By SHELLEY HOWELLS
If you're going to ignore the fact that going on a reduction diet is unlikely to help you lose weight in the long run (see main story), and are determined to go on a diet, the web is bulging with weight loss sites.
Many of them are a
load of old cobblers but, happily, there are sites to help you sort out reasonably healthy regimes from the nutso fads, some of which are downright perilous, apart from revolting.
About.com takes a look at various popular and fad diets doing the rounds, including looking at the advantages and disadvantages of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets, the so-called Mayo Clinic diet and the American Heart Association diet (neither have anything to do with those organisations).
This informative site is sponsored by Weight Watchers.
The best site review page I came across is put together by Tufts University and underwritten by a Kraft Foods grant.
Its nutrition navigator ranks diet and nutrition websites according to criteria such as the accuracy of the nutritional information and how often the page is updated. Judges are a panel of US and Canadian nutrition experts.
The US National Institute of Health has useful information to help teach potential dieters how to spot a safe and successful weight-loss programme and so does the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The Healthy Weight Network lists the top 10 reasons not to diet and looks out for ripoffs, dishing out annual Slim Chance awards for the worst US diet frauds of the year.
Locally, the consumer health information resource Every Body has good information about healthy weight loss and a list of links to local support groups such as the Heart Foundation, Eating Disorders Association and Weight Watchers.
On that subject, it is now possible to be part of Weight Watchers without attending meetings. Their "At Home" programme allows members to get all the information and follow the diet, at a cost of $195 for eight weeks.
Members write, fax or e-mail their weekly weight and staff reply, answer questions and inspire you to keep going.
The many US sites include Start Your Diet, Cyber Diet and e-diets which, for a fee, provide a variety of details such as menu planners, goal-setting tools, chat rooms, interactive calendars and online food and exercise journals, animated fitness instructors and varying degrees of online human support.
Such sites have had some good press: A Brown University study suggests that dieters using internet-based support groups with personalised advice tend to lose more weight than those who use the net simply for nutritional information.
The Diet Channel, a high-scorer on the Tufts review, has a free 8-week online dieting course which teaches about nutrition, has diet strategies, interactive quizzes and all sorts of online information. But it does recommend buying the book Dieting for Dummies, from which chapters are assigned each week.
And, if all that clicking doesn't burn off enough calories, look to the future of dieting technology: in Switzerland, according to a Wired news report, they are using GPS (global positioning systems) to keep track of people to see just how many calories they are burning at any given time.
Big Brother is watching your thighs.
Links
Fad diets
Nutrition Navigator
US National Institute of Health
US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
Healthy Weight Network
Every Body
Weight Watchers At Home
Start Your Diet
Cyber Diet
E-diets
Brown University Study
The Diet Channel
Wired
Web dishes up rich pickings for dieters
By SHELLEY HOWELLS
If you're going to ignore the fact that going on a reduction diet is unlikely to help you lose weight in the long run (see main story), and are determined to go on a diet, the web is bulging with weight loss sites.
Many of them are a
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