9 diet plans quick review

Atkins Diet

Dr. Richard Atkins’ diet started the low-carb rage. The basics: lots of protein, don't worry about the fat, and avoid carbohydrates at all costs. While carbs are greatly limited -- including breads, beans, fruits and grains -- eggs, meat, butter and cream are acceptable.


South Beach

The South Beach Diet promises to help you lose weight by helping you choose foods that contain the "right carbs" and lean sources of protein. Along the same lines as Atkins, South Beach focuses on limiting carbs and keeping protein high. While it does focus on reducing carb intake, after the first phase it lightens up on that restriction, working in whole grains and fruits and vegetables.


The Zone

The Zone diet promises to help you lose weight by focusing on the hormonal effects of food. The diet lets you eat five times a day (three meals and two snacks) food that is mostly low-fat and protein-rich, and allows monounsaturated fats and "favorable” carbs. The diet is much more permissive about carbs than the Atkins diet and recommends a carb-to-protein ratio of 4-to-3. The goal is to get into "the zone," or your body’s state of peak physical performance.


Raw foods diet

No, it doesn't mean eating sushi every day. In fact, some versions of the raw diet restrict eating seafood, while others encourage it. The raw food diet is based on the principal that cooking food destroys much of its nutritional value and that eating fresh (off the vine being the best) fruits and vegetables is the healthiest way to eat.


Sugar Busters

As the name implies, this diet demonizes sugar – saying that if you eliminate it, the fat will fall away. However, critics say that the diet goes too far, lumping potatoes, corn and carrots in with the refined sugars found in desserts, and that just cutting out the sugar is not enough.


Weight Watchers

The name brings up images of meetings and being weighed in front of a group. The core of the program is a points system in which different foods have different points values, and dieters have a certain number of points to spend. No food is off limits; it simply has a higher point value. Exercise is factored in to the number of points a person has to spend each week.


NutriSystem/Jenny Craig

NutriSystem and the Jenny Craig system both rely on prepackaged food. NutriSystem uses the glycemic index to choose foods that are full of “good carbohydrates” and low in fat.


Ornish Diet

The Ornish Diet is a strict vegetarian diet that was created to fight the effects of heart disease. The diet focuses on reducing fat intake – with only 10 percent of calories coming from fat. (Government guidelines recommend 20 to 35 percent.) The diet excludes all cooking oils and all animal products except nonfat milk and nonfat yogurt. The diet is fairly simple and straightforward. The basis of the diet is that a high-fiber, low-fat diet will help you lose weight.


Sonoma Diet

Proponents of the Sonoma Diet claim that it’s about celebration rather than deprivation and that the plan enables you to lose weight while enjoying food. The diet consists of three phases: an initial phase that lasts for 10 days, then another to get you to your target weight, and a maintenance phase. One of the hooks of this diet is that it’s one of the few that allows for wine (a small serving per day).