Sunday, August 28, 2016

The Flavor Point Diet

The Flavor Point Diet
Is based on the neuroscience of appetite and teaches dieters to reduce hunger by organizing meals based on flavors. Learn the pros and cons of the Flavor Point Diet and whether it could help you lose weight. You organize your eating according to the flavors of food, while still eating a balanced diet.
When a flavor is tasted repeatedly throughout the day, the brain’s appetite center is more quickly satisfied, so the body senses satiety more quickly and we eat fewer calories. 

The Flavor Point Diet: The Plan

The diet is organized into three phases.
Phase one involves planning your meals around one particular flavor, called flavor themes. For instance, all of the meals for the first day of the diet emphasize the flavor of raisins and currants. Breakfast consists of whole-grain cereal with raisins; lunch is a currant-lentil spinach salad. On day two, or pineapple day, there is a pineapple smoothie for breakfast, a pineapple-walnut chicken salad for lunch, and pineapple shrimp for dinner.

“Phase two of the meal plan includes a greater variety of daily flavors whereby only meals, not entire days, are flavor-themed,” says Gazzaniga-Moloo, a dietician and a spokesperson for the
American Dietetic Association.

Phase three, which is intended to be the phase you can continue indefinitely, allows you to choose your own meals based on the principles you have learned in phases one and two.

Flavor Point Diet: Sample Menu
As an example, here is “Spinach Day” from the third week:
Breakfast: Spinach and feta cheese omelet with whole-grain toast
Snack: Crackers or baby carrots with spinach-yogurt dip
Lunch: Turkey and spinach salad
Dinner: Pasta with spinach marinara sauce, salad, and mixed berries.

The flavor themes throughout the book build on an abundance of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fish, and poultry, and encourage limiting fat and opting for healthier snacks.
The diet emphasizes weight management through calorie reduction. All meal plans are 1,000 to 1,500 calories. “Even cheat day [which involves flavors such as chocolate] is calorie-controlled,” says Clark.

The plan is well laid out. Gazzaniga-Moloo says the book is easy to understand. There are over 100 recipes. According to the book, it is possible to lose up to 16 pounds in six weeks.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

P.I.N.K. Method Diet

P.I.N.K. Method Diet

The Promise

Like many other diet plans, you go through different phases on the P.I.N.K. method. In the first phase, which lasts 3 to 14 days, you’ll be eating very few calories: about 1,000 a day, according to the sample menus.

In the second phase, protein, vegetables, and fruit are on the menu, and you’ll start the plan’s DVD workouts.

Once you're near your goal weight, it’s time for the “7-Day Shred” phase, which curbs carbs and fats in favor of a vegetable soup to help you drop those last few pounds.

When you reach your goal weight, you’ll start the maintenance phase, which calls for eating 1,400 to 1,800 calories per day.

What You Can Eat and What You Can't:

Fresh vegetables and fruits; “light” proteins such as turkey, chicken, lentils, black beans, and salmon; and high-fiber carbs form the core of the menus; though in Phase 1, your carbs are mostly limited to vegetables.

You can have one to two servings of alcohol a week after the first 9 weeks. Processed foods and refined sugars are not on the menu, so forget cookies and packaged meals.

You can have moderate amounts of caffeine.

You’ll exercise hard on this plan, and the first phase calls for eating very few calories per day.

Limitations: If you’re used to eating a lot of frozen foods, packaged foods, or fast food, you may find this diet very challenging.

Cooking and shopping: Plan to buy a lot of vegetables and fruits, and to cook most lunches and dinners from scratch. The menus call for some special ingredients, such as whey protein, that you may not have on hand.

Exercise: Required. Intense exercise is a key component of this plan. The kit comes with three exercise DVDs featuring strength, cardio, and flexibility workouts of increasing difficulty. They may not be suitable for beginners.
There isn’t any research specifically on the P.I.N.K. diet, but the low-calorie diet mixed with vigorous exercise will certainly drop the pounds. Overall, the diet includes foods that are not only low in calories but also rich in nutrients, and it limits bad stuff that puts on the pounds. The key is whether you can stick with the very low calories initially and the intense exercise that comes later in the program.

Losing weight helps control diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and even heart disease. So the P.I.N.K. diet could improve all these conditions. Weight loss may even lessen your need for medicine. But the intensity of the program may not make it ideal for people living with certain health problems.

This is an intense program, so check with your doctor first to make sure it’s right for you. This is especially important for people with diabetes, because the extreme changes in your diet and exercise could cause dangerously low blood sugar. Your doctor may need to adjust your medicines.

Some individuals with heart disease may have a tough time with the level of exercise in this program.

The Final Word:

The strength of the P.I.N.K. program lies in a healthy diet and exercise. The focus on vegetables as a go-to carb source is one of its strongest features.

The very low calories at the beginning are a bit concerning, because it can be tough to get all the nutrients you need in less than 1,200 calories a day. It’s unlikely to have a negative impact on your health since that phase lasts no more than a couple of weeks. But you’ll have to dig deep to get through it.

If you don’t exercise regularly, you may have to take it slow at first and work your way up toward the higher levels of exercise. If you have any health issues, get your doctor’s OK before jumping in.

This program is ideal for people looking to lose weight more quickly, but the intensity of the P.I.N.K Method will make it hard to stick with for some. If you’re looking to more slowly ease your way into a healthy lifestyle, this approach may not work well for you. You’ll also need to be committed to eating a very healthy diet and preparing meals rich in fruits and vegetables at home. You won’t be able to meet the requirements of the program if you eat out much or like to splurge.