Dieters must follow diets that will not only aid in weight loss but also provide all the essential nutrients. Generally, such diets are low in calories; they release about 1000 to 1500 calories every day. This allows the dieters to safely lose about 1 pound every week. However, a diet extremely low in calories deprives the body from essential nutrients and thus should be avoided.

Some of the common kinds of diets that can be tried out for weight loss are:

1. Fixed-menu diet: It selects the foods that you will have to eat. Since only limited food choices are available, this kind of diet eventually becomes boring.

2. Exchange-type diet: It provides a fixed number of servings from different food groups. Foods in the same group are equal in calories and thus can be swapped. This diet type works better than fixed-menu diet due to its variety.

3. Prepackaged-meal diet: It can be expensive since prepackaged foods have to be purchased. However, dieters will find about the portion sizes that are right for them.

4. Formula diet: It contains liquid meals, which are low in fat and relatively high in carbohydrates and proteins. It does not usually lead to permanent weight loss.

5. Flexible diet: It controls the amount of fat and calories by allowing dieters to choose among different combinations of foods.