If you have a BMI of 30 or above, you should now be worried about your health. Being overweight or obese can result in many serious health conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer. But you can avoid these by starting a healthier lifestyle and adopting a sensible weight loss program. Another easy solution is to follow a popular weight loss diet. Many health care practitioners recommend dieting as an effective method of losing weight. Some of the popular diet programs include Atkins, Dukan, Paleo, Zone, Vegan, Vegetarian, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Raw Food, and Mediterranean diet. Some of these are high-protein diet while some are more focused on low-fat diet. But before you choose one from these diet programs, you have to ensure that your top pick is safe and will suit your needs and current health condition. If not, your weight loss goal will not be achieved or you will gain the lost weight after discontinuing or completing the program. Or worst, you suffer from the complications and side effects of the diet program.

Just recently, researchers have found out that some popular diets can’t provide long-term benefits to an overweight or obese individual. While they can reduce an individual’s weight up to a certain level, the benefit is usually short-lived.

Issues About High-Protein Diets

Some health experts are not convinced about the long-term benefits of high protein diet as a tool for weight loss. Even before the publication of this recent research work, there are already a lot of health experts warning people about the possible consequences of following this type of diet program for extended period.

Here are some of them:

• An obese individual may suffer from nutritional deficiencies or lack of fiber intake because most high-protein diets restrict carbohydrate intake. As a result, the individual may experience headache, constipation, and even bad breath.

• A typical high-protein diet includes red meat and full fat dairy products.

• Poor food choices may also contribute to other undesirable side effects such as heart disease and cancer. But you can always counter or prevent them by choosing better protein food alternatives such as beans, fish, skinless poultry, lean beef, soy protein, and low-fat dairy products. Remove processed meats from your menu.

Effectiveness of High-Protein Diet

It is a common knowledge that people who follow a high-protein diet lose their weight. The increased amount of protein and lower carbohydrates intake seem to be a perfect combination. However, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggest that an increase in the protein intake doesn’t translate to significant weight loss compared to those who were given moderate amount of protein in their diet. They found out that women who ate more protein only lost 1 more pound. Bettina Mittendorfer, the lead researcher, said that the insulin sensitivity of women who are in a high-protein diet didn’t show any dramatic improvement. After the 8-week study, the participants, both those in the high-protein and moderate-protein diet, have lost 10% of their body weight.

Another study that you should also consider is the effect of the diet to your cardiovascular system. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed that high-protein diet can contribute to the worsening of inflammation and LDL-cholesterol. However, a low-fat, whole food, or plant-based diet offers significant improvement in an individual’s cardio health.

Try Other Alternatives

If you are concerned about the possible undesirable side effects of some popular weight loss diets, then you should look for other safer alternatives or ask the help of your doctor. Again, not all weight loss diets can offer you outstanding results. Choose one that is proven effective. You may also try taking appetite suppressant pills to avoid overeating. Appetite suppressant is a perfect addition to your weight loss program. One of the highly recommended brands of appetite suppressant is Qsymia, a combination of Phentermine and Topiramate. However, this combo-drug should only be taken with doctor supervision because of its potency. You may also try the generic form.