Online Diet Guide
Posted on January 3rd, 2007 by garyPosted in Diet
With daily reports emerging from popular media outlets citing various statistics that show obesity is on the rise, it’s hard to ignoring the growing weight problem in the United States. Despite the increasing amount of information and with no shortage of diet and weight loss products available to today’s consumers it’s often hard to know exactly where to turn and who to trust. Losing weight is actually a very easy concept – eat less and use more energy during the day, however finding a more detailed plan is slightly more difficult. Finding the right diet solution that works for you is really like dating to find someone you like and want to marry. Something like the Atkins or Zone diet may be fun, trendy, and exciting, but if it’s not something you are prepared to spend the rest of your life with it’s not the right diet for you.
In our online diet guide we take an in-depth look at some of the more popular and successful online diet plans. Each of these plans has advantages and disadvantages, so take an in-depth look and try to find the one that matches your lifestyle:
Don’t want to read the reviews but want to know our top suggestions, skip to the bottom
Name: Weight Watchers
Overview: The Weight Watchers online diet plan is brought to you from the same company that runs the popular Weight Watchers plans and local meetings. They are a veteran in the weight loss industry, and promote life long healthy habits and slow and gradual weight loss, instead of pills or other quick weight loss solutions. The Weight Watchers plan is actually two different plans with different philosophies.
The plan you are probably most familiar with is the “flex plan”. The flex plan started as the points plan many years ago. Following a chart provided you count “points” for each of the food items you eat. You are allowed a certain number of points per day but you can allocate them however you want. This leads to a lot of flexibility with what you are allowed to eat. For people who crave a wide variety of foods or do a lot cooking this is a very good choice.
The second diet plan is the “core plan”. On the core plan you are given a list with a wide variety of foods. You can eat almost as much as you want of any of the foods on the list. If you are a large volume eater this plan will work especially well for you. However there will be some foods that are not on the list. So if you crave a lot of variety and diversity in your diet this is not the right plan for you.
Both Weight Watcher plans give you access to a wide variety of online tools. The tools allow you to search through a huge database of recipes, or use the recipe creator to construct your own unique menus. You also have access to tools to help you count, calculate and keep track of your points. A section with online exercise suggestion and videos you can watch directly on your computer. You get access to articles, information, and research to help you with tips for getting the most out of your diet and exercise, and helping you finding the motivation and inspiration to lead a healthier life. Lastly you can also participate in the online communities and forums.
The weight watchers plan is actually one of the most complete and highly recommended programs we looked at.
Price: $65 for three months, $16.95 per each additional month
$46.90 for one month, $16.95 per each addition month
Website: www.weightwatchers.com
Name: E-Diets
Overview: E-Diets provides not just one but many diets to chose from including their signature e-Diet series. Some diets that are offered are Suzanne Somers, Mayo Clinic, Bill Phillips diet, and more. They offer over 20 different diets to choose from. Unless you know which diet plan you want to follow the best choice is to go through the questionnaire answering honestly and let it make suggestions, you are however free to choose whatever plan you like.
The plan consists of weekly menu planning and suggestions. If the suggestions include something you don’t like you can go through the very extensive database and choose something else. A helpful feature with this is the shopping list generator. Once all of your meals are selected the list prints out a full list of ingredients for the week so you are prepared. A few of our reviewers thought this was feature alone was worth the price, never mind that they were eating healthier.
While they do encourage exercise it’s not part of the base plans, but is offered as an extra. Additionally for people for people who don’t want to cook they offer meal replacement program.
E-Diets have an amazing amount of information and research available on their site. In fact there’s so much it’s often difficult to find and keep track of. While it’s not as easy to use as some other online diet program websites it’s still very through and informative. They also have moderated online forums and communities where you can interact with other e-Diets members.
Any of the programs offered in the eDiets programs are an excellent choice.
Price: $15.96 per month
Website: www.ediets.com
Name: Fit Forever
Overview: This diet and weight loss program is offered by fitness expert Denise Austin. This program differs from most of the other programs as it is much more balanced program combining both exercise and dieting in one whole package. This program tailors itself to you with a standard questionnaire. There are a few more questions here that have to do with exercise being an integral part of the program.
When you sign up for this program there are lots of tips and helpful advice that you can read online or have sent to you via email (seems no one likes RSS). You also get exercise instructions. While we would have liked to see videos and not just pictures, there’s probably a conflict of interest that exists with her regular exercise videos that prevent this.
Like the other plans you get recipe suggestions with lots of variety. We weren’t able to find a way to get a shopping list printout we liked in some other plans, however there are a lot of food options here, especially “normal” foods like pizza, lasagna and chocolate, so the while not as extensive as some other programs it does off a lot of “safe” foods you are comfortable with.
