People are losing weight eating bacon and eggs-others by eating only grapefruit or cabbage. Some claim to lose weight in their sleep or by breathing differently. Are these diets safe and based on scientific research? Or are marketing teams using isolated testimonials to dazzle the public with a diet's reputed success?

The following summarizes some of the most popular types of diets on the market today, benefits and disadvantages whether the plan can be maintained for life, since that is the only way to change-a lifestyle change.

High Protein Plans:
Overview: Best-sellers such as Dr. Adkins New Diet Revolution, Neander-Thin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, strong, Healthy Body, and Sugar Busters!: Cut Sugar to Trim Fat claim that dieters can lose all the weight they want by eliminating carbohydrates and sugar from their diets. With the lure of eating "forbidden foods," authors charge that processed carbohydrates and insulin, not excess calories, are responsible for obesity in the United States. The low-carb, high-protein plans generally consist of between 1,200-1,800 calories. This calorie range would result in a weight loss no matter what combination of foods (carbohydrate, protein and fat) was employed.

Advantages: Users seem to gravitate to the plans' simplicity and seemingly attractive menues (eat meat, bacon, eggs, and butter). By eliminating carbohydrates and sugar from the diet, a significant number of calories are also eliminated.

Disadvantages: The downside to these plans is their reliance on protein. High-protein diets can put the body into a state of ketosis, causing headaches, bad breath, nausea, and carbohydrate cravings due to depleted glycogen stores. These diets are too high in saturated fats and too low in fruits, whole grains, calcium and fiber.

Long-Term Success: Information from the National Weight Control Registry indicates that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets are not maintained for life. After the initial weight loss, the dieter eventually rebounds if carbohydrates are reintroduced into the diet.

Low-Fat Plans:
Overview: Contrary to the wash of high-protein diets, plans such as Dr. Dean Ornish's Eat more, Weigh Less and Robert Pritikin's The Pritikin Weight Loss Breakthrough: Five Easy Steps to Outsmart Your Fat Instinct recommend a diet very low in fat (approximately 10 percent of the total calories) and high in carbohydrates with heavy focus on vegetarian choices. The basic premise for these plans is that calories from fat cause one to become fat.

Advantages: The benefit to this type of diet is that a small percentage of the population would feel good with very low fat and high carbohydrates. The recommendation to choose lean cuts of meats over higher-fat varieties si sound advice and helps to lower caloric intake, which may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Disadvantages: Studies by the National Weight Control Registry indicate that the majority of those who have lost weight and kept if off were more successful with a diet comprised of 55 percent carbohydrate, 20 percent protein and 25 percent fat. This type of diet encourages minimal fat and protein intake.

Long-term Success: Dietary fat is important to success for a number of reasons including the transportation of vitamins, satiety (feeling full) and the simple pleasure of consuming some food with some fat content. The bottom line to any diet plan relates to the Law of Thermodynamics: When energy (calories) in exceeds energy (calories) out, weight gain results. When energy out exceeds energy in, weight loss is the result.

Fasting Plans:
Overview: Plans like the Cabbage Soup Diet and Grapfruit Diet boast staggering weight loss (as much as 20 lbs in seven days) and these are extremely restricting and potentially dangerous methods. Because the plans often consist of less than 1,000 calories a day, rapid weight loss occurs.

Advantages: Other than rapid weight loss, there are no advantages to this type of plan.

Disadvantages: The downside to such an extreme approach to this method is weight loss is temporary. Weight loss either represents water weight or lean body tissue. Furthermore, many dieters report nausea, light-headedness and gas as common side effects of the plan.

Long-term Success: Lifestyle changes regarding healthy eating and exercise are not addressed in this type of plan. Weight rebound is inevitable.

Thousands of diet plans add up to a $40-billion-a-year weight-loss industry. The public wants to get thin and the entrepreneur wants to get fat with profits. Anyone can become a weight-loss guru with a hot marketing team, a few choice testimonials and a smooth presentation. However, while the weight-loss industry continues to grow, obesity has reached epidemic proportions.

The diet plans outlined above are nothing more than low-calorie nutrition plans disguised by clever marketing gimmicks,. Scientific-sounding "facts" and hocus-pocus "research" can dazzle and confuse the average consumer. Diet-plan marketers go to great lengths to explain how their diet can work for everyone, or claim that it is carbohydrate intake (or any other dieters "enemy of the month") that is the culprit. However, the bottom line is that a calorie deficit (more calories burned than consumed) causes weight loss. The average American consumes 300 more calories than he/she did 30 years ago. He/she also burns 260 less calories each day due to increased automation, technology and sedentary occupations. Increased caloric intake and decreased caloric expenditure means that the waistline of America (and the world) is growing at an alarming rate.

While fad diets may initially offer rapid weight loss, the result is too often temporary, leaving the dieter defeated, angry and often with a few extra pounds just for good measure. The problem with fad diets is that they are just that-fads. Every author claims to have the seceret plan that will lead to weight loss. However, conflicting information and a 98-percent failure rate leaves the consumer confused and in search of the next "miracle" plan. The only key to long-term weight loss is adopting a healthy lifestyle for life.

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