What It Is

Slim-Fast is more than a line of diet shakes. In recent years, the company has developed soups, pasta, meal-in-one bars, and snacks -- all based on the premise that meal replacement products help people lose weight.

On its web site, Slim-Fast outlines a four-step approach to weight loss that is similar to most others -- emphasizing portion control, sensible eating, regular physical activity, and support.

What It Is

The popularity of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets is at an all-time high, thanks to a number of best-selling books. Among them is Protein Power, which graced the New York Times best-seller list for over a year, sparking controversy with its assertion that the mainly carbohydrate-based diet --fruits, vegetables, and starches -- is responsible for rampant obesity and heart disease, not the traditionally named culprits such as red meat, eggs, and dairy products.

Written by a married couple of MDs, Michael R. and Mary Dan Eades, the book promises that you will "feel fit and boost your health -- in just weeks!" The cover includes praise from one of their diet-expert-author competitors, Barry Sears, author of The Zone, who calls their book nothing less than "The Nutritional Primer of the Nineties."

What It Is

Everyone who's ever thought about going on a diet has at least heard of The Pritikin Approach: a low-fat diet, not vegetarian, but largely based on vegetables, grains and fruits. Fat in the diet accounts for a mere 10%. Since 1976, more than 70,000 people have spent time at the Pritikin Longevity Centers learning how to eat healthy, prepare low-fat meals and snacks, and incorporate exercise and stress-reduction techniques into their lives. Several books by Nathan Pritikin carried the message of the Pritikin approach to the masses. It was an approach designed largely to promote well-being by lowering cholesterol and helping diabetics normalize their blood sugar without taking insulin. That people lost weight was an added plus.

Now his son, Robert, has taken over and tweaked the concept. The same plant-based foods of the original are the staples of his diet, and the fat content of the regimen is still about as low as you can go. But Robert's latest book, The Pritikin Principle (following The New Pritikin Program and The Pritikin Weight Loss Breakthrough) focuses on something he calls The Calorie Density Solution.

What It Is

It's a diet based on sensible eating and exercise. So what's new?

Author Robert F. Kushner, MD, teaches medicine at Northwestern University and is director of the Wellness Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. After seeing a lot of people who wanted -- and needed -- to lose weight, Kushner realized there's no one-size-fits-all diet.

The Personality Type diet asks readers to answer 66 questions about their habits and attitudes toward eating, exercise, and coping. Based on the scores, a person falls into one or more "categories. For example, when it comes to eating, a person may be a "Mindless Muncher;" when it comes to exercise, an "All-or-Nothing Doer;" in coping, a "Can't-Say-No Pleaser."