Are you tired of trying to lose weight but being unsuccessful? It can be frustrating to hear of all those great products on the market, but not knowing if their promises are true.

The best way to lose weight is to cut calories and exercise more while maintaining a healthy diet.  Your goal should be long term, or the weight will just come back.  Some people even gain back more than what they lost while on a diet.  But with all this being said, if you want a quick fix, a structured diet could work for you.  Want to know the details on the most popular diets right now? Keep reading.

Paleo Diet

The Paleo diet is also known as the caveman diet.  It’s based on eating foods that can be hunted and gathered.  So plan on eating meats, fish, eggs, seeds, fruits, spices, vegetables, and herbs.  This diet is essentially food without argriculture. So potatoes, wheat, and a lot of other great foods from farms are off limits.

The plus side of this diet is that you will be eating mostly non-processed foods that today could be hunted and gathered.   Because you are cutting out sugary and processed foods, chances are you will be eating fewer calories and may lose weight on this diet.  A disadvantage to this diet is that because you will be eating more meats, your cholesterol could go up.

5:2 Diet

The 5:2 diet is mainly eating for five days and fasting for two days each week.  Be careful if you try this diet, that you don’t gorge out on the days before or after fasting.  Simply put, this diet is claiming that by fasting for two days out of the week, you will cut your calories and lose weight.  Be careful if you choose this diet, to make sure to drink plenty of fluids, so you don’t become dehydrated on your fasting days.

Dukan Diet

Despite the sound of the name, no this is not a Dunkin Donuts diet.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  This diet has you eating lots of proteins and fewer carbohydrates.   It closely follows 4 phases with each step being rigorous.  For example, in the first phase,  dieters are only allowed to eat lean protein. Only a minimal amount of carbs are allowed in the form of oat bran.

This diet is popular because you can lose weight quickly when you start out because it is so strict.  Your calorie consumption will be low.  This diet can be dangerous to your health however because during phase one you cut out vegetables and fruits.  This can lead to a host of intestinal problems with one being constipation.  This diet is highly unbalanced.

New Atkins Diet

This is another fad diet that requires you to go through phases.  The theory of this diet is that by neglecting carbohydrates, that your body will start burning fats for energy.  Phase one is designed to help you lose 15 pounds in two weeks. That is quite a fast reduction.   Be cautious of any diet that promises you to lose weight that quickly. It sets an unrealistic standard. If you are on a new path to health, then what is the rush?

Alkaline Diet

This diet is based on the idea that today’s food causes our bodies to produce too much acid.  Their theory is that excess acid in the body is turned into fat which leads to weight gain.  This diet will have you cut back on acid producing foods.  The good news is that you can eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.  The bad news is that your body was designed to regulate it’s own acid levels.  A healthy body that is getting plenty of exercise and has a well-rounded diet will know how to control its pH balance.

Cambridge Diet

This diet can get expensive.  You will need to buy meal replacements.  Though the meal replacements are nutritionally sound,  the hardest part of this plan will be sticking to it in the long run.

Summary

There you have some of the most popular diets out today.  Be careful of diets that promise unrealistic weight losses too quickly.  Also be careful of diets that have a super restricted caloric daily intake.  Your chances of gaining the weight back are stronger if you lose the weight too rapidly.

In conclusion, though some of these diets are designed to help you in the short run, they fall quite flat in the long-run. Just remember when you start one of these diets that you are going to have to keep it up for a long time if you want to keep the weight off. The easiest solution is to try exercising more and starting a healthier diet.

For easy dieting tips to help busy women, check out our article here.