Peter D’Adamo, naturopath and author of Eat Right For Your Blood Type, believes blood types determine how our body breaks down different nutrients. In a supposedly scientific theory, he bases his diet on the notion that blood groups O, A, B and AB each have their own antigen markers, helping the body determine what is alien or not. He believes this marker reacts poorly with particular foods and causes health concerns.

He believes that digestion is also determined by our blood type and that it is much easier if you eat the right foods for your body (which is again based on your blood). As such, you will lose weight.

Sample Foods

So, which foods are right for our blood type? Well, Dr D’Adamo believes our blood types developed at different rates in history; as such, we should eat what our ancestors would have been eating at the time.

This means that all those people in blood group O, for instance, the most common blood type in the UK and supposedly the oldest, should live on protein and meat, as their ancestors did. This means a high meat and fish intake, no dairy, wheat or grains. Nuts, seeds, eggs and certain vegetables and fruits are allowed; cereals, bread, beans, pasta and rice are not.

Blood type A was supposedly identified at the time our ancestors began living a vegetarian-only diet. As such, they should eat vegetarian, with no dairy products allowed. Grains, vegetables, pasta, rice, fruit and beans are acceptable.

Those with blood type B are the lucky ones; their blood type was supposedly identified when our ancestors began a nomadic existence, leaving their farms and travelling the land. As such, they are allowed to eat dairy, meat, grains and vegetables but should avoid processed foods and eat only a small amount of carbs.

Finally, those with AB blood apparently had ancestors who were responsible for helping humans move to modern times; as such, they are allowed to follow a combination of the foods applicable for both group A and group B blood types. This is particularly confusing when you consider that type As are vegetarians (and can’t eat dairy), while type Bs can eat both meat and dairy. Apparently, the best way around this is to eat a mostly vegetarian diet with some meat, fish and dairy occasionally.

If you’re thinking this diet sounds a little faddy, you’d be right. The short fact of the matter is that most experts agree that Dr D’Adamo’s theory is absolute nonsense.

Pros:

• You will almost certainly lose weight simply because the diet is very tightly calorie restricted.
• It’s hard to find many pros about this diet, but it does at least recommend cutting out processed foods, alcohol, excess coffee and chocolate – all of which is good advice.
• No need to count calories, points or weigh food.

Cons:

• Critics say there is no evidence to back up Dr D’Adamo’s claims that blood type influences digestion.
• Could lead to significant deficiencies such as calcium, says the British Dietetic Association.
• Particularly worrying is that fact that the two most popular blood types in the UK are groups O and A. These groups risk calcium deficiencies because of a lack of dairy (risking osteoporosis) and low iron intake because of a lack of meat (risking anaemia).
• Very difficult diet to stick to as it is so strict.
• Unsustainable in the long run; once you start to eat normally, the weight will creep back on.
• Nutritionists will tell you that cutting out food groups completely is never a healthy approach to weight loss.
• You’ll need to know your blood type before you can even begin this diet.
• Only those with blood type B are allowed the nearest thing to a normal diet—unfortunately, only one in 10 people have this blood type.
• Critics also refute the theory that blood types can be connected to certain diseases, as Dr D’Adamo also postulates.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Not allowed.
Caffeine: Urged to cut back.
Family Friendly: Certainly not if anyone in the family has a different blood type.
Eating Out: Very unlikely.

Exercise

It’s also recommended that different blood groups take up different exercises, according to what their ancestors may have been doing at the time. Group O, for instance, should take up energetic aerobic exercise, such as running (all the better to catch those animals), while group A should opt for yoga or golf. Group B people should aim for hiking (their ancestors walked all over the land) while the confused ABs should take calming exercise interspersed with hiking or other moderately intense activities such as swimming or tennis.

Summary:

We don’t like diets that try to sound as if they’re based on science, when really they’re based on science fiction, and the Blood Group Diet is one such programme.

Certain people may well fall for the claims in Dr D’Adamo’s book Eat Right For Your Blood Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight, and risk health problems over the longer term.

Nevertheless, despite all the pseudo and downright misleading science, people are still flocking to the Blood Group Diet, possibly because it does show weight loss results and the idea of personalised diets are always in favour.

If you are adamant that you want to try the Blood Group Diet, however, we can’t stop you. Just be sure to only try it for a short period of time, say a week, in order to avoid the health dangers.

Where to Buy:

You can buy Dr D’Adamo’s book at Amazon.co.uk.

Good For: A personalised diet that doesn’t feel like a diet.

Overview:

It’s not often that a computer programme feels specialised but LeDiet certainly takes enough factors into account to give a truly personal diet plan for you. Based on the brainchild of nutritionist Prof Marian Apfelbaum who created an innovative computer programme that could personalise diets based upon thousands of factors as long ago as 1975, LeDiet is its modern equivalent.

Built on the ethos of providing successful diets without restricting calories unnecessarily or creating a hard-to-follow diet with an unhappy dieter, the online diet system first takes you through an in-depth questionnaire about your eating, diet and exercise habits, as well as your wishes and statistics.

From your results, it identifies the best diet for you and provides a highly personalised food plan based on your eating preferences, allergies, eating habits, lifestyle and wishes. It promises to provide a diet that reduces the frustrations of constant eating restrictions by making sure nothing is banned or heavily restricted. Instead of banning food, it controls portion size and frequency of meals.

Diets available include the Balanced diet, where you reach your ideal weight at your own pace; the Express programme, where you start to lose weight very quickly and the Anti-Cellulite diet where you are taught how to eat enough fibre and protein but only a small amount of simple sugars, salt and lipids. The LeDiet 45 Years programme helps you to cope with weight problems associated with ageing, while the After Baby programme helps you regain your healthy weight while taking into account the needs of post-pregnancy.

Pros:

• No forbidden foods.
• The questionnaire is detailed enough to allow the software to gain a thorough understanding of your likes, dislikes, habits and wishes.
• The eating plans are customised to your own wishes and tastes.
• LeDiet boasts impressive partners such as Yahoo! Health, NetDoctor, WebMD and AOL France.
• Flexible enough to adjust to your lifestyle (active or sedentary), your personal food tastes or allergies, and how often you prefer to eat a day (prefers three to four meals a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack).
• Suitable for those people who are both over and under-weight.
• Rated the number one self-help weight loss diet by the Consumer Association in 2006.
• As well as tailoring your diet to help you lose weight, it also considers any nutritional imbalances you may be suffering from.
• Diet focuses on weekly progress and not daily, taking a broader view of weight loss, allowing the dieter to relax.
• According to its own survey of people who had followed LeDiet for at least a month, the average weight loss was 7lbs per month.
• You can take the questionnaire up front without paying and learn which diet you should be following before paying for it.

Cons:

• You must be prepared to fill in the lengthy questionnaire first.
• The food allergy section lacked some common allergens.
• No exercise programme provided.
• Lack of information, or diet samples, on its website.
• Not suitable for diabetics.

Health Warnings:

Not suitable for breastfeeding or pregnant women or anyone with a condition that requires specialised dietary care, such as diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia or a salt free diet, for instance.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Yes as long as you specify that you want it including in your meal plans up front.
Caffeine: As long as it’s black.
Eating Out: Yes, with a little bit of imagination.
Family-friendly meals: Yes.

