Once you have made the decision to diet, you now must choose a diet plan to reduce weight. As you can imagine, there are many programs out there, anything from fad diets, personal trainers, dieting groups, and meal plans. How can you possibly choose between all of these? There are 5 main criteria to evaluate, including talking to your doctor, looking at how realistic the plan is, exercise, maintaining the weight loss, and your budget. Let's look at each of these and get you going toward your weight loss goal.
1. See Your Doctor
The first thing that an individual should do before deciding on a diet is to see your doctor. If you have gained a lot of weight recently, you may have an underlying medical problem. A diet will not cure this. Also, you need to be careful if you have a current medical condition, such as diabetes or hypertension. Your doctor can help you decide what type of diet you should look at that will best help you. If you are healthy and have no current medical issues, you should be fine to pick a diet that will help you long-term.
2. How Realistic is the Plan
The second criteria is how realistic is the plan you are considering. There are so many diets that make claims of huge weight loss, but will that happen for you? See what the plan is really about before committing to it. You don't want to waste your time or money on something that is all hype.
3. Exercise
The third criteria is how much exercise does the plan suggest. Avoid plans that tell you that exercise isn't needed. It is needed to keep your body in shape and help you with your long-range goal of keeping the weight off. The best way to lose weight is a combination of eating the correct foods and getting some exercise. It's very simple, the more calories you can burn off with exercise, the quicker the weight will go down. Burn more calories than you take in each day and your weight will be reduced.
4. Maintain the Weight Loss
The fourth criteria in choosing a diet plan to reduce weight is maintaining the weight loss. If a diet sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You may lose some weight with picking a fad diet, like only eating a certain thing or drinking a certain thing, but that will not help you long-term. Many persons that pick these types of diets gain most of the weight back once they go back to their normal eating habits. So pick a diet that keeps a balance of the major food groups. You need those nutrients to help your body, but eat the right ones to help your new lifestyle.
5. Budget
The fifth and last criteria is your budget. Now if you have an unlimited budget, that's great, you can hire your own personal trainer and nutritionist, but most of us can't afford to do that. So take into account how much this will cost you. Meal plans can get expensive, and so can group meetings. The best way is if you can do it on your own with a plan that will work.
Choosing a diet plan to reduce weight is an important decision. By evaluating the 5 criteria that I have listed, your decision should be a little easier. Good luck, and congratulations on choosing a healthier lifestyle!
Ready to find the perfect plan that will let you still eat many of your favorite foods? I can tell you what works for me, and can work for you too! Steve Pavlovic is a basketball coach and weight loss enthusiast. He has worked hard to get his weight under control, and can help motivate you too. Check out his weight loss blog at http://dietplantoreduceweight.blogspot.com/
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