The Best Diet For Weight Loss

There’s one key factor linking every single weight loss diet you’ve ever tried: You.

When it comes to deciding which diet is the diet that’s going to work for you, understand that any diet can work if you are willing to put in the work.

Keto. Paleo. Whole30. Intermittent Fasting. Mediterranean. One diet restricts carbs. Another diet restricts breakfast. And still another diet eliminates all foods that come in the color purple (I don’t know, I’m sure it’s out there). The reality is that it’s what these diets have in common (not the details that make them different), that makes them effective.

These diets work because they…

Emphasize strategies designed to help you eat less

It is a law of physics that if you are consuming too many calories your body will store it and will gain weight, BUT if you consume fewer calories than you burn off you will lose weight. Simplified weight loss mechanics? Sure, but still true.

Any diet that calls for eliminating or restricting a food is leading the charge with an instrumental facet of weight loss: eat fewer calories than you burn.

Eliminating carbs? For most Americans, that’s 40-50% of their entire diet-of course it can work! Whole30? See ya later alcohol and white bread! Trying out a Mediterranean diet? You’ll be replacing junk food with vegetables, protein and olive oil…again, that’s a lot of calories immediately off limits.

Limiting food choices automatically lowers your caloric intake and starts you on a healthier path to success.

Some diets don’t restrict food groups so much as they give you a way of structuring eating patterns and habits so that you will consume fewer calories anyways. Intermittent fasting, for example, allows a window-of-eating, outside of which you simply don’t eat. Counting macros works in much the same way except instead of restricting when you eat, you watch your portion sizes.

Avoid processed foods

Processed foods are specifically manufactured (not grown or raised or cultivated), to make you want to eat them. Scientists (not farmers or ranchers or chefs), are paid to make these processed foods so addictive that you can’t say no.

Processed sugars, trans fats, preservatives, sodium, colors – these are just an example of the added ingredients you’ll find on the back of colorful packaging. Your body neither wants, nor needs, these ingredients.

Replace processed foods with real, whole, as-close-to-their-natural-state-as-possible foods and your automatically swapping empty calories for nutrient-dense goodness.

Here’s what else happens when you eliminate processed foods: you have to think about what you’re eating before you eat it, and possibly even plan ahead.

We live in a world with fast food on every street corner. Big business makes it easier than easy for us to zip through a drive through, stop at a vending machine or grab a frozen, processed meal in a plastic container. When you follow a diet that removes that option, you’re left with real food.

5 Diets That Are Supported by Science

Focus on protein and/or complex carbs

Protein fills you up and keeps you satiated – key factors in staying consistent with your diet. In addition, protein is the building block of muscle. Consuming more, high-quality protein and adding in strength training leads to increased lean body mass and a healthier metabolism for the long run.

While some diets eliminate carbs completely, quality diets that include carbs always emphasize complex carbs and high fiber. Fiber, like protein, fills you up and keeps you fuller longer. It also aids digestion and offers numerous other health benefits.

Eliminate the grey area

We naturally gravitate towards diets that give us definitive answers. It’s far easier to have a “yes, eat” and “no, don’t eat” list than it is to make a healthy decision in a time of crankiness/stress/hunger/exhaustion.

You make thousands of decisions a day. Over 200 of those decisions involve food. It’s overwhelming and exhausting. It’s no wonder that you crave a simple decision made for you. Diets like Whole30, keto and paleo take the decision making process out of your hands…so what once felt like an out of control habit is now in control.

Provide a sustainable method of dieting for the long term

What makes great diets really great, is that they are sustainable long term. Extremely restrictive diets just aren’t realistically sustainable. It’s part of the reason why crash diets and 7-day detoxes don’t work (and don’t meet the criteria for a great diet).

You could be a vegetarian for life. You could follow the paleo diet, the keto diet or Whole30 forever. This is massively important because it means when you lose the weight, you can keep it off for good.

So which weight loss diet is right for you?

At the end of the day, the best diet for weight loss is the diet that you are willing to stick with.

Can’t imagine giving up meat? I wouldn’t test the vegan route. Get cranky if you go 4 hours without carbs? Maybe keto isn’t right for you.

Decide what foods make you feel your best. See where they fit into the diets dotted through this article. Find the strategies that work with your lifestyle.

If you’re not sure where to start, click the banner below to set up a Nutrition Coaching consultation. You have goals…let’s get there.