Weight Control Diet Plans

It's not necessary that you become thin. But losing even a few pounds through weight control may help reduce your level of pain, as well as your blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Food can't control your pain. But a weight control diet plan can improve the way you feel. In addition to helping you lose weight, eating a variety of foods gives you energy and a sense of well-being. Nutritious foods, combined with weight control, are also your bests bet for staying healthy.

You may be one of the many people who use weight control products and services to help lose weight. Unfortunately, most dietary aids and weight control programs fail to promote safe, permanent loss of body fat because they ignore or understate your responsibility for permanently changing your eating and exercise behaviors.

Here's a look at the rationales behind several popular ways to lose weight and reasons why they don't work.

Diet pills (over-the-counter weight control products)

• The claim. Diet pills or over-the-counter (OTC) weight control products contain chemicals that suppress your appetite or raise your metabolic rate by stimulating your central nervous system. Many weight control products claim that you can lose weight fast without changing your diet or activity level.
• The reality. OTC weight control products may decrease your appetite and increase your metabolism, but some weight control products can also cause high blood pressure, dehydration, poor nutrient absorption or stroke. And in order for you to keep the weight off, you'd have to continue taking the weight control products, which is expensive, impractical and possibly unsafe.

Special foods or combinations for weight control

• The claim. Some weight control regimens claim that certain foods — such as grapefruit — burn fat or that special food combinations trick your body into digesting them differently, allowing absorption of fewer calories.
• The reality. These types of regimens aren't based on scientific fact. And they limit your food choices, which can compromise good nutritional intake. Many of these weight control diets lack protein, fiber and important vitamins and minerals, which makes these weight control diets unhealthy. What's more, you'll eventually grow tired of eating the same food. Chances are very high that you'll regain whatever pounds you drop once you go off these weight control diets.

Meal replacements for weight control

• The claim. Meal replacements control calories by replacing regular meals and snacks with low-calorie liquid drinks or prepackaged weight control foods.
• The reality. These products may help you lose weight by reducing your daily calorie intake, but keeping it off will require that you either continue using these weight control products indefinitely or change your eating habits to lower your calorie intake. And many of these weight control programs stress that — in addition to the meal replacement — you need to exercise regularly for long-term weight loss. These weight control programs also tend to limit your food choices, so you may eventually grow tired of eating the same prepared weight control foods. In some cases, companies will package weight control meals and snacks and send them to your house. But these weight control products are usually very expensive and don't encourage you to learn how to eat a healthy diet on your own.

Very low calorie diet plans or liquid 'fasts' (restrict calories to less than 1,000 a day)

• The claim. Programs using very low calorie diet plans or liquid protein drinks claim that severe calorie restriction promotes faster weight loss. Some say that high protein intake prevents muscle loss.
• The reality. These programs do promote rapid weight loss, but a good deal of the weight lost isn't fat, but water weight and muscle. This is true even if the protein content of the diet is high. The loss of muscle slows down your body's metabolism, which is why almost everyone gains back the weight once they go off this type of weight control diet.