The number of weight loss diets for women abound, with literally hundreds of diets that claim to help you lose weight effectively and perhaps with little effort but little guarantee of keeping the weight off, once the diet is over. We look at factors that can make a weight loss diet work for you:

How to pick the right weight loss diets for women

Involve your doctor

weight-loss-diets-for-womenIdeally, any weight loss diet should involve one’s doctor who knows about your medical history, perhaps the family history and is familiar with your weight gain patterns. Try and chart out a safe and effective weight loss program or ask your doctor to guide you to a group or program that they think will work for you.

Look for a diet that has balanced nutrition

Look for a diet that has balanced nutrition so that your body is getting all the nutrients that it requires. Also consider whether you’re going to enjoy the diet or that it is going to be practical and realistic for you to follow.

Whatever diet you pick, if it doesn’t include physical activity, it is probably not going to work for you. Physical activity is for more than just weight loss, and is a vital ingredient for any weight loss diets for women.

Do not pick a diet that offers very quick weight loss. Slow and steady is the way to go, if you want weight loss that doesn’t harm you and is the sort that will keep the weight off. Rigid diets or fad diets that tell you that one or another food group is to be eliminated should also be given a go by.

Consider for instance the kind of criticism that the Atkins diet has prompted for telling followers to eschew carbs.

Study the diet

Before embarking on any much-vaunted weight loss diets for women, do your research: Who has created the diet? Do they have the proper qualifications (are they a nutritionist, doctor and so on)? Has the diet been tested and if so what research or studies are there to back up the results that the diet claims to offer? Are there any risks involved in following the diet?

Do you have any healthy conditions that could make the diet difficult to follow or contraindicative? Also consider your own personality; whether you think you can successfully stick to the diet, consider your experience with past diets if any and the budget that the program will require.

Popular weight loss diets for women

Cabbage soup/lemonade/Paleolithic/morning banana/Israeli army diets

These are essentially fad diets that are difficult and even problematic to sustain.

Atkins/South beach etc

The problem with these is that they discount the value of carbs and concentrate on protein, which eventually can lead to health issues. Even others such as the low glycemic diets can have similar consequences.

Meal replacement diets

Many weight loss diets for women offer prepared or set meals for women to have. While this could be a good idea and effective as well, be wary of the programs that also need you to buy a bunch of supplements. Also consider long-term costs.