The list of different fad diet out there is seemingly endless. You’ve likely seen each one on the cover of a magazine claiming to help you lose tons of weight in very short amounts of time. They all claim some magic mechanism on how they will get you your best body ever. The truth is, they really all work by accomplishing the same goal in different ways. In this article, I’d like to explain what I mean by that.

First off, I want to start off by saying this: the diet that will work best for you is the one that lets eat most of the foods you enjoy the most. As I said before, they really all work by the same mechanism, and I’ll explain what this means. However, the important implication of this is that any diet will generally work if you adhere to it and are consistent with it for a long period of time. If you are eating foods that you actually enjoy most of the time, you are more likely to be consistent with your diet efforts.

 

So how do they work?

For many people, this may sound like common knowledge. However, if you are ever trying to put on muscle or lose fat it is imperative to understand these concepts. In order to lose any weight, you must eat less calories in a day than your body burns in a day (a calorie is simply a unit of measurement for energy, this energy is provided by carbohydrates, protein, and fat). This is known as a calorie deficit. Body fat is essentially your body’s fuel storage; when your body experiences a time period where it does not have access to energy from food, it has to tap into your stored fat in order to keep the lights on inside (keep your heart beating, breathing, etc.). When you eat more calories than your body burns in a day, it will use whatever it needs to produce energy for the current moment and store the rest of energy as body fat. This is known as a calorie surplus. If you are attempting to lose some body fat, you will want to be in a calorie deficit. If you want to put on some muscle, you want to be in a calorie surplus. There are of course other factors to look at for body composition, however, energy intake is the starting point when evaluating a diet.

Side note: not all extra energy is stored as fat. Carbohydrates can be stored in your muscles and in your liver. Body fat is a much greater reservoir of energy, though.

 

So how does this apply to diets? Well, most diets are put forward with the intent of helping people lose weight. Many promoters of fad diets will claim some extraneous way that their diet makes you lose weight. Though, they really just help you create a calorie deficit in different ways. Let’s take a look at how this applies to some popular diets.

• Intermittent fasting: limits the time in a day in which you are allowed to consume calories

• Multiple small meals a day: claims to boost your metabolism, but really all it does is limit the size of each of your meals

• Keto: limits the intake of one source of calories (carbs)

• High carb diets: limits the intake of one source of calories (fats)

• Paleo: limits the intake of high calorie, low satiating foods (sugar, dairy, etc.)

• Carnivore diet: limits the intake of two sources of calories (carbs and fats)

• Vegan: limits animal foods, tends to be higher carb (limits fats, mostly saturated fats in this case)

Another thing you may realize is that for every diet out there, there’s another diet that’s the exact opposite: high carb and high fat, vegan and carnivore, intermittent fasting and multiple meals, etc.

So, do you have to pick one of these diets and stick to it? You can if you want, or you can look at each diet as a tool in the tool box (the better approach in my opinion). Say you usually have a normal eating schedule of breakfast lunch and dinner. If there is a morning where you are rushed and don’t feel like you have time to make breakfast. Well, you can just skip breakfast that day and have a bigger lunch and dinner; therefore, you’re intermittent fasting (assuming calorie intake for the day is the same). You could also take this approach if you are just not hungry one morning. Maybe one day you are more in the mood for higher carbohydrate foods and the next you are more in the mood for higher fat foods. Well, that first day you can eat a higher carb diet (limit fats) and the second you can eat a higher fat diet (limit carbs).

 

“But I’ve tried counting calories, it didn’t work”

This is something many people say when they look at energy balance as just another fad diet. The point I want to make is that counting calories and energy balance are not inherently the same thing. Calorie counting is absolutely a good practice to keep track of your intake. However, you can be in a calorie deficit without counting calories and following good diet tips (more on these tips later). If you were trying to lose weight by counting your calories and didn’t actually lose weight, you weren’t actually in a calorie deficit and likely were miscounting your intake. Some examples that could have misled you are the following:

• Cooking oils: 1 tablespoon of olive oil has 120 calories, so using it casually in your cooking could be driving up the calorie content of your food

• Liquid calories: things such as soda, coffee, fruit juices, etc. tend to be very high sugar and therefore have a high calorie content

• Eating out: many restaurants will list the calorie content of their foods, although many times they aren’t totally accurate. Restaurants generally care more about taste, so if they need to add more oil or butter for a meal to taste good they generally will. If they don’t list the calorie content, assume it is a high calorie meal and adjust the rest of your day accordingly.

• Too many bites, licks, or tastes: sometimes a few bites of someone else’s meal can put you over the top. For example, a handful of nuts can have up to 200 calories. So that might seem harmless at first, though it could sabotage your diet.

Some more practical diet tips

            The following is a list of tips to focus to help you reach your goals without too much brain power. The first list will be to help you lose weight (lose fat) and the second will be to help you gain weight (build muscle).

Calorie deficit tips:

• Make lean protein foods a priority in your meals; i.e. foods such as chicken breast, pork loin, 90% lean beef, white fish, shell fish, etc. (promote muscle growth and are much more filling than other food groups for not very many calories)

• Eat lots of high fiber foods; i.e. foods such as oatmeal, whole wheat bread instead of white bread, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, etc. (promote regularity in the bathroom and are very filling for low calories)

• Eat at least one serving of a fruit or vegetable in each meal, most fruits and vegetables have very low calories and are very nutrient dense

• Make sure you stay hydrated (sometimes we might think we are hungry when we are really thirsty, so having and ample intake of water can help to stay satiated)

• Be careful of oils when cooking; use a spray version of a cooking oil if you can, odds are you will end up using way less and therefore saving you a lot of calories

• Avoid/limit liquid calories; i.e. soda, fruit juices, coffee creamers etc. (liquids are generally not very filling, so you can add a lot more calories and not feel any fuller)

• Don’t have too many snack foods in the house; you are much less likely to snack out of boredom if it requires you to drive somewhere to get the snack, so having that barrier is helpful

Calorie surplus tips

• try to eat higher calorie sources of protein such as chicken thighs, fattier beef, salmon, etc.

• consume more liquid calories such as high calorie protein smoothies, fruit juices, etc.

• have high calorie snacks throughout the day such as nuts or an energy bar

• be more generous with the cooking oil when making food

• have a scoop of protein with a high calorie snack before going to bed; i.e. toast with peanut butter

Conclusion

            The moral of the story with all this, is that the best diet is the one tailored to your goals and your food preferences. There is no one right answer to this, and what works best is likely different for everyone. If you still feel like you would like some more guidance, reaching out to a registered dietician near you is an excellent idea.