By Amy Tarr

Whether you work [1] in the culinary arts industry or just consider yourself a serious foodie, your obsession with food goes hand in hand with dieting. It's a yin-yang sort of relationship. Five nights a week you're treating your guests or your family to sumptuous multi-course meals. Desperate to find a pair of pants that button with ease, you spend the next two days subsisting on carrots and celery sticks with a carefully measured ration of fat-free dressing. You know you've got to keep your weight under control, but do you really need to be on a diet? After all, food is your passion [2]. How can you bear to sacrifice the full flavors and textures of the food you eat when you serve the rich and satisfying stuff to everyone else?Why should you bother dieting? Studies have shown that in time, most people who diet in order to lose weight wind up gaining back all of the weight and more. These people are susceptible to weight cycling, i.e. a pattern of loss and regain of body weight [1]. A weight cycle can range from small weight losses and gains (5-10 lbs. per cycle) to large changes in weight (50 lbs. or more per cycle).

So you've decided you should skip dieting altogether and move on to the cheese course, right? Not so fast. Despite experts' opinions on the topic, there is currently no convincing evidence to support the claims that weight cycling is harmful to your long-term health [3]. And the known health [3] risks associated with obesity are numerous, including diabetes [4], heart [5] disease and hypertension [6]. Maybe it's time to give dieting more than a passing consideration.

Figuring out which diet to follow can be harder than actually shedding the pounds. The Zone Diet, The South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers and the Fat Flush Plan are all diets that have gained massive popularity and attention in the United States. Which, if any, is right for you (i.e., someone who lives to eat)? Here's a bit of background on them:

• The Zone Diet was created by Barry Sears, Ph. D., a biotechnologist who developed drug delivery systems for patients with cancer [7] and heart [5] disease. The Zone is defined as a metabolic state of optimal health [3] when the mind and body function at peak efficiency. Reaching this state requires a balanced food intake such that every snack and meal has the proper ratio of protein (30 percent), carbohydrates (40 percent) and fat (30 percent). Dr. Sears claims that eating "in the Zone" leads to automatic body fat loss, not just weight loss.

   

• The South Beach Diet, founded by Miami-based cardiologist, Arthur Agatston, M.D., is a program that limits your intake of "bad" carbohydrates and "bad" fats. It includes an initial two-week restrictive phase that jumpstarts the weight loss process by avoiding foods with high glycemic indexes, i.e., foods that spike your blood-sugar level, like baked goods, pasta, starchy vegetables and alcohol. Dr. Agatston claims that you can lose 8 to 13 pounds during the first two weeks. He also claims that you lose belly fat first because you are better regulating your insulin production, which is responsible for storage of fat around your midsection.

   

• Weight Watchers, founded by Jean Nidetch in the early 1960s, offers a portion control program in which all foods (in specific amounts) are assigned points values and, depending on your weight, you are allowed a certain number of points per day. Weight Watchers asserts that a healthy rate of weight loss is up to 2 pounds per week, and that the more gradual the weight loss, the more likely you are to rid yourself of extra pounds for good.

   

• Fat Flush Plan, created by Ann Louise Gittleman, M.S., C.N.S., is a diet that detoxifies the liver and increases the metabolism through a combination of healthy fats, proteins and quality carbohydrates combined in a strict daily routine. The regimen, which has an initial two-week restrictive period, includes, among other things, high-lignan flaxseed oil, unsweetened cranberry juice with water, and herbal supplements like evening primrose oil, dandelion root and milk thistle. Gittleman won't say how many pounds you can expect to lose during the first phase, stressing fat loss over weight loss, but she does imply that dropping at least 5 pounds is common.

These four major weight-loss [8] programs (and most diets in general) yield some results because they force you to limit your food intake