Does Dieting Produce Real Results

The Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, The Zone Diet, Fasting, and Crash Dieting, these are all ways to shed off unwanted pounds, especially before attending the Oscar's, or for many of us, a wedding or high school reunion. But do these diets actually work in the long term?

It is amazing how individuals can go on a strict diet of eating vegetables, chicken, and lemon water for two years, begin to realize they can not handle the same meal once more, and go on an eating binge for several months, thus gaining back all of the lost weight. I mean, who can blame them, these diets do not allow for much variety. For example, The Atkins Diet, it sound incising, but we as human beings can only handle so much fat and meat before we decided fat and meat is the devil. The South Beach diet is another example, they cut out mostly foods containing carbohydrates. Yes, peanuts are delicious, but I have never once woke up in the morning and said,"I cant wait for my handful of peanuts and spoonful of peanut butter for my breakfast. Mainly, these diets cut out any refined carbohydrates, and as for the Atkins diet, all carbohydrates. They simply base their diet around the Glycemic Index, which measure how much a particular food will raise blood glucose levels. What happens when blood glucose levels peaks and than drops? Our bodies begin to crave glucose, which is carbohydrates, and the body will be craving for sugar or refined carbohydrates that will immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. This results in binge eating, until we feel satisfied. The process will repeat itself if the correct carbohydrates are not selected. Fruits, vegetables, or bran will help avoid this problem, because they allow the glucose to be slowly absorbed into the blood stream, resulting in a feeling of satisfaction for longer periods of time.