Slimming Down With These Top 3 Diets That Work!

Most of us could stand to lose a little weight, whether it's to improve our health and energy levels or fit into our old jeans. But as the obesity statistics remind us every day, slimming down is hard. Every summer brings a new fad diet that doesn't work or with rules so confusing you need a PhD to follow it.

We picked out three diets that have been proven to work time and again, and will get the numbers dropping on the scale with the minimum hassle.

The Fast Diet

The Fast diet, also called the 5:2 diet, was developed by Dr Michael Mosley from his research into calorie restriction for slimming down, staying young and living longer.

Participants on the Fast Diet eat only 500-600 calories two days per week – that's about a quarter of your recommended daily intake. It's recommended that you skip either breakfast or lunch and eat only two light meals with lean protein and lots of vegetables. The other five days you are allowed to eat whatever you want, although gorging yourself is likely to make the diet less effective.

Dr Mosley went on the diet himself and reported that although in the first few weeks the calorie restricted days were unpleasant, after a little while he got used to them and even enjoyed them. He also said that he lost the urge to overeat on the other days, making the diet fairly easy to stick to.

In the first three months on the diet Dr Mosley lost 19 pounds, and people using the weight loss tracker on the Fast Diet's website slimmed down by an average of 11 to 13 pounds in the first 12 weeks. Weight loss after that was less spectacular but still steady.

The great advantage of the Fast Diet is that other than counting your calories two days per week, there are no rules. The simplicity makes it fairly easy to work out what you should be doing, and you can eat out frequently and drink alcohol as long as you do it on the five normal days.

Other benefits of the diet besides weight loss include improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin sensitivity. It can also reduce your levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 - a hormone which, when found in older adults, leads to faster aging and an increased risk of age-related diseases like cancer.

South Beach Diet

The South Beach diet advocates eating foods that have a low glycemic index, or GI. The glycemic index tells you the effect a food has on your blood glucose, with 0 having no carbohydrates or sugar at all and 100 being pure sugar. Low GI foods are processed slowly by the body, keep you feeling full for longer and keep insulin levels low so the body stores less fat and you ultimately slim down.

Foods that are high in protein and fat have a low GI, as do carbohydrates which are whole grain and high in fiber. Meat, fish and seafood are low to zero GI, because they have almost no carbohydrates. Beans, nuts, lentils, milk, yogurt, most vegetables and most fruits are also low GI.

Medium GI foods that you can have in moderation are whole wheat bread and rice, bananas, sweet potatoes, dried fruit and ice cream. High GI foods to be avoided are white bread, white rice, potatoes, sugary breakfast cereals and most packaged foods, which contain glucose or high fructose corn syrup.

There are three stages to the South Beach diet. In the first two-week stage what you eat is very strictly controlled and you can't eat any carbohydrates, including fruit or fruit juice. This is to fight the cravings for sugar you will most likely get and to kick-start your weight loss.

In the second stage you re-introduce fruit and healthy carbohydrates like brown bread and wholegrain pasta. The third stage is the maintenance phase, were you eat mostly low GI foods but can have anything in moderation.

Learning the GI of different foods makes this diet time-consuming to begin with, but once you get the hang of it it's actually pretty easy. You'll be able to see at a glance which menu items in restaurants have the good foods and which to stay away from, and the South Beach diet gives you lots of slimming recipes to try at home.

Vegetarian Diet

Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish or seafood, although unlike vegans they eat animal products like eggs, cheese and honey. Following a vegetarian diet is no guarantee of slimming down since plenty of junk food is vegetarian, but it does seem that vegetarians tend to have a lower BMI and lower cholesterol than meat eaters.

A review of current research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2015 looked at 12 randomized trials that compared vegetarian diets (including vegan) and non-vegetarian diets. Overall, participants in the vegetarian diets lost 2kg more than those who ate meat, with the vegan dieters losing an average of 2.5kg.

Another meta-analysis published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietics in 2014 examined 15 different trials that were each at least 4 weeks long, and where vegetarians were compared with a control group. The vegetarian groups slimmed down by an average of 4.6 kg, or just over 10 pounds. Studies with a longer duration had greater weight loss, showing that the vegetarian diet is a viable long-term weight loss solution.

One of the benefits of the vegetarian diet is that vegetarians typically eat more fruit and vegetables than meat-eaters, and get less of the saturated fat often found in meat. Vegetables are not nutrient dense, which means you can eat until you feel full without having consumed many calories.

The rules for staying healthy and losing weight as a vegetarian are the same as any other diet. Make sure to eat a lot of plant-based sources of protein like nuts, beans, lentils, tofu or quinoa, and that you get all of your essential amino acids.

Eggs are also a great source of protein and milk and yogurt are essential for calcium, but moderate your intake of fatty cheeses or cream. Eat wholegrain carbohydrates like black rice, wholewheat pasta and brown bread and avoid refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed food.