Where to Start and Who to Trust
Let me guess, you’re scrolling through the vastness of what we call the internet in the hopes of looking for some sound advice on what the best approach should be to help you lose weight.
You’re spinning your wheels around huh, unsure of what to do, unsure of even where to start. With unlimited information at your finger-tips you have no idea who or what to trust.
Don’t worry, I felt the same way my first time getting into fitness. By the way, this isn’t an attempt to convince you that this article is trustworthy.
Nope.
Continue doing your research and go with your intuition.
Before diving in, let me just say this:
There is no best diet to lose weight
The best diet to lose weight is whatever diet fits your lifestyle
Period
End of story
Which Diet Should I Pick?
Sorry, I just want to say one more thing before we get into it. You should really join my email list HERE; I think you will find my FREE Beginners Weight Loss Guide extremely helpful.
Had to be selfish there for a few seconds, sorry about that.
Now let’s get in….
As I’ve alluded earlier, the best diet is the one that suits your lifestyle and busy schedule. However, just by me saying that doesn’t do anything. That doesn’t solve your problem.
So, to fix that, let’s address a few popular diets that you may or may not have heard of and you can then decipher which one would work for you or not.
Let’s start with Mr. and Mrs. Keto
The Keto Diet
The Keto diet is by far one of the most popular diets out there. Like most diets, the pendulum of extremes can swing too far; some telling you to only eat keto and others telling you to dismiss it all together.
The Keto diet in its most basic form is a low carb high fat diet. It involves drastically reducing carbs and replacing it with fat. What ends up happenings is, your body under goes ketosis.
A fancy way of saying, your body no longer has enough carbs to burn as energy and instead goes after your fat cells as it’s secondary burning mechanism. When that happens, your body then makes ketones, which can then be used as fuel.
When that happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy.
After reading that, you’re probably thinking, that’s exactly what you want. It’s the perfect “diet,” I mean, think about it, your body is able to burn fat and poof all the weight disappears.
I wish it was that simple.
But it’s not. Unfortunately.
What you have to understand is, despite whatever diet is out there or whatever propaganda social and mainstream media tries to drive down your throat with great marketing headlines like:
“He Lost 50 Pounds on The Keto Diet”
You add the before and after pictures and you can see why people are so quick to salivate at the idea of wanting it for themselves as well.
It’s not the keto diet itself that caused this hunk of a man above me to lose so much weight. It’s the reduction of overall calories over a period of time that resulted in his transformation.
I just want to repeat that once more in case you didn’t get it.
It is NOT the keto diet that made him lose so much weight
It is his reduction in overall calories.
Calories matter. A whole lot.
I’ll keep this brief; overall calories are the primary determining factor on whether you lose weight or not.
If you eat more calories than the number of calories your body burns you will gain weight
If you eat less calories than the number of calories your body burns you will lose weight.
If you want a more in depth, take on how that works click HERE & HERE.
Moving on….
The Vegan Diet
The vegan diet similar to the keto diet has become increasingly popular, but like all diet it comes down to personal preference.
This type of diet like any other diet has various health benefits, however, a diet exclusively on just vegan alone can increase your risk of nutrient deficiency.
Having said that, if you thoroughly enjoy that type of diet, by all means go for it, adherence is imperative when trying to lose weight.
A vegan diet for those of you who may not be familiar, is a diet that avoids all animal products including meat, eggs and dairy.
For those of you who are interested, I wrote a comprehensive article on whether the carnivore diet is good for you. Click HERE, if it’s something you care to read about.
I do such a terrible job of jumping in and out of topics which can confuse you, so I apologize for that. Not the greatest style of writing, but it’s how I communicate and so, unfortunately, I’ll stick with it until I find something different.
The good thing about the vegan diet is, people generally find themselves losing weight without counting calories. As I’ve alluded ad nauseum, calories are where it’s at for losing weight.
There is no way around it.
The problem is, especially as a beginner, you may not even know where or how to start to determine the number of calories you should eat to lose weight. This is where the vegan diet is such a great alternative.
A study found out participants on vegan diets lost more weight than those following a calorie restricted diet.
Nutrient dense foods like fruits, vegetables, peas, beans and much more are calorically low by nature.
As a vegan who only eats these types of foods, you can see why you can find yourself losing weight without counting calories.
Another possible explanation could be, because vegan food options generally are high in fiber, the natural tendency to eat fewer calories can stem from just being full all the time.
