Don't know what diet to choose (I'm on a budget)

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

The program is split into two stages to help you lose weight. The first stage is called "Lose It!" and is constructed to help you lose six to ten pounds in the first two weeks. You will still be able to eat the food you love, but you will have to reduce your calorie intake.

The second stage of the program is called "Live It!" and will enable you to continue with your weight loss of one to two pounds per week. The Mayo Clinic Diet is considered to be efficient in providing lasting results and enabling you to lose your weight in a healthy way.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit Mayo Clinic.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

It is a well-known fact that people in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, live longer and suffer less from cancer and cardiovascular ailments compared to Americans. Mediterraneans  have more active lifestyle while their diet favors healthy fats you can get from olive oil or various nuts. They also eat fish more often and don't eat as much red meat.

Together with the Harvard School of Public Health, Oldways, a nonprofit organization in Boston, developed a Mediterranean diet pyramid that highlights the importance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil as well as eating fish and seafood at least a couple of times a week. Poultry, eggs, and various dairy products should be enjoyed, but in moderation. Sugary food and red meat are not off-limits, but they should be consumed every now and then, and not on a daily basis.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

Check this Mediterranean diet cookbook for recipes. For more information visit Mediterranean diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

If you start the DASH diet, your menu will be loaded with fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products. It will also include whole grain food, lean meat, and fish; nuts and beans. DASH diet is rich in fiber and enables you low to moderate intake of fat. It follows US dietary guidelines for sodium intake and contains sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals. The DASH diet lowers blood pressure and cholesterol and makes it easy to lose weight in the long run. 

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit the DASH diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

Flexitarian is derived from two words: Flexible and vegetarian. The term was invented in the early 90's but it became popular only 5-6 years ago. The most prominent advocate of flexitarian diet is Dawn Jackson Blatner wrote The Flexitarian diet book. She claims you don't have to get rid of meat completely to gain health benefits linked to vegetarianism – you can be a vegetarian most of the time, but still eat meat every now and then when you have cravings.

There are three degrees of flexitarian diet you can adopt:

• A beginner who eats meat five days per week.
• An advanced flexitarian who eats meat three to four days per week
• An expert flexitarian who eats meat only two days per week

After you establish what kind of a flexitarian are you, you then follow a diet plan suited for your degree of flexitarianism.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit the Flexitarian diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

The Engine 2 diet is a plant-based diet developed by firefighter Rip Esselstyn. Rip invented the program when he realized that several of his colleagues had very high cholesterol. Rip's main goal was to provide supreme results in a short amount of time. After 28 days, everyone in the firehouse experienced weight loss and striking decrease of cholesterol level. The program consists of a 28-day meal plan that incorporates vegetables, whole grain products, seeds, and nuts.

The book includes 125 recipes to aid you in making diversified meals. It has been verified that the Engine 2 diet reduces cholesterol in your blood along with your weight. 

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

You can order the book here. For more information visit the Engine2 diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

LEARN is not just a diet. It's about changing your lifestyle and attitude toward nutrition. LEARN is an abbreviation that stands for Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships, and Nutrition. Understanding and living by those five concepts is fundamental for your weight loss and health improvement.

This weight loss program is designed for you to learn how to eat healthier and lose weight in an efficient manner. It features 16 weekly lessons that cover the five axioms of the LEARN program. When you master those lessons, you move to eight monthly lessons for further improvement of your lifestyle. You can do the program on your own by following the LEARN  manual and guidebook.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

Losing weight is not just about counting calories and restrictions. If you make healthy and nutritive choices, you could eat plenty and still lose weight. This is where Weight Watchers come in handy with their SmartPoints system. No food is off the table, but every food is given points. The healthier the food, the fewer the points. You decide whether you want to spend lots of points on a small amount of junk food, or a few points on an abundance of vegetables. Of course, members are encouraged to spend their points on healthy and nutritionally balanced meals. If you stick to your SmartPoints limit every day, you will lose weight.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences.

For more about Weight Watchers diet visit weightwatchers.com.

Before you start this diet, consult your doctor.

