Like most people who have struggled with their weight their entire life, I have tried just about every diet out there. I’ve counted points, eaten pre-portioned meals out of cardboard containers and bags, cut out carbs, and drank nothing but shakes all day with a few “diet bars.” But do these diets actually work and are they the right way to lose weight? I’m going to break down my experience with each of these diets with you. I’m going to tell you how each one works, what my results were like and what my weight was like after I went off the diet.

First of all, I want to start off by saying any one of the diets will work if you follow them, however, the majority of them are not sustainable in the long run, and some are just plain unhealthy.The key to losing weight is to make a lifestyle change. This is a healthy, realistic way of living. A way of eating that you can stick to long term and still see results even if you indulge in dessert or an extra slice of pizza. The second thing you need to remember is that a healthy lifestyle change is about more than just what you eat; It’s also about how you move your body. It wasn’t until I finally found a program that combined healthy eating, exercise, and a delicious nutritious alternative to get in all my daily vitamins and minerals, that I actually started to see lasting results.

(If you don’t have time to waste and you want results NOW, let’s get you set up here.)

Diets Where You Eat Prepackaged Meals

These are the diets where they send you every single one of your meals already made and/or prepackaged. Diets like Nutri System and Medifast. As long as you don’t cheat, which can be very hard, you will definitely lose weight. About 8 years ago, I did the Medifast diet. I went online and picked out all of my meals for the month, which were then sent to me either already made (the shakes and bars) or in little “just add water” envelopes (hello disgusting mac n cheese, and even more disgusting broccoli and cheese soup. I stayed on the diet for two months. In the two months I lost over 20 pounds. But after the two months I just could NOT stomach the food anymore. I was dying for anything that didn’t come out of an envelope or needed water added to it. So I decided that since I lost enough weight I would enter into the maintenance phase of the diet. But that part was even harder to stick to than eating out of the bags becasue once I got a taste for eating real food again, I didn’t want to wean off the other food, I just wanted to stop it altogether. And then there I was, putting all my weight back on in no time. Here’s what’s wrong with these type of diets- they don’t teach you the right way to eat. You learn nothing about proper diet and nutrition. I’m sure the meals have all the vitamins and nutrients you need to be eating in a day, but that doesn’t help you at all when it comes time to make your own food. Plus, these type of diets are not sustainable in the long run so as soon as you go off, you gain the weight right back.

Drinking Nothing But Shakes And Snack Bars All Day

So I don’t really think I need to get too much into this one. In this case I’m talking about diets like Slim Fast. I tried this one a long time ago and lasted about two days. While I will say that the shakes were tasty, they were not filling at all, and did not fill me up. The snack bars were tasty as well, but I needed to eat five of them to have a filling snack. Again, this is another diet that doesn’t teach you how to eat, isn’t sustainable in the long run, and you will gain the weight back as soon as you go off it (if you can even stick to it in the first place).

No Carb Diets

I’m talking about the Atkins Diet and the very popular keto diet. They are a high fat, no carbohydrate diet. I don’t like this type of diet for a number of reasons. For starters, it is unhealthy. Most people on these diets think they can eat as much as they want as long as they don’t eat any carbs. And while yes, the diet works that way, it is an extremely unhealthy way to eat. There is nothing heart friendly about this diet. Also, if you have a cheat meal, you pretty much ruin your diet becasue carbs will take your body out of the state of ketosis that it is in (the fat burning mode) and you will gain weight.

Counting Points

I’m sure you are familiar with this last one- the Weight Watchers diet. And I do not have anything bad to say about this diet. It is a very healthy way of losing weight. However, I can only to speak to my experience with the diet. I have heard that they have revamped their system, but when I was on it, every food was assigned a point value and you had to stay within your allotment for the day. At the beginning when I had a lot of weight to lose, it was great, but when I had those last 10-15 pounds to lose, I just could not get them off. And it was becasue I hadn’t learned how to eat the right way; I just knew how to eat for less calories. SO of course I was going to have trouble with the last few pounds if I was eating my days worth of calories in pizza and ice cream. But even if they did revamp there system to get with the times, Weight Watchers still does not offer the complete package. It’s just a way of eating; There is no exercise component, nor is there an nutritional meal replacement.

What I Found That Has Worked For Me

Now do you believe me that I really have tried it all? And you may be one of those people who needs to try it all also. Maybe you think you can try one of the prepackaged food diets and be able to keep the weight off afterwards without a plan, or maybe you think you can live long term on hot dogs and cheese and avoid all carbs and have no health issues. Or you think you don’t need exercise to tone up and really get the body you’ve always wanted.

If you can do any of those things, I commend you. But if you don’t want to waste your time trying fad diets that don;t work in the long run, then keep reading ( I mean, you’ve made it this far, right?).

It wasn’t until I had my first baby that I really hit my rock bottom. I didn’t just need a solution, I needed something that was healthy, that I could stick with, and that allowed me to have the energy and strength to keep up with my kids. Thank god I finally found something that works for me. I now have a whole library of exercise programs where I can chose what’s right for me based on a number of things. Depending on what type of exercise I like to do I can pick yoga, dance, a hiit workout, lifting, a workout that targets my legs, butt, and abs, ect. You name it, I have it. I even have a pregancy series as well as postnatal workouts and a workout you can do with your baby. And each workout has a nutrition program that goes along with it. No food groups are excluded, and the best part is that it shows you which foods from each food group are the most optimal for your health and to lose weight as quickly as possible, the healthiest way possible. Plus, there’s what I like to call my magic shake. It’s a weight loss, protein, meal replacement shake, with all the vitamins and minerals you need for the day, that helps you fight cravings and lose weight.

I will help you every step of the way and I promise you, you will have great results if you follow the plan. I’m down almost 60 pounds in less than a year. I lost it and kept it off after my first son, but then I decided to eat my way through my second pregnancy and I couldn’t workout. But that was okay becasue I knew I had a plan for once I had the baby. Plus, if you don’t like it, there’s a money back guarantee. So if you don’t believe me, all you have to do it try for yourself. You have nothing to lose but weight!

Join me here.