There are so many diet plans available today that it could make your head spin trying to figure out which are the best diet plans to follow. Diet plans that promise quick weight loss or require you to avoid certain foods should be avoided like the plague.

When evaluating and choosing the best diet plans, look for those plans that include these four elements:

1. Avoiding food cravings
2. Avoiding hunger
3. Increased activity level
4. A plan you can live with for a lifetime – not just a few weeks

Avoid Food Cravings
Any diet plan that requires you to avoid certain foods will ultimately lead to food cravings and will be unsustainable in the long run. A craving is when you desire a certain food even when you’re not hungry. When you finally cave into this desire you will likely overeat, and consequently pack on more weight.

Cravings are caused by your body’s needs for the six essential food ingredients: carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. When a diet plan requires you to strictly avoid one of these ingredients, your cravings will only increase because you’re denying your body something it wants. The best diet plans will not only give you the flexibility to include all six ingredients in your diet, they’ll require it.

Avoid Hunger
Hunger is different than cravings in that your body desires not just one of the six ingredients, but all of them at the same time. In other words, it just wants food – any food! If a diet plan causes you to be hungry all the time, you will inevitably overeat. To avoid this, the best diet plans will help you curb your appetite.

The best way to curb your appetite and avoid hunger is to keep your stomach full. The best diet plans will encourage you to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day instead of 3 larger meals. Those meals should consist of fruits and vegetables, which have fiber, along with foods with protein and good fats. Each meal should be well-balanced and include as many of the six ingredients as possible.

Protein and fats are especially effective in suppressing appetite. The best diet plans will not require you to avoid fats. All fats are not the same. There are good and bad fats, and it’s the good fats that your body needs. The good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Keep your intake of saturated fats to a minimum.

Increase Activity Level
You need to exercise to lose weight. When you exercise, you increase your metabolic rate, which is the rate at which you burn calories. You cannot achieve long term weight loss success without exercise. Any diet plan that claims you can lose weight simply by changing your diet alone or popping a weight loss pill should be avoided at all costs. The best diet plans will stress the importance of diet AND exercise. You need them both for sustained, long term weight loss.

A Plan You Can Live With For a Lifetime
This is probably the most overlooked element by dieters as they look for the best diet plans, yet it is one of the most important elements. If you cannot live with a diet for life, you simply will not be able to keep the weight off over the long term. It’s that simple. Talk to any elderly person who has managed to stay fit all their life and ask them what kind of diet they’ve had over their lifetime. You can bet they will not say Atkins, Negative-Calorie, or some other short-term fad diet.

The best diet plans will encourage a balanced diet that includes all the six ingredients. You’ve heard of the phrase, “all things in moderation,” and it especially holds true when it comes to a life-long diet. Those fad diets will work in the short term, but if your goal is to keep the weight off for good, then avoid them all together.

Diet plans are essential for leading a fit and healthy life. There are various diet plans that you can select, based on your requirements.

Some diet plans created are restrictive of carbohydrates and proteins. Others provide alternative food like cookie or the soup recipes. Still, others are integrated with stages or phases. But there’s one which makes them united, most of them include fruits and vegetables.

? 3-Hour Diet
Description: Eat everything with perfect timing which was conceptualized by Jorge Cruise. It requires eating breakfast within 60 minutes upon getting up in the morning. Second is eating in 3 hour intervals or between meals. No more food is allowed 3 hours before going to bed at night.

What To Eat: 3 meals, 2 snacks, and a treat (carbohydrates, protein and fats) and small portion of sweets

Advantage: Flexibility of meal types and fits any food budget

Downside: It is not possible for very busy people

? Atkins diet
Description: It is a meat based diet with no fruit or starchy vegetables conceptualized by Dr. Robert Atkins. No carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables and this results in using the reserve fats as source of energy

What To Eat: meat but no carbohydrates

Advantage: Effective for fast or crash diet

Downside: It is unhealthy since it doesn’t practice good nutrition. In addition to that is the tendency for people to gain so much weight when diet stops. It increases risk of cancer.

? The Cabbage Soup Diet
Description: It is a 7 day diet plan which includes cabbage soup recipe and other meals. Proper distribution of food groups within the 7 day period. It includes the special menu of cabbage soup. It also recommends taking in multivitamins to fight stress. It focuses on the lose water diet scheme.

What to Eat: cabbage soup menu, skim milk, brown rice, unsweetened drinks, fruits

Advantage: It is effective for fast dieting. There is no possibility of serious heart problems. It includes a very simple recipe.

Downside: Weight gain when one stops the cabbage soup diet.

? Cookie diet
Description: It requires eating cookies the entire day to replace the breakfast and lunch meals. Dinner should be healthy and sensible. Using cookies in a low calorie diet tends to make someone feel full. Cookie is made of amino acids and fiber.

What to eat: four to six cookies throughout the day and a healthy dinner

Advantage: It is effective for those who skip meals and have no time. It does not need preparation.

Downside: It is not easy to make it as a lifestyle diet scheme so it’s short term. There are limited flavors for the cookies available.

? Eat to Live Diet
Description: It requires eating low calorie nutritious meals conceptualized by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Primarily, focus on vegetables and fruits with less salt and sugar.

What to eat: nuts, vegetables, fruits and no snacking

Advantage: It aims to lose weight yet remain healthy. It is not a tasteless diet. It is lifestyle changing and good to lower cholesterol.

Downside: It is lifestyle changing so it would require avoiding the usual snacking and eating out practices.

? The Raw Food Diet
Description: It requires eating a low calorie nutritious diet which includes raw food. It is also known as the living diet. Raw food is one of the best diet foods. It encompasses the living food philosophy.

What to Eat: salad, cake, soup, vegetables, fruits with recipes

Advantage: It is a low calorie diet but healthy and nutritious. Some recipes do not require 100% raw food.

Downside: Reality is that some vegetables can’t be eaten raw. It entails planning and preparation.

? The Sonoma Diet
Description: It includes ten power foods flavored in 3 waves conceptualized by Connie Guttersen. Food preparation of the ten power flavored foods based on Mediterranean diet with portion control

What to Eat: whole grains, almonds, bell peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, grapes, spinach, blueberries, strawberries, and olive oil.

Advantage: There is wide variety of food prepared with flavor and easy to maintain. Recipes are prepared to be shared with all family members.

Downside: It requires spending time for cooking.

? The South Beach Diet
Description: The diet plans is restricted to low carbohydrates plus fruits and vegetables. It has 3 phases: restrictive, targeted and maintenance. It was created by Arthur Agatston.

What to Eat: lean meats, low fat vegetables and cheeses, low carbohydrates, fruits

Advantage: One eats three meals a day with snacks. It’s easy to prepare food which includes frozen entrees.

Downside: Probably it is not as healthy as the Sonoma diet.

? The Vegetarian Diet
Description: The diet plan involves a low calorie high in nutrients recipes. It must have a plan based on one’s size from the Zone Food Blocks. It is a calorie restrictive diet.

What to Eat: sweet potato, brown rice, fruits and vegetables

Advantage: It is a healthy and balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates and fat.

Downside: It needs menu planning to check on alternatives for meat.

? The Zone Diet
Description: It is a diet plan of eating 40% carbohydrates, 30% fat, and 30% protein. It allows one to enjoy 3 meals and two snacks each day. It is one of the most famous diets in Hollywood. It was created by Barry Sears.

What to Eat: lean meats, vegetables, whole grain

Advantage: It includes all types of foods.

Downside: It can be expensive for those who will avail of food delivery. It can be complicated to follow on the ratio pattern of food intake