Posted on May 15, 2018 by Emily Forbes
Weight Watchers? Atkins? Ketogenic? Cabbage soup? Paleo? Vegetarian? Mediterranean? You’ve likely heard of one or more of these diets. You may well have tried one or two. But which diet works the best? The question should be “best at what?”.
Diet can be defined as “the food we habitually eat”. As in “junk food diet” or “vegetarian diet”. Another definition is “a restriction of food to achieve weight loss” and probably what the majority of us think when we hear the word ‘diet’ mentioned.
So going back to the question, and sorry to state the obvious; but if you didn’t want to eat meat then a vegetarian or vegan diet would be the best. If you wanted to be healthy, a junk food diet would not be the best. I know what you are all thinking. “But which diet works the best for fat loss!”
Honestly, there isn’t a best one. Sorry to burst your bubble. Most of the diets listed aim to achieve the same thing. CALORIE DEFICIT. In Thailand they would use the expression “same same but different”. I think this is applicable here. All of these diets are actually based on calorie deficits but are dressed up differently – less carbs, more protein, only eating cabbage (really?!) whatever approach they take they still work on the simple principle of reducing calories to produce a decrease in your weight and improve fat loss.
BUT! There is a best diet for each of us. That is the diet we can adhere to! It doesn’t matter how much weight ‘so and so’ lost on the Atkins diet. If you can’t stick to it, then it’s going to be totally useless to you. Sometimes finding the diet we can adhere to takes some trial and error (Read my other part 1 & 2 diet blogs here). This might mean a very small deficit for some and having a greater variety of food. Others might take an aggressive approach and have a larger deficit to get it over with.
The take home message is, you need to be in a calorie deficit to lose fat. Basically eating less calories than it takes to maintain your weight. So if you aren’t losing weight, you aren’t in a deficit. This can be achieved by any “diet” you can adhere to. And actually, along with adherence, the best diet is one you enjoy and don’t feel as though you are on a diet, it’s simply a lifestyle. But also don’t give up. Adhere, adhere, adhere. And you’ll get there!
If you need some support, why not get yourself a personal trainer to help with your goals.