Exercise:

No mention of exercise programmes provided.

Summary:

Many of the more mainstream diets claim to be personalised to your needs and wishes, but few feel as complete as LeDiet. The sheer amount of information it takes into account, while initially time consuming, promises a diet that should work for you.

While LeDiet may have only five main diet ‘types’ to choose from, the fact that it asks you for your wishes, diet intentions, preferences and traditional habits suggests that it goes much further than simply choosing a basic diet. It certainly eschews the ‘one diet fits all’ approach. The pricing seems reasonable for the personalisation that you get.

Where to Buy:

You can sign up at the official website at www.LeDiet.co.uk. The cost is £16 per month.

Good For: Online weight loss if you have the motivation to go it alone.

Overview:

Brought to you by Tesco Diets, in association with National Magazine Company, this diet club seems to be a smaller branded version of the popular Tesco Diets website. Just like its bigger counterpart, UK Diet Club offers 15 meal plans to choose from, based on health and weight loss concerns. Plans include low fat, low Gi, cholesterol-lowering, Mediterranean, healthy eating, dairy free, gluten free, heart smart, high fibre, lower salt, low sugar, total wellbeing and the Totals plan.

On top of that, the plan offers weekly meal plans, shopping lists based on those meal suggestions, weekly online weigh ins and more. Plans allow you to enjoy three main meals and a snack each day.

Pros:

• The Tesco diet brand behind it is a bonus.
• Weekly meal plans takes the hassle out of having to plan your meals ahead of time.
• Shopping list is customisable.
• Focus on portion size helps to educate members about overeating.
• Online support is available from other members in forums
• Additional fitness programmes are available.
• Weekly newsletters and emails help you stay on track.
• Option to change to a convenience plan if you are too busy to cook offers flexibility within the diet plans.
• Special meal plans for those with diabetes, gluten intolerance and lactose intolerance.

Cons:

• Need to be motivated enough to diet on your own.
• Portion control can be fiddly.
• You still have to go out and shop for your food.
• Knowing that Tesco Diets is behind it, the biggest question is why you wouldn’t just join www.tescodiets.com direct – which seems to offer more than its little sister.

Sample Meals:

On the Healthy Eating Plan:
Intended to help you reach and maintain your target weight, reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes and heart disease, learn to enjoy healthy meals that include your favourite foods and eliminate negative emotions association with dieting.

Breakfast: Muesli with milk and fruit scone
Dinner: Sweet and sour chicken with rice and crispy vegetables
Lunch: Pitta pocket with Greek salad and yoghurt
Snack: Fruit mousse.

On the Low Fat Plan:
Intended to reduce your cholesterol, help you lose weight, boost your heart and improve symptoms from conditions associated with a high fat diet, such as indigestion, gallstones and acid reflux.

Breakfast: Cereal with toast and fruit
Dinner: Chicken with chargrilled vegetables and rice
Lunch: Cottage cheese and tomato baguette with fruit and low fat yoghurt
Snack: Fruit sorbet.

Exercise:

There is the ability to sign up for additional fitness programmes, but again you need to have the motivation to do them alone.

Health warnings:

Not suitable for anyone underweight, pregnant, breastfeeding, under 18 or with any medical condition which impacts on diet.

Summary:

With a choice of 15 different meal plans that offer something for those with health conditions as well as those simply wanting to lose weight, the UK Diet Club is off to a good start. Presumably taking some of the content/ plans from Tesco Diets, a trusted and popular weight loss resource, you could do worse than signing up if you’re prepared to go it alone and have strong willpower. However the biggest question we couldn’t help asking throughout this review was: why choose UK Diet Club and not go direct to the real source, Tesco Diets? We still don’t have an answer to that question.

Where to Buy:

Sign up at www.ukdietclub.com

Discounts/ Offers: A third off if you sign up now (based upon 12 weeks for the price of 8; price is £14.95 per month after the initial membership term). Find out more at the official website.

Good for: Fast weight loss with strong support and counselling techniques

Overview:

The Pauline Quirke-endorsed LighterLife weight loss programme claims to help you lose weight and keep it off by following a very low calorie diet, enjoying personal support and – its USP – by changing the way you think about food. LighterLife pledges to alter your psychological relationship with food by using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Transactional Analysis, helping you to identify your personal reasons for overeating so that you can deal with them.

LighterLife is aimed at men and women with a BMI of 25 or above, so typically a stone or more overweight (work out your BMI on the LighterLife website). You may have to complete relevant questionnaires and/or talk to your doctor before you begin a LighterLife programme.

There are two programmes for dieters – the LighterLife Lite (for men or women with a BMI of 25 – 29.9) and LighterLife Total (for those with a BMI of 30 and above). Those on the LighterLife Lite will eat three ‘food packs’ a day, plus a healthy meal from a pre-chosen list of ingredients, while those on LighterLife Total will eat four food packs a day, with no conventional food.

The programme’s rapid weight loss – actress Pauline Quirke lost three dress sizes in two months – is controversial.

Pros:

• The two tiers of LighterLife allows you to tailor your weight loss programme to your current weight, taking into account how much you want to lose, as opposed to a one size fits all approach.
• The emphasis on your psychological relationship with food makes it more likely that you will stay on the diet and will maintain the weight loss afterwards.
• Dramatic weight loss can result.
• It is clinically proven to work – according to a report given at the International Congress on Obesity, Stockholm, 2010, participants of the LighterLife study lost 3st on average over 12 weeks on LighterLife Total, with a BMI reduction of 7.0.
• Personal support from weight-management counsellors in small single-sex weekly groups
• No need to count calories or points; it’s all done for you.
• The food provided is nutritionally balanced.

Cons:

• The NHS recommends that a very low calorie diet (such as LighterLife) should only be done for a limited time. On the LighterLife diet, you will eat between 570 and 1,200 calories a day depending on your size; a woman needs 2000 calories to stay the same weight. Any diet less than 1,000 calories is classed as very low calorie.
• Cutting calories so dramatically could result in health problems such as gallstones or heart problems.
• Replacing food with shakes and diet bars does mean that you’re not re-training yourself to live with real food, says Sian Porter, consultant dietician at the British Dietetic Association.
• Your weight-management counsellor may not be a trained health professional (though LighterLife does promise they will have a BTEC Professional Certificate or Diploma in Weight-Management Consultancy, accredited by Edexcel.)
• May experience headaches or dizziness during the first few days as a result of carbohydrate withdrawal
• Not suitable for anyone with type 1 diabetes (speak to your doctor if you have type 2)
• Likewise, not suitable for people who have a wide range of illnesses or conditions, such as anyone with cardiac disease, depressive illness, epilepsy, kidney or liver disease, lactose intolerant, breastfeeding, had trauma within the last three months or is taking medication for thrombosis. (Note: For further ‘banned’ conditions, please see the LighterLife website).

Sample Meals:

LighterLife replaces conventional food with drinks, shakes, bars and very low calorie food, in weight loss food packs. Food pack examples include spicy curry soup, shepherd’s pie, minestrone soup and a toffee bar. You eat three or four food packs a day depending on which programme you join.

