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#129 - What Really Is The Best Diet For You?
26 Plays11 days ago
Everybody wants to know: What’s the best diet? Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo, Carnivore.
The options are endless, and everyone has an opinion. The truth is, the “best” diet depends on you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The pros and cons of today’s most popular diets
- How to match a diet style to your personality and lifestyle so you can actually stick with it long term
- The patterns that the most effective diets all share
- Practical takeaways to cut through the noise and finally answer the question: what really is the best diet for you
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Lathan Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have another weekly episode, as we always do, coming at you this week. Before I get into this, if you can leave a review, I do appreciate that. Continue to get this to more people who need this type of information.
The Myth of the 'Best' Diet
00:00:22
Speaker
With the podcast this week, I wanted to talk about a question that I get quite often. People will ask me since they know I've lost a lot of weight, Lathan, how did you lose 100 pounds? What did you eat to lose 100 pounds? What is the best diet?
00:00:37
Speaker
Spoiler alert, there is no best diet. However, there are some patterns, there are some trends that I have noticed with people who have been successful with losing a lot of weight and keeping it off.
00:00:49
Speaker
And so I'm going to get into some of that, but I'm also going to go over some of the most popular diets, some of the pros of these diets, some of the cons of these diets, so that you can actually make a decision about what kind of diet is best for you.
00:01:01
Speaker
And if you don't necessarily fit into one of these boxes, like there's certain things that you like about this diet and maybe there's something that you like about this other diet, you can actually start to mold and create your own diet, which is what I feel that I have done and has been very, very helpful with being able to keep this weight off, but also enjoy the foods that I'm eating and look forward to the meals that I'm eating and not have so much confusion or guilt or questions about food. And so once you actually understand some of these things and why some of these things work well, why some of these things don't work well, but also just have a genuine understanding of the principles behind diets, you can start to pick and choose parts of these diets that actually work for your lifestyle, for your preferences and for your goals.
00:01:49
Speaker
On top of that, just being a person who actually feels good, who looks good, who's able to stay in shape, stay fit, that's all very important and that's all centered around your diet. And so once you have some of these tools and once you really have a good understanding of all this stuff, it makes not only losing weight, but keeping that weight off, but also just feeling good in your day to day.
00:02:08
Speaker
much easier.
Understanding Energy Balance in Diets
00:02:09
Speaker
Getting into this, it would be ill advised of me to not go over some of these principles and methods before actually getting into some of these particular diets, because the number one thing that you have to understand when it comes to diets is they all work the exact same way.
00:02:26
Speaker
And that is they start to manipulate your energy balance, which is just a fancy way to say you need to be in a calorie deficit. In other words, you need to eat fewer calories than your body needs for a substantial amount of time in order to see weight loss if you are not in a calorie deficit or an energy deficit for an extended period of time you will not lose weight that is the only way to lose weight that is the science that is the hard rule for every single diet is that it will force you to eat fewer calories so that you can lose weight
00:02:58
Speaker
And so when calories are lower, as long as those calories are lower and you're getting a sufficient amount of protein, if you take two different diets and pair them against each other, let's say we take a low fat diet versus a low carb diet and we're eating the same amount of calories and we're eating the same amount of protein.
00:03:17
Speaker
we are going to lose the same amount of weight. And this has been studied time and time again. These diets perform in the same ways when all these things are accounted for. And you might be thinking, well, I saw this person hop on carnivore and they lost 30 pounds in their first nine weeks, or they started keto and they lost a crap ton of weight super quickly.
Early Weight Loss: Water Weight Explained
00:03:39
Speaker
The thing that you have to understand when it comes to these different diets is that some of these diets are going to cause people to eat a lot less. And so calories are not necessarily equated. So this diet over here that you're doing in maybe a more sustainable, moderate approach is having you eat in a 500 calorie deficit, which is pretty standard.
00:03:57
Speaker
This other diet that you hop on. maybe you start a keto diet, you're only eating 1500 calories. And so the weight loss that that person sees eating less calories is probably going to be more dramatic, especially in the beginning.
00:04:10
Speaker
The other part of this is that water loss and so particular diets will cause some people to lose an extreme amount of water weight, specifically when people start to transition to things that are like lower with carbs, or just cause them to eat less, they're going to drop a lot of water weight very quickly.
