Diet trends to help you lose weight in 2014
With 2014 finally upon us, many folks use the start of the new year to kick off their personal health goals.
And for a nation in which two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight and obese, that goal often centers around a weight-loss diet.
Federal health officials frequently tout a diet high in fruits and vegetables, and low in sugar, fat and salty processed foods
That's where diet books aim to help, by offering step-by-step weight loss plans with recommended recipes and fitness routines.
While these books offer a range of strategies for losing weight, from dramatically lowering your calorie intake certain days per week to removing particular foods from your diet entirely, most experts agree the best weight loss routine is one that you can stick to.
Keep clicking to learn more about these 10 diet trends for 2014:
The One One One Diet
"The One One One Diet," by Rania Batayneh
Nutritionist Rania Batayneh believes that if you limit yourself to one protein, one carbohydrate and one fat at every meal, you could be eating a balanced diet without having to give up foods that you love eating. The book features 75 recipes that she uses with some of her clients.
Batayneh claims she used this method herself to lose 42 pounds in six months after the birth of her son.
(Release date: Dec. 25, 2013, Rodale Books)
The Doctor's Diet
"The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health," by Travis Stork
The diet starts with a two-week "STAT period" that teaches new habits and recipes to help dieters focus on lowering their caloric intake so they can start seeing results soon. It also has tips to follow in order to live a healthier life without chronic disease caused by unhealthy eating, according to author Dr. Travis Stork, who hosts the TV show "The Doctors."Dieters can continue to use these healthy habits to reach and maintain their goal weight along with a healthier lifestyle. Stork says he uses this diet personally, and says it’s great because it doesn’t limit what he can eat, but just uses the right proportions and ingredients.
(Release date: Jan. 1, 2014, Bird Street Books)
The Every-Other-Day Diet
"The Every-Other-Day Diet: The Diet That Lets You Eat All You Want (Half the Time) and Keep the Weight Off," by Krista Varady
Associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois, Krista Varady believes the key to weight loss is not skimping on what you love to eat or constantly counting calories or carbohydrates. Instead, she believes you can still enjoy food by switching between days where you eat whatever you want and then limiting yourself on alternate days to just 500 calories.
“We show reductions in cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin – we also show that people stick to it for a long time,” she explained to CBS This Morning. “We had a one-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health, so … we’ve shown that in repeated studies it does work. People stick with it and they get all these health benefits.”
(Release date: Dec. 24, 2013, Hyperion)
The Pound a Day Diet
"The Pound a Day Diet: Lose Up to 5 Pounds in 5 Days by Eating the Foods You Love," by Rocco DiSpirito
Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito knows good food, but he also knows how important it is to stay healthy. His new book focuses on accessible, Mediterranean-style diet recipes that use just five ingredient. He also offers tips for people who don’t think they have the time or budget to create healthy meals.
The book details a 28-day meal plan made up of four, five-day plans in addition to four weekend plans that families can stick to until they reach their goal weight.
(Release date: Jan. 14, 2014, Grand Central Life & Style)
Happy Herbivore Light & Lean
"Happy Herbivore Light & Lean: Over 150 Low-Calorie Recipes with Workout Plans for Looking and Feeling Great," by Lindsay S. Nixon
Chef Lindsay S. Nixon, who runs the “Happy Herbivore” blog, focuses on vegetarian-friendly recipes that won’t make it a chore to eat your greens.
These low-calorie recipes are created with weight loss in mind, and cut out oils, processed foods and products like artificial sweeteners.
(Release date: Dec. 3, 2013, BenBella Books)
The FastDiet
"The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting," by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer
Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer’s bestselling FastDiet asks, “is it possible to eat normally, five days a week, and become slimmer and healthier as a result?"
FastDiet requires intermittent fasting, asking dieters to limit calorie intake to 500 calories a day for women and 600 calories a day for men on two nonconsecutive days per week. By making this change, not only will you lose weight quicker, but it may also help lower your risk for heart disease and some cancers, the authors claim.
(Release date: Feb. 26, 2013, Atria Books)
The 100
"The 100: Count ONLY Sugar Calories and Lose Up to 18 Lbs. in 2 Weeks," by Jorge Cruise
If you don’t want to deal with counting calories and carbohydrates all the time, this may be the diet for you. Fitness trainer Jorge Cruise believes that not all calories are equal, and by cutting down sugar calories specifically, you’ll get the weight loss results you crave.
He follows up his best-selling “The Belly Fat Cure” with a new two-week plan that aims to help people lose 18 pounds of abdominal fat by removing sugar-based calories.
(Release date: May 21, 2013, William Morrow)
The Daniel Plan
"The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life," by Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Mark Hyman
Pastor Rick Warren teamed up with Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman to create “The Daniel Plan.” Instead of just focusing on food and exercise, this diet book aims to look at the emotional, spiritual and mental reasons that contribute to bad eating habits. By holding people accountable for their own health and encouraging them to work with others to make changes, the diet tries to get participants to commit to their lifestyle goals.
“That’s what we found -- people that actually did the program together lost twice as much weight as people who did it alone,” Warren told CBS This Morning. “It was the power of the community. The community was the medicine ... It’s powerful to show how they can help each other. They shop together. They cook together, ate together. They exercised together and that accountability - the love factor was what helped people change. ” It’s been shown to work: More than 15,000 church members have lost a total of over 250,000 pounds by sticking to these guidelines, according to Warren.The Mayo Clinic Diet
"The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat Well. Enjoy Life. Lose Weight," by the Mayo Clinic
Created by researchers at the nonprofit medical group the Mayo Clinic, this diet plan aims to help people lose weight in different phases. The first part is a two-week period called “Lose It!” that kicks off your weight loss regimen by teaching five healthy habits to adopt and five unhealthy ones to break. Users can expect to lose 6 to 10 pounds during this period.
The rest of the plan looks at a lifelong weight-control approach that focuses on food choices, portion sizes and menus in order to reach and maintain a goal weight. People lose 1 to 2 pounds a week in this phase, but they see benefits in all aspects of their life, Mayo claims. First published in 2010, subsequent editions of the diet book include new recipes.
(Release date: Jan. 1, 2013, Good Books)
The Paleo Answer
"The Paleo Answer: 7 Days to Lose Weight, Feel Great, Stay Young," by Loren Cordain
In the year since this book was published, the paleo diet’s popularity has soared as more people try to eat like our caveman ancestors to complement their workout routines. Loren Cordain, professor in the department of health and exercise science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo., is one of the experts who wholeheartedly support the paleo diet.
He believes that humans were meant to eat meats, fish, fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and other items that our prehistoric ancestors consumed before processed diets with artificial chemicals became the norm.
This book gives people a seven-day paleo plan of recipes, and seeks to explain the research behind why the diet works.
(Release date: Oct. 16, 2012, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)