Exercise:

An active lifestyle is recommended, such as walking, swimming, or joining an exercise class. LighterLife doesn’t focus on exercise, however.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Not recommended.
Caffeine: Yes, as long as it’s black coffee or leaf tea with sweeteners only.
Family friendly meals: No.
Eating Out: No

Summary:

LighterLife certainly seems to deliver effective and sometimes dramatic weight loss results, but does have some potential health issues if not followed correctly. It’s probably best for those who want to lose a stone in weight quickly and efficiently but don’t need to stay on the programme for very long. If you hate the thought of drinking meal replacement shakes or low calorie bars, however, then LighterLife is not for you.

Where to Buy:

Find a weight-management counsellor near you on the official LighterLife website at www.LighterLife.com

Latest Discounts/ Offers: Free membership worth £15 when you sign up at www.LighterLife.com/three-small-steps.aspx

One of the latest diet plans to hit the market is the Lunch Box Diet plan. This diet is aimed at helping you shift your metabolism from slow mode to running on high so you effortless melt pounds of fat off your body.

Let’s have a closer look at what this diet plan is all about so you can decide if it’s right for you.

How It Works:

This plan is based on the concept that by combining the right mix of foods together in smaller meals throughout the day rather than the standard three squares, you can elevate your metabolic rate, improve your energy levels, reduce bloating, and effortlessly lose the weight that’s plagued you for so many years.

Most people notice how much better they feel after adopting this plan and continue to use it even after they’ve reached their goal weight as a lifetime approach to weight maintenance.

Pros:

• Provides a boost to your energy with the selection of foods chosen
• Offers a 21 free day trial
• Helps to reduce bloating
• Has been mentioned in a variety of popular magazines and has celebrity endorsements
• Has you eating multiple times per day so is great for craving control
• Helps to elevate the metabolic rate
• Can help reduce emotional eating
• Exercise is encouraged

Cons:

• You must stick to the prescribed foods to see results
• Some people may not feel satisfied with the small food portions
• Picky eaters may struggle with the plans

How To Use:

You are to take eat mini-meals each day as prescribed by the plan to balance your blood sugar levels and increase your metabolic rate.

Summary:

Overall, this plan is nice since it’s going to teach you a number of concepts about healthy eating. You’re going to learn how to eat more frequently throughout the day so you don’t experience energy highs and lows like you might on your current diet program and also discover how to make smart food choices that will offer you the highest amount of nutrients for their calorie value.

This is going to go a long way towards promoting not only fast weight loss, but optimal nutrition as well.

At first you may find it hard to eat as many times per day as the plan calls for, but after a week of adjusting, you’ll naturally crave meals at the higher frequency rate.

All in all, for a long-term diet approach that will melt fat and help you maintain your weight loss, this is a good program to consider.

Where To Join:

The Lunch Box Diet program is available to buy online at the official website.

Good For: Following a diet from a recognised expert in the comfort of your own home.

Overview:

If you’re too busy or can’t get to a Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness class, you might want to join Rosemary Conley Online instead. Boasting a choice of diet plans to fit every lifestyle, Rosemary Conley Online offers Rosemary’s brand-new Fat Attack Booster Diet for you to follow via your computer.

The plan allows you to choose from low-fat meals, meals high in protein, low-GI (carbohydrate-based) meals, vegetarian options or meals with dessert – giving you five choices in total. Alternatively, you can follow Rosemary’s Solo Slim® Diet.

Whichever option you choose, the diet is split into four stages:

• 1. Kick-Start Booster Diet, Weeks 1&2: A strict 1,200 calories a day. You should see significant weight loss early as a result.
• 2. 1400 Fortnight, Weeks 3&4: In addition to three main meals and two power snacks, you can now add an extra 200 calories a day – choose an alcoholic drink or chocolate/ crisps plus a low-fat desert each day.
• 3. Your Personal F.A.B Plan, Week 5 Onwards: The amount of calories you consume at this stage will depend on your age, current weight and gender. One day a week, however, you will be asked to consume no more than 1,200 calories.
• 4. The F.A.B Maintenance Plan: Allowing you to keep the weight off.

Pros:

• The beauty of the internet is that it’s 24/7; you can log into your slimming club whenever you want.
• Rosemary Conley Online offers support from a dedicated team of coaches, who are always on hand to answer any queries and offer motivation.
• Use the online buddy service to communicate privately with members. Invite them to be your buddy and share your motivation online.
• Chat to other members as well on the discussion forum and live chat room. Rosemary hosts her own live chat there once a month.
• Availability of weight loss tools such as weight loss certificates, progress charts to record your weight and interactive food and fitness diaries to record your intake and exercise.
• Gain access to more than 1,000 free recipes included in the price (no additional cost)

Cons:

• Some people may find it expensive at £89.99 for 12 months, £54.99 for three months or £39.99 for one month.
• It’s up to you to follow your own exercise regime and to be motivated enough to follow the diet when your computer is turned off.
• Diet choices more limited than some of the competition.

Sample Menu:

Breakfast: One green Portion Pot® of Sugar Puffs, served with milk from allowance plus 100g fresh fruit OR a two egg omelette (again using milk from allowance), dry-fried and filled with 25g Rosemary Conley low-fat Mature Cheese and 4 cherry tomatoes.

Mid-Morning Power Snack.

Lunch: One wholegrain roll, halved, spread with extra-light (3% fat) mayonnaise and filled with 50g tuna (canned in brine) plus sliced cucumber OR large salad served with 1 x 100g salmon steak and 2 tsps extra-light mayonnaise OR One pouch Solo Slim® Leek and Potato Soup. Plus 1 Rosemary Conley Low Gi Nutrition Bar.

Mid-Afternoon Power Snack.

Dinner: Steak and Kidney Pie served with 150g carrots and broccoli OR Steak and Kidney Pie (excluding potatoes), served with 250g boiled green vegetables. Plus one low-fat yogurt (max 100 kcal and 5% fat) OR One pouch Solo Slim® Butternut Squash Soup plus 1 pouch Solo Slim® Three Bean Casserole served with a large mixed salad.

Exercise:

Recommended and daily tasks given; interactive fitness diary keeps a track of how much you’ve done and if you’re meeting your target. A typical daily fitness challenge, for instance, will be to walk up and down stairs five times in a row, and to do three sets of six tricep dips AND four sets of eight ab curls.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Yes.
Family-friendly: Yes
Caffeine: Yes.
Eating Out: Yes.

Summary:

Busy schedules, families, shift work and packed calendars traditionally used to mean you just couldn’t find the time for an organised diet; with the power of the web, that’s no longer the case. Rosemary Conley Online offers well-known diet plans from a trusted expert in sensible weight loss – all in an easy-to-access 24/7 online environment. Perfect for those on the go with strong will power of their own.

Where to Buy:

Sign up at www.RosemaryConleyOnline.com

Latest Offers/ Discounts: Free diet and exercise products worth £50 now if you quote RCO50 at checkout. Click Here to View All Offers.

One of the popular diet programs out there, the Anne Collins program attempts to help you choose a diet plan that is best suited to your own needs so that you not only succeed with the weight loss process but enjoy it as well.

This program allows you to choose through a range of 9 different meal plans that you’ll use for a four week cycle before taking a few days off to let your metabolism reset itself and give the body a break from the reduced calorie intake.

