The No-Fad Diet

Forget categorizing foods as good or bad. To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight. The No-Fad Diet, created by The American Heart Association, encourages you to decrease your calories and increase your physical activity, in order to help you prevent chronic illnesses such as heart disease. The No-Fad Diet suggests 3 Circles of Success: Think Smart, Eat Well, and Move More. You can choose among three different strategies for eating. No matter what you eat, if you lower your calories, you will lose weight. If you choose nutritious foods rather than junk, this diet claims your body will function better and you will be healthier in the long run. On this diet, it is important to figure out your calorie needs, keep track of your current eating patterns in a food diary, and choose the right eating and exercise plan for your lifestyle.

What makes The No-Fad Diet a different weight loss plan?

This diet is a member of the low-calorie family, but with one important difference from most other low-calorie diets. Instead of counting calories, you use other strategies to keep calories down. One method is customizing your diet to your specific needs. This makes it easier for you to lose weight. This is not an effortless plan, but if you are going to put a lot of work into your diet, isn't it nice to know that the theory behind the No-Fad Diet plan is based on facts and that a panel of scientists created the plan instead of one individual? That is what makes this diet truly unique.

What is The No-Fad Diet?

The No-Fad Diet is a weight-loss plan that is tailored to your needs. Since the 3 Circles of Success all affect each other, you need to address all the circles in order to achieve your target weight loss.

• Circle 1: Think Smart. Set goals, be positive, adjust to situations where eating right may be difficult, and learn to keep a weight-loss diary.
• Circle 2: Eat Well. You follow an eating plan where you calculate the calories you need to maintain your current weight. You then subtract a set number of calories depending upon how much weight you want to lose per week (one or two pounds), making sure not to eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You also become familiar with the sample food diary that you need to keep. Using this information and by filling out a questionnaire, you then choose one of three weight-loss strategies. All strategies emphasize learning the size of a proper serving of food and eating a well-balanced diet from all the food groups.

   

  The strategies of the No-Fad Diet plan are:

  1. With the Switch and Swap Approach, you substitute lower calorie foods for higher calorie foods (like jam for butter), using your food diary to help guide you where you need to make changes.
  2. If you choose the 75% Solution, you'll you eat 3/4 of everything you usually eat (based on the food diary). For example, if you eat two slices of toast in the morning, you will switch to eating one and a half.
  3. The third strategy of the No-Fad Diet is planning your day's calories using The American Heart Association Menu Plans. You'll use whichever of the two-week meal plans that corresponds to the calorie intake that you need to lose weight. The diet provides three 2-week meal plans for 1,200 calories, 1,600 calories, and 2,000 calories. The meal plans include many recipes, along with their calorie counts, to ensure that you stay on track.

  This strategy requires menu planning and cooking. It's probably not the best choice for you if you do not know what a chef's knife is, and have not seen your saucepan in a while.

• Circle 3: Move More. This is the exercise portion of the plan. The diet discusses and recommends three exercise options as possibilities to help with weight loss.

What are the weight loss expectations?

By following the No-Fad Diet properly, you can expect to lose one to two pounds a week.

Is exercise promoted?

The No-Fad Diet includes exercise as a part of the overall diet plan. If you don't currently exercise, start by exercising ten minutes a day and slowly work up to 30 to 60 minutes a day. You can choose to implement any one of three recommended exercise options:

• The Lifestyle Approach includes doing many small activities throughout the day to reach your daily exercise goals.
• The Walking Program has you start a walking program.
• The Organized Activity Option involves participating in scheduled exercise classes or playing sports.
• The plan provides a questionnaire to help you figure out which option is best for you.

Are supplements recommended?

The No-Fad Diet doesn't recommend any specific supplements.