If you're looking for healthy diets to lose weight there are quite a few options out there. I think it is important to outline how to say if a diet appears healthy or might be simply a fad diet that cannot last the long haul.

Healthy diets usually have the following properties:

1. The diet is balanced: The diet will be a well balanced diet including foods from all the major food groups as well as a good quantity of vegetables and fruits.

2. The diet will include a large amount of variety. One of the big needs you should go looking for in a diet is to be able to stick to the diet for a long time. Variety is crucial for this as I'm certain you have potentially tried those limiting diets based on a few foods and become sick to death of the diet after the first few days.

3. The diet should adopt a consistent long term approach to weight loss. The goal here is not to lose as much weight as you can in a week, but rather achieve a steady weight loss week by week that's sustainable and healthy. Many sources suggest that to achieve consistent weight reduction, you need to aim for about 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week until the point a healthy weight is achieved.

4. The diet should offer a calorie deficit over the amount of calories you burn a day until a good weight is attained. While the above points relate to a diet being healthy, this one is the crux of whether you will lose weight or not. At the end of the day lots of weight loss comes down to calories: calories in and calories out. To gain the specified one to two pounds of weight loss a week, this would imply making a calorie deficit of 3500 to 7000 calories per week. You can get a feel for the calories you burn a day through the use of an online calorie calculator. Additionally, there are quite a few online calorie counters that will permit you to search the calories in a wide range of foods and drinks.

These are some points that I think will help identify if a diet is realistic and healthy. As well as this, you should consult a medical expert about any diet or weight loss system you could be considering as they will be able to give recommendations that may be specific to your situation.