If you are thinking about using this program, continue reading to learn the vital information that you need to know.

Pros:

• Have the option of 9 different diet programs to choose from
• Are given information on the common problems with diets and where most people go wrong
• Different diets are given for various specifications (low GI, vegetarian, little time to cook, low carb, etc)
• Comes with a food substitution list so that you can customize the diet based on your individual taste and preferences
• Gain access to an online calculator where you can determine how many calories you require to lose weight
• Offers top-notch customer service support so you can get answers to any questions very quickly
• You are encouraged to include exercise

Cons:

• Some of the diet plans are very low in calories which could set you up for a slow metabolism
• While exercise is encouraged, there is not a lot of specific advice on what to do

Summary:

The customization in this program is really great so you can be sure that you’re going to have an enjoyable experience using the program set-up. If you do take the time to work out your calorie needs properly and be sure to add to the basic meal plan they give you, you will not see a reduction in metabolic rate and will get a reasonable rate of weight loss that stays off for good.

Given that it is one of the more cost effective options available today, you really can’t go wrong if you’re looking for a high level of diet support on a budget. This program is much more focused on diet than it is on exercise however, so if you want to see the most optimal results possible, it will be helpful to look at some further exercise information as well to combine to use with the diets that are provided.

Where To Buy:

The Anne Collins weight loss diet program is available to buy online from www.AnneCollins.com.

Good For: Losing weight without calorie counting or restrictive eating plans

Overview:

The Slimming World plan is based on the concept of free foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice, lean meat, fish and potatoes which you can eat as much of as you want. These prevent hunger and are boosted by healthy extras and a small amount of less healthy foods known as Syns. It’s the control of the amount of Syns you eat (you’re allowed one to five Syns a day) that leads to the weight loss. Slimming World recognises that a treat now and again helps you to stay on the dieting straight and narrow. Likewise, as your free foods are unlimited, you should never be hungry enough to break your diet.

Slimming World calls this Food Optimising and stresses that this unique approach to weight loss means that you don’t have to count calories or points, weigh anything or count how many mouthfuls you eat. Slimming World describes the combination of free food, healthy extras and Syns as ‘the most generous, most effective eating plan ever’.

Slimming World offers two types of membership – weekly group meetings (which are described as the recommended best way to lose weight), or online membership to do at home.

Pros:

• You need never be hungry on this slimming plan, thanks to all the free food you can eat whenever you’re hungry.
• No portion control needed for free foods.
• You can choose from recipes online; opt for a week’s worth of recipes at a time.
• You set your own weight loss target and Slimming World will tell you how to achieve it.
• Comes complete with the Body Magic lifestyle activity programme.
• Community support when you need it, either in weekly meetings or online.
• You can find your nearest meeting to you on the Slimming World website.
• Private weigh-ins, even in the community meetings
• Money-back guarantee if you’re not happy
• Exclusive bumper member pack teaches you all about the Food Optimising plan

Cons:

• You will still have to count Syns in order to make sure you don’t go over your limit
• While you will have access to Syns Online as a member of Slimming World, if you want to buy the Food Directory – which lists the Syn values of thousands of everyday foods you’ll find in the supermarkets – you have to purchase it separately from your Slimming World Consultant in your weekly meetings (or the online bookshop if you’re doing Slimming World online). This is an extra cost.
• The technology behind the Slimming World website is a little restrictive. At present, there is no Syns calculator to help you tot up your overall Syns, for example, and its mobile Syns app does not sync with the website.

Sample Meals:

Sample meals for an average day:

Breakfast: Full English
Start with a big bowl of orange and grapefruit segments then opt for a full English breakfast — Quorn sausages, and/or lean grilled bacon, scrambled eggs, grilled tomato wedges, mushrooms fried in low calorie cooking spray and one slice toast from a thick-cut 800g loaf.

Lunch: Ham roll-ups
Slices of honey-roast ham with six Extra Light Laughing Cow Triangles, each rolled up into a sausage shape. Enjoy with lean cold cuts of meat, pickled onions and beetroot, cucumber and carrot sticks, and a mixed-leaf salad drizzled with fat-free vinaigrette.

Dinner: Cottage pie, topped with peppered swede
Enjoy swede-topped cottage pie with leeks, carrots and peas for the main course, followed by a bowl of fat free natural yogurt with runny honey (1 Syn per level teaspoon) and fresh raspberries.

Exercise:

Exercise is not offered in the weekly meetings, but Slimming World does recommend an active lifestyle, concentrating on those little steps you can take to add activity to your day. Food Optimising doesn’t need exercise to see weight loss, but it will bring greater results if you do.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Yes.
Family-friendly meals: Yes. Children aged five and over can eat the same meals as you do.
Eating out: Yes.

Summary:

The real benefit of Slimming World is that you don’t have any banned foods or restrictions on how much you can eat – as long as you’re eating healthy free foods, you can eat as much as you want. The Syns allowance ensures that your diet is healthy while allowing the occasional treat so you don’t get too despondent with a harsh regime. The Slimming World ethos is one that can be continued long after you finish your Slimming World weight loss plan.

Where to Buy:

Sign up at www.SlimmingWorld.com

Latest Discounts/ Offers: Half price membership if you join Slimming World before 28th January.

Good For: Rapid weight loss.

Overview:

If you don’t care about your diets being boring or monotonous and just want to lose weight fast, then the cabbage soup diet may sound appealing… but we would urge you to think again.

There is no official version of the cabbage soup diet – no-one has claimed responsibility for creating it — but the main premise is simple… eat as much cabbage soup as you want, and then eat some more.

It is recommended that you only follow the diet for a week, thanks to its near-starvation rations and lack of nutritional benefit. This may be why it has gained a reputation as an effective way of losing a few pounds before a special event. It is claimed that you can lose up to 10lbs on the diet.

That may be true but it’s not really surprising when you consider that the diet is essentially a modified fast; the cabbage soup itself doesn’t help weight loss in any way. Instead any pounds lost come purely from the extremely low-calorie nature of the diet itself.

There’s no denying the diet is strict, whichever version you may choose to follow and there are many versions on the internet and elsewhere. All versions of the cabbage soup diet work on a similar principle — eating as much cabbage soup as you want every day in order to keep full and prevent snacking, plus adding in a very restricted amount of other foods such as fruit and/ or vegetables on certain specific days.

Only water can be drunk unless it states otherwise and, it’s fair to say, not one day really allows you what we’d call a ‘normal’ meal other than soup. You’ll find recipes for the cabbage soup vary, but most include cabbage, green peppers, onions, mushrooms, carrots, celery and tinned tomatoes.

Sample Diet:

You’ll find there are a few minor differences between diets, but the majority are very similar. This is a sample cabbage soup diet.

• Day 1 - Cabbage soup and fruit (as much as you want as long as it is not bananas).
• Day 2 - The soup and vegetables. You’re also allowed one jacket potato and a small amount of butter.
• Day 3 - The soup with vegetables (but no potatoes) and fruit (no bananas).
• Day 4 - Cabbage soup, skimmed milk (in whatever quantity you prefer) and eight bananas or less.
• Day 5 - The soup along with as much as 20 ounces of beef and six tomatoes.
• Day 6 - Cabbage soup plus all the vegetables and beef that you can eat (again without the potatoes).
• Day 7 - Cabbage soup along with vegetables (again no potatoes), brown rice and unsweetened fruit juice instead of water.

