Diet Overviews

Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers is a healthy approach to slim down and stay fit.  Weight Watchers TurnAround™ program gives you two plans to choose from to make it easier than ever to fit weight loss into your life.

Option #1

Eat all the foods you love on the Flex Plan…

Each food has a POINTS® value based on a special formula (typically 75 calories equals 1 point).  You can eat any food as long as you stay within your POINTS® budget.  Most people are allowed 16 to 26 points daily, which equals 1200-2000 calories.  Your Weight Watchers Coach will help determine your calorie needs. 

Since nutritious foods are low in POINTS® values, the approach guides you to healthier eating.

The Flex Plan allows you to….

• Enjoy the full range of food options, while making better choices with the POINTS® system
• Choose any food as long as you control how much you eat
• Easily handle any food challenge, even when choices are limited

Option #2

On the Core Plan focus on wholesome foods without counting…

The Core Plan works by focusing your eating on a group of wholesome foods that provide eating satisfaction.  These core foods fill you up without empty calories.  On this plan, you can enjoy foods from all food groups; vegetables and fruit; grains and starches; lean meat, poultry, fish and eggs; and milk products.  You can also have an occasional treat in controlled amounts.

The Core Plan allows you to…

• Eat from a list of wholesome foods from all the food groups
• Enjoy satisfying eating without empty calories
• Have the occasional treat in controlled amounts
  

Low Carbohydrate Diet

When following the Food Pyramid (an outline of what to eat each day based on the Dietary Guidelines ), developed by the United States Department of Agriculture,  you eat large amounts of high carbohydrate foods like grains, cereals, breads, starchy foods, as well as sugar.  Many of those sugars include any of the "oses", like fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar), lactose (milk sugar), maltose including maltodextrin, etc.

Low carbohydrate diets actually go against the Food Guide Pyramid, recommending that protein be the base of your diet.  Most low-carbohydrate diets do not attempt to limit the intake of proteins, fats, or total calories. (In other words, their fat content tends to be very high.) They tend to restrict carbohydrates, in particularly refined carbohydrates such as white bread, flour and sugar.   Promoters claim that unbalancing the diet will lead to increased metabolism of unwanted fat even if the calories are not restricted. This is not necessarily the reason; calorie reduction is likely to occur because the diet's monotony tends to discourage overeating.  Also, there are only 4 calories per gram of protein and carbohydrate, whereas there are 9 calories per gram of  fat.  Therefore, if protein is the base of your diet, your calorie intake tends to be lower making weight reduction possible.

Low carbohydrate diets are based on the theory that eating abundant amounts of carbohydrates will cause your body to create and store large amounts of body fat. This may cause you to gain weight. A low carbohydrate diet has been proven to induce fat loss and help to protect the body against many diseases for which obesity is a risk factor, for example, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and cardiovascular disease.

When your body starts to burn fat on the low carbohydrate plan, it ramps up ketone production. Ketones are produced by the liver through metabolism of fatty acids. They are produced to provide a ready energy source from stored lipids at times of low carbohydrate availability. With large amounts of ketones in your system, you will enter into a state of ketosis. Though ketone bodies are always present in your body, levels increase to meet your extra energy needs when you are fasting, involved in prolonged exercise, eating a high-fat, low carb diet, and in infancy and pregnancy when energy demands are normally high. It is extremely important during this time to drink plenty of water to flush out the ketones in your system.  It is recommended on a low carbohydrate diet that you drink 64-96 ounces of water daily.  Coffee, tea, soda or juice does not count towards your 64-96 ounce goal. 

A low carbohydrate diet/controlled carbohydrate diet typically means:

• Finding one’s threshold for carbohydrates that achieves weight loss, then maintaining a goal weight for life.
• Cutting out/down on processed foods full of sugar and refined carbs, and other high carb foods.
• Eating a wide variety of foods, consisting of protein, fat and carbohydrates
• It does not mean eating NO carbs, eating only steak, bacon and eggs or eliminating all fruits and nuts.
• It does mean appropriate amounts of ‘healthy’ carbs, proteins and fats.