Proponents of the Volumetric diet consider the denseness of certain food while planning a meal. Some foods are less dense than the other which means your calorie intake is lower than when eating denser foods. Low-density foods, that are low in calorie but high in volume, help you feel full and satisfied while dropping pounds. Optimal types of food are fruits and vegetables since they’ll fill you up without you going over your daily calorie limit.

Volumetric diet was established by nutritionist Barbara Rolls who says that this program is more of an approach to eating than it is a structured diet. With Ultimate Volumetrics diet book as your guide, you will be taught how to interpret food’s energy density and master the way of eating fewer calories while still feeling full and satisfied. Though the book encloses numerous recipes and examples of meal plans, its biggest value is that it teaches you Volumetric reasoning and how to use it in everyday life.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit the Volumetrics diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor.

The diet focuses on strength, muscle building through training, aerobic exercise and dietary balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat. It is formed in a manner that ensures the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy body and encourages the construction of muscles that help in speeding up the removal of excess fat from the body. While doing this diet, you should eat six meals per day, drink water at regular intervals and focus on proper and balanced nutrition.

Your meals should contain:

• whole grains
• oatmeal
• olive oil
• green vegetables
• lean meat (if you're vegetarian you can substitute meat with soy, tofu etc.)
• low fat dairy products
• eggs
• legumes
• various nuts

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences.

For more information visit the Abs Diet or order the Abs Diet book.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor. Even though this diet has many health benefits (you avoid all processed food), many experts consider it unsafe and nutritionally deficient because it excludes entire food groups (legumes, grains, dairy products), making it hard for dieters to get all the nutrients they need.

The Paleolithic Diet consists only from food that was consumed by our ancestors living in Paleolithic era over 10,000 years ago. The Paleo Diet advocates claim that our bodies are designed to survive and flourish on the diet that was available to our early Paleolithic predecessors. The backbone of Paleolithic Diet are meat, fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and basically anything that was available in the Paleolithic era. Foods that were not available in the Paleolithic era, and therefore are not allowed, are  grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils. Followers of this diet believe that modern day food is to blame for the obesity epidemic, as well as the increase in weight-related health conditions.

For more information buy the Paleo diet book or visit thepaleodiet.com.

Before you start this diet, consult your doctor. Even though successful on a short run, it is highly controversial. Many health experts claim it has a multitude of negative effects on your health, especially if you follow it for longer than a couple of months. For a more nutritionally balanced and healthier diet, you can try the Atkins 40 diet which is similar to classic Atkins but with more food variety and fewer restrictions.

The Atkins diet has four phases:

1. The first phase lasts for two weeks in which you should avoid carbohydrates and all foods containing them (even in small quantities).We also should avoid fruits and leafy vegetables and a person on a diet should use a variety of supplements to compensate for the vitamins and minerals.
2. The second phase is slowly introducing carbohydrates when you are allowed to consume 15-40 g of carbohydrate per day, depending on the body weight of the patient.
3. The third phase allows consumption of large amounts of carbohydrates that are regulated so they don't affect your weight.
4. The fourth phase lasts for the rest of your life. A certain amount of carbohydrates you can consume is defined and you should stick to it if you want to maintain your desired weight.

For more information visit the Atkins diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor. With this diet, certain vitamins and minerals could be deficient if meals aren't planned carefully and there is a danger of getting food poisoning from contaminated undercooked or raw food.

There are many versions of the raw food diet and it is up to you to decide which one to follow. No matter what version you choose, 70-80% of your daily food intake will fruit and vegetable heated to a maximum of 115 degrees Fahrenheit(46 degrees Celsius). Only handful of people follow a 100% raw diet. Most raw food fans are vegans, but some of them choose to eat raw animal products, such as raw (unpasteurized) milk, cheese made from raw milk, and certain kinds of raw fish and meat. You’ll consume various fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds and nuts.

All pasteurized dairy products, processed foods, refined sugars and flours are off limit. Table salt and coffeine as well. No more pasta, any kind of baked goods, junk food and most store-bought juices.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol and heart condition  will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit the best of raw food diet.

