There are so many diet plans available, it's hard to pick one!
We look back to the most popular diets and review some diet myths that still haven't been solved.
The carb myth
It's a common belief that bread and pasta are heavy carbohydrates that should be avoided to have a healthy diet. However, the NHS recommend they're actually what you should base your plate around.
The healthy food plate demonstrates how a third of your daily food intake should be these carbohydrate filled foods; pasta, breads, rice and potatoes. A second third should be made up of fruit and veg and the last third is split into 3 types of foods; milk and dairy, protein, and food and drink which is high in fat or sugar.
The NHS say on their website starchy foods such as pasta and rice are not only a good source of energy, but the main source of a range of nutrients in our diets. Though a "low carb diet" is very popular amongst dieters and some people think these foods are fattening and bad for you, they're actually essential for a healthy diet.
Atkins and GI
This carb myth was the reason the Atkins diet became so popular around 2003/04. The trend was also popular amongst celebs with many choosing to cut our carbs altogether in favour of foods filled with protein and fat, such as red meat, beans and nuts. Going against the NHS recommendations completely, Mr Atkins claimed the best diet was that without any dangerous carbs and that protein and fruit and veg would be better for slimmers.
After the downfall of atkins, the trend quickly turned to Gillian McKeith's famous GI diet plan. Her book became the best selling diet plan at the time and a host of well publicised television programmes, most popular "You are what you eat", meant women across the nation were scrambling to find a copy of the plan in the bid to drop the pounds.
Quick fix?
Even over the last couple of years, quick fix diet plans such as the Special K diet suggest losing up to a dress size in 2 weeks! But after you've lost the weight, what happens then? Fantastic as the results may be, some plans are unrealistic and offer quick results rather than long lasting weight loss strategys.
We've also seen Slim Fast, which is a liquid replacement and healthy dinner diet. Products are still sold in supermarkets but diet reviews have recommended this plan to be used to "jump start" a diet and not for continued, sustained use.
Steady weight loss
Nowadays, much more flexible diets are favoured such as the Slimming World plan, which allows you to consume as much of their "free foods" as you like. Pasta, rice, potatoes, fruit and veg and lean meat are amongst foods on the plan. Their menus are then balanced out by allowing you a certain number of "syns" a day, foods such as a digestive biscuit are 3 syns, a table spoon of mayo is another, and even a small glass of wine is acceptable if you deduct 4 syns!
WeightWatchers is another very popular plan, that allows you to eat enough nutritional food and enjoy a healthy, steady weight loss.
Of course, different plans will suit different women and some, if not all, of these diets will have benefited somebody in some way.
But what women are looking for is a lifestyle change and the easier that is to achieve the better! Wonder what will be next?
Alexandra Baracskai