A diet you can stay with

Experts on weight loss and nutrition say that fad and crash diets like the 3-day grapefruit diet, or the cabbage and chicken soup diet, are not the best way to shed pounds. Yes, you might drop a a bit of weight in the short term, but it will quickly be put back on soon after you go back to your regular eating habits.

What is recommended is a change in lifestyle that will see you eating healthier foods on a long term basis, and even such authorities as the Mayo Clinic say this is the better way to lose weight. They say you should look into a variety of different diets and go with the one that will best suit the way you live. For example, many people have had a great deal of success following the South Beach diet, but its menus has frustrated other would-be dieters because they call for some exotic ingredients that are not available in all locations during the entire year, or else they are too expensive for some people's food budgets.

When you are looking into different weight loss programs, it is advisable to investigate some Low GI diets. These work by eating foods that are lower on the Glycemic Index, a scale that rates the effect foods have on a person's blood sugar level. For example, bread made with white flour is much higher on the GI scale than whole grain loaves. Similarly, if you substitute brown rice instead of white rice you will also be eating healthier and more likely to lose weight.

There is a great deal of similarity between many Low GI diets and the Harvard DASH diet for high blood pressure. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, and DASH diet meal plans are also helpful in lowering cholesterol and losing weight as well as controlling hypertension.

Once you find a diet you can stay with on a long term basis, you will see how much more practical and effective they are than those fad 3-day and food combination crash diets.