Before you start this diet, consult with your doctor. Even though Dukan diet can help you lose weight, many experts consider it unhealthy, not effective in the long run and nutritionally deficient.

Dukan diet is created by Dr. Pierre Dukan and it is comprised of four phases that cycle the types of protein and carbs you consume. The reason for this cycling is to reach into fat reserves for energy and trick the metabolism to effectively burn excess fat.

The four cycles are:

• Attack Phase: You are allowed to eat lean meat, fat-free dairy products, and fish. You are advised to drink an abundance of water. This phase is designed to be followed no more than 10 days.

• Cruise Phase: This phase is all about alternating days when you eat only protein, and days when you eat protein and non-starchy vegetables. Using any kind of fat for preparing meals is strictly forbidden. Drinking lots of water is still required. You should follow this phase for a long as it needs you to reach your desired weight.

• Consolidation Phase: Protein from lean meat is still your main calorie source. But in this phase, you can also eat one portion of fruit, two slices of whole wheat bread, and a piece of cheese (1.5 ounces).Twice per week you can add a small portion of starchy carbs like potato or rice. You can also have two days in a week when you can eat a cheat meal that includes dessert. But then the following day you can only eat protein. For every pound you lost, you should add 7 days to the duration of the consolidation phase.

• Stabilization: You can start eating normally, but one day per week should be a protein-only day.

For more information buy the Dukan diet book or visit dukandiet.com.

Before you start with this diet, consult your doctor.

The diet is designed to be followed in three phases. But, if you have no more than 10 pounds of excess weight, you can start with phase 2. Each phase becomes gradually less restrictive. The focus is on removing bad carbs and fats from your diet and instead start consuming good carbs and fats. Your typical days will consist of three meals, two healthy snacks, and a dessert with a high percentage of protein.

• Phase 1: You have to endure for two weeks without starchy food like bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. Fruits, milk, yogurt, honey and baked goods are also off the table. Sugar is strictly forbidden. Emphasis is on lean meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, and non-starchy vegetables.

• Phase 2: You gradually reinstate fruits, pasta, and bread(whole grain only). You'll pick only one type of carb and combine it with one meal each day for one week. You are advised to wait a couple of days and if there are no noteworthy effects, implement one more healthy carbohydrate. Continue this until you're able to successfully have two or three healthy carbohydrates each day. Phase two will last until you reach your desired weight.

• Phase 3: In this phase you maintain your desired weight that you reached in phase 2. Phase 3 is designed to last for life. No food is forbidden. Instructions recommend eating 3 pieces of fruit daily, 3 to 4 servings of starchy vegetables, and no more than 2 tablespoons of healthy fats, such as olive oil.

For more information visit southbeachdiet.com

Ornish diet was invented by Dr. Dean Ornish, a well-known cardiologist. Originally, Ornish diet was developed  to prevent heart diseases and to help people who already suffer from heart diseases. Except making your heart healthier, this diet will also lower your cholesterol and make you lose weight. 

Ornish diet severely limits animal fat and cholesterol and focuses on getting nutrients from whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes. Only low-fat dairy products are allowed and alcohol and simple carbs are strictly forbidden. Dr. Ornish proposes that your diet contains 10% fat, 20% protein and 70% carbs. It is almost completely a vegetarian diet.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit Ornish diet or you can order Ornish diet book.

TLC stands for Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes and it's a program created primarily to lower your cholesterol, but it can also help you lose weight. If you want to follow this diet, you will have to seriously trim your consumption of saturated fat.

Your daily intake of saturated fat should not be higher than 7% of your daily calorie intake which means you will have to get rid of high-fat dairy products and processed meat as well as pork and other fatty meat. You are allowed only skinless chicken and turkey or fish. Your daily cholesterol intake is limited to 200 mg which means you will have to do some counting to figuring out how much cholesterol a certain food has.

Vegetarians and vegans can easily adjust this diet to their preferences. People with high cholesterol, heart condition or diabetes will benefit from this diet.

For more information visit TLC diet.