Beginnings
Both were developed by medical doctors (cardiologists) who — according to reports — were trying to help Americans lose weight given their high carb diets.

Atkins Diet was the first to be developed and is thus, the more popular. It was developed by the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins as early as the 1972 but became more widely popular — despite the oppositions — in the 1990s.

Dr. Arthur Agatston, also a cardiologist but from Mount Sinai Cardiac Prevention Center in Miami Beach, Fla., is known as the father of the South Beach diet. His work came a lot later through his book: “The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss” published in 2003.

Similarities
Both popular diet plans advise dieters to avoid carbohydrates and follow stringent steps to ensure that the significant weight lost during the program does not come back.

Both start with the so-called induction phase where the body of the dieter is “trained” for the routine.

Both diet plans come with suggested food lists where dieters can mix and match foods to suit their tastes. Of course, like other diet plans, both plans advise dieters to stay away from food not included in the lists.

Among the “dont’s” in Dr. Atkins’ list are fruit, bread, pasta, grains, starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and some dairy products except cheese, cream, and butter.

Aside from fruit, bread, pasta and vegetables, South Beach dieters are also advised to stay away from potatoes, cereal, rice, and corn, especially for the first two weeks of the induction or introductory period. After this period, these can be slowly re-introduced into the body, albeit in smaller amounts.

Both diet plans have a lifetime “maintenance” phase where hopefully dieters will be so accustomed to either plan that they hardly recognize that they are dieting at all.

Differences
While both diet plans restrict carbohydrate intake, the South Beach diet is said to be more forgiving by not totally eliminating carbs. It distinguishes between “good” and “bad” carbs and even “good” and “bad” fats. South Beach encourages intake of “good” carbs and fats.

Low-sugar carbs with low glycemic index are “good” carbs under the South Beach plan. Food rich in fiber are also recommended.

Atkins’s diet routine helps the body to burn fat instead of carb. The goal is to help the dieter achieve good health. Atkins’s diet plan involves four phases while the South Beach plan has three phases.

In both plans, the introductory stage aims to condition the body for some changes to prepare for the program. In Atkins diet, the body is trained to burn fat instead of sugar to help curb the cravings for sugar and break addiction to some foods.

In South Beach diet, the initial phase involves cutting on high-carb foods, which can be gradually re-introduced in small amounts in the next phase. In this case, South Beach debunks myths that this approach prevents dieters from getting healthy mix from all food groups. Atkins dieters go through the next following phases: ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance and lifetime maintenance. The last two phases of South Beach diet are called re-introduce the carb and diet for life.

What’s key in the maintenance phase in Atkins is to keep portions of food at small amounts. Atkins diet guarantees no hunger deprivation because its long-term goal is healthy diet. South Beach’s promise is a “change in the way of eating,” with the dieter not recognizing at all that he is on a diet.

Summarizing the Diets

Developed by cardiologist Dr. Robert C. Atkins in 1972, with his “Diet Revolution”, a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.

The program focuses on a low-carbohydrate diet.

The Program has 4 phases:
1. induction phase (train the body to burn fats instead of carb)
2. ongoing weight loss
3. pre-maintenance
4. lifetime maintenance

South Beach Diet
Developed by cardiologist Dr. Arthur Agatston of Miami, Florida, who in 2003, published the book “The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss”.

The program distinguishes between “good” and “bad” carbohydrates, and “good” and “bad” fats. Take in “good” carbs and fats.

The program has 3 phases:
1. 2-week introductory or induction phase (strictly no carbs)
2. re-introduce the carbs
3. diet for life

Please check http://www.OnlineDietReview.com for more information.

The key factor in Zone Diet is all in the hormonal balance that you must achieve while eating each meal. Its food plan is an accurate balanced ratio of fat (30%), carbohydrates (40%) and proteins (30%) to control your body’s insulin production.

Who

The Zone Diet was popularized by Barry Sears who was a former researcher in biotechnology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He wrote The Zone diet book that advocates “hormonal thinking” in lieu of caloric thinking towards eating. It is not really a weight-loss “diet” but a manual about the right way of eating. “The Zone” is Sears ‘s term for the achieving that certain food intake that results to proper hormone balance.

According to this diet, insulin levels must be kept neither too high nor too low so that the human body is not busy storing excess calories as fat. At this time, those stored fats are then available when needed. Since the human body cannot store fat and burn fat simultaneously, it takes more time too because of our unbalanced eating, there’s difficulty to switch from the former to the latter. The using stored fat causes the weight loss.

