Successful Weight Loss Food Programs, America’s Best 10

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If losing weight is at the top of your list, you’re not alone: An estimated 80 million Americans go on diets every year, spending more than $30 billion annually on programs and products. That’s lots of cash, lots of guidance, as well as plenty of emotional investment. So, which weight loss food programs actually work and work safely? To seek out the weight-loss programs with that fantastic equilibrium of nutrition, calorie management, motivation, and action, we used a panel of specialists to get more than 60 popular diets to the evaluation and narrow them down to the top 10.

Our Listing of Best Weight Loss Food Programs

The Structure House Weight Loss Plan

Publisher: Fireside
Don’t recognize this strategy? That’s because for over 30 years its writer, Gerard J. Musante, Ph.D., has been working quietly and quite successfully running the real Structure House, a Durham, N.C.-based residential treatment center for overweight adults. That’s plenty of time spent with patients as well as lots of attention paid to the wide-ranging factors which influence weight loss particularly the relationship individuals have with food.

But can an excellent residential program transfer to an effective at home strategy? The response, according to our specialists, is a resounding yes. Which is how this below-the-radar approach caught greatest honors from its better-known competitors.

With top-shelf scores on each facet of healthy weight loss, Structure House won an exceptional! from obesity specialist Tim Church, MD, on its exercise element (often a weak spot in diet plans). And several panelists raved about the strategies inspirational elements. “It focuses on the ‘why behind overeating,” says registered dietitian Maureen Callahan, “and helps dieters learn to put their lives in balance.” Health’s senior food and nutrition editor, Frances Largeman-Roth, agrees: This publication requires a holistic way of weight reduction, requesting you to fill your life with things other than food outdoor tasks and time with family and friends, as an example. Plus, the recipes, like Balsamic Dijon Chicken and Classic Pesto, won high marks for tastiness, another variable in long-term weight loss success.

The Step Diet

Workman Publishing
All of us understand that walking 10,000 steps a day can actually make a tremendous difference healthwise. But now we also are aware the diet inspired by this essential, balanced method of motion and action is a huge winner among all the weight loss food programs. And it even has a pedometer, a device that studies have demonstrated can be a large motivator for remaining active and slimming down.

Our panelists agree that creating a lifestyle regimen that combines deliberate walking with spur of the moment measure-building (parking further away, taking the stairs) is a wholesome, all-ages, all-degrees-of-fitness diet prescription.
The nutritional strategy of the Step Diet, formulated by weight-management specialists from the University of Colorado, is profoundly simple: Cut food consumption to 75 percent of what you now eat. This strategy is for folks who enjoy things simple, nutrition specialist Christine Palumbo says. Just cut back on what you usually eat. With ideas (not hardcore regimens) for making healthful meals and also a food diary for construction mindfulness, this strategy can function nicely for dieters who like to possess day-to-day management and selections.

Our panelists also noticed that the reduction in calories together with the steady escalation in action might bring about a secure, healthy rate of weight loss; as well as a naturally active lifestyle. It is a doable, real method of adding daily physical activity and losing pounds, dietitian and fitness specialist Samantha Heller says.

Weight Watchers

It’s a classic for a reason. It works.

And over time, this gold standard weight loss food program that uses the ability of group support to help move dieters has kept up with science, as well as shifting lifestyles. For this particular fact, Weight Watchers earned the best inspirational marks (including several perfect scores) from our panel of specialists. We also lauded the strategies complete healthy weight loss rate and workout part.

Most notable: Weight Watchers, while preserving its assemblies-established system, has added a web-based version for all those dieters who, in the words of panelist Largeman Roth, “aren’t into group hugs.”

What’s more, dieters following the plan have flexibility. In late December the firm established its most recent program, Momentum, which was created to enable consumers to control their hunger and tailor Weight Watchers to suit their lifestyle. Momentum unites components from preceding food strategies like Weight Watchers’ well-known stages-based Flex Plan as well as the Core Plan. The Flex strategy is packaged with important instruction on making wise and healthy food options and gets kudos for supplying both motivation and an easy framework for success. The Central Strategy focuses dieters on eating nutritious, pleasing foods without counting calories.

