Which diet should I choose for weight loss?

There are probably over a hundred diets out there including Pritikin, Zone, South Beach,  Weight Watchers, Dukan, Atkins and Ketogenic (to name a few) as well as dozens and dozens of juice or shake-based diets. While each diet has its own positive and negatives, none of them offer us a magical formula to wellness and weight loss. The biggest problem I have observed with most diet plans is that they are not sustainable.

You might have tried at least one of these. And, you might have lost some weight. But…did you keep it off? If so, you are in the vast minority.

Most people who diet gain all the weight back and more

Over 90% of people who lose weight will gain it back within a year and the vast majority of those people will gain back MORE than they lost.  Not only is this a burden on our health but it is so incredibly demoralizing.

We might think that once we lose the weight we are home free

If only! Maintenance is more challenging for many of us than weight loss and requires its own set of skills. Remember…you keep your weight off the same way as you lost it. Most diets don’t work in the long run unless you can stick to them.

A sustainable nutrition plan…

1. fulfills your nutritional needs
2. includes a LOT of green veggies – I recommend at least 4-6 cups per day. (Note super low-carb diets may have you limit your veggie intake. You might want to consider modifying this.)
3. is affordable (ex. if you are doing a diet with a lot of shakes and prepared foods, will this affordable to you in the long run?)
4. doesn’t separate you from your family and other people (separate meals might be ok at first but how sustainable is this?)
5. allows for the occasional treat or gives you some flexibility around weddings, parties and vacations etc.
6. is based on whole, unprocessed, REAL foods that you don’t need to order from special places
7. doesn’t require that you constantly count calories (often inaccurate and usually not sustainable)
8. is flexible enough that you can learn to make good choices that support your weight goals