01/30/2023
This post is just discussing diets and helping to lose weight. The health aspects of the diets will be discussed at a later time. All diets can work to help you lose weight. They do this by helping you enter into a caloric deficit (i.e., burning more calories than you eat)., which is THE ONLY WAY to lose weight over a long time period. However, some of these diets can make people eat MORE than usual, and that’s where it either takes lots of time for you to figure it out on your own, or you can work with a professional like myself who can gather the right information to help you select the best diet for you (which may not even be an “official/named” diet).
Keto diet – This has been a very popular diet for a long time now. The way that it gets you into a caloric deficit is by eliminating carbohydrates. Certain people tend to overeat on carbohydrate rich foods, so by eliminating them, it helps you to lose weight as you will eat fewer calories. Also, certain people feel fuller by eating meals that are higher in fat, which also helps with eating fewer calories.
Intermittent Fasting (IF) – IF has also been around for a while, but the certain type of IF that I’ll be discussing is better called “Time-Restricted Eating” (TRE). This is where you eat for a certain number of hours during the day and don’t eat for the rest of the day. A typical pattern is 8:16, which means that you eat for 8 hours of the day (usually starting around lunch time through dinner time) with the remaining time not eating (so, eating window of 12PM to 8PM). Again, as you are only eating during 8 hours, many people tend to naturally eat less than they would if they were eating for 12 hours of the day. HOWEVER, this can backfire on many people because they are so hungry by the time that they are “allowed” to eat, that they eat much more than they would if they would have eaten earlier in the day because they are so hungry.
Carnivore – This is a relatively new comer to the dieting world, and although it hasn’t hit the “mainstream”, it is still fairly popular. This is a diet where you only eat meat and other animal products like eggs and cheese. Obviously, you are taking out a LARGE number of food groups, and as protein is the most satiating macronutrient (i.e., keeps you fuller longer), people tend to eat fewer calories. I know I said that this wasn’t going to be about health, but please don’t do this. Any diet that restricts all fruits and vegetables should not be followed.
Vegan/Vegetarian – There are many different flavors of vegetarianism, but for the most part, these diets are highly concentrated around plant products. These products tend to have a higher fiber count and lower calories per ounce of food, so these can help people to eat fewer calories.
There are many other options besides these as well, but these are some of the more popular dieting plans that you hear about with helping for weight loss. You may have heard someone on TV or someone you know that lost a ton of weight using one of the above, so you tried it, and you didn’t lose any weight. That’s not necessarily your fault; it just may not have been the right diet plan for you. If you have had issues trying to lose weight and not sure what may be right for you, please reach out, and we can work together to come up with the right plan for YOU!