The Weight Watchers system offers strategies which will work for each dieter. And also the support specifically for guys was a real bonus, as was the skill to get delicious, already prepared (and points counted) meals at your neighborhood supermarket.

The EatingWell Diet

The Countryman Press

This new entry into the field of weight loss healthy food programs in 2007 has developed magnificently on the most up-to-date understanding of the comprehensive strategy required for successful weight reduction. Author Jean Harvey-Berino, Ph.D., RD, developed the fundamentals of the EatingWell Diet at the University of Vermont, where she chairs the department of nutrition and food science. The focus on behavioral changes including finding and confronting eating causes, eating and shopping mindfully, and educating routine, joyous exercise habits combined with a 28-day mix-and-match menu attained the greatest overall standings on calorie consumption and weight loss speed standards from our panelists.

“Hallelujah,” says registered dietitian Maureen Callahan. “Here’s a diet strategy which tells the truth about weight reduction. This sort of steady fat loss is the real thing, the kind that stays off”. Another nifty new thing: a Diet Food Diary that features a calorie-count graph.

The Volumetrics Eating Plan

Harper Collins

Nutritionist Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., has tapped into an essential individual quality: We want to feel complete. Rolls says you’ll eat better and lose weight in the event you concentrate on the energy density of foods. And her Volumetrics strategy describes how low-density foods like fruits and vegetables, along with soups and stews, fill you up without overloading you with calories.

This diet scored maximum for its safe weight loss speed and nutritional elements because it’s “based on sound nutrition principles and complete healthful food selections,” judge Samantha Heller says. And our panelists located the strategies 150-plus recipes appealing. Another plus, Judge Christine Palumbo says, is Volumetrics creative strategy of revealing pictures of low- and high-density foods side by side an easy method to help dieters visualize great options.

Though exercise plays a secondary part in the Volumetrics plan, it’s needed. Along with a guide for logging 30 to 60 minutes of day-to-day action supplies motivation. But Healths Frances Largeman-Roth wondered if some dieters would require more exercise challenges and support.

The Best Life Diet

Simon & Schuster

Bob Greene is eternally linked with star (and dieter) Oprah Winfrey. And his high profile guide, which supplies a reasonable, balanced strategy to total lifestyle changes, earned consistently high marks from our specialists. Roshini Rajapaksa, MD looked at the inspirational aspects of every diet. The doctor was impressed by the realistic targets adopted by the Best Life strategy; together with the weekly menus and recipes offered on its Web site. Which likewise features message board support groups, an excellent source of dieting motivation.

Best Life has three stages that each dieter is motivated to embark upon at her or his very own tempo, a strategy that results in thinning, nutritional eating and increased physical activity. Dietitian Christine Palumbo gave this staged approach a perfect 10: For folks who prefer to ease into lifestyle changes as a way to get used to them oh-so-slowly, she says, this is an excellent wager.

Greene doesn’t recommend keeping strict track of calories, which might make the Most Effective Life harder for rule-adoring dieters, yet panelists applauded his holistic method of healthful eating. He’s stressing wholesome foods in reasonable portions, nutrition specialist Maureen Callahan says.

Dieters shouldn’t feel deprived on this particular strategy, Health’s Frances Largeman-Roth says. On the other hand, the reality is that this diet doesn’t have magic foods or assure quick results. It may allow it to be less appealing to dieters trying to find a silver bullet.