Pros:

• You will lose weight very quickly.
• The cabbage soup has very few calories.
• The ingredients of the soup itself are actually very healthy (as long as stock isn’t used alongside soup mix as that would make it high in salt).
• While the diet does have nutritional concerns overall, it shouldn’t cause healthy people too many problems if only followed for one week.
• A do-it-yourself weight loss method.
• It may encourage you to eat more vegetables if you don’t eat them already.
• The diet is not expensive to follow.
• It is easy to do and doesn’t rely on any complicated diet programmes.

Cons:

• While you may lose weight quickly, the majority of this weight loss will be from fat and muscle tissue as opposed to fat.
• Once the diet is done, you will more than likely put the weight back on again. Indeed, the cabbage soup diet does not make any claims to permanent weight loss.
• Flatulence and gastrointestinal irritation are common side effects of this diet, thanks to the sulphurous cabbage.
• The diet offers approximately 800-1,050 calories a day; experts say that any diet under 1,200 calories a day is not safe.
• The strict and limited food allowed verges on starvation rations. This may even backfire if your body goes into starvation mode, slows your metabolism and hangs onto your reserves of fat.
• Doesn’t fit well with others and is a chore if you’re trying to plan family meals.
• Overall the diet is lacking protein, essential fats and carbohydrates.
• Only a short-term weight loss option; it would be extremely unhealthy to follow for more than one week.
• The diet is boring and repetitive with no flexibility.
• No recommendations for exercise or tips to address bad eating habits.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Strictly banned
Caffeine: Ditto.
Eating out: No. Unless you can find somewhere happy to serve you cabbage soup.
Family-friendly meals: No. Don’t do it to your family, they will not thank you for it.

Summary:

We’re not going to promote the cabbage soup diet as a healthy, productive diet to choose for anyone; there’s no doubt that it is nothing more than a starvation diet with little to no nutritional benefit. It’s also a diet that could prove dangerous if done for more than one short week.

Health caveats aside, the cabbage soup diet does seems to work and you will lose weight on it. That positive, however, is outweighed by the fact that this weight loss is as a result of a dearth of calories and is unsustainable; you will put the weight back on.

We’re also not sure that weight loss is worth the unpleasant side effects for you and your family (namely, all that gas). In conclusion, we would recommend that you seek an alternative diet that doesn’t restrict your food intake, calories, vitamins and minerals quite as severely as the cabbage soup diet does.

Your body will thank you for it afterwards.

Where to Buy:

As well as finding recipes and diets on the internet, you can buy books on the cabbage soup diet at www.Amazon.co.uk.

Good For: According to its promotion, personalised weight loss coaching.

Overview:

Billed as the Number 1 French diet with five million ‘happy customers’, the ethos of the Dukan Diet is a return to the foods eaten by primitive man. In essence, we’re talking proteins and vegetables – and banning carbs.

If you’re thinking it sounds like the Atkins Diet, you’d be right. If anything, however, the Dukan Diet is even harsher than Atkins. In the initial phase of the diet, known as the Attack phase, no carbohydrates are allowed at all, aside from a small quantity of oat bran.

The difference between the Dukan Diet and Atkins, however, is that the former also restricts fat and replaces it with lean protein instead.

The theory behind a high protein diet is that protein is harder to consume by the body, thereby staying in the stomach for longer and helping you to stay full; likewise, you use more calories breaking down this tough protein. Carbohydrates are banned as they spur the creation of insulin which encourages fat storage, while fat is restricted because it contains the most calories.

As Dr Dukan says: “You cannot lose your own fat by eating fat from other sources.”

There are four phases to the Dukan Diet – the Attack phase (eating only 72 high-protein foods); the Cruise phase (alternates protein-only days with protein and vegetable days); Consolidation (10 days per kg lost, preparing for the return of a balanced diet) and the final Stabilization phase (considered crucial in making sure you don’t regain the weight you’ve lost).

The Dukan Diet develops a personalised diet for you under this high-protein, no-carbs banner, initially based on your responses to 11 questions (increased to 80 questions once you sign up).

Pros:

• Weight loss is certainly effective; it’s possible to lose a lot of weight very quickly.
• For those dieters who need a strict set of rules to follow, it can be very beneficial.
• The plan doesn’t restrict how much food you can eat; as long as you’re eating the prescribed foods, you can eat as much as you like.
• Unlike the Atkins diet, the Dukan Diet encourages the restriction of fat and salt from your diet.
• A new study from the French institute of public opinion examining the sustainability of the Dukan Diet discovered that 79% of people who had achieved their ideal weight stabilised at this weight.
• The same study also found that 92% of people recommended the Dukan diet to friends and family.
• May increase your intake of vegetables if you don’t eat many to begin with.
• Personalised meal plans and diet, based on an in-depth questionnaire of 80 questions; promises to work to correct your weak dieting points and take advantage of your strong points.
• Daily monitoring, instructions and feedback from the diet, with online coaching, are available.
• Numerous tools also available online.
• Includes tips and advice on fitness, though you may not be able to do very intensive exercise on this plan.
• No need to count calories or points, or to weigh food.
• The diet limits your intake of processed, sugary and fatty foods, as well as alcohol – none of which are very good for you.
• Calculates your ‘true weight’ and not just the weight you want to be – it does this by assessing the difference between the weight you are now, your natural weight when eating normally and the lowest you have weighed since you were 18.

Cons:

• Short-term side effects as your body starts to burn fat and not carbohydrates may be similar to those you’d get on the Atkins diet, namely bad breath, dizziness, nausea, tiredness, insomnia and weakness.
• May also suffer from constipation as a result of cutting out carbs which are often high in fibre.
• No flexibility at all with the Dukan Diet.
• Food choices are extremely limited, particularly in the Attack and Cruise phases; you may find it hard to continue on the diet.
• Nutritionists warn that long-term use of the Dukan Diet can lead to dietary deficiencies, especially if you end up eating only proteins and a few vegetables on alternate days for a long period of time. Even just wanting to lose 12 pounds, for instance, the Dukan Diet recommended our sample dieter stay on the diet for 96 days. (Same results given whether our dieter expressed a desire to lose weight fast or slowly).
• The lack of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in your diet can lead to fewer antioxidants, which is linked to cancer, heart disease, premature ageing and more.
• You must take multivitamins alongside this diet, though nutritionists agree it’s always preferential to get your vitamins from food.
• A high protein intake has been associated with osteoporosis and kidney stones.
• Not really suitable for vegans or vegetarians who prefer to avoid eggs and dairy, as both are important in the diet.
• While the Consolidation and Stabilization phases focus on re-introducing certain foods back into your diet in preparation for a balanced diet once again, the diet doesn’t really teach you about healthy eating.
• The diet can be expensive. Our sample dieter’s three month plan (96 days) was quoted at £70.73, three times £23.58. This included the first three stages only; if our dieter wanted to enter into the Stabilization phase, she would need to pay an additional £1 a week.
• May struggle to eat more than 1,000 calories a day once boredom of the same food sets in and restricts eating choices and amount.

