Start slowly if you have been inactive, but work your way up to at least 20 minutes of continuous exercise at least 3 times a week. A good walk with a little faster pace is a good way to get started without too much stress on the body (a treadmill in front of the TV is good option for some people.) Many consider exercise the best way to improve overall health, and it is one of the best ways to speed up weight loss no matter what diet plan your are on. Twenty minutes of cardiovascular exercise will boost you metabolism and help keep it up at a higher level. After 30 to 40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, your body will start to burn fat off directly.

Keeping a food diary can double a person’s weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Read the full story at Science Daily.

Glycemic Index (GI) has become the basis for many diets, and even those that don’t mention it explicity will talk in terms of “good carbs” and “bad carbs”. Glycemic index is a measure of how quickly the carbohydrates in food get converted to blood sugar. The lower the number, the slower the food gets converted. Slower conversion leads to more steady blood sugar levels, which promotes better weight loss and better overall health. Spikes in blood sugar levels trigger increased insulin output which causes the body to store fat, while steadier blood sugar will result in more overall energy and less hunger.

For better health and better weight loss, foods with lower glycemic indexes are preferrable and many diet plans emphasize these. Examples of low glycemic foods include legumes/beans, oats, oatmeal, barley, bran, and most fruits and vegetables (but not potatoes). These are the “good carbs”. Bad carbs are those that converted to sugar very quickly like potatoes, white bread, and white rice. Generally speaking, the good carbs include fiber. Fiber helps to slow down the conversion to blood sugar.

Not only fiber, but protein and fat also help slow down the conversion to blood sugar. So while some foods have a low glycemic index, it is also possible to make any meal better in terms of blood sugar by including fiber, protein, and even a little fat. This is why many diet plans emphasize high protein and high fiber, and this is why you can sometimes include some of the bad carbs in your diet as long as you control the portion size and balance the meal out with plenty of protein and fiber.

For more information, check out Glycemic Index Online or Wikipedia.

South Beach diet is another “good carb” – high protein type diet plan that has become very popular. It was developed by a cardiologist and is very heart-healthy. South Beach emphasizes fiber-rich fruits, vegetables, and whole grains along with legumes, lean protein, and “good fats” like fish oil and olive oil. What sets it apart from some other diets is that it is designed to be a lifestyle just as much as a weight loss tool. This approach does help in maintaining your weight after you lose excess pounds.

The principles behind South Beach seem very sound, and if these are followed it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. The focus of the South Beach diet is really is about choosing particular foods over others, and this is a good basis for weight loss. All diets have sticking points and plateaus, and it is not clear how well this is addressed. This basic plan can be enhanced to get even better weight loss, and some of the tips and information provided on the Diet Help website work well with this type of diet plan to achieve better weight loss results.

See South Beach Diet Books

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Weight Watchers is more of a support system than a particular diet program; it has been around for 45 years and has evolved as the years have gone by, but one of the main emphases behind has been about getting support from others to help you stick to the program such as attending local meetings. There have been different food plans available, and one of the more popular ones now is a point system. In this approach, each food has a point value, and you can eat so many points per day. This probably evolved as a more convenient alternative to calorie counting.

Weight Watchers has become less about the particular foods and diets over the years as the public’s views on diets have been ever changing, and they have become for focused on being supportive and encouraging a healthier lifestyle that can be adapted to each individual. Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website are compatible with a Weight Watchers program and can be used to enhance weight loss and overall health.

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Nutrisystems is a pre-packaged meal plan (you purchase all of your main meals as microwaveable dinners) that stresses good carbs with protein and fiber and low fat. The commercials emphasize the “Glycemic advantage,” which basically means that the diet focuses on foods with a low glycemic index (“good carbs”). The lower the glycemic index, the slower the foods are converted to blood sugar. This is more conducive to weight loss, and it helps you control your hunger.

The basic idea of “good carb” diets is pretty popular now, and Nutrisystems could be a suitable option depending on how appealing you find the pre-packaged meals (and whether you can afford to buy weeks worth of food at one time.) Some people may like idea of having everything implemented for them so they don’t have to think about it; they just eat the meals. The drawback to this is that eating pre-packaged meals for the rest of your life is not that appealing of a lifestyle, so from this standpoint the program for many people amounts to just a temporary diet if they don’t understand and adopt the principals behind the meals. The common disadvantage to any temporary diet plan is putting the weight back on once the diet is over.

Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website follow the sample principles as Nutrisystems, and this website can assist in maintaining weight after the program is over. Other “good carb” programs like the South Beach Diet will follow similar philosophies and can be used for guidance as well.

Click here for more information from the official website.

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Jenny Craig diet plan combines one-on-one support with pre-packaged meals. A personal consultant will help you design a program and meets with you once a week. Personal support such as this is very important for some people. They don’t really emphasize the nutritional approach they are taking, but the programs are set at certain calorie levels per day.

This personal support can be very helpful for some people, but it is not free. The Jenny Craig program also uses pre-packaged meals which adds to the expense as well. The pre-packaged meals can make a diet easier to follow for some people though. The problem with these is that it may be difficult to maintain the lifestyle if you are not used to making your own food choices and you no longer have a consultant to guide you. The common disadvantage to any temporary program is the chance of putting the weight back on once the diet is over. Many of the tips and information on the Diet Help website can assist in maintaining weight after the program is over.

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Atkins is as a very low carb diet plan. The idea is that your body will metabolize fat instead of sugar. The main advantage to the Atkins diet for some people is that you can eat plenty of fat, so it does not seem like a diet, and this makes it easy for some people to stick to it. For people who can deal with the carb cravings, this can be a very effective and quick way to take off excess weight. There are some problems with the Atkins diet though that may not make it right for everyone.

The first issue is that if you cheat, then the Atkins diet can become unhealthy so you must follow it very strictly. In other programs, occasional cheating just delays your progress; in this program where you are consuming so much fat, there can also be health issues. The Atkins diet plan forces your body to metabolize fat a certain way, and this generally prevents the ill health effects of all the fat you are consuming. However, the moment you cheat and eat a lot of carbs, your body switches back to metabolizing sugar instead of the fat, and you can be left with an unhealthy level of fat in your blood stream.

Another issue is that while some diet programs are designed to promote a new healthy lifestyle, the Atkins program would not be that conducive to it since giving up carbs forever is not that attractive of lifestyle for many people. For many it is simply a program to fairly quickly lose some weight then to abandon once the goals are met. This leads to another issue – you have to ease out of the program and slowly introduce carbs back into your diet. Otherwise the weight will come back on very fast if you consume too many carbs too quickly after ending the diet. The common disadvantage to any temporary diet is putting the weight back on once the diet is over, but Atkins has a particular problem with this.

This diet does work very well for some people, but it is not for everybody. You will have to gage for yourself how well you think you can follow the plan.

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Protein and fiber (and even fat) help to slow down the conversion of carbs to blood sugar, so make sure every meal has a good amount of protein and fiber. High protein meals also tend to boost your metabolism. This will help just about any type of diet plan you might be on.

Avoid eating in the period of 4-5 hours or so before you go to bed. Especially avoid carbs, even if you are not on a low carb diet plan; if you absolutely need a snack try a lean protein (slice of turkey, protein shake, etc…) This will help just about any type of diet you might be on.