There are a lot of different diet plans out their, each offering their own gospel of weight loss strategy. It is not at all uncommon to find that these weight loss plans are diametrically opposed to one another, and that weight loss tips that serve as the foundation of one diet program may be considered a grievous error by adherents to another weight loss diet plan.

On this hub I will try to give you a clear picture of what some of the most popular weight loss diet plans are about so that you can decide which suits your preferences most closely. For help making adjustments to your lifestyle, be sure to consult with your doctor.

There are three prominent low carb weight loss plans: the Atkins Diet, The South Beach Diet, and the Protein Power Life Plan.

All three of these diets restrict your carbohydrate consumption to some degree. Most people are not aware that carbohydrate restriction is not at all new and is not a "fad" diet, but has actually been recommended by physicians for hundreds of years and has some very solid clinical research to back up its premises. The premise is that all carbs become sugar in your body, and that sugar stimulates the release of insulin. Insulin causes your cells to take in whatever excess sugar is in your blood and store it as fat. Therefore, carbs make you fat, and reducing your carbs makes you thin.

There is also quite a bit of reason to believe that these diets may act as natural health remedies, restoring health to damaged biological systems and helping to improve overall quality of life and resilience

The Atkins diet is the oldest of these three popular programs, and still one of the most highly respected and controversial. The Atkins diet begins with a strict "induction" phase in which nearly all carbohydrate intake is forgone. The dieter then moves through a series of steps in which they are allowed slightly greater amounts of carbohydrate until they figure out how much their body can process each day without putting on fat.

The South Beach Diet is somewhat similar but less focused on carbohydrate as the culprit in obesity. The developer of this diet claims that it is not a low carb diet at all, and in many ways he is correct. Like the Atkins diet program, the South Beach Diet has an induction phase in which carbs and fat are both restricted, after which he advocates reintroducing "good carbs" back into your diet. By good carbs, he refers to carbs which have a low glycemic index, meaning they will not raise your blood sugar as much and therefore result in less fatness.

The Protein Power Life Plan is relatively new, but attracts dieters with its strict focus on scientific evidence and evolutionary reasoning. The Protein Power diet plan consists of carbohydrate restriction on the basis of its role in insulin dynamics. The authors of this diet also advocate for reducing caloric consumption in order to lose weight, but ensuring that one is getting enough protein to maintain muscle mass. They say that many dieters cut calories by eating salads and other low protein foods, consequently forcing their bodies to use up muscle proteins to make enzymes and hormones and other protein-derived biological necessities. Of course, less muscle mass means fewer calories burned. Hence the emphasis in this diet on maintaining "adequate protein" and even doing some weight training to improve muscle mass and therefore improve caloric consumption.

Low fat diet plans center around the reduction of fat. Fat is the most calorically dense macronutrient, providing 9 calories per gram versus just 4 calories per gram for either protein or carbohydrate. Therefore, restricting the amount of fat that you eat can dramatically reduce the number of total calories you consume. The theory behind the low fat diet is that this reduction in caloric consumption will result inmore energy being used by the body than is consumed in food, therefore resulting weight loss.

However, there are some problems with this idea. The major problem is that the body is very efficient and can dynamically regulate the amount of energy that it burns each hour based on the number of calories available. Even exercise, while certainly health-promoting, does not increase the body's energy use as much as most people assume. Depending on your body weight, running a mile burns only about 100 calories. Walking a mile burns only about 80 calories. I don't think 100 calories at a time is how to lose 20 pounds or more.

When you reduce the amount of fat in your diet, it causes your body to downregulate the amount of energy it expends in everyday activities. It goes into "starvation mode" in which energy is conserved. Dietary fat seems to be the key ingredient in maintaining a high metabolism. As shown in the video above, recent research has confirmed that most dieters lose twice as much weight on a low carb weight loss program as they do on a reduced fat weight loss program.