00:04:28
Speaker
And this shows up on the scale. And so you might have somebody who drops 1015 20 pounds in a month, in a large amount of that weight is coming just from water. And so When you are focused on weight loss and specifically sustainable weight loss, I think it's important to realize what's actually going on with that scale.
00:04:47
Speaker
We all want to see that scale drop and it's really encouraging and motivating when you see that scale start to drop very quickly. But you also should understand that a lot of that weight is coming from water weight. It's not necessarily coming from fat loss, which ultimately is the goal is to lose more fat because If you have goals around how you look and how you feel, losing that fat, losing that extra adipose that we have around our body is what most people want as that end goal.
00:05:11
Speaker
And so understand those things as you're going into
Principles of Calorie Deficit
00:05:14
Speaker
this. And so when we talk about diets, I think it's important to talk about the difference between the principles and the methods. So the principle is the calorie deficit. Every single diet has to follow this principle. They all do the same thing. They just do it in different ways, which are the methods. And so the methods are like your specific diet. So you have low carb, you have low fat, you have carnivore, you have keto, you have if it fits your macros, you have all these different types of diets. And those are your methods.
00:05:40
Speaker
but they all lead to this exact same thing and they all abide by the same principle, which is to get you to eat fewer calories for an extended period of time. That is it. And I reiterate this so much because still so often I'll have conversations with people and it's very apparent to me that they don't understand the most basic and most important principle, which is energy balance or getting into a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.
00:06:06
Speaker
And so please, please, please understand that before you just jump into some certain diet, because when you don't understand that you start picking these methods, which you hear maybe this diet caused this person to lose a ton of weight, or you hear a lot of people talking about carnivores. So you jump on this diet thinking it's the magic solution or the magic pill.
00:06:24
Speaker
When in reality, you're just in a calorie deficit. And when you jump on some sort of diet that's not sustainable and you can't keep up with that thing, you think that that's the only way to lose weight. And that's not a good place to be because then you start doing stupid things.
00:06:37
Speaker
You get on this cycle of I'm jumping on this diet. I'm trying this diet. I'm trying this diet, not really realizing the underlying principle is that you just need to eat less. And there's multiple ways to do that. And we're going to get into a lot of different ways that you can do that so that you can decide which way is the best way for you to do that.
00:06:54
Speaker
and So when we're talking about the methods, there's three main buckets of restriction. And when you think about dieting, it is restriction. It's basically controlled starvation because you're giving your body less fuel, less energy, less calories than it needs, which is why it uses that extra fat on your body.
00:07:12
Speaker
to burn as energy and that is how you lose weight. And so when we think about diets, there's different forms of restriction that we have to apply. And the thing that you want to do is figure out which type of restriction is the most compatible with me, with my lifestyle, with my goals, with how enjoyable it is long-term. Because again, if it's more enjoyable, if it's easier, if it seems to just gel with what you have going on with your life and your lifestyle,
00:07:41
Speaker
that's what's going to ultimately be the most sustainable. And so you need to find the form of restriction that feels the best to you. There's three main ones. You have...
Intermittent Fasting and Eating Windows
00:07:50
Speaker
The time trade-off. So this is types of diets that would fall into this category, which would be like intermittent fasting because you're eating in a condensed window.
00:07:59
Speaker
Some people will do alternate day fasting. So they eat on one day and then they don't eat the next day, eat on one day, don't eat the next day. There's people that will do what's called OMAD, which stands for one meal a day. So they're literally just eating one single meal per day.
00:08:13
Speaker
All of these things are doing the exact same thing and it's shrinking the amount of time that you have to eat food. And typically that will make people eat fewer calories, AKA help them get into a calorie deficit and they lose weight.
00:08:27
Speaker
As we'll get into a little bit later, this works really well for some people and it doesn't work at all for other people. And we'll get into some of the pros and cons of these specific diets as we kind of
Eliminating Food Groups: Keto and Paleo
00:08:36
Speaker
get going. The second type of bucket that diets will fall into is eliminating certain foods or food types. So the trade off here is that you are eliminating certain foods or even entire macro groups from your diet. So some examples of this would be carnivore because all you are eating are animal products, nothing else.
