How Long Should I Stay on a Diet?

Some diets last forever. The balanced diet recommended for diabetics is a lifetime program. Others are very short term, designed to last only a few days or weeks. Fasting and the grapefruit diet are intended to take off a few pounds quickly. Staged diets combine the two. They start out with one level of restriction and go through one or more stages before reaching a long-term maintenance level. For example, the new Atkins Diet starts with a very restrictive elimination of all forms of carbohydrates. This phase is short, followed by gradual addition of carbohydrates until you reach a level of steady weight loss. Once you reach your goal weight, you add food until you establish a stable weight.