The Ornish Diet

What it is: Eat More, Weigh Less, the diet book from Dean Ornish, MD, focuses dieters on eating a high-fiber, low-fat vegetarian diet. He claims this approach will not only help you stay healthy, but will help you lose weight.

How it works: Following this plan, dieters will be consuming less than 10% of their calories from fat. Ornish argues that eating all you want when you are hungry will keep your metabolism stable, or even increase it. The high-fiber content of the diet helps keep you full longer, preventing you from overeating or binging.

What you do: Ornish breaks the diet down into foods that should be eaten all of the time, some of the time and none of the time. Dieters are permitted to eat as many fruits, vegetables, grains and beans as they want when they are hungry. Foods recommended in moderation include non-fat dairy products and low-fat products (like some frozen dinners). Ornish recommends that dieters avoid meat, oils, avocados, nuts and seeds, sugar and alcohol. Dieters are advised to eat many small meals to keep you feeling full. Ornish requires dieters to exercise thirty minutes per day and use relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation.

Benefits: Experts praise The Ornish Diet for helping people maintain a healthy lifestyle and using a scientifically-viable approach to weight loss.

The Down Side: The plan requires some dieters to learn completely new eating habits, which may prove difficult to adjust to or hard to maintain over a long period of time.