Diet Watch is a weight loss system conducted online.  Once you register and join their program, you get access to features like personalized meal plans, weight loss courses, and exercise options.  The plan guidelines were developed by a dietician named Jennifer May.
The website is user friendly.  Before you sign up you can “take a tour” of the site and the tools that they provide.
Even if you don’t follow the Diet Watch plan, the tools may be helpful to continue on the plan that you have chosen and find success.
This plan is good for people who have dietary issues.  The program offers four diet plans that can be personalized to meet the needs of the participant.
The four plans are:  No Restrictions Plan, Reduced Carbs Plan, Heart Healthy/Mediterranean Plan, and the Vegetarian Plan.
Each plan has specific foods that can be enjoyed.  There are tools to create shopping lists for the recipes chosen and a way to keep up with nutritional information on the foods that you eat.
The database created by Diet Watch lets members track down the nutritional facts on just about any food that exists.
The Diet Watch plan offers a holistic approach to dieting.  They provide articles and programs which center on the self-esteem of the dieter.
Body image, positive reinforcement, and emotional issues are dealt with here, so that members learn about their own personal barriers to weight loss, and how to combat them effectively now and over the course of their life as they try to lose the weight and keep it off.

Pharmaceutical companies are trying to synthesize Hoodia for marketing to the rest of the world, but there are still some questions about the best dosage and if it is a safe long term weight loss strategy, or if it is just a fad.
The cactus diet plan is still not perfected.  The Cactus diet involves taking supplements that contain Hoodia.
The trouble is, there are many types of Hoodia and you may be buying a pill that claims to suppress the appetite but may not.  The amount of Hoodia may not be enough to cause the same effects that the Bushmen experience from eating the actual plant.
Since this plant has not been found outside of this desert-like region of Africa, to follow the Cactus diet plan, people have to rely on commercial pills that make boastful claims about their product having the same effects as the original Hoodia plant.
The pills, drinks, and so on, can really add up in price.
According to the Hoodia tale, the substance is hard to reproduce with the same efficiency.
Those who buy products that contain Hoodia should beware.
We all know what they say about something that seems too good to be true.
Until further notice, watch what you eat and exercise regularly to lose weight.  Stay away from gimmicks.
Having said that, there is such a thing as the placebo effect, in other words, up to one third of people who take a sugar pill thinking it is medicine, will start to feel better. So, in the case of Hoodia, provided it does not cost you an arm and a leg, you might be one of the lucky 33% of the people who start seeing results because you believe it works.

Who wants to eat a cactus?  Apparently just about everyone in the world wants this particular cactus.  You may not have heard about the Cactus diet but most people have heard about Hoodia.
The basis of the Cactus diet is a substance called Hoodia.  Several diet pills on the market claim to contain the substance.
Hoodia is the name of a rather ugly cactus that grows in the Kalahari region of Africa.  The Bushmen that live there use the Hoodia cactus, specifically Hoodia Gordonii, to keep them from getting hungry on long hunting trips.
The native tribes eat the plant and can survive for days on little or nothing to eat while they search for food.
The Hoodia cactus suppresses their desire to eat.  It fools the brain into thinking that they are already full.
The discovery of this plant sent pharmaceutical companies into a tizzy, advertising it as the secret to stopping the obesity epidemic.
Taking Hoodia is supposed to suppress the appetite and therefore lead to weight loss.  When hunger does start to kick in, Hoodia users can eat healthier foods to fuel the body.
Hoodia is now being put into everything in sight, from supplements to snack bars.
Taking Hoodia and following an exercise plan leads to weight loss according to those who swear by the substance.
Natural Hoodia has no serious side effects compared with diet pills which can affect the heart in many cases, and hoodia can affect the appetite after the first pieces are eaten.

It is tough to do this diet if you live with people who are all eating normally.
After seven days you may see a weight loss of up ten pounds.  Since the shed pounds come off so quickly it is likely that most of those pounds are water weight.
This in turn makes it more likely that much of the weight will return once dieters resume normal eating habits again.
Due to the short length and drastic weight loss that occurs fro m this diet, there is no exercise routine necessary.
But you might want to start one in order to shift your calories even faster, and get your body burning your fat as energy. Often the first 10 pounds are the hardest to lose. If you know you are going to lose that if you follow this diet, why not aim for 15 or 20.
The downside of this diet: talk about yo-yo dieting!  Unless another, more substantial diet plan is in place, you will probably not see long term weight loss from the Cabbage Soup diet alone.
This diet can be a means to building confidence before starting a healthier eating plan, because this is not a long term, sustainable diet.  But stick to one diet at a time. Detox with the Cabbage soup diet and use that basis as a jumping off point for even more weight loss.

