High protein diet plans are great for people who are trying to lose weight, build muscles faster and lower blood sugar. In a high protein diet, you must eat larger amounts of foods high in protein while severely limiting or eliminating your carbohydrate intake. Atkins Diet, The Zone Diet and Sugar Busters are some of the popular diets that incorporate high protein diets. Each one may have a different approach or formula, but they all promote a diet plan filled with high proteins and low on fats and carbohydrates.
Atkins Diet
Atkins Diet aims to provide a long-term, powerful plan for weight loss and weight management. It teaches people a different way to look at food. The Atkins nutritional approach shows people that eating the right foods changes the way the body works. The science behind the Atkins Diet, as stated on the company’s website, specifies that by eating the right foods while limiting refined carbohydrates in your diet can change a person’s body from a fat-storing to a fat-burning machine. Furthermore, the website claims that the Atkins Diet can “lead to a successful weight loss and improvements in many weight-related health issues.” Atkins Diet promotes high protein while reducing or lowering the carbohydrates. The Atkins Diet website also has a section that provides recipes with nutritional values grouped into six categories– main course, grains and breads, desserts, first course, appetizers and beverages. By encouraging people to eat lean meats that are high in proteins and by incorporating low carbohydrates, such as whole grains high in fiber, the Atkins Diet help people lose weight by burning fat faster.
The Zone Diet
According to their official website, The Zone Diet claims not to be a diet but a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Developed for cardiovascular patients, The Zone Diet also works for different types of people who want to live a healthier lifestyle while losing weight. This diet promotes eating of lean proteins, healthy fats and healthy carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables. The Zone Diet claims to give people the power to turn on some genes and turn off the other genes. It is about balancing hormones within a specific range, which can help control hunger. The diet shows how people should eat in zones. An example of what a Zone Diet plate should have 1/3 of the plate consisting of lean protein with the size and thickness similar to the palm of one’s hand; the remaining 2/3 of the plate should have fruits and/or vegetables; add a dash of monounsaturated fat that should be heart-healthy. An example of lean meat is skinless chicken, egg whites, tofu or fish. For fruits and vegetables, they pretty much encourage eating all types except bananas and corns. Olive oil, almonds and avocado are examples of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. No trans fat is allowed.
Sugar Busters
The Sugar Busters website claims to promote a low sugar (not a no-sugar) way of dieting. It encourages people to avoid sugars as much as possible. Sugars found in honey, molasses, corn syrup, modified food starch (flours, etc.) and cornstarch should be avoided.
A Sugar Busters diet plan does not prevent people from eating fruits, including tomatoes, which have natural sweeteners, as long as there are no other sugars added. The site also promotes the use of artificial sweeteners such as Splenda, Sweet ‘n Low and Nutrasweet. The Sugar Busters diet plan promotes eating more proteins than carbohydrates. Fish, chicken, shellfish, turkey, egg whites, egg substitutes, pork, soybeans, soy products, nuts and seeds are some of the examples of high-protein foods that are low on fats. In a Sugar Busters diet, one can use protein powder to add to a beverage, as long as it is devoid of carbohydrates. To find out the amount of protein in grams a body should take each day, divide your weight by 2.2.