Consequently, the Zone advises that consuming too many carbohydrates lead to too much insulin. This insulin is the hormone that piles up nutrients in the body. An overload in insulin will only convert carbohydrates into fat and store more of them.

Protein, on the other hand, gives of a contradictory effect as it stirs up the hormone glucagons. This then tells the body to let go of the carbohydrates, especially those that are stocked up in the liver. By the time the carbohydrates are freed, the body’s energy supplies are fulfilled and you can stop eating. By limiting the type of carbohydrates you eat with a 3-4 ounce of low-fat protein, you will be able to keep insulin and glucagon balanced.

Last Word

What’s best about The Zone is that it’s really just all about your hormonal responses to food. Therefore, food, and any food, is nothing more but a good drug which your really body needs. And like all “drugs”, you must take it also in a particular way so that you can attain your weight loss goals. This means, you ought to take your meals and snack regularly. The greatest indicator that you are losing body fat and getting right into “the Zone” is not being hungry. Another important rule you must observe is to always eat breakfast just within an hour of waking.

Therefore, keep an appointment with food and stick to it. Since the Zone is all about your body’s response to insulin, you must be conscious that you eat on a regular basis. A good Zone meal should be able to stave off hunger for 4-5 hours, while a good Zone snack can do it in approximately 2 hours. So keep that regular 3 meals and 2 snacks no matter what. Don’t believe the other diets where they starve of most of your eating periods. Not being hungry is a healthy indication that you are accomplishing your goals in losing body fat only here in the Zone.

Food Samples

For PROTEIN, a good way to determine the amount of protein that’s right for your meal you can always look at your hand. The amount of meat that you should consume at each meal should only be equal to the size and thickness of your own palm. This category would include any meat including chicken, beef, turkey, egg whites, fish, low-fat cheeses, tofu, veal or low-fat pork.

For CARBOHYDRATES, the key is in choosing first your most favorable carbohydrates. This would include fruits or vegetables whose proper portion size can be determined by two loose fists. However, when choosing less favorable carbohydrates like those with higher levels of sugar or starch as potatoes, rice and bread, you can only have one fistful.

For FATS, give yourself a “thumbs up” and measure your additional fat equals the size of the tip of your thumb. This fat category would then include butter and olive oil.
For foods that you can only take in very small portions while in the Zone Diet, that would include sugar in all forms, along with potatoes, rice, breads, pastas, bagels, cereals, juices, sodas, and caffeine. Some fruits that are high in sugar and should be also be consumed sparingly while in the zone. This includes Prunes, Bananas, Figs, Raisins and Grapes. Some vegetables that should also be eaten in moderation because of their higher sugar content vegetables are potatoes, peas, carrots and corn.

As an evidence of its success, the Jenny Craig Weight Management Program is vastly delivered through its chain of 660 Company-owned and franchised in various locations. This covers the New Zealand, United States, Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico.

Because the Jenny Craig is a heavily personalized service, it works on mainly keeping a close tab on its client on each step of its program. It offers you a vast array of choices of flexible weight loss programs. It claims to be a sensible weight loss diet plan which makes use of a balanced nutrition to fit your lifestyle. The Jenny way of weight loss is a proven balanced nutrition plan based on healthy foods, active lifestyle and a holistic approach to living. With Jenny, you can get a

The Jenny personalized weight loss program gives you enough support to keep you motivated with its weekly one-on-one meetings in person or by phone. They can also provide you with a counselor who will help you create a diet plan based on your needs and balanced nutrition, variety and moderation. It has a three-level holistic food-mind-body plan to help its client lose weight and keep it off. The first level program teaches clients to eat the foods they want in small portions. The second level teaches clients to increase their energy levels in simple activities. The third level teaches clients to build balance in their lives to maintain weight loss and good diet. The Jenny Craig Weight Management Program is available in the following ways:

The Jenny Craig Center option involves very personal methods of one-on-one consultations at the many Jenny Craig Centers. During these programs you will be assigned to a trained weight loss consultant. Among other things, the consultant will help you plan balanced diet menus. The diet foods themselves are to be purchased from with locations all throughout the country.