Checklist:

Alcohol: Forbidden.
Caffeine: Acceptable in tea, coffee or herbal tea.
Family-friendly Meals: As the diet is so strict, it’s unlikely anyone else in your household will want to eat the same food as you are. You may be able to adapt or add carbohydrates back into their meals, however.
Eating out: It may well be difficult to find appropriate food in restaurants.

Health Warnings:

Drink a lot more water than normal as the breakdown of proteins creates uric acid. Your kidneys will need help to expel this from the body.

Exercise: It is unlikely that you will be able to do intensive exercise or any strenuous activity in the initial phase as you won’t have the energy. The Dukan Diet does include information on becoming more active later, however.

Summary:

The Dukan Diet is certainly not a diet for anyone who isn’t 100% committed to their weight loss goal. It promises to be a difficult diet to follow, albeit with effective results. Your biggest challenge may be staying on the diet despite the monotony.

The good news is that the Dukan Diet does pay a lot of attention to weight loss maintenance and results do seem to show that dieters who followed the diet through to the Stabilisation phase manage to keep the weight loss off. It is not known what happens once you finish with this Stabilisation phase, however.

The diet’s success relies on its low calorie intake which, if we’re honest, should also be achievable by eating food from all four main food groups, as opposed to banning carbs completely. The diet is unbalanced and extreme; as such, the long-term effects of following such a diet are unknown.

You would be advised not the follow this diet for a long period of time until such research has proved it doesn’t harm your long-term health.

Where to Buy:

Sign up at www.DukanDiet.co.uk. The Dukan Diet book can also be purchased at Amazon.

Discounts/ Offers: Save 20% when signing up for coaching online.

If you’re one of those people who is vastly interested in all the detoxifying programs that are out there, the Maple Syrup diet program may be one that’s caught your eye. The premise of the diet is that the body is loaded with numerous toxins that we’ve taken in from the environment and by ridding these toxins from the body as you cleanse your system, you’ll see that much better rates of weight loss and also improve the way you look and feel in the process.

But is the maple syrup diet really all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s take a quick look at what you should know.

Pros:

• Users report clearer skin and eyes along with shinier hair and nails
• May help to increase concentration and focus
• Gives some a sense of inner peace
• Will provide rapid weight loss
• Helps to cleanse the body and prevent illness

Cons:

• Very low in overall calories
• Contains very little protein thus could cause lean muscle mass loss
• Could slow the metabolism if carried out longer than the recommend 5-7 days
• Doesn’t provide all the vitamins and minerals the body needs for good health

Ingredients:

You are to mix together two tablespoons of Madal Bal Natural Tree Syrup with two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne pepper and drink six to nine glasses per day.

Summary:

Overall, you may experience some fast weight loss by using the Maple Syrup diet but you must know that this weight loss will definitely not stay off over time. Instead, it’s very likely that you’ll regain whatever you lose and potentially more after coming off the diet, thus making the plan a bit of a problem in most cases.

But, if you were to add some solid protein sources to your day while doing this plan then you should gain some of the benefits that it claims to offer without risking this lean tissue loss. That would be a much healthier variation of this plan that would then support your weight loss goals.

On its own though, this isn’t one of the best approaches for lasting weight loss and should be used more by those who want a detoxifying system.

Where To Buy:

The Maple Syrup Detox Diet is available to buy online at Evolution-Slimming.com.

If you’ve been in the market of weight loss for a while, you’ve without a doubt heard of the Grapefruit Diet. Known as one of the most common fad diets around that will help you shed weight quickly, this diet plan will get that weight off, but it may not be the body fat you desire.

It utilizes a very low calorie approach to the diet that can have long term problems so it’s very important to seriously consider the cons of this diet before jumping on it. If you want to use it for a few short days to decrease your bloating and drop a few pounds, it may be a sufficient option in that scenario, but otherwise you’re better off choosing a more moderate type of plan.

Let’s have a closer look at about the grapefruit diet.

Pros:

• Grapefruit provides a good dose of beta-carotene to the body
• The diet is relatively high in fiber

Cons:

• Does not provide enough calories to sustain most people
• Can lead to lean muscle mass loss
• Diet is relatively high in saturated fat due to the presence of eggs and bacon on the breakfast menu
• No exercise is encouraged – although you wouldn’t be able to exercise on so few calories anyway

Summary:

Overall, the Grapefruit Diet is just not all that sound of an approach and will not be something that most people would be able to stick with for more than a couple days. Fortunately it does offer some protein content in the daily diet so it’s not as bad as other diets such as the Maple Syrup diet would be, but even still, at such a low level of calories, you will definitely find that the metabolism slows down.

While you may lose weight on this plan, it’ll be short-lived and you’ll find you gain back all of that weight very rapidly upon coming off the plan, if not more in the process.

Where To Buy:

The Grapefruit Diet book can be purchased online at Amazon.com.

Have a strong craving for cookies? If so, Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet may just be the plan you should follow. For anyone who hates eliminating their favorite treat food – cookies, they may very well see great results on this plan.

The premise of the plan is that you are to consume up to six cookies per day along with a big glass of water whenever hunger hits. Then you supplement these cookies with a standard dinner meal of between 500 and 700 calories to round out your daily calorie intake.

Altogether though, this is still only going to add up to 1000-1200 calories as the cookies themselves provide just 500 calories. While this may be appropriate for a sedentary woman who weighs 120 pounds for fat loss purposes, for anyone heavier than that it’s an extremely low calorie plan.

With any very low calorie approach you’re going to be at risk for nutrient deficiencies and considering the bulk of your meals on this plan are nothing but cookies, you can rest assured you won’t be getting the necessary vitamins and minerals you need.

The bigger problem perhaps is that after the weight loss has occurred, which chances are you will lose weight on this program because it is so low in calories, you’ll have virtually no concept of what it means to ‘eat healthy’. Furthermore, unless you plan to spend a fortune on cookies over the rest of your life to maintain this diet, you can rest assured that you will likely gain some weight back after coming off of it.

No where in the plan are there any real recommendations for a proper exercise program either, although with this type of nutrient intake, you wouldn’t have the energy to maintain a good workout program anyway.

This diet program may be fine for those looking to lose some quick weight to start off with, but after that you would be served better by finding a more well-balanced plan.

Pros:

• Satisfies your craving for cookies
• Take in a high amount of dietary fiber
• Low levels of hunger are typically reported
• The one meal that is recommended is quite well balanced

Cons:

• Users will experience fast weight loss, although it won’t stay off and is not healthy
• May lose muscle mass on the plan
• Reduced metabolism will result from eating such a low daily calorie intake
• Lack of nutrients could put you at risk of deficiency
• Plan is expensive to maintain
• No information is provided with regards to resistance training – a key component of a successful fat loss plan
• Program does not teach you everyday real eating habits that will help you maintain the weight loss in the long run

Conclusion:

Overall, if you want to see successful weight loss, you’re better off choosing another plan that allows for a cheat meal and getting your cookie craving satisfied that way. This plan is not really backed by good nutritional research on what a complete diet is all about.

