Spring break is coming up, which means trips to warm locations and trying to look good in that bathing suit. This is powerful motivation to go on a diet. Trying to lose weight is hard for the average person, but for a Simpson student whose weekly diet consists of starchy foods from Pfeiffer and a weekend diet of beer, it’s even harder.

Exercise is the most obvious way to lose weight, but if working out isn’t for you or you’re not seeing the results, the next step is dieting. But how do you know what diets work?

Fad diets are all the rage. People want to lose weight and lose it quickly. Fad diets will get you there. The problem is once you go off the diet, you will gain all your weight back and sometimes gain even more weight than you lost. There are ups and downs to every diet, and you need to find the diet that suits your needs.

“Some fad diets have the right concepts, but it is hard to stick with them,” sophomore Erik Lickiss said. “There is nothing better than eating healthy and exercising. It is important to stick with the food pyramid-eat whole grain wheats and vegetables and stay away from sugar and fats.”

Whether it’s Kirstie Alley with Jenny Craig or Whoopi Goldberg and LA Weightloss, everyone is claiming their diet is the best way. So how can you separate the diets that work from those that don’t?

Weight Watchers appears to be a simple diet option. The diet is based on a point system. You can eat whatever you want as long as it does not exceed the number of points Weight Watchers has given you for the day. The frozen meals available at the grocery store will tell you how many points they contain, but for any other food, you have to compute how many points it’s worth by the number of calories it contains. Fifty calories is equal to one point. Better brush up on your math skills and make sure your portions are correct, or you may end up taking in more calories than intended.

Kirstie Alley is right when she says Jenny Craig will help you lose weight. The problem is you have to buy the meals directly from Jenny Craig, and poor college students already have enough money problems. No Kirstie, we haven’t called Jenny yet and probably won’t be anytime soon.

The Atkins diet is one of the most popular. People like it because it is fairly easy to maintain. All you do is follow a low-carb, high-protein diet. The problem is that you avoid fruits and whole grains, but eat a lot food that is high in saturated fat.

The drawback with all fad diets is that they tell you to stick with one particular food group and stay away from all of the others. They will tell you to eat mostly protein or only eat grape fruit for a week. The snag is that you are eliminating a lot of healthy food from your diet.

Fad diets are great if you want to lose a couple of pounds to fit in to a particular dress, but the results won’t last. The bottom line is the best way to lose weight is through exercise and eating healthy. Follow the food pyramid, cut back on sugars and saturated fats and cut down your portion sizes.

“I want to lose weight, but I don’t believe that fad diets work,” freshman Kaytee Doering said. “I just exercise everyday, and I cut my portions.”