The other option would be to join the Jenny Craig Direct At-Home Program which allows you to participate even in the convenience of your home. Within this program there are weekly “phone-meetings” where your trained Consultant will attend to you as well as your food orders in at least bi-week increments. The support consultations are over the phone and toll-free while Jenny Craig menus and support materials are delivered door to door.

About your menu for counted Calories and Weight Loss, they will definitely have to vary according to your needs. The lowest calorie level served is 1200 calories per day, with a program that has been designed to result in a weekly weight loss of 1-2 pounds. All menus are nutritionally balanced with accordance to the recommendations of the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and USDA Food Guide Pyramid. There are more than 70 food products which are manufactured according to the specification their special dietitians. Diet Foods are shipped via UPS which takes 5-7 business days. If you so like, you can receive your foods via FedEx with 1-2 day delivery time.
Among the many programs that Jenny offers, the most impressive is its 24/7 telephone line. This is where the Jenny Craig is able to boost up its sales with the highly personalized programs which allow clients to get information and support whenever they need it. The company now has 645 centers in the Canada, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico. The Jenny Craig is rich with a medical advisory board that has certified professionals in psychology, medicine, and nutrition.

What’s great about it

The Atkins actually sets very few limits on the amount of food you eat, instead it only severely restricts the food that you put on your plate. This means, strictly no refined sugar, milk, white rice, white flour and the likes. This also translates into being allowed for you to eat foods that are traditionally regarded as “rich” like meat, eggs, cheese, etc and at the same time claims to reduce your appetite while in the process.

The Atkins diet is almost pure protein and fat where you can eat red meat, fish, fowl, and cheese, butter, mayo, tuna, and olive oil. In a nutshell, the Atkins Diet is For eating fat and protein, steady and sometimes rapid weight loss, reduced appetite, a Life-time approach to dieting, a reduced intake of sugars and processed grains and a ‘never be hungry again’ approach. However, Atkins is against vegetarians or vegans as it is a really meat-heavy diet, fibers and persons with osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer and renal disease. Sometimes it has below the recommended daily values for several vitamins and minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium.

The Carb Scare

The diet is based on the theory that too many carbohydrates lead too unwanted weight. Since our bodies burn both fat and carbohydrates for energy it is the carbs that are used first. Thus, drastically reducing carbs will let us naturally lose weight by burning the stored body fat efficiently. In this diet then, carbs are restricted to only about 20 grams per day in the first two weeks. This tantamount to around three cups of loosely packed salad with two-thirds cup of cooked vegetables each day.

In this diet, the first two weeks must be a rigid low-carb consumption week that is no fruits and only a few leafy green vegetables. This regimen is supposed to jump-start the weight-loss biochemistry of the diet. What makes this diet so convenient is that you need not count calories because you may be eating more calories than you actually were taking before. After the first week or so, the carb allowance is increased to include fiber-rich foods. You’re still kept away from refined sugar, milk, white rice, white potatoes, white bread or pasta for the rest of your life.

The Atkins Theory

The diet is centered on the theory that by restricting carbohydrates drastically, the body then goes into a state of ketosis to burn down its own fat for fuel. A person in ketosis is getting energy from little carbon fragments that are created by the breakdown of fat. In the state of ketosis you will tend to feel less hungry. However it also has a variety of unpleasant side effects like an unusual breath odor and constipation to some people. Because the body changes from carbohydrate-burning to fat-burning your body will now consume energy from your fat stores like the hips, belly, and thighs.

In details, a high-carbohydrate meal results to blood sugar rising high. To address this, the body then secretes insulin which allows extra sugar to be stored in the liver and muscle. However, these storage areas are rapidly filled thus the insulin has to convert any of the extra sugar into fat. According to Atkins, if the body keeps on making insulin to deal with the sugar it may become less responsive to insulin. The Atkins theory also states that the blood sugar level rises and then drops quickly in this situation. However, ketosis can burn up excess fat in time so that the body can return to normal metabolic functions, according to the Atkins theory. The carb consumption must be less than 40 grams a day for this kind of biochemical mechanism. You can also add up to this some sort of physical activity for ketosis, as well as a supplement with vitamins since you won’t be eating in as much vegetables and fruits.

More Than Just Weight Loss

Other than the weight-loss claims and success stories, the Center for Complementary Medicine in New York claims that people who follow the Atkins diet also do so for weight maintenance, good health, and disease prevention.

At the later part of the diet, fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods after the two-week induction period, are allowed. Along with this, the transition from weight loss to weight maintenance is marked by a gradually increasing intake of carbs as long as the gradual weight loss is maintained.

