Many of the weight loss diets that are popular today can be quite complicated to follow and awkward to apply to everyday living. Take the GI diet for instance where you apply different values to foods, based on their glycaemic index number Then you add up the number of these that you are allowed to eat in any one day. This can be extremely difficult when going out, unless you would like to go and ask the chef what is in your meal. And with the Atkins diet you can forget about going for a pizza with your friends.
For many dieters these diets are cumbersome to use in everyday living and can lead to many just giving up and returning to their normal eating habits. The Traffic Light Diet has found a very good way to simplify this. They have devised a straightforward weight loss system that is easy to follow and can be used in most social situations, such as when dining out.
The diet is based on (perhaps unsurprisingly), a traffic light weight loss system for different foods. There is an extensive list that will tell you what the color is for each different food or food group. Although this in itself may at first appear cumbersome and slow, you can pick up the general gist of it very quickly. It doesn't take long to get a good idea, even if you haven’t got the book with you, of what food is in which category.
The idea is that each food is given a color according both to its calorific value and its nutritional value. These are then combined to give you a quick and easy reference to show you which foods to eat more of and which to eat less of. If you follow the instructions carefully then the author believes that the diet will both help you to have a nutritionally sound diet, as well as one that promotes weight loss.
Foods are given a red light include those that are high in calories and fat and also those that are not of any great value nutritive value to the dieter. Foods that are amber are more neutral and can be eaten with a little care and moderation. This can involve such foods as cheese, milk, nuts and lean meats. The green light foods are those that are more helpful for weight loss and can include such foods as low fat milk, vegetables, fruit and white fish.
The idea is really one of moderation. You eat as much of the green foods that are thought to be helpful, less of the amber foods that, although not being as beneficial to weight loss, still have a place in a well balanced diet. But not too much of the red foods that are thought to be less beneficial and are generally higher in calories and lower in nutritional value.
When you are familiar with which food fits into which group then you will find that the traffic light weight loss diet is very easy to use and much less complicated than many others. The Traffic Light diet can be an easy way to achieve weight loss for those that are really not interested in the latest fad diet, or in counting calories and keeping track of everything that they eat all day.
It is not an extreme diet but more a way of promoting gentle weight loss that you may be more likely to maintain through sensible eating and learning what foods are good for you and what foods are more likely to make you put on weight.