Expect to have to maintain pretty good will power with this plan also because while at first you may be happy to have your six cookies each day, after the first week or so passes you definitely will grow tired of them.

The good news is that anyone who uses this plan will likely never have a craving for a cookie again! For quick weight loss when you need it this is a great program to turn to but if you want to keep it off for good, look for a more balanced approach.

Where To Buy:

Dr Siegal’s Cookies are available to order online through the official www.CookieDiet.com website.

After reading the name of the program, ‘Fat Loss 4 Idiots‘, you would think this would be a very simplistic and easy to understand program that would walk you right through the fat loss process. Unfortunately, it’s anything but that. Quite in fact even those who are well versed up on diet rules and advice would easily get confused by all the different options and plans given in this program.

The first file you will receive will give you a general outline of what you should be using but there are no set guidelines that you must follow but rather they describe the program as been a flexible plan to meet your needs.

Only it offers just a bit too much flexibility. For most people having some structure within their plan will be a necessity otherwise they’re just going to fall off of it altogether. In addition to this, there isn’t much scientific backing to the plan at all so one has to question what theories it’s actually based upon.

The plan gives zero recommendations for exercise past the advice that you should walk for an hour a day, which while will get you up and moving is definitely not ideal for experiencing a desired rate of fat loss.

In other sections of the program you do have access to meal generator software that will provide you with a specific plan after you’ve inputted some of your favorite foods so this is a slightly better option for anyone using this program.

The nice thing here is the customization aspect of it – in other plans you may be prescribed foods that you don’t necessarily enjoy but with this plan you actually get to choose the specific foods you’re eating.

But again, one must question, if you have that much flexibility in your choice, is the plan really going to deliver? That’s the true question at hand.

Pros:

• High degree of flexibility for picky eaters
• Includes 3 days of a diet break once every two weeks – this is helpful for preventing a slow metabolism
• Vegetarian option is included

Cons:

• Lack of any scientific research to back up their points
• Zero recommendations for specific exercises design to help build muscle and increase the metabolism
• Very little guidance in the first pdf as to what to eat and when

Conclusion:

Overall, Fat Loss 4 Idiots is simply not all that effective. It just doesn’t have the research behind it to support a healthy rate of weight loss and isn’t really providing users with all that much direction as to how to achieve a proper rate of weight loss.

The lack of exercise alone is a significant drawback to this plan when compared to others since then you’re going to have to seek out advice from some other source to get this area of your weight loss plan covered.

The people who will do best on this plan are those who are just looking to improve their overall eating habits and aren’t all that serious about the specific rate of fat loss they see. Since there is so much flexibility and the plan does give some eating tips that are still helpful, these individuals will likely benefit from Fat Loss 4 Idiots.

Where To Buy:

The Fat Loss 4 Idiots program is only available to buy online through the official www.FatLoss4Idiots.com website.

Thinking about starting up on a diet plan? If so, you’ve likely come across or heard about Isabel De Los Rios’s Diet Solution Program. Backed with plenty of time spent researching up on what makes weight loss successful, this is one plan you should feel good about using.

The one thing that most people find most pleasing about this approach is that it’s not based around some quick-fix. You’re going to learn safe and sound nutrition strategies that when followed will naturally promote a healthy level of weight loss that’s right for you.

What’s more is that it’s not a one-size-fits all plan. Throughout the manual Isabel will go through discussing the metabolic typing concept and how certain foods react differently in various individuals.

This allows you to go through the diet and figure out which type of set-up is going to work best for you. If you want to see maximum results with any diet plan, it’s always vital that you take into account individual factors and preferences and the Diet Solution Program does an excellent job of doing this.

Most people are really quite surprised at how much they learn about different foods and their impact on the body while reading through this guide so if you’re someone who loves to gain more knowledge, it’s the perfect choice for you.

Pros:

• The plan is a well balanced mix of proteins, healthy fats, and selected carbohydrates
• You will find that when used properly, this program will really enhance the way you feel on a day to day basis
• Hunger is typically relatively low
• You have quite a high degree of flexibility with food selection

Cons:

• No specific exercise program is included – it’s mentioned but regulations are not made
• The diet tends to be on the more pricey side as organic foods are encouraged
• Tracking how the various foods you’re eating make you feel can get to be time consuming at first so the initial part of this plan can be somewhat time consuming
• Some people may find the initial questionnaire a little challenging to get through

Conclusion:

Overall, if you’re willing to put in some initial time and effort into learning your body and understanding how foods influence it, this is a great diet to be on. The drawback of no exercise program can easily be overcome by using another plan that you may come across – free or paid, and since the program itself is not ultra-low carb, you’ll have more than enough energy to get through the workout sessions.

If you choose to use the platinum upgrade option then you’re also going to get a number of further resources to use such as audio files on meal planning as well as a personal consultation for support so you definitely do not need to feel alone while you work through this diet plan.

Where To Buy:

The Diet Solution Program is only available to buy online through the official www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com website.

Good For: A meal replacement plan with added benefits.

Overview:

One of the most recent diets to come from Australia, the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme is a meal replacement diet that swaps meals for shakes, bars and soups… but it doesn’t stop there.

Created by two Australian pharmacists, the theory behind the plan is straight forward, namely that you will lose weight if you consume less calories. You swap out two of your meals for the meal replacements each day and eat one normal meal as well, making sure you combine protein-rich food with carbohydrates that have a low glycaemic index.

In addition, you’re allowed to eat low GI fruits and vegetables throughout the day, taking your calorie intake to between 1,200 to 1,400 calories a day.

If you’re thinking it sounds similar to other meal replacement products already on the market such as SlimFast, you’d be halfway right but there’s one big exception… the Tony Ferguson plan gives you more support, structure and retraining than other meal replacement diets on the market.

The Tony Ferguson plan has three phases:

Weight Loss Phase: allowing you to lose the weight.
Transition Period: when you’ve lost the weight, preparing you to begin eating normally again.
Freedom Phase: guiding you through long term weight management and eating normal meals.

By signing up the diet for £15, you are given information on the different phases, lifetime membership to the programme, recipes, monthly menu plan, a 24 hour phone hotline and, as part of its partnership with Boots, access to a Boots Healthcare Advisor.

Pros:

• Reducing carbs helps the body to burn fat.
• Likewise, eating carbohydrates with a low GI helps to maintain blood sugar levels and keep you fuller for longer.
• Protein plus fibre can also help to satisfy hunger.
• Studies have shown that meal replacement shakes and soups can aid weight loss.
• Allows snacking; you can eat two pieces of low GI fruit each day, as well as unlimited vegetables (as long as they are low GI again) and the Tony Ferguson Table Jelly Mix. You are also allowed three weekly treats from the treat list provided.
• The Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme claims you shouldn’t be hungry while on the diet. If you are, simply add more protein or the Tony Ferguson Dietary Fibre to shakes, to thicken and help you feel fuller for longer.
• Sign up allows you to take advantage of unlimited free weigh-ins at participating Boots stores.
• The emphasis of the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme isn’t just on replacing meals with shakes, but is also on learning how to prepare healthy meals. As such, the website contains recipes for you to make at home.
• The diet promotes fairly sensible weight loss of around 2lbs per week, perhaps a little more when you first start.
• No need to count points, calories, portions or weigh your food.
• The diet isn’t just about replacing meals; it also encourages you to eat your five fruit and veg a day, to drink more water, and to remove the junk from your diet.
• As well as the meal replacement options, also offers (for sale, naturally) additional fibre, magnesium supplements and multivitamin complexes to tackle any dietary problems you may have.

