A Global Virtual Classroom Project : GVC1210

Popular Diets Research:

By: Andrea, Savannah, and Stephanie at SPLHS

• Memberships - Stephanie
• DIY - Savannah
• Fad Diets - Andrea

Fad Diets
By Andrea, SPLHS

Fad diets are famous for burning fat fast; however, they are generally just a quick fix. Almost always the weight that is lost doesn’t stay off long. This is because fad diets don’t enforce any lifestyle changes. These diets are not necessarily failures though. Fad diets are simply diets that become popular quickly and fade quickly. There are a whole slew of fad diets including everything from the Atkins diet to the three day diet (Fad Diets).

The most well-known fad diet is the Atkins diet. This diet claims to burn fat more efficiently, and in turn causes a person to lose weight. Carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables are forbidden while protein and fat are encouraged. You may not take in any refined sugar, milk, white rice, and white flour since they are all classified as carbohydrates.This compels the body to go into a state of ketosis. While the body is in this state, it breaks down fat that has been stored within the body. This all sounds great, but it also poses some health concerns. Cardiac problems, increased cholesterol levels, and kidney damage are all potential problems. Another consequence of the Atkins diet is that the state of ketosis causes bad breath (Fad Diets).

Another popular fad diet is the three day diet. As the name implies, the diet lasts for only three short days. Calories are severely cut back in this diet, which causes instant weight loss. This diet comes with a very specific meal plan which outlines a person’s meals for three days. Meals range from five saltine crackers and a cup of 2% cottage cheese (273 calories) to a cup of tuna, a cup of carrots, a cup of cauliflower, a cup of melon, and half a cup of regular vanilla ice cream (476 calories). Throughout the three day diet, a total of 2, 878 calories are consumed. While a person is on this diet, it is strongly discouraged for them to exercise any more than necessary. The lack of calories in the diet provides a lack of energy to the body (3 Day Diet).

References

Matus, M. Fad Diets. everydiet.org. 2011. Web. 11 January 2013.

Matus, M. 3 Day Diet. everydiet.org. 2011. Web. 14 January 2013.

Fad Diets. Santa Clara University. 2011. Web. 14 January 2013.

Membership / Commercial Diets
by Stephanie, SPLHS

The top commercial diets are Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and the Biggest Loser diet. The benefits to the paid diets are they can be extremely effective if used in the correct way. There is another upside to these diets for their food can be delivered right to your home and it isn’t a guessing game for the person using the diet plan. Plus, this food is a “ready to eat” meal. Some other diets can be personalized and used in such a way that the diet fits to their body type (Paid Diets vs. Free Diets).

The Weight Watchers diet works on a system of points and there is not an amount of time that is set or fixed for the membership time. After people have lost the weight they wanted, they could still continue eating healthy with their plan. With Weight Watchers, they do something a little different than other commercial diets. Almost every food you can think of is cataloged inside of the Weight Watchers website; many people everyday on this program use it to calculate and tally up all their points for the day. There are two options, you may just use the online dieting plan they have prepared or you could also attend the weekly meetings. Their company has said that people will lose up to three times as much weight if going to the meetings as well as following their plan. Another great thing about this healthy diet is that you can eat anything you want as long as you make sure to keep in mind your daily point total (Weight Watchers Info)

The Huffington Post says that commercial diets may be the better and more effective way to go when trying to lose weight and live healthier. Even with the cost of Weight Watchers and other commercial diets, it will probably be more productive and even easier to go down that path instead of the DIY sort of diets. They say that people even lost more weight than they did while trying other routes of dieting. (Commercial Diets).

Works Cited

Do-It-Yourself Diets (DIY)
by Savannah

More and more people are turning to apps to keep track of their dieting. This is considered as a DIY diet because it is for their own food choices; it is a way of keeping track of the food intake better. The DIY diets are continuing to be a popular choice for people around the world (Diets In Review).

Obesity is a pressing problem, and most of the country is struggling to maintain a healthy weight. Obesity is considered to be a major problem that has led to serious depression problems. Because there are so many different ways of dieting people struggle to find a diet that will fit their own needs. DIY diets have become a popular choice because it is so unique and changeable (Obesity).

For a DIY weight loss program people are encouraged to focus on creating a plan that works for them. People are also encouraged to look at different food nutrition tables to enlighten themselves with the knowledge of needs for different body types. There are specialized tools that are designed to help find the specific calculations that an individual needs (Weight Loss Program).

Detox diets are supposed to remove all toxins from the body. Detox diets are normally easy to make yourself. The point of the detox diets are to create a cleansed body. There are many different types of the detox diets, one of the most popular is the lemon diet. This is a self-made, lemon-based diet. (Detox Diet).

Alli and Sensa are both products that contribute to DIY dieting. They work in similar ways by sending signals to different parts of the body to stop emotional eating and overeating problems. Alli focuses more on how the user feels while using the product. Their product is designed to block fat intake. Sensa is designed to specifically to block hunger signals from the brain. The product is supposed to make the user feel more full with less food (Alli, Sensa).

All things have drawbacks. One of Alli’s main drawbacks is “bowel related changes”. This can be helped, they said, by cutting back the fat in the diet. Sensa also has drawbacks. Sensa, because of the drastic changes in the body, can lead to side-effects. All problems can be fixed easily (Alli, Sensa).

Works Cited

Oxford Journals. Obesity Associated with Depression. American Journals of Epidemiology. (2003). Web. 24 January 2013.

Weightloss. DIY Weightloss Program. Ultimate Weight Loss. (2012). Web. 24 January 2013.

Dahl, Dia. Livestrong. DIY Lemon Detox. (2012). Web. 24 January 2013.

Alli. About Alli. (2012). Web. 24 January 2013

Sensa Weight Loss System. How it Works. Feel Full Faster. (2012). Web. 24 January 2013.

Hanson, Lacy. Diets In Review. Fitness Trends. (January 2012). Web. 24 January 2013.

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