Clean Eating, Paleo, IIFYM, No Carbs, Intermittent-Fasting, Grain-Free… Which one works to loose wei
Most of them work! Here is the thing, everyone single one of them can work as long as a caloric deficit is created making you loose weight.
However, not everyone is built the same, and everyone will react differently if they adhere to the same diet.
We also need to remember that everyone of us have different caloric and nutrient needs. Therefore, the diet that work for your friend might NOT work for you. You might need more or less calories, and might like different foods than your friend. So, why would you follow the same diet as your friend?
Another thing worth mentioning is that: No food is calorie free, all of them have calories even at small quantities. There is NO MAGIC ELICSIR THAT WILL GET YOU THE HEALTH AND BODY YOU WANT.
Furthermore, any of the diets mentioned on the title of this blog can work if you follow these 5 tips:
Stick to the diet: For more than 15 days! A 5-day diet wont get your very far.
Stick to the diet: Vary your food as much as possible so you don’t get bored and can stick to it!
Set a good amount of calories. If calories are set too low your energy levels might suffer, and your body might get stuck on a certain weight.
Don’t mistake the hunger you experience at the beginning of your diet program as something you should feel for the rest of the program. If so, your diet is NOT right for you.
Eat from every macronutrient: protein, carbs and fats. Don’t exclude it from your diet since your body needs them. Of course, this doesn’t apply if you are have certain medical condition.
Since I have mentioned a few diets in the title of this of this blog, please notice that NOT all diets out there are nutritious. Just because they work in the short term, let’s say a few months or even a year, it doesn’t mean they are the best for the long term (2-5 years). If you decide to engage in a fad diet, be conscious that this might create the perfect formula for stubborn weight gain in the future.
In case you don’t know what a nonsense and/or fad diet looks like, here are some examples:
Eating just pineapple or grapefruit as breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Jumping from paleo, to keto, to clean eating while setting calories too low.
Excluding things like: gluten, wheat, grains, sugar, lactose, fats, protein… and the lists keeps going, until you basically eat literally nothing because everything makes you fat.
A typical cookie cutter “fitness” plan like the one described below. Meal plans sent to you without taking into consideration the foods you like, your schedule, your goals and lifestyle are not meal plan tailored for you.
This is an example of a cookie-cutter plan, which any person involved in the fitness industry can recognize:
Meal 1: ½ cup of oatmeal, 2 egg whites (because 3 or 4 are going to obviously make you fat, not).
Meal 2: protein shake with an apple (because obviously another fruit portion for the same amount of calories is going to make you fat, not!).
Meal 3: lettuce, ½ cup rice, 4 oz. chicken.
Meal 4: protein shake or chicken with almonds.
Meal 5: same as lunch.
Meal 6: jello.
Cheat meal: they are basically nonexistent, and if there is one, you can only eat half of what you ordered.
Forget about seasoning your food.
A plan that has you eating just a cup of fruit, chicken, salad and coffee with no creamer.
One of this “weight loss” programs by companies like this: Herbalife, Advocare, Isogenix, etc, that makes you replace 2 meals of your day for shakes.
NOTE: don’t misunderstand my words, if you like your shake and it is included in a balanced diet, understand that it is fine. The issue is when you are replacing two of your meals per day for these shakes and think it is ok for weight loss and permanent results. This is not the only way to loose weight!
So to finish off this piece, please remember that you don’t have to starve yourself to loose weight. What is needed is a caloric deficit in your body, which can be created while eating a healthy and balanced diet.
Enjoy!
