Top 12 Weight Loss Programs
Weight loss ultimately comes back to the concept of calories count and regular exercise. Are you looking for the best diet plan for weight loss? Keep reading to discover popular and effective weight loss programs recommended by top nutritionists around the world.
Weight Loss Programs Comparison
S.No. | Diet type and examples | Flexible | Nutritionally balanced | Sustainable for long term |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Balanced (DASH, Mayo Clinic, Mediterranean, Weight Watchers) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
2 | High protein (Dukan, Paleo) | No | Deficiencies are possible | Possibly |
3 | Low carb (Atkins, South Beach) | No | Deficiencies are possible | Possibly |
4 | Low fat (Ornish) | No | Possibly | Possibly |
5 | Meal replacement (Jenny Craig, HMR, Medifast, Nutrisystem, SlimFast) | No | Possibly | Possibly |
6 | Medifast, Nutrisystem, SlimFast | |||
7 | Very low calorie (Optifast) | No | No | No |
Here’s a list of Top 12 Weight Loss Programs
1. The HMR Program
Health Management Resources Program comes in the first place because this program suggests you can lose up to 66 pounds in 26 weeks. This program includes low-calorie shakes, meals, nutrition bars and hot cereal, coaching from diet experts, physical activity and undivided focus on fruits and vegetables to shed pounds fast. Exercise plenty, eat a very limited variety of foods and don’t drink alcohol or eat out. But, you might risk gaining weight once you go back to real food.
2. SlimFast
SlimFast weight loss program is designed to make cutting calories simple and fast with products like shakes, smoothies and meal bars replacing two meals a day and mid-meal snacks. This 1,200-calorie plan allows for one 500 calorie meal on a daily basis. Please note that SlimFast foods contain a lot of processed ingredients and artificial sweeteners. The program isn’t recommended for people younger than 18, or pregnant or breastfeeding women without medical supervision.
3. Atkins diet
Another best way to lose weight is to follow the Atkins Diet. This high-protein, fat-rich weight loss program claims you will lose up to 15 pounds in just two weeks, but the unhealthy fat content drops the diet’s ranking. This diet is a bit similar to the ketogenic diet, where you have to restrict your carb intake, and your body will have to burn the excess fat for energy. One disadvantage of the Atkins diet program is that it is tough to sustain, and you’ll miss out on fibre and other vital nutrients in complex carbohydrates.
4. Keto Diet
Meals consisting of high-fat foods like butter, bacon, and burgers are hallmarks of the keto diet. It is an extremely low-carb, high-fat diet plan that aims to send you into a state where your body is forced to burn fat, not sugar, for energy. Though quick weight loss results are seen with this diet, experts hardly recommend it because it lacks nutritional variety and is unsustainable long term.
5. Jenny Craig
Jenny Craig weight loss plan includes eating portion-controlled, pre-packaged meals and snacks along with fresh fruits and vegetables. Later, you’ll slowly introduce regular meals with the help of weekly diet counselling sessions. This program is quite effective in weight loss but can get expensive, and uses a lot of processed foods with long ingredient lists. This weight loss program isn’t recommended for children under 13 or people with food allergies.
6. Volumetrics
Volumetrics is a nutritionally sound book-based food plan which is one of the quickest ways to lose weight. According to this diet plan, you can lose one to two pounds per week on average. The theory is that by switching calorie-heavy fat-laden foods with fruits and vegetables that have a lot of water in them, you can consume more for fewer calories. To boost weight loss, you will need to be physically active, aiming for 10,000 steps a day.
7. Medifast
Five different varieties of Medifast plans along with one meal of lean protein and non-starchy vegetables will give you a loss of about 11 pounds of weight in eight weeks. Please note that these are very low-calorie diet plans that are effective in the short term. So, weight regain is a risk over the long run. This diet program is not recommended to pregnant woman, people with type-1 diabetes, or any other such conditions.
8. Nutrisystem
The diet plan recommends splitting up your meals into six parts for a day. As with many diet plans, the research supports the short-term results, but there’s little evidence that it works well in the long term. Convenience is the biggest pro; cons are the price and the highly processed foods. Nutrisystem is not recommended to people who are under 18, pregnant, or breastfeeding or have food allergies.
9. Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers program promises weight loss of up to two pounds per week, and it has plenty of evidence to support it. The advantage of this program is that it’s built around real food. Along with the best exercise to lose weight, you can go for this program if you don’t have a sweet tooth.
10. DASH diet
DASH diet has a primary goal of restricting sodium and lowering blood pressure, but the advantage of this plan is losing weight by shifting to a healthier way of eating. This plan advocates building meals around fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, and healthy fats. Evidence proves that this approach is effective, especially when you add in regular exercise. It’s easy to adapt to your needs, though the salt limitations make eating out tough.
11. Vegan Diet
Pulling off a vegan diet requires a lot of discipline and willpower. There are plenty of resources online such as The Vegetarian Resource Group if you need guidance in following a vegan diet. However, following this rigid way of eating may lead to missing out on important nutrients such as vitamin B12 and calcium. Overall, going vegan offers some powerful health benefits, and you can expect to lose about two pounds a week.
12. Flat Belly Diet
Flat Belly Diet says you can lose up to 15 pounds in 32 days by following their diet plan. The first phase provides an initial anti-bloat plan, followed by one month of strict eating that includes healthy fats at every meal. Although the diet has no research to support it, the plan is loosely based on the Mediterranean diet, which is highly backed by detailed research.
Summing Up
It’s possible to lose a lot of weight by following the weight loss diet programs; it really depends on your metabolism and heaps of other factors, including regular exercise and body composition.