9 Ways to Lose Weight - Which One Works Best for You by Laura Ng

There are hundreds of ways to lose weight. But most can inflict harm on your body while only few benefit your health. Let's go through some of the most popular ways to lose weight and see which one you should go with that not only help you shed that extra pounds but improve your health as well.

1. Probiotic

Recent years of researches on gut bacteria reveal that by manipulating the composition of bacteria in our guts, we can raise the number of good bugs in our guts to help us regulate our weight. However, only few people who take probiotics have seen remarkable results in their automatic weight reduction after taking yogurts or fermented milk, or even the probiotic supplements. That said, not all people will lose weight with the manipulation of gut bacteria through consuming probiotics.

2. Eat Right for Your Blood Type

This diet is created based on hypothesis rather than scientific and logic. It says that those with blood type O and B should eat meat every day in order to survive strong. Ironically, no matter which blood group you belong to, go with more meat and you'll see your health deteriorating - cancers and other degenerative diseases will soon knock on your door. I've seen vegetarians who belong to blood type O and B so radiant and healthy that it instantly impresses me and dispels the myth of the blood type diet.

3. Low-Carb, High-Protein Diet

This kind of diet works by drastically draining your water mass initially due to the burning of glycogen, which in turn scales down your weight, giving you the wrong impression that you're losing weight due to fat loss, which in fact you're not. That's how people got tricked into following such diet. What's more, diets that use this principle can lead to ketogenic effect, which exposes you to side effects like bad breath, headache, constipation, potential kidney failure, heart attack and stroke due to arterial plaque formation etc. You want to lose weight and gain health, this type of diet is definitely not for you.

4. Negative Calorie Diet

This diet is based on eating the type of food that requires your body to burn more calories than the actual calorie content of the food itself. If you're a meat-eater and you want to go with this diet, you may find the meat-based food lists very limited (only about 16 kinds of food you can eat). For vegetarians, you have a lot more choices. However, it's still a diet for weight loss and it can never be implemented as permanent lifestyle for good health.

5. Calorie Shifting Diet

A strategy used to trick your fat-burning engine by rotating the amount of calories in your diet so your body won't detect the routine and continue to keep you metabolically active to burn more fat. But this is stricter than negative calorie diet such that your list of food is even more restricted. Meaning, you may not get enough nutrients for your body needs, thus can easily lead to nutrient deficiency. Once your body gets deprived of nutrients for too long, your metabolism will run amok. Again, it's only meant for short-term weight loss. A crash diet at its best.

6. Alkaline Diet

When you eat meat, fast food, chocolate, ice cream and drink alcohol, beer, coffee, fizzy drinks etc, your body goes into highly acidic condition. Therefore, you must take more alkaline foods like fresh vegetables and fruits (some fruits are more acidic), certain legumes, nuts and seeds to strike a balance of 80 / 20 (alkaline / acid) body. A logical diet to go with. But there's a better one at the end.

7. Hydration Diet

Also known as water weight loss. An extremely dangerous technique to lose weight. It requires you to drink more water than you normally would. The diet states that even when you feel hungry, you should drink water to delay the hunger in order to eat less food. Number of people had suffered from water poisoning (hyponatremia) via this diet. Some got permanent brain damage. Some went right into the grave. You want to die at such age? Go ahead.

8. Detox Diet

A so-called solution to help modern people (especially meat-eaters who don't eat fibrous food) to remove toxins and harmful microorganisms out of their body. Just increase your vegetable intake and I promise you'll detox every day without the need to buy a detox diet.

9. Raw Vegan Diet

The best solution on earth for anyone who wants to stay slim and healthy for life. But the kicker is, many people can't get used to its raw characteristics. Hence, by far only about less than 0.1% in the world is taking raw vegan food. You can go with normal vegetarian meal plans first which is easier for you to begin with. It works just as effective in losing weight, so long as you don't eat processed foods and animal meat that will undo the nutrients you absorb via vegetarian food, you'll slim down on auto-pilot and your ideal weight will maintain for good.

Vegetarian diet is actually a combination of detox diet, alkaline diet and negative calorie diet. Which other diet has such a powerful combo characteristic? Show me.