As an online fitness coach, I still think calorie counting is an important tool to understand for maintaining a healthy lifestyle for as long as possible.
I personally see calorie counting as a great alternative for helping you get back on track.
Think of it as your emergency blanket to use, whenever things go astray, because life has a funny way of doing that.
Probably not the best metaphorical word play, but you get my point.
I would hope you do. If not,
Oh well….
Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet isn’t a restrictive style of diet like the keto or vegan diet. If you remember, the keto diet is a low carb/high fat diet (that’s restrictive) and the vegan diet avoids all animal products including meat, dairy and eggs (that’s restrictive).
The Med diet as I call it, emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and much more. Fish is the predominant source of protein instead of meat, pork or poultry.
Again, it comes down to personal preference, but this type of diet in my opinion is much more practical and conducive to the general population from a lifestyle perspective.
My only contention is, it’s restrictiveness on making fish it’s primary protein source, but you can very well still include this diet in your own lifestyle and make something else your primary source of protein. Be it meat, pork, poultry or other plant-based food options.
A simple practical way of implementing this diet to your day to day is:
- Grab a plate
- On that plate, half should be fruits and vegetables
- One quarter should be healthy carbs
- One quarter should be protein
It’s important to remember, foods from the Med diet are primarily whole foods NOT processed foods. Think of foods like:
Whole Foods
Oats
Brown Rice
Barley
Nuts
Beans
Fish
Eggs, etc.
You’re probably thinking what about “fats”
What about them?
You can definitely include fats in your diet, it comes down to the type of fat. The Med diet emphasizes eating healthier fats and less saturated and trans-fat.
Swapping butter for olive oil or munching on avocado slices instead of bacon.
Let’s be honest here, it’s not just the Med diet that emphasizes eating healthier fats, if you want to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle, the quality of foods you eat on a day-to-day matter.
It matters a whole lot.
Paleo Diet
The paleo diet often referred to as the “cave man diet,” because of the way our ancestors used to eat. It eliminates grains, legumes, processed foods and most sources of dairy.
The main foods permitted in this diet are:
Meat
Fish
Nuts
Seeds
Fruits
Vegetables
Healthy fats
Foods NOT permitted in this diet are:
Processed foods
Dairy products
Sugar
Artificial sweeteners
Grains
Legumes
Vegetable oils
Trans-fat
The basic idea behind a paleo diet is to avoid processed foods and instead focus on healthy whole foods.
There’s just one problem.
It’s too restrictive. All your food options have to come from a specific category of foods.
For example, let’s say you’re in the mood of having a croissant or bagel for breakfast. Under the guidelines of this diet, you can’t do that. Instead, you would need to get your source of carbs from either fruit, vegetables, a form of protein or fat.
I don’t know about you, but that sucks.
At least to me it does.
But again, if you are the type that likes being told what to eat and what not to eat then go for it, so long as it garners results.
Right?
I don’t know, having coached others, placing restrictions usually results in less nutritional adherence over time.
Find what works for you.
Gluten Free Diet
The gluten free diet unlike your keto, vegan and Mediterranean counterparts is much more different. The only thing this diet asks for is to exclude gluten. That’s it. It’s not asking for much.
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and others. A gluten free diet essentially avoids all foods with those in them.
There are lots of chatters on how a gluten free diet is better for weight loss, mind you no research has confirmed that.
As I’ve mentioned prior, people can often find themselves on a pendulum of extremes, especially when their so infatuated on what worked for them.
Do not make the mistake of thinking just because it’s gluten free, that it means you can eat any how you want. The idea that gluten free foods are inherently good for you is just not true. Chocolate cake is chocolate cake — gluten free or not.
Following this type of diet requires careful attention to food selection and ingredients displayed on food labels.
The slight downfall of this diet, is its slight nutrient and vitamin deficiency. It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but still worth noting.
Foods not included in a gluten-free diet does provide essential vitamins and nutrients, like:
Iron
Calcium
Fiber
Niacin
Folate, etc.
Something also worth noting is the cost of going gluten-free. Gluten-free foods are generally higher in price than the alternative. Just something to think about before going all in.
It’s Coming to an End
Now that I’ve laid out for you five of the most popular diets today, which one would you pick?
Am sure I could’ve gone a lot deeper on each one, however, I do think I did a good enough job laying out a beginners’ friendly warm-up start kit sort of speak to at least give you an idea of what each diet is like.
Keto, vegan, paleo, Mediterranean or gluten?
Or my favorite *a diet that makes the most sense for you*