With summer approaching, if you’re looking to lose a few pounds to flaunt your beachwear, we have for you a line-up of weight loss diets that you may want to try (besides the Keto diet that we covered some time back). But please seek your doctor’s opinion before embarking on a strict diet, and above yourself, love your body, no matter what!

Atkins Diet

Devised by American physician, Robert Atkins, this weight loss diet restricts carbohydrate intake, marketing the debatable claim that carbohydrate intake is directly related to weight gain/loss. Atkins Diet can be divided into four phases. In phase 1, partake less than 20gms of carbs per day for two weeks, and supplement your diet with high-protein, high-fat and leafy foodstuff. In phase 2, add more nuts, low-carb veggies and fruits. In phases 3 and 4, start adding more carbs, but make sure they are healthy fibrous food.

Dukan Diet

This is another protein-based diet fad invented by French nutritionist Pierre Dukan. Made popular by Kate Middleton, who tried this weight loss diet before her royal wedding and lost two dress sizes, this diet advocates a high-protein, low-carb routine. Like Atkins Diet, this one’s broken down into four phases as well. Phase 1 is protein-heavy, phase 2 allows some carb-containing veggies, phase 3 permits some more veggies, fruits and diary products and phase 4 is all about maintaining the reduced weight while incorporating some amount of carbs in the daily diet.

Paleo Diet

Like the Dukan diet, this one’s protein-heavy too. The premise? To replicate a Paleolithic caveman’s diet as closely as possible. In a nutshell this means, if a caveman didn’t eat it, neither should you. Foods to avoid include cured meat, artificial sweeteners, processed food, all dairy products, etc. Instead, consume more lean meat, game animals, free-range chicken, eggs, fish, nuts and seeds, fruits, non-starchy veggies, etc.

 

Monotrophic Diet  

This one’s a bit of an extreme diet fad that should best fade into oblivion. It involves eating only one food item only (such as potatoes or apples) or one type of food only (such as fruits) for the entire period that you are dieting. Though popularised on YouTube a few years back by Leanne Ratcliffe who lost 40 pounds after eating up to 51 bananas a day, monotrophic diet has received a lot of flak from all quarters for being skewed and not taking care of a person’s holistic dietary requirements. A word of advice: skip this one.

Pritikin Diet

On the other end of the spectrum is the Pritikin diet, which, thankfully, has no extreme elements in it. Pritikin diet can be divided into Go Foods, Caution Foods and Stop Foods. Go Foods include fruits, veggies, whole grains, fish, lean meat, etc. Caution Foods include oils, starch, refined grains, salt, etc. Stop Foods comprise cholesterol-rich food like egg yolks, processed meats, saturated fats, etc.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay
Image courtesy: www.dukandiet.com, Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images