A widely used low-carbohydrate diet is the one advocated by the late Robert C. Atkins, M.D. His 1972 book Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution sold millions of copies within the first two years. His 1992 update, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution, has sold even more. The current plan has four steps: a 2-week "induction" period, during which the goal is to reduce carbohydrate intake to less than 20 grams per day, and three periods during which carbohydrate intake is progressively raised but kept below what Atkins calls "your critical carbohydrate level" for losing or maintaining weight. The dieter is permitted to eat unlimited amounts of noncarbohydrate foods "when hungry," but ketosis tends to suppress appetite. The plan calls for checking one's urine for ketone bodies to ensure that the desired level of ketosis is reached.

The South Beach Diet is not low-carb as some people think. Nor is it low-fat. The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats and enables you to live healthy without the bad carbs and bad fats.  On the South Beach Diet, you will go through three phases in on your way to weight loss.

In the first phase of the South Beach diet, which lasts two weeks, you eat normal-sized helpings of lean meats. Vegetables are also allowed, as are nuts, cheese, and eggs. You'll have three balanced meals a day, and it will be your job to eat so that your hunger is satisfied. Forbidden in those first 14 days, however, are fruit, bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. And no alcoholic drinks of any kind (wine, fruit and whole-grain breads may be added back to the diet in subsequent phases).

The second phase is similar to the first phase, but you'll start to reintroduce some of the banned foods. You can start eating high-fiber carbohydrates, such as whole-grain breads, which raise your insulin levels in a much milder way that do simple, starchy carbs.  You'll remain in Phase 2 and continue losing weight until you reach your goal. How long it takes depends on how much you need to lose. Once you hit your target, you'll switch to an even more liberal version of the program, which will help you to maintain your ideal weight.

The third phase of the South Beach diet is really all about weight maintenance. This is the stage that lasts the rest of your life.  When you get to this point, you'll notice that this plan feels less like a diet and more like a way of life. You'll be eating normal foods, after all, in normal-size portions. You can then feel free to forget all about the South Beach Diet, as long as you remember to live by its few basic rules.  Should your weight begin to climb, you simply repeat the process.

Atkins® low carbohydrate, high protein diet, Sugar Busters®, Carbohydrate Addicts Diet® and all the other low carb diets all have something in common. They are all based on the premise that reducing your carbohydrate intake with a low carb diet will cause your body to burn fat, and you will in turn lose weight.

Heart Healthy/Low Fat

A heart-healthy/low fat eating pattern includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat or non-fat dairy products, fish, legumes (beans), poultry and lean meats.   A heart-healthy eating plan also incorporates a wide variety of foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber and vitamins and minerals. It is also low in fat, cholesterol and salt   (sodium).

If you are following a heart healthy/low fat diet, the following guidelines are recommended:

• Total fat intake should be less than 30 percent of total calories daily.
  •  The upper limit on the grams of fat in your diet will depend on the calories you need.  Cutting back on fat can help you consume fewer calories. For example, at 2,000 calories per day, the suggested upper limit of calories from fat is about 600 calories. Sixty-five grams of fat contribute about 600 calories (65 grams of fat x 9 calories per gram = about 600 calories). On the Nutrition Facts Label, 65 grams of fat is the Daily Value for a 2,000-calorie intake
• Saturated fatty acid intake should be less than 10 percent of total calories daily.
• Polyunsaturated fatty acid intake should be no more that 10 percent of total calories daily.
• Monounsaturated fatty acids make up the rest of total fat intake, about 10 to 15 percent of total calories daily.
• Cholesterol intake should be no more than 300 milligrams per day.
• Sodium intake should be no more than 2400 milligrams per day.
• Just enough calories to achieve or maintain a healthy weight and reduce your blood cholesterol level. (Ask your doctor or registered dietitian what is a reasonable calorie level for you.)

The recommendations for cholesterol and sodium are the same for everyone on the Heart Healthy Diet, regardless of the number of calories they should eat. You should eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day and no more than 2400 milligrams of sodium a day.

The recommendations for saturated fat and total fat are based on the percentage of calories you eat; the actual amount that you eat will vary depending on how many calories you eat.

A heart healthy diet is an eating plan that can help keep your blood cholesterol low and decrease your chance of developing heart disease. Remember: the Heart Healthy Diet is fine for the whole family, including children from the age of 2 onward. Children under 2 years of age should not follow the Heart Healthy Diet - they need more fat to provide enough calories for growth and development according to the American Dietetic Association.