To the best of my knowledge, no clinical weight loss study or research has ever demonstrated that weight reduction is possible without creating a calorie deficit. To put it simply, you can count whatever you like, but unless you eat fewer calories than you burn, you ain’t gonna lose weight.

The Low Carb Weight Loss Method

There are two basic types of low carbohydrate diets. (1) Extremely low carb, like Atkins Diet, or (2) More moderate low carb, like my own low carbohydrate plan, or the South Beach or Zone Diets. All low carb weight loss programs tend to have a restrictive phase to begin with to boost initial fat loss, followed by a phase which permits more carbohydrate foods – lasting until you reach your weight reduction goal. There is sometimes a weight maintenance plan to follow for life.

The New GI Diet Method

This new approach to weight loss is founded on the Glycemic Index (GI), which assesses carbohydrate in foods according to its immediate effect on our blood glucose. A GI Diet is based on eating foods with a lower-GI value – meaning foods that have a slow moderate effect on blood glucose. According to most nutritionists and dietitians, the GI diet method offers all the benefits of the low carb approach without the long term health and nutritional concerns. My own Low GI Diet is delicious and offers effective healthy weight loss.

Health and Nutrition is Important Too

Approximately 23 minerals and vitamins are needed for optimum metabolic function and weight reduction. So a healthy calorie-controlled diet is much more likely to lead to weight reduction than an unhealthy diet containing the same calories.

Non-Nutritious Refined Foods More Likely to be Stored as Fat

Foods cannot be metabolised properly without minerals and vitamins. The energy that empty calorie foods (foods contain calories but little if any nutrition) contain, becomes unavailable to our body and is stored as fat until (or in the hope that) we get the necessary minerals and vitamins at some later time. In the meantime we feel hungry and eat more. This too turns into fat unless minerals and vitamins are also provided.

We Absorb More Calories From Refined Foods

Because they lack fiber and bulk, refined foods slow down intestinal activity. They take up to five times longer to pass through the intestinal tract than do natural unrefined high fiber foods (75 hours compared to 15) and the body absorbs calories during the entire time of their constipated passage.

Whatever Diet Method You Choose

Regardless of which weight loss diet you prefer, ask yourself the following questions:

- Is it a balanced diet based exclusively on healthy food?
- Does it teach me how to eat right?
- Does it recommend exercise and give me advice about what to do?
- Does it offer motivation tips to help me lose weight?
- Does it offer help and support to overcome typical dieting problems?