00:08:55
Speaker
or keto where you're primarily just focused on fat and you pretty much eliminate all carbs or paleo where you are only eating whole foods and you're not eating anything that's processed you're completely taking out entire foods or groups of foods and again this leads to people typically eating less calories when you eat less calories it's easier to get into that calorie deficit as we know we get in the calorie deficit we lose weight the third way that you can use to find this form of restriction to be in a calorie deficit is what I call the tracking or macro trade-off. And so this would just be like tracking your calories, tracking your macros. Some people will call this if it fits your macros. And essentially the trade-off here is that you are spending a little bit of extra time to track your food. And a lot of people will do this through apps, but people have also done this in the past with like food journals or even just pictures, just taking food pictures, things like that.
00:09:52
Speaker
Something that brings awareness to the choices that you are making with your food in order for you to track those. And especially now with like the apps and stuff and it gives you numbers, it's just a more concrete way to make sure that you are in a calorie deficit. So you have the numbers there.
00:10:07
Speaker
and you know for certain if you're tracking calories and you're doing it correctly you know that you're in a calorie deficit based on these numbers and so those are the three different types of trade-offs or the types of restrictions
Adherence for Long-term Success
00:10:21
Speaker
that all of the diets will fall into and as i've said already some of these will you'll hear them or maybe you've tried them in the past and you'll be like i would never ever do that that would never work for me that's probably not a good diet for you to choose And other diets you may see work very well for you. But for somebody else, some friend that you have or some family member, they may look at your diet and be like, I can never do that. And it's the same with anything else. Like when you think about pizza, people will talk about like pineapple on pizza. Does it belong? Does it not?
00:10:51
Speaker
I love pineapple on pizza. I think it's awesome. Some other people are like, that's disgusting. I would never do that. Same thing comes with diet. Just because something works very well for somebody else does not mean that it's the diet for you. So you have to kind of find your flavor, find what really works for you, and then stick with that.
00:11:08
Speaker
Last thing I'll say before getting into this, Adherence is the number one predictor of long term success. When it comes to weight loss, you have to find some sort of foundation that works really well that you can do for a really long time, because if you're not able to do whatever protocol, whatever diet, whatever method that you choose for a really long time, it's not going to work long term. And so when you look at the studies, when you look at weight loss studies,
00:11:34
Speaker
you look at the data, 60% of people in these different diets that they have people on are able to stick to it. 40% of those people drop out before the study ever even ends. And a lot of these studies aren't super long.
00:11:47
Speaker
And so when you just think about that from a general standpoint, it's like, okay, these people are trying these diets and they're not able to stick to them for six weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks, whatever the time limit of these studies is.
00:11:58
Speaker
That's probably not a sustainable approach for them. And so it's really important as you go through these diets and you try different things that you figure out what's going to be something that I can do long term.
00:12:10
Speaker
and with that being said i definitely am a proponent of trying different things and figuring out which things work really well for you because hearing about these things is one thing researching them gathering info hearing stories from other people and what they use to lose weight is all good but i think you really get a much better feel by actually trying these things out for 30 days for six weeks for ah couple of months to actually see how well it fits with your lifestyle see how you feel see your results and then you can make a more educated decision is this something that i want to try to use long term or maybe this is even just a certain tool that i use from time to time but when you actually try it when you actually give it a try you will learn so much more the other thing that i would mention when it comes to trying these different diets there's a couple of things that are going to help you with that long-term adherence as well just based on the studies and but also just based on my personal experience with helping people lose weight and following some sort of plan so having a diet
00:13:09
Speaker
Having a nutrition plan, having a food plan, having some sort of actionable plan is super important and is much more likely to help you be successful with weight loss. Some kind of social support is really helpful as well. That's why people in certain like weight loss groups or people who have a coach or have a trainer or are dieting with somebody else, they typically tend to do better.
00:13:31
Speaker
Doing some of those basic things to help you out with this long term adherence to give you a chance to actually experience the diet for 60 days or for eight weeks or whatever is also going to be helpful. So just a couple of tips there to help you win and just to help you be a little bit more successful.
00:13:47
Speaker
So getting into the diets, I think I have seven or eight of the most popular here. And I'm to go through some of these, give you some of like the pros and cons. what these particular diets are, and then give you a little bit of a recommendation about who these types of diets are actually really good for.
The Flexibility of Calorie Tracking
00:14:03
Speaker
The first one that I wanted to go over is just tracking calories. And I have to say that I'm a little bit biased on this one because this is what I used a majority of the time to lose weight. And I think one thing that people really think about when they first hear tracking calories is I don't want to do that. Like I don't want to put in the extra time and I definitely don't want to do that for the rest of my life.
