New Year’s diets: it’s the absolute truth that every year on January 1st, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people will resolve to start a new diet. It might be a rigorous liquid diet where they only drink smoothies and juice, or maybe they signed up for a meal delivery service that will keep their portions and food intake in check.
Most people don’t have a personal chef and a personal trainer, so they need to find a way to lose weight that works best for them, and if you’re looking for a diet that’s going to get you from 5 to 20 pounds of weight loss, there are diets out there that are known to be sure winners.
Every year a panel of experts working with the U.S. News & World Report ranks 38 different types of diets. The goal is to rank the diets that work the best for the most amount of people, and they’ve got their choices for this year already up and ready for you to pick from.
Here’s a look at the top 3 diets as selected by the panel, and a recipe you can try for each.
The DASH diet
Otherwise known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, DASH is the number one best overall weight-loss diet for 2016. It was designed to lower blood pressure by allowing people to eat a large variety of foods that are rich in calcium, potassium, and magnesium. It’s also easy to follow, with the biggest rule being cutting down on salt. Unfortunately you won’t be able to eat cake, but there are a lot of other ways to satisfy your sweet tooth.
These Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Squares from dashdietoregon.com are the perfect example.
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Ingredients: I cup crunchy wheat and barley cereal |
Directions
Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with foil. Sprinkle cereal evenly on the bottom of the pan; set aside.
Place yogurt, strawberries and condensed milk in a blender; cover and blend until smooth.
Pour mixture over top of cereal; gently smoothing yogurt mixture to edges of pan. Cover with foil (or plastic wrap) and freeze for 8 hours or until firm.
Use edges of foil to loosen and remove from pan; let thaw for 5-10 minutes. Cut into squares, top with whipped topping, if desired, and serve.
Nutrition Information:
Per square; 200 calories, 0g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 42 g carbohydrates, 2 g dietary fiber, 150 mg sodium
The TLC diet
The Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet, also known as TLC, reduces or eliminates saturated and trans fats in your diet. It’s been recommended by the National Cholesterol Education Program, so if you have high cholesterol or just want to avoid heart disease in general, this is a good diet to follow.
You can eat 2 to 4 pieces of fruit per day, 3 to 5 vegetables per day, and you even get up to 6 servings of grains including bread, cereal, or pasta. What it does limit are eggs and protein, so if you’re ok with 2 yolks per week or 5 ounces or less of protein per day, you’re going to enjoy this diet.
Wondering if you can handle the TLC diet? Try this recipe for Mexican Vegetable Tortilla Bake from lowfatlifestyle.com.
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Ingredients: 2 cups frozen yellow corn kernels, thawed 4- 6 inch corn tortillas (I like the thin ones) |
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Combine first 7 ingredients in a mixing bowl. Place 2 tortillas in an 11 x 7 inch baking dish coated with cooking oil spray. Spoon half of corn mixture over tortillas. Top with 3/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers, ending with cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes. Let stand at least 2 minutes to set, then serve and top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.
Per Serving: 221 Calories; 4g Fat (14.4% calories from fat); 1g Saturated Fat; 15g Protein; 34g Carbohydrate; 7g Dietary Fiber; 6mg Cholesterol; 439mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 0 Fat.
The Mayo Clinic Diet
Coming in at number 3, the Mayo Clinic Diet uses a food pyramid system and promises weight loss of 6 to 10 pounds in 2 weeks, then 1 to 2 pounds per week until you hit your goal weight.
The Mayo Clinic pyramid includes healthy foods like fruits and vegetables in large amounts, followed by whole-grains, lean proteins, fish, and low-fat dairy. With this diet you don’t count calories and they teach you about portion size.
This recipe from Mayoclinic.org for Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes is an example of what you can expect from your breakfast every morning on this diet.
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Ingredients: 1 1/3 cup white whole-wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 1/3 cup skim milk 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 cup fresh or frozen whole blueberries |
Directions
In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon together.
In another bowl, beat milk, egg and oil together. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, and stir until the flour is moistened.
Add blueberries and stir gently.
Coat a griddle or skillet with cooking spray and heat to medium-high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot griddle and cook until browned. Flip and brown the other side.
Serving size :2 pancakes
Cholesterol 35 mg, Calories 158, Sodium 240 mg, Total fat 4 g, Total carbohydrate 28 g, Saturated fat 1 g, Dietary fiber 4 g, Trans fat 0 g, Sugars 7 g, Monounsaturated fat 2 g, Protein 6 g
If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, I hope taking a look at the top 3 diets will help. Sometimes getting fully set up to cook in your kitchen can help too, so take a look at these small kitchen appliances and see what’s available to help you kick off a new year and a new you.
 On any diet, getting your vegetables for the day can be hard. That’s where a great juicer comes in. |
Steaming is one of the healthiest ways you can cook your food |
 You can avoid the diet ‘hangries’ by having dinner ready when you walk in. |