At the time of writing this site was offering a discounted sale price of only $9 per month. So while it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles some other plans have it includes exercise and is significantly cheaper make this another one of our top choices
Price: $9 per month (sale) regularly ($18 per month)
Website: www.deniseaustin.com
Name: Zone Diet
Overview: The Zone Diet is the online version of the Zone Diet created by Dr. Barry Sears. It was fairly popular a number of years ago when it was used and endorsed by some high profile celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox.
The Zone diet is based around a balanced diet made up of 30% proteins, 40% carbohydrates, and 30% fats. Also recommended are certain supplements. Another key point of this diet plan is exercise is strongly advised as part of the weight loss program.
Like other online diets it comes with an online questionnaire to help you tailor the diet specifically to you. It also comes with an online meal suggestion list and a large recipe database. While not as large as some the other services it is still fairly extensive.
There is a large amount of information offered on this site however it does seem small in comparison to many of the other diet programs. Additionally there aren’t as many tools available and the online communities are less active. However if you are looking a good solid diet, with lots of food variety and don’t want or need all the online bells and whistles this is still an excellent choice
Price: $16 per month (billed $52 per quarter)
Website: www.zonediet.com
Name: South Beach Diet
Overview: The South Beach Diet was another diet that was extremely popular but has been on the decline recently. It was developed by cardiologist Dr. Austin Agatston from South Beach Florida.
Like most only diets this also comes with an online questionnaire that helps target the diet and foods specifically to you. There are a lot of different recipe options to choose from, and some online tools however they aren’t as extensive and user friendly as some of the other sites we reviewed. That’s not to say it isn’t good it’s just harder to find and use.
Our biggest complaint with this program was the cost, while only slightly more expensive than other diets the cost difference could clearly add up over a 1 year period. Additionally many of the less expensive programs had more tools, information, recipes and was easier to use. While the diet was good the offering just didn’t compare.
Price: $20 per month (billed $65 per quarter)
Website: www.southbeachdiet.com
Name: Readers Digest Change One Diet
Overview: The Readers Digest Change One Diet comes from the publishers of the Readers Digest Magazine. While they do try and leverage the Readers Digest name, the diet is actually based on very sound and supported research done by respected scientists and nutritionists.
The diet comes with a standard questionnaire that gives you some individual tailoring. The recipes offered are fairly diverse and there is a lot of online material similar to the offerings on other websites. What this program offers that others don’t is structured plan aimed at building a healthy lifestyle.
This is a multi-week that slowly helps you phase out your bad behavior and start replacing it with good behavior. While most of the other diet programs offer similar suggestions it really is given a lot of focus in this plan. In our opinion this makes this plan much more suited for people who have a hard time committing to a weight loss program and sticking to it. They help you realize and understand the things that are leading to your unhealthy lifestyle adjust them and start down a healthier path.
The pricing for this diet varies considerably. For people who are wiling to make a full year long commitment the cost is $99 billed at the beginning of the year, much lower than other plans. If you want a three month plan the cost is $45 every three months, which is inline with the other diet programs.
Price: varies
Website: www.changeone.com
Name: Biggest Loser Club
Overview: The Biggest Loser Club comes from the popular TV show The Biggest Loser. While this plan is big on splash and hype it’s not as big on substance. It has the standard customization and personalization questions that come with most plans. However compared to other diet plans it has far less recipes, information and online tools available to it. In addition it’s also one of the most expensive plans we looked at. Nothing on the plan was bad but nothing stood out as exceptionally good either. So you’re not getting the best value for your money with this plan.
Price: $20 per month
Website: www.biggestloserclub.com
After looking at a wide variety of online diets we came to the conclusion there are a lot of similarities between them. Most of them offer some customization and individualization that is offered through questionnaires when you sign up, so honesty up front is important. Most of them do allow you to go back and correct things. Many of the plans offered some outstanding online tools, articles and information and pricing was reasonably similar for most plans.
Our top recommendation is from Weight Watchers, while slightly more expensive they you got more tools, recipes, information, options, and food choices. Visit WeightWatchers.com
If you are planning on including exercise as an integral part of your weight loss plan we suggest the Fit Forever Plan from Denise Austin. While not a well rounded as Weight Watchers it is an all inclusive holistic approach. If are able to get in with the sale price it’s an even better choice. Visit DeniseAustin.com
If exercise won’t be taking as prominent a role any of the diets offered on EDiets are good choice. The amazing amount of customization, online recipe building, shopping list generator, other tools and information puts this program in a league of its own. Visit EDiets.com
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