Cons:

• You may suffer from headaches, bad breath, cravings and dizziness in your first few days. This is either a result of restricting your carbs or related to caffeine withdrawal and the elimination of toxins in your body.
• Some people may also experience cramping in the legs due to the flushing of minerals by the kidneys. Taking the Tony Ferguson Multivitamin Mineral Complex or a magnesium supplement may help.
• The hardest thing about the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme may be the boredom of eating the same meal replacement products over time.
• The diet may end up being expensive over time as you need to buy more meal replacement items (don’t forget to contrast it to the food you’re saving on your weekly shop, of course).
• Drinking a shake instead of eating a meal may make you feel unsatisfied.

Checklist:

Caffeine: Yes but limited to one cup of full strength coffee a day.
Eating Out: Yes, as long as it’s for your own normal meal a day.
Family-Friendly Meals: Yes, again, for your own normal meal a day.

Health warnings:

Not suitable for pregnant or breastfeeding women, anyone with a history of eating disorders, anyone under 16 or those with a BMI of 20 or under. It is recommended that you visit your doctor regularly if you are on medication as your dose may need to be altered according to the weight loss you experience.

Summary:

The Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme borrows quite liberally from other diet plans and resources, such as meal replacement plans, calorie-controlled diets, low GI plans, high-protein diets and support from Tony Ferguson advisors as well as other dieters, weigh ins and monitoring from a health expert.

All of which sounds very good; there are legitimate reasons for adopting any one of these diet plans or resources. The biggest benefit is perhaps the support that is offered in maintaining weight loss and the Freedom plan; studies have shown that support from healthcare professionals really can make the difference between maintaining your weight loss and piling your weight back on.

Despite all the added benefits, however, The Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme is at heart a simple meal replacement plan and is probably entirely unsuitable for those people who can’t face drinking shakes, eating soup or restricting themselves to a meal replacement bar for lunch.

Boredom may set in very quickly; carb lovers too may struggle as carbs such as bread, pasta, potato, rice and cereals are forbidden in the weight loss phase.

There’s probably no doubt that you can lose weight if you can stick to the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme, but we struggle to see just how long you can enjoy drinking weight loss shakes that aren’t always known for their palatability.

If you have always fancied giving a meal replacement diet a try, however, but wished there was a more consumer-facing, supportive version, you may have just found it in the Tony Ferguson Weightloss Programme – with the Boots Healthcare Advisor adding the personal touch.

Where to Buy:

It is currently only available from Boots; sign up at Boots.com/TonyFerguson

If you want a diet plan that focuses on whole foods and promises long term weight loss, the 12 week Fat Loss Factor diet is one to consider. By focusing on foods that are natural to the body you’re going to improve your blood sugar levels, prevent disease, and help the weight move off your body quickly and safely.

When you first get started with the Fat Loss Factor diet, you have one of two options. Users can move right into a two week cleansing phase where they’re focusing on eliminating toxins that have built up in the body by consuming only foods such as organic fruit, nuts, seeds, vegetables and olive oil or they can use the more intense approach where for three days they will do a Master Cleanse fast to rid their body quickly of any toxic build-up that’s present before moving into the two week time period described above.

After the initial two week phase is up they’ll move into a 10-week phase where they are allowed to add more foods back into their diet provide they are low on the glycemic index or are a lean source of protein.

Once this section of the diet is finished if the user still has not arrived at their goal weight then they’re supposed to cycle through the diet again starting with the cleansing period.

Pros:

• Rapid weight loss will be experienced off the start
• Makes use of plenty of vegetables and fruits for good nutrition
• Avoids processed foods so will help keep blood sugar levels more stable
• Promotes goal setting throughout the program to ensure user realizes success
• Talks about lifestyle factors such as stress that can impede weight loss progress
• Comes with an exercise program that includes both strength and interval training – two key elements that are vital for success

Cons:

• The first portion of the diet is incredibly low in protein so muscle mass loss may be high
• Could become quite costly to constantly be purchasing organic foods
• No precise meal plan is included so user will have to create their own

Conclusion:

Overall, if you are looking for a diet strategy that is relatively sound and will improve your eating habits for good, Fat Loss Factor is a wise program to use. You may want to consider adding a bit more protein into the initial phase if muscle tissue loss is a concern for you as the diet will offer very little, if any at all, during that time period.

The program also makes room for one cheat meal a week which is a nice added benefit so those who do deal with food cravings throughout their time on a weight loss diet will really enjoy it.

Since the program does encourage lasting lifestyle changes and deals with stress management, it should be one that you have no problem sticking with for the longer term.

Where To Buy:

The Fat Loss Factor program is only available to buy online from the official www.FatLossFactor.com website.

If you’re looking for a plan that does away with fad diets and focuses on a strategy that will get you losing weight and keeping it off for good, the Fat Burning Furnace program is for you. This plan primarily focuses on what you can do to actually elevate your basal metabolic rate permanently so weight loss not only becomes easier but it’s not a challenge to maintain your new body weight into the future.

Unlike other diet plans which often focus on getting you consume less and less food, this program takes the opposite approach. Rather than looking at ways to cut back on calories, the author looks at ways to make your body burn more calories thus you don’t have to reduce your food intake as much to lose weight.

The diet program itself focuses on a very well balanced approach to eating so you won’t have to go making any really dramatic changes and cutting out entire food groups.

Complete with beginner, intermediate, and advanced level workouts, this plan is a wholesome approach that attacks your body fat from all angles. The especially nice thing about it is that it will walk you through the chances you need to make every step of the way so at no point will you be feeling overwhelmed and lost.

The plan includes progress tracking sheets so you can always look over your results and assess how you’re doing.

Pros:

• Plenty of different food options
• Complete meal plans
• Focuses on maintaining a healthy calorie intake – no crash dieting
• Rather than your metabolism slowing down like it does on most diets, yours will go up on this plan
• Author illustrates many different perceptions people have about dieting that leads them astray
• Full exercise program that only takes 20-30 minutes two to three times a week
• Realistic to maintain in the long term
• 60-day money back guarantee

Cons:

• There is little aerobic or cardio workouts in the program so if you’re a fan of endurance training, you may not enjoy the workout program
• In order to get the videos on how to perform the exercises you have to order the upgrade program

Conclusion:

Overall, the Fat Burning Furnace is quite simply one of the best weight loss programs out there. It’s great for anyone regardless of your lifestyle or eating preferences and since it includes both diet and exercise information in the plan, you won’t need to seek outside advice on either of those issues.

For those who have never exercised before it’s an exceptionally well thought out plan as it comes with a complete ‘break-in’ routine to help get you back into exercise so you don’t feel overwhelmed and end up dropping off.

If you want to see weight loss success and keep that weight off for years to come, this is a perfect plan for you.

Where to Buy:

The Fat Burning Furnace program is only available to buy online from the official www.FatBurningFurnace.com website.