The Cabbage Soup diet is based on -you guessed it – cabbage soup.
The dieter consumes large amounts of it in an effort to shed unwanted pounds quickly.
This diet has been around for a while and there are still plenty of people that use it when they need to fit into that suit or dress for an upcoming event. It is like a rapid detox diet and flushes your system out in a matter of days.
The Cabbage Soup diet is not to be used for more than a week at a time.  The caloric intake is so low that staying on in for more than a week can make you ill.  It falls under the category of “fad diets,” but for some reason still remains popular, probably because it easy to follow and works as a short term weight loss strategy.
Cabbage soup is made with a variety of vegetables, bouillon, and a large head of cabbage.  There are no heavily starched veggies like potatoes to give the soup substance.  You can season to taste, but you may have to season  it a lot if you have a sensitive palate.
Each day of the diet is specific in the food to be eaten.  Soup and fruit are the only foods for the entire first day.  You may find yourself on a natural sugar high from all of the fruit.  You will have to eat a great deal of fruit in order to fight your hunger. The good thing is that you are consuming a lot of liquids, which will help you feel full, and consuming foods that are low in energy density and fat (as compared to a peanut, for example, that has a lot of energy, in the form of fat).
The second day on the diet, you have soup and vegetables.  Avoid veggies with starch like beans.  Fruit is also off limits.  But, never fear, you can still eat all of the cabbage soup that you want. YAY!
Each day after that has a specific menu for what to eat.  To avoid temptation, it is recommended that you steer clear of implementing the Cabbage Soup diet during holidays and other times of celebration.
Cabbage soup will soon pale in comparison to cakes, cookies, pasta dishes, and meat.  Stay away from temptation to give yourself a fighting chance.

Dieters on the Body for Life plan eat six small meals a day as opposed to three bigger meals.  Eating more often keeps the body’s metabolism high.
Carbohydrates like potatoes and rice are recommended.  With all of the exercise you will be doing, you will need all of the energy that you can get.  Portion control is the key to having the right balance of food on your plate at each meal.
The program is designed to run for twelve weeks.  Exercise sessions should last at least forty-five minutes per day.
For those who find it difficult to find the time, morning sessions may be the least intrusive than afternoon or evenings.
Simple exercises like walking, running, jogging, and elliptical training work well because it is easy to vary the intensity of the workout when needed.
If plenty of exercise is not a problem for you, then this plan has your name written all over it.  You will be hungrier because of the increased activity, so it is more important to control portions to avoid overeating.
According to the plan, if you can handle the hectic schedule for just twelve weeks, you can remake your body and your life.
But it is not for the busy person, and we have to wonder at all that exercise, when it has been proven by scientists that 4 10 minute work outs a day are just as effective as one sustained 40 minute session.

Body for Life was developed by a man named Bill Phillips, whose company, EAS, makes nutritional supplements for fitness buffs.
Body for Life encompasses a fitness regimen to change the body to the shape you want it to be.
The Body for Life system has exercise at its heart.  A mix of weight training and aerobic exercise will increase metabolism and keep the body burning fat, even when it is at rest.
People using the Body for Life regimen exercise six days a week, alternating between a day of weights and a day of aerobics.  They start off slow and increase the intensity to a peak level.
Once the peak level is reached they gradually slow back down again during each session.  Whew-it can be hard work.
Body for Life also encourages the use of supplements and multivitamins.  The foods you eat along with a multivitamin will provide vitamins and minerals that your body needs.
You must be careful using supplements however.  Adding too much of a good thing to your system can very quickly becomes a bad thing.  Too much of a nutrient can have side effects that are harmful to the body.
Supplements should not be taken unless a doctor gives the okay. Nor should you overdo it on the exercise without checking with them first.
In addition to the exercise portion of this system, the foods eaten need to be optimal in order to lose weight and get in shape.  The Body for Life diet follows general guidelines for eating habits.  Lean cuts of meat and fish provide the protein our bodies need.
Since vegetables are low in fat and calories, they can be eaten as often as you want.  Each meal is divided between protein and carbohydrates, without a lot of fat.

