Best diet Plans for Men

Atkins vs. Ornish, South Beach Diet vs. the Zone: Which weight loss plan really works?

After four years of following one after another and watching his yo-yo up and down, Marv Leicher finally discovered the secret formula for and keeping it off successfully.

And he’s not sharing it with anyone.

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"I wasted enough of my own time following somebody else’s idea of the perfect diet plan, " says Leicher, 42, an claims adjuster in Iowa. "I don’t want some poor fool following my advice and then wondering why it’s not working for him. The real secret is that there is no one perfect diet. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for someone else."

From One Diet Plan to the Next

Leicher began by following a low-fat diet. For a few months, the pounds dropped away. He bought a new set of pants with a slimmer waist. But before long, the numbers on the bathroom scale started climbing again. Frustrated, Leicher took a friend’s advice and started following the high-protein/low-carb diet. He started losing weight within the first week. After four months, he was back to wearing his new lean and mean wardrobe.

"I really thought, OK, this is it. I’m home free."

Then came the holidays - office parties, family dinners - and when they were over, Leicher had regained 10 pounds and was on his way back to being .

"That’s when I said to myself, 'Wait a minute. I’m a capable guy. This isn’t rocket science. I should be able to figure this out.'"

So Leicher sat down and made a list of the parts of diets that seemed to work for him. He went through all the rest of the advice that he’d heard - eat, don’t eat ; choose, avoid snacks - and added the tips that seemed to help. "I ended up with six rules. Frankly, I’d be embarrassed to show them to anyone else. But they were changes I knew I could make without feeling like I was doing penance for some past sins."

Within three months, he was back down to his college weight. This time, though, he stayed there. "It’s been almost a year, and I don’t even really think of myself as being on a diet. This is just the way I eat."