Apples are one of the most nutritious foods you can eat, full of fiber to improve your digestive health and antioxidants that can lower your risk of heart disease. But all those benefits don't do you any good if your stomach aches after you eat the fruit.

After evaluating 32 diets, including the Atkins diet, Jenny Craig and Slim-Fast, a panel of nutrition and diet experts concluded that Weight Watchers was the easiest plan to follow and the one most likely to result in successful weight loss. All foods are assigned a point value.

Although there are many sound reasons not to eat after 7:00 p.m., weight loss is not one of them. According to the Weight Control Information Network, when you eat doesn’t matter, and snacking in the evening hours does not “cause” weight gain.

Along with oxygen and water, food is life sustaining. Food provides macronutrients including fats, proteins and carbohydrates, which are used as sources of energy, as well as building blocks for everything from healing injured muscles to producing enzymes and hormones.

The 90-Day Fitness Challenge was developed by a former husband and wife team, Amy and Phil Parham, from their experiences as contestants on the weight-loss television program "The Biggest Loser."

A diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables and lean protein and low in sugar and sodium may help prevent health problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, say the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Foods that fit this criteria form the basis of the Rice diet.

Beef, pork, poultry and fish all belong on a weight loss menu. As long as you choose lean cuts and don’t add a lot of fat during cooking, you can enjoy a serving for about 120 to 200 calories.

As the saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." At least that's what the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says about fad diets, which is what you would call the Progresso Soup Diet.

During the low-fat era, which reached a peak in the 1990s, experts told you to follow a low-fat diet without taking into account how different fats influence health. Today, it's known that all fats are not created equal. The fats found in olive oil fall into the healthy fat category.

Evening and late night hunger can be detrimental to a weight loss plan and can often steer individuals in a direction that derails their efforts. Weight loss occurs when there is a negative energy balance, meaning that more calories must be burned than consumed.

A nutritious lunch should make you feel energized and ready to tackle the rest of your day. Feeling light-headed or dizzy after a meal can bring your productivity to a halt, and the root cause is worth discovering.

Putting oatmeal on the dinner menu has the potential to enhance weight loss. Oatmeal is filling, it is packed with ingredients that fight hunger, and it's lower in calories than other whole grains you might normally have for dinner, such as brown rice.