00:14:23
Speaker
So one thing I tell you is that I don't view calories or tracking calories as something that you should or have to do for your entire life. I think it's a educational tool that you can use to learn a lot about food.
00:14:36
Speaker
And then when you get better at understanding portion sizes and what has more calories versus less calories, all the different things that you'll learn that come with tracking calories, then you can start to eat more intuitively.
00:14:47
Speaker
Some of the diets that fall under this would be some something like flexible dieting, counting your macros, counting your calories. Some people will call it if it fits your macros. And essentially, you don't have any restrictions on the types of foods that you can eat. You are just more so focused on your energy intake.
00:15:03
Speaker
In other words, you're just focused on how many calories are you eating and how much protein are you getting? Some people will take this a little further and they'll track their fats and carbs and things like that. But as I mentioned earlier, if your calories are in check and your protein is in check,
00:15:16
Speaker
The other stuff doesn't matter nearly as much. And the reason that I'm a fan of this, and this is also the style of dieting that I talk about the most is because it does add that flexible dieting component.
00:15:28
Speaker
And so now you're not so strict within your approach. For some people, they really like having those strict guidelines. I think for a majority of people, though, they like to have some sort of flexibility, especially from a long-term perspective, because your life is going to be changing. You're going to go through different seasons when you're traveling, when you go through different phases in life, when you're busy, when you're stressed.
00:15:50
Speaker
And having strict and hard rules sometimes doesn't fit into your lifestyle very well. So having some sort of flexibility where you can eat a lot of high-quality things, but also have some time where you can enjoy other things at social events or on vacation and you have this flexible mindset you have this more flexible approach.
00:16:09
Speaker
I think it creates a better relationship for a lot of people long term. As I said, some of the pros, it's pretty flexible. You can do it at different times and when you're on vacation, when you're traveling, different things like that.
00:16:22
Speaker
The other thing that I really like about this is that it's super clear and measurable and you just have the hard data there. A lot of people struggle because they feel like they're dieting. They feel like they should be losing weight, but they're actually eating a lot more than they think. And as I've said dozens of times,
00:16:39
Speaker
we are really bad at estimating the amount of food that we eat. We typically underestimate how many calories we're eating and sometimes by as much as 50%, which if you're trying to lose weight, if you're even trying to maintain weight, but you're eating way more than you think or way more than your body needs,
00:16:55
Speaker
You are not going to be losing weight. And in fact, you're probably going to be gaining some weight, which is frustrating. And so having the numbers is really nice because it gives you that clear cut data that you are doing the right things. And as long as you're hitting those numbers, you're going to see progress over time.
00:17:11
Speaker
And the third con that ah or the third pro, excuse me, that I really like about this that I touched on a little bit is that you learn a ton by doing this. It teaches you more awareness about portion size, about what has the most calories versus what kind of foods have less calories. It teaches you nutrition.
00:17:27
Speaker
Just so many different things that are very valuable that a lot of us never really pay attention to until you start tracking calories. And one thing that I'll always hear from people who start tracking calories is I had no idea I was really eating that much or they measure a certain type of food or track a certain type of food and they go, I had no idea this food had that many calories.
00:17:47
Speaker
And I think it's something that you never really do actually think about until you track calories. And so there's times where I'll look at certain things, look at certain foods or look at certain dishes and I'll be like, there are so many calories in this food right now.
00:18:00
Speaker
And sometimes it's worth it for me to eat those things. Other times I'm like, I'm going to pass because it's not worth it for me to take that many calories. But when you have this education when you have this background, of tracking calories you have the wherewithal to make those decisions that are actually going to help you and you're not just trying to do this mindlessly or just trying to kind of shoot from the hip and do this with your best approach you have more clear-cut instructions and data and numbers to make the decisions that you need to see the results that you want to see some of the cons
00:18:31
Speaker
It can be a little bit tedious and time consuming, especially at the beginning. Once you get good at it, I don't think it takes all that much time. And one thing that I'll say to people who are like, i don't want to track calories. i don't want to do that.
00:18:42
Speaker
And I go, well, I traded five to 10 minutes a day to lose 100 pounds and completely changed my life. And so to me, