Looking for a diet to help you lose fat? There are hundreds of variations to choose from. Most are just different methods to restrict your calorie intake, while others claim that certain types of food are actually more likey to end up as fat deposits in the body.
One of the main factors determing the success or failure of a diet is wether you can stick to the plan. This depends at least as much on your discipline as it does on the details of any particular diet. Even so, some diets are easier to follow than others.
Calorie Counting
Calorie counting is a common component of many diets. The general idea with this is you try to estimate your daily calorie usage and then aim to keep your calorie intake below that amount. Calorie usage is largely dependant on how active you are.
Most people have trouble sticking with strict calorie counting for a long enough period of time to actually lose much weight, but it can be very useful to try it for a week or so just to get a general idea of which foods have high calorie content.
Lot's of Exercise and Healthy Eating
The tried and true advice. The only thing hard about this diet is sticking to it.
Sellers of gimmick products are always making claims like "lose all the weight you want by eating anything you want and doing this one exercise for five minutes a day". If it were really that easy there wouldn't be so many people failing to lose weight. The truth is you will need to make significant changes to your lifestyle if you want to lose significant amounts of fat. So if your lifestyle includes beliefs like "when I'm feeling down I need to eat a whole tub of ice cream to make myself feel better" you will need to change that. Perhaps using exercise as a substitute for unhealthy foods. Exercise really can make you feel great.
You will need to avoid eating high-calorie foods that have low nutrient content. If you are not getting the vitamins and minerals that your body needs you will feel hungry often regardless of how much food you're eating. This is where a balanced diet comes in, by eating a variety of healthy foods you can meet the bodies nutrient needs with out overloading on the calories.
