The weight-loss industry comes up with a new diet every now and then.
With so many weight loss diets out there to choose the best one for you could be challenging, But don’t worry, to make things simpler for you I went deep into all the popular weight loss diets and have ranked them from worst to best.
So which is the best diet for weight loss or rather fat loss? Let us find out.
Weight Loss Diet Plans
On the basis of practicality, effectiveness, health and pricing, I have categorized all the popular weight loss diets into three categories. Starting with category number one which includes –
MILITARY Diet & The GM (General Motors) Diet
Both of these diets aim at short term rapid weight loss.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them punishment rather than a diet.
But these appeal to people as they promise substantial weight loss in as little as one week.
No doubt even the success rate is pretty high as the water weight of the body flushes out. However it’s a short-term success as hardly anyone can follow these starving diets for long.
The way it returns back as quickly as it was lost, sometimes even more.
Since these diets are very strict and specific about the food and portion size.
The only positive about them or any such diet that I can think of is that it might help somebody to get disciplined about eating habits.
But overall the approach is faulty; it’s nothing more than straining your body to gain almost nothing.
Rather it can lead to sluggish metabolism, hair fall and body weakness.
Stay away from such crash diets as they lack the concern for proper nutrition.
Category number two includes
The High Protein PALEO Diet, Low Carb ATKINS Diet, and High Fat KETO Diet
The problem with these diets is that they are highly restrictive; they either miss out on any one major macronutrient or stress too much on another macronutrient.
For example, the Paleo diet which is also referred to as hunter-gatherer diet, cuts grains, legumes, dairy completely out of the diet and stresses too much on meat.
Not only the excess protein will overload your kidneys but this meat based diet will rip your pockets as well.
The low-carb diet like the Atkins Diet restricts grains, legumes, even fruits, and vegetables in your diet.
Similarly the Ketogenic diet stresses 80% of the diet from fats, 15% from protein and only 5% from carbs.
When you adopt high protein, low carb, or ketogenic diets or any such diet, you do lose weight quickly but these diets create an imbalance in the body.
Carbs are often projected as villains. But we must understand that no carbs means no fiber and no fiber diet results in constipation.
All the three carbs, proteins, and fats are non-negotiable for proper functioning of the body.
Even missing out on trace minerals causes the body to suffer, let alone major macronutrients. Doing so you’re bound to face nutritional deficiencies, your performance drops, hormonal balances disturbs, skin and face loses luster, even the immunity weakens.
A balanced diet is the best.
However some of these diets were designed for more important use cases.
For example, the ketogenic diet was introduced by modern physicians in the 1920s for the treatment of child epilepsy.
As for the low carb fat diets, it’s evident that they originated in the West and became popular. And rightly so because if you have a close look at the general diet of Western people they mostly eat refined grains like breads, donuts, muffins, pasta, pizza, etc.
So going low carb meant cutting down on these nutrition devoid refined grains, however it comes with side effects.
On the other hand Indian diet comprises mostly whole grains which are rich in fiber and do not deprive of nutritional value.
So eat your carbs, it has hundreds of functions to perform in the body.
Now before I move on to the best category here are a few dishonorable mentions.
Dishonorable Mentions
The dishonorable mentions include all those diets which deprived you of food or make you eat only one type of food.
Be it the watermelon diet, the cauliflower diet, juice diet, the carnivore diet, the cookie diet,
seriously there are tons out there in the market.
These diets are structured from a very surface level approach and are a strict no no.
Coming back to the category number three which includes the best diet in my opinion
INTERMITTENT FASTING Diet (IF)
Actually it’s more like an eating pattern where you fast for 16 hours and eat in a window of eight hours.
What makes IF ideal is that, it respects the two important cycles in the human body – The Elimination phase and the Building phase.
In the elimination phase the body detoxifies, cleanses, repairs, rejuvenates itselves.
Whereas in the building phase your body is receptive enough to assimilate the nutrients properly.
So if you eat well, it rebuilds itself.
Research has shown that intermittent fasting significantly reduces insulin, the fat storing hormone, and increases the growth hormone that increases muscle mass.
16 hour fast however, might seem like a daunting task at once but today there is sufficient evidence to prove that hunger hormone, GHRELIN is very adaptive and in just four days the hunger pangs reduced until it’s no more an issue.
Another research showed that if a person changed his eating window from 16 hours to 11 hours but ate the same amount of food it reduced more weight in the latter case.
Also we must understand that fasting comes naturally to us.
For example, while we are sleeping at night for 7-8 hours, our body is fasting. It’s eliminating toxins.
Yes it gives a whole lot of science of successful detoxification in the morning.
However one may start with a 12 hour fast and gradually build up to 16 hours.
IF’ although might seem like a new age diet but we Indians have always been following a similar or I should say a more advanced version of it, the Ayurvedic diet
In IF the eating and fasting window is decided by you, whereas in Ayurvedic diet these windows are decided by nature.
Yes, the time period between the sunrise and sunset is you’re eating window and all the other times you are on a fast.
It is in this window that you can place your main means in a balanced fashion as per your body type.
This is because our digestive capabilities are decided by the Sun.
When the Sun is at its peak our digestion is at its best and when the Sun begins to set, our digestion slows down.
The only thing however allowed post sunset is milk which also induces sleep.
How smart is that?
Even I follow this Ayurvedic diet placing two meals in the eating window and a glass of milk at night.
Here I would also like to talk about O.M.A.D (One Meal A Day diet).
It’s nothing but an advanced version of IF where the eating window is further reduced.
As long as you are eating one proper balanced meal OMAD is extremely healthy for a body.
But before you get on with it, Ayurveda warns that this progression from eating three to four meals in a day to one meal a day must be done slowly over a period of a few years.
If you suddenly jump to one meal a day you won’t be able to sustain it and that won’t serve any purpose.
And if you think that one meal a day hampers productivity, Twitter CEO Mr. Jack Dorsey is a prime example.
But again the progression has to be slow and smooth.
Conclusion
To conclude, Crash diets like GM and military are the worst of all. The highly restrictive diets that miss out on major macronutrients or press on eating one macronutrient in excess are bound to cause long-term health problems.
Intermittent fasting (IF) is an intelligent way to eat. The Ayurvedic diet is even better.
Both IF and Ayurvedic diets are quite easy to implement and are also cost effective.
One balanced meal a day is great but the progression has to be slow and smooth.
Overall nothing can beat a well-balanced diet designed for your individual body type.
A diet should not be a short-term thing, it should be a lifestyle.
When you eat this way your body gets properly nourished and fat loss is just a positive side-effect of it.
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Thank you so much for reading.