Diets are fickle.
They come and go; they change and adapt. The idea with dieting is really about trends — namely from what celebrities are doing and saying. But dieting is important for keeping your body healthy and your self-esteem strong. There are so many options these days — both good and bad. There are also underused dieting methods that you should incorporate into the diets you are engaged in.
Here are a few of the underrated techniques (including the negatives and positives) that will take your diet and weight loss to a different level.
Just the Juice
This is diet is a spin-off from the rise of “cleansing” in the mid-2000s since it proved to have massive weight loss effect. The fad faded but the inclusion of juices involved with the cleanses remained prominently. The juice diets have various degrees. The basic juice diet includes a combination of freshly-squeezed fruits and vegetables. You will be basically substituting juices for one meal a day. The other varied versions are to drink only fresh juices for extended periods — typically three to 10 days. The idea is to get all the fibers, minerals and vitamins from the available produce. But make sure you include switching from whole fruits from time to time. “There’s more fiber in whole fruits and vegetables, so when you’re juicing, you’re throwing away all that nutritious fiber,” dietitian Lilly Nhan told Men’s Journal. Drinking juices reduce calorie intake but you will need to be careful. You will need to balance yourself with full meals so don’t overeat when you relying on beverages only. You should use this diet as the reset for your body as use it as a preamble to your more sustainable diet.
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Go Fasting
This has become a major trend among health enthusiasts. Many nutritionists have researched the effectiveness and benefits of fasting. There fast ranges from 16 hour periods that are followed by eight hours of eating. That will be followed by an entire day of fasting. The next day will be normal eating. For years, the theories on fasting have been negative as it would hurt your body’s functions and could turn into an eating disorder. “It’s a very promising area of research, although it’s a relatively new topic,” Nhan told Men’s Journal. “That thing I would be wary of — and this is typical of any diet this restrictive — is that when you’re restricting yourself to an extreme degree, you can get into a cycle where you’re overcompensating by binging.” But other research has said that intermittent fasting is safe and a great way to lose weight. You just to need to ease yourself into the system. You just need to be wary of the extreme actions such as binging or purging as it could have adverse effects.
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The Raw Diet
Switching to eating solely raw foods will lead to vegan and vegetarian diets. It works considerably. The research proves that the raw diet will reduce your calories and boost your fibers. Still, the strongest and disciplined person will have trouble adapting to this diet. You are only eating naturally-grown foods. The most extreme raw diets will cut out eggs and milk. In fact, Apple found Steve Jobs was a raw food dieter and, according to Men’s Journal, the diet had been speculated to cause pancreatic cancer that eventually took his life. The thing is you are restricting your body from protein and fats that will affect your liver’s production. Yes, you are taking in a large number of vitamins and minerals needs to boost your body, but there has to be a balance. The key here is to utilize this diet for short-term goals, and then integrate another diet that will make this diet efficient in the long term.
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Tea Time
There is no doubt that tea is great for you. The antioxidants are important in helping you lose weight and keeping your body working properly. In fact, the inclusion of regular teas and diet teas as a large part of your diet will result in weight loss. But it’s not sustainable, so you think. The diet teas are essentially laxatives, and you are losing water weight and not calories. If you keep that in mind, then you could compliment yourself with other healthy foods and concentrated balance diet.
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The Grapefruit and Cabbage Path
The fable that eating large amounts of cabbage and grapefruits is that they will burn calories and lose large amounts of weight is true and false. You need to find a balance with this type of diet. The cabbage and grapefruit are supplements. They do help burn calorie. But remember your body relies on burning foods as a way of losing weight and finding nutrients. The more foods you eat the more energy your body has. You should definitely increase your ingestion of cabbage and grapefruits but you need to eat more, you shouldn’t rely on them solely.
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Not every diet works. Diets shouldn’t be based on trends. What you have to remember is that you choose a diet that works for you best — from comfortability to effectiveness.
Image credit: Jessic To’oto’o [Unsplash]