The Solution

Collins

“This program excels at helping people figure out why they’re overeating,” Callahan says. “And that’s what’s going to keep the weight off”. Directly confronting the mental and behavioral underpinnings of overeating, dietitian Laurel Mellins system is dependent on The Shapedown Program. It’s a successful weight-management strategy that she created for overweight kids and teens in the late 1970s. Mellin perspectives obesity not so much when it comes to diet and exercise but as another expression of the interaction of head, body, and lifestyle. As well as The Solution, designed for dieters of all ages, targets five root factors behind weight issues. These factors are: unbalanced eating, low energy, body shame, establishing unsuccessful limits, and reduced self-nurturing abilities.

The food features of the planned facility on four light lists grains, proteins, milk foods, and fruit and vegetables. And Mellins guidelines and food ideas got high marks on healthy equilibrium from our panelists. LargemanRoth enjoyed the variety of the strategy, together with its entire temperance. And Palumbo has given it a hat trick of perfect 10s in all nutritional aspects.

You: On a Diet

Free Press

“No wonder Dr. Oz is Oprah’s favorite physician!” Palumbo raves, hailing the friendly diet novel that’s the centerpiece of the You doctors Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. Roizens mini-conglomerate of healthful lifestyle guides and products (including an interactive Web site). This diet, Palumbo adds, educates and prompts about weight (and waistline) reduction using a feeling of good humor and enjoyment.

Really, the novel supplies plenty of instruction amidst the menu strategies, like recipes for Filled Whole Wheat Pizza, Broiled Peanut Shrimp with Sesame Snow Peas, and Sweet Beet and Gorgonzola Salad. Panelist Samantha Heller commended its simple-to-understand nutrition advice, while Dr. Rajapaksa gave points for its excellent explanations of how the body functions. The weight loss trajectory facilities on cutting about 500 calories daily and panelists enjoyed the simple computations which help readers figure out their calorie needs.

Palumbo also credited the strategy with adding to the wholesome (but not very exciting) 30 minutes of daily walking some equally valuable recommendations of stretches, metabolism boosting, muscle building, and weight training. Additional advantage: Illustrations show the way to do the exercises sans a visit to the fitness center.

The Sonoma Diet

Meredith Books

There’s an undercurrent of celebration in this best-selling diet that continues to inspire with delicious recipes using staples of Mediterranean eating: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, fish, and nuts.

Dietitian and Ph.D. Connie Guttersens strategy starts with a strident 10-day jumpstart period called Wave One. It’s made to purge customs of eating sugar and highly processed foods, which judges Maureen Callahan and Samantha Heller warning could be a bit overly calorie-prohibitive for some beginning dieters. Exercise is supported but not actively prescribed, a missed chance in the heads of several judges.

Overall, our panelists adored the creative recipes and menus. And they applauded the plate-and-bowl method of portion control, a hallmark of long-term, sustainable eating customs. “This diet teaches you to eat slowly and savor your meals,” Judge Palumbo says.

The Spectrum

Ballantine

Renowned in the 1990s for recommending a plan to fight heart disease, Dean Ornish, MD, has been criticized for prescribing nutritional edicts which are only too tough to keep up. The Spectrum, Ornish’s latest diet, both expands and dampens his plan by going along four different paths to healthy nutrition, exercise, stress management, and personal relationships.

Our panelists enjoyed the strategies holistic approach; especially rewarding its counsel on reducing anxiety and giving it high marks for including a meditation DVD with the novel. And our nourishment judges were happy to see that Ornish has controlled his tough stand on fats to a more sustainable level, but one panelist believes he’s still overly stringent. “There’s no reason not to eat nuts, seeds, and avocados; use maple syrup and honey, or have a glass of wine, periodically,” panelist Heller says. She notes, though, that Ornish’s whole-body approach, which includes a vegetarian lifestyle, stress management, and exercise, is on target regarding health, disease prevention, and reaching a healthy weight.

Judge Palumbo gave Ornish’s strategy some of her best scores. “This ‘diet plan addresses the lifestyle diseases of the 21st century,” she says, “such as diabetes, certain cancers, and cardiovascular disease. This publication is well suited for folks who are searching for an intelligent, thoughtful, science-based weight-loss program.