From Low-Calorie, to Low-Fat to Low-Carbs diets; if you've ever tried losing weight I'm sure you're all too familiar with at least one of these (or all three like me).

With a new fad diet coming out every other week and constant articles on how to get 'bikini ready' in 2 weeks; eating has become an overcomplicated mess that usually just ends with us stressed out, giving up and grabbing a jar of ice cream before starting all over with the next amazing diet that will get us to drop those extra pounds... and hence, the vicious cycle begins.

You've heard it before : "I'm on a diet so I skip breakfast", "I'm trying to lose weight so I eat nothing past 6pm" or "I have 2 weeks to get ready for the summer so Im only eating salads". OMG, are you out of your mind?!? There is absolutely no way your body can function properly when all it's worried about is keeping itself from starving to death with the extremely reduced amount of calories you're feeding it.

Jumping into the Atkins bandwagon I also gave it a ride and stuck to their ludicrous limit of 20 grams of carbs per day! Ok, so no carbs but all the fried chicken, cheese and pork rinds I can handle? Sounds good enough right? Yeah, just until you want to kill somebody for a warm bread roll.

And of course, probably worst of all, we have the low-fat craze where you buy everything "low fat" and devote yourself to cutting out all fat from your diet because that's exactly what you're trying to get rid of. Crazy but simple truth is, we need to eat fat to lose fat so this is a def. No-No.

Am I saying these low-____________ are the Devils of diets? Not really. Basically the deal is this: When reducing calories there are a lot of factors to take into consideration from age, sex and weight to exercise level and body type; but one general rule is women should NEVER eat less than 1,200 calories a day and minimum for men is 1,500 calories. And like I wrote before, never, ever, ever follow a Low-Fat diet because besides potentially elevating risk of cardiovascular diseases it also reduces your testosterone level (main sex hormone in men but women have small amounts of it as well) which can lead to decreased muscle mass with increased body fat, depression and even decreased sex drive (yikes!). And finally, probably most popular of all, the low carbs diet. Three recommendations for beginners: reduce carb. intake to no less than 50 grams a day, don't follow for over 2 weeks straight and increase your fat intake (especially from mixed nuts, avocado, salmon and fish oils).

Might all sound a little tricky but just take it one step at a time, set a realistic diet guideline and remember that this is a life change so make it enjoyable while giving yourself credit for every step closer to your goal.

Low-Calorie-Fat-Carbs diet to lose weight fast!