Change One Diet Pros and Cons

May 14, 2010

Created by Reader’s Digest magazine, the Change One Diet is a lifestyle plan that advises individuals to make one change per week for 12 weeks. This gradual plan helps dieters adjust to each change slowly, making the diet feel less drastic compared to other diets. Changes will be made on a weekly basis, beginning with breakfast. Over the following weeks, dieters will change their lunch, dinner, eating out, and snacking habits. Below is a list of pros and cons regarding the Change One Diet.

Pro: No Eliminating Carbohydrates

The Change One Diet focuses on making healthier eating choices and stresses portion control. Unlike many other dieters on the market, the Change One Diet does not have a long list of banned foods, nor does it eliminate entire food groups. The Change One Diet advises dieters to slowly change their eating habits until all meals have been overhauled. These changes should lead to a lower calorie intake and therefore promote weight loss.

Pro: Small Changes Equal Lifelong Changes

The small, incremental changes of the Change One Diet will help dieters learn healthier eating habits. By thoroughly learning, focusing and implementing each eating habit independently, dieters are able to understand the reason behind each change. This will lead to lifelong changes and potentially lifelong weight loss.

Con: Costly Online Support

The Change One Diet has a detailed online website that provides dieters with meal plans, chat rooms and access to nutritionists. While this will be beneficial to most people, dieters will have to pay an initiation fee of $14.95 and a monthly fee of $11.65.

Pro: Does Not Feel Like a Diet

Due to the Change One Diet’s slow plan, dieters will only have to focus on one meal at a time. These gradually changes will not shock your system, making it feel less like a diet and more like making wise choices.

Con: Slow Results

For the same reasons that the Change One Diet is beneficial, the gradual changes advised on the Change One Diet means it will take time for dieters to experience results. This can be discouraging for some dieters. While the results take longer to witness, these results may be permanent compared to some fad diets which only provide short-term weight loss.

Pro: Exercise Program

The Change One Diet recommends a moderate amount of exercise. According to the Mayo Clinic, 30 to 60 minutes of exercise most days can help facilitate weight loss. By incorporating an exercise program, the Change One Diet includes both a healthy meal plan with a good exercise regiment.

In general, the Change One Diet supplies individuals with a sensible weight loss plan. This plan incorporates a low calorie and low fat meal plan in addition to stressing healthy eating habits along with a complete exercise regiment. While it may take three months to complete this diet, due to the slow and thorough nature of this diet, most individuals should experience long-term weight loss.