As someone that follows the ebb and flow of diets I get a chance to see a lot of diets as well as the reports as to whether they work or not.
Over the last few years there have been probably 100 diets released on an unsuspecting public, some gain traction and others don’t but the big diets over the last few years have been Atkins, The Zone Diet, LA Weight Loss, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Most of the diets have not been successful for the vast number of people but two diets have stood out, sort of.
Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers have been the most successful diets over the last few years mostly because of the marketing that they do. Weight Watchers has the Duchess of York and Jenny Craig has had Kirstie Alley and now Valerie Bertenelli as spokespeople. Everyone loves to follow famous people and these famous people have lost so why not listen to the success and follow it.
Actually both Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig have been successful as diets the diets are balances with three meals and a couple of snacks and not extreme for high protein or low fat. Mostly Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers are middle of the road type diets that work for most anyone.
The sad thing about these successful diets are the lack of losses that people have seen on them. The average person will lose 10 to 15 pounds in a year on either Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig but the bulk of the lost on any organized diet is the fact that there is some kind of accountability in both of these diets.
In fact accountability seems to be the most important factor in any diet. I have seen how some people will not be successful at all with a diet and as soon as they start writing out the factors that make a diet work well for them they realize that it is the answering to themselves about what they are doing right or wrong.
In Weight Watchers there are meetings, and a food journal where you track your food and exercise. In the Jenny Craig diet there is forced portion control by eating prepackaged meals and also a calendar that you check off what you eat and what you do. Nothing can beat this kind of accountability to yourself.
No matter what diet you are on whether it is Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Fat Loss for Idiots or Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, it is important to track and to make sure that you are accountable for everything going into your mouth or any exercise that you do.