What Others Say

However, there has been a lot of negative feedback especially from known authorities about this diet, despite the high number of people who can attest for it.

Robert H. Eckel, MD, director of the general clinical research center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver agrees says: “Our worries over the Atkins diet go way past the question of whether it is effective for losing weight or even for keeping weight off. We worry that the diet promotes heart disease. … We have concerns over whether this is a healthy diet for preventing heart disease, stroke, and cancer. There is also potential loss of bone, and the potential for people with liver and kidney problems to have trouble with the high amounts of protein in these diets.”

Gail Frank, PhD, spokeswoman for The American Dietetic Association and professor of nutrition at California State University in Long Beach, says: “The body needs a minimum of carbohydrates for efficient and healthy functioning — about 150 grams daily. Below that, normal metabolic activity is disrupted.”

Volumetrics author Barbara Rolls, PhD, who holds the Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Penn State University, says: “No one has shown, in any studies, that anything magical is going on with Atkins other than calorie restriction. The diet is very prescriptive, very restrictive, and limits half of the foods we normally eat,” she says. “In the end it’s not fat, it’s not protein, and it’s not carbs, its calories. You can lose weight on anything that helps you to eat less, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”

Generally, the Atkins diet may be beneficial for losing quick weight before a major occasion. However, for a long-term basis it simply cannot work. The Atkins diet ignores realistic amounts of carbohydrates and is therefore an unbalanced diet.

How To

Weil claims that dieters should not only seek fast solutions with promising quick weight loss tags since the weight will certainly come back. Instead, he encourages his readers to set realistic goals that are safe, sane, and reasonable, and stick to it. The science of his diet is really simple, that Weight-loss is equal to properly balancing the amount and type of food we take in. The diet revolves around the principle on determining the kinds of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins that we welcome in our life.

Weil’s approach to diet is somewhat similar to the Mediterranean Diet which is a composite of the cuisines of Italy, Spain, southern France, Greece, and parts of the Middle East. To have a quick grasp on what it’s all about, Weil’s diet plan breaks down food groups this way and how we should take them:
For Carbohydrates

* must account for 50-60% of your calories
* must as much as possible from unrefined grains and vegetables that are higher in complex carbohydrates
* must include baked beans, oatmeal, and stone-ground whole-wheat bread, apples among others
* can include basmati and brown since they release glucose at a good rate when eaten with other foods

For Fats

* must account for up to 30% of your calories
* must come from mono unsaturated oils like olive oil and foods high in omega-3 fatty acids like oily fishes such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, as well as flax seeds, and walnuts.

For Protein

* must be limited to 10-20% of your diet
* must include vegetable proteins especially from beans and soybeans which can substitute for animal ones as often as possible

Among these, Weil recommends that we take in approximately 40 grams of fiber each day. This can chiefly come from fruits especially berries, vegetables especially beans, and whole grains. Contrary to other diets that purported milk as the perfect meal, he tells us to avoid milk and only consume limited amounts of it and cheese and other dairy products. According to him, many of us, particularly those of Asian and African-American descent, have a certain degree of difficulty digesting lactose while others are allergic to milk protein. And even without dairy products, Weil comforts us that we can keep up our calcium needs with ingesting too much protein, which leeches calcium out of the body. The non-dairy sources of calcium include sardines (which are usually canned without removing the bones), leafy greens, broccoli, and sea vegetables like nori, dulse, and kombu. In addition to that, tofu, sesame seeds, calcium-fortified orange juice, and soymilk can also be good calcium sources.

Why

Carbohydrates have often been a no-no for several diets because they are converted to glucose and make us overweight. However, Weil says that high-protein diets often send us into a ketosis which can only be detrimental to our health in the long run. Principally this is because of a sharp rise in cholesterol levels and calcium depletion. Therefore it’s best that we take in carbohydrates but preferably unrefined grains and vegetables for the release glucose to be done slowly and for a low glycemic index.

Fats and oils are the more concentrated sources of energy though they need to be chemically converted first into glucose for the body to use. Indeed, some fat is essential to the body as long as we’ll strike the right balance.
Proteins are used to build, maintain, and repair the body, though they too have to be converted to glucose. Ingesting too much of protein can put a strain to the liver and kidneys and too little of it leads to malnutrition, susceptibility to infection, and early death.