A Blood Type
People with blood type A are known as “cultivators.”  Cultivators tilled the soil and planted crops.  These people got most of their food from plant sources such as fruits and vegetables.
For those with blood type A, avoiding meat as much as possible and sticking with vegetables will give you the protein your body requires.
B Blood Type
Those with type B blood are “nomadic.”  Nomads are people who wondered around never settled in any one place.  The harshness of their travels helped to keep them strong.
Since they ate a variety of foods depending on where they stayed, their digestive systems tolerated different foods well.  Again, according to this diet plan, this particular blood type group can eat dairy products with no problems.
AB Blood Type
The last blood grouping is AB.  This group is classified as the “enigma.”  Because this group is made up of both A and B blood components, they can presumably get by with eating plant sources of protein and dairy products.  Their digestive systems are good and they can therefore consume a variety of foods.
One question, among many, that has arisen regarding the Blood Type diet is:  How does it explain a lactose intolerant person with a blood type of B?
There are too many loopholes for this diet to be one that someone could follow to lose weight anytime they needed to.
Eating one food group only and eliminating others is a recipe for disaster because all food groups have merit for both nutrition, an for weight loss.
The key to most successful weight loss is managing portions of foods from each food group every day, and making sure you eat lean cuts of protein, limit the fat, and limit carb intake and overall calorie consumption.
Like a lot of fad diets, this is not well thought out but will appeal to people who have tried a lot of other diets, and get desperate when one fails, and are eager to try another.

Just when you’d thought you’d heard everything, something new comes along.  The Blood Type diet is one of the newest weight loss plans to hit the diet circuit.

Many believe that this diet is merely a gimmick and not based on sound scientific evidence. So let’s see what it’s all about.
The Blood Type diet was developed by a man named Peter D’Adamo.  His book, Eat Right 4 Your Type, says the key to weight loss lies in a human’s genetic makeup – specifically their blood type.
He believes that by eating foods that are based on blood type, people have a better chance of losing weight.
According to research done on blood typing, there are several distinct racial populations that can be defined by their blood groupings.
Using that theory, the Blood Type diet was developed.
There is no direct evidence or clinical research that proves that this diet is valid however.  D’Adamo believes that each blood type group has its own food classification.
Here is a breakdown of how those classifications work in relation to blood type.
O Blood Type
People with blood type O are called “hunters.”  This blood grouping is believed to be the one that all others developed from, according to the diet’s creator.
Historically, hunters were very physical because they would wrestle wild beasts in search of food for the family.  This type of activity required lots of meat.
According to D’Adamo, those with the O blood type need to consume high amounts of meat in order to lose weight.

Exercise regularly, but wait until after the first two weeks  to start trying more intense exercises, since you will consume a lot of fat during this time.  All that fat floating around in your system is not compatible with high intensity workouts.
The good news is that because you will be consumed a lot of protein, it can help build muscle, and muscle helps boost metabolism, so that you can burn the calories you do take in more efficiently.
Regular foods are eaten on this plan, so no special grocery list needs to be made, unless you want to try some of the rather expensive items which help to support you in phase 2 and phase 3, the maintenance phase of the diet.
For those are in love with bread, it is a good idea to remove all of the carbohydrates that are prohibited by the diet from the home removing the temptation to sneak. The low carb bread is okay, but again, not allowed in the induction phase.
For those with children or other family members who are not participating in the Atkins diet, this can be a huge challenge of willpower.
As can eating out, and of course, visiting people in their homes. The supplement bars are useful as snacks on the go, but seriously, as soon as you start adding carbs back into your diet, you will plateau and stop seeing the weight coming off.
We like Blaine’s Low Carb kitchen recipes because he has many interesting, if somewhat fatty dishes, which can definitely keep you from getting bored on this diet.  You can catch episodes on FitTv on cable. And you can always adapt the recipes to your own diet and health needs, since this is definitely NOT a heart healthy diet.
So the Atkins diet is not just a fad, it really does work for short term weight loss. It will most definitely work for people who have to lose weight fast, or lose a large amount of weight and want to see fast results to make sure they don’t get discouraged.
As a long term strategy, it is not practical or heart healthy.  However, in just going through the induction program, it does make us looks at food in a whole different way. It reveals just how many carbs we consume. Some of us ARE carb sensitive and have to be vigilant.  It also reveals the minefield of carbs we have to titptoe through when eating in public.
As with all diets, the Atkins diet WILL work if YOU follow it, and exercise will be an even better way to achieve rapid weight loss if you stick with it.