Diet Food Program: Suzanne Somers vs South Beach

The food that we eat is the main factor in weight gain. If we eat nutritious foods, your body would absorb it well. A diet food program works if you would stick to a healthy diet.

More people are getting bulkier and flabbier. Thanks to cable TV and the internet, many people are living the life of unhealthy bums: eating too much and doing less exercise. Because of these, there are more diet programs introduced to the market. Diet programs can either be through food supplements, vitamin supplements and exercise routines or through a diet food program.

What's a Diet Food Program?

It's a fitness plan aimed to lose weight by recommending lesser food intake and specialty recipes. The food can either be limited in amount or it can be replaced with more nutritious foods. Some of the more popular programs are the Suzanne Somers, Medifast, South Beach and Atkins diet food programs.

Suzanne Somers Diet Food Program

This program is also known as Somersizing because the body size is its main goal. The diet is very limiting since there are a number of foods to be avoided. Carbohydrates are combined with proteins to balance the food intake. The Somersizing program consists of 2 stages. The first stage is the weight loss stage while second stage is the maintenance stage.

During the Somersizing diet program, you are allowed to eat small frequent servings during the day. The purpose of small servings is not to merely lessen your food intake but to increase your body's metabolic rate and regulate your blood sugar levels. With this process, hunger sensation is reduced for an individual. The small sizes of meals can be frequent as long as the right combination and the right sets are prepared.

You can eat as many fruits as you like. However, if you have decided to eat fruits in a day, you should eat nothing but fruits within the day. In terms of vegetables, you can mix it with some fats and proteins.

During the process, you are restricted from consuming sodas and junk foods. Water is the only recommended fluid for intake, although you are allowed to drink coffee and tea from time to time. Nonetheless, they should be decaffeinated. 

The disadvantage of this diet food program is that it is difficult to monitor. Food combination is tough to manage especially if you are not that good in choosing which food goes well with what. 

Medifast Diet Food Program

More health conscious individuals are slowly discovering Medifast. Lately it has been getting positive feedbacks and is now considered as one of the quickest ways to lose weight. Many doctors have even prescribed it to their clinically obese patients.

The Medifast diet is a meal replacement diet plan. Your regular diet is supplemented with certain foods and calorie-rich foods are scrapped from the list. The diet replacement is done five times a day with one meal consisting of vegetables and lean meat. This is what they call Medifast's 5 + 1 diet plan.

If you use this diet food program, you should eat every 2 to 3 hours and gulp at least 64 ounces of liquid (preferably water) everyday.

There are several phases for this diet plan. Phase I is where you apply the 5 + 1 diet until you have reached your ideal weight. After that, you go to the transition period wherein regular food is taken as part of your diet plan. After the transition, you get into the maintenance phase. Maintenance phase is when you are allowed to eat your list of regular yet nutritious foods to maintain your ideal weight.
 
South Beach Diet

One of the most popular diet food programs is the South Beach diet. South Beach diet demands that you cut off bad carbohydrates and later on change it with nothing but good carbohydrates.

The South Beach diet likewise has three stages or phases. Phase I is where there is completely no carbohydrates in the diet. All forms of carbohydrates whether good or bad are eliminated. During this stage, there are a lot of changes that might happen in your body. You are supposed to reduce weight from 8 to 14 pounds in a span of 14 days.

After the 14 days Phase I stage, you move on to the Phase II. This is the phase where you would reach your desired weight. The length of phase II of this diet food program depends on how your body reacts to the reintroduction of good carbohydrates. The weight loss for this phase is usually 1 or 2 pounds per week.

After phase II, you can now move on to the phase III stage. This is the maintenance stage where you are to maintain your ideal body weight.