The Curves Diet

The Curves Diet Review

The book, “The Curves Diet Plan” by Gary Heavin, a 30 year health and nutrition councilor, was published in April of 2003. This hardcover 352 page book was criticized since appearance, as many others, that it doesn’t deliver any new massages, just some old proven ideas creatively presented in a new form.

To be honest, if you are familiar with other diet plans too, you may find it quite similar to Atkins’ diet, beside the low fat twist and intensive aerobic and resistance training during 90 minutes per week. 

The theory behind the diet

The theory behind the diet is changing the human body metabolic settings. It means that obese people have lower hungry setup and sooner than others become hungry to aggressively store a fat. The habit modification and weight loss can be achieved simply by diet, intake times managing and intensive exercise. 

Who the Curves diet is aimed?

The Diet is hugely popular and is aimed mostly for women to lose 25 pounds or less “to get fit and lose fat”. 

The diet plan

The Curves Diet Plan has 2 different plans and the dieter has to complete a quiz to find out what are obesity triggers: carbohydrates, calories or both.

The dieter has to choose which one fit him/her weight loss goals best:

·      Calorie sensitive – carbs are limited to 60gr per day with 1200 calorie intake daily and increased to 1600 calories after 2 weeks

·       Carbohydrate sensitive – carbs are limited to 20gr per day for 2 weeks and increasing to 60gr per day after that until weight loss goal is achieved.

The carbs in both of the plans are strictly limited, although the carb-sensitive plan is a more restrictive one. The dieter is allowed to consume low-fat, high-protein food.

The Curves Diet plan is divided to 3 phases:

·         Start phase – lasts 2 weeks

·         Dieting phase – lasts until dieter reaches the weight loss goal

·         Maintaining phase 

Guidelines of the diet

During the whole diet plan the dieter is going to have 6 low calorie meals per day and careful tracking of his weight loss during the diet regimen. Smaller portions, healthier food, recommended vitamin and mineral supplements, no “junk” food or alcohol and exercises on regular basis provide better weight control to the dieter.

After the weight loss goal is achieved the calorie intake in all of the 6 meals is increased to 2500-3000 calories to support the body in intensive exercise and weight loss. 

Food in the diet

In the book you can find various and tasty recipes too. Recipes became more appealing with free food concept which doesn’t include some of the vegetables as mushrooms, onions, spinach and few others, in calorie intake. Recipes can be slightly modified, in diet regimen limitations, and still keep the great test.

The basic principle of the diet is a 30-minute intensive workout 3 times a week which is aimed to build large muscle mass to get more calories burned. Workout is made on 8-12 hydraulic weight machines. On each machine the dieter spends 30 seconds to work on abs, legs, chest and arms. During the 30 minute of workout the dieters are running or jogging from machine to machine to keep up heart rate. 

What is the expected weight loss rate in the diet?

During The Curves Diet regimen the dieter is expected to lose 6 to 10 pounds of his excessive weight to gain muscles during the first two weeks and losing of 1 to 2 pounds per week on the second phase. 

What are Pro's and Con's of the diet?

However, no matter which plan the dieter follows, the dieter has to stick to sensible approach to fat. That means that the dieter has to stay away from pasta, bread, wholegrains, some vegetables and fruits too.

 
As both of the plans are based on low calorie menu they are quite effective in achieving weight loss goals.

However, similar results might be achieved by following another calorie-control diet plans too and the dieter has to choose the plan which better fits his or hers’ needs.

Read more about The Curves diet ...

http://www.amazon.com/Curves-Gary-Heavin/dp/0399150617

http://diets.aol.com/a-z/curves_diet_main

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/reviews/curves_plan.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_5_23/ai_111518921

http://www.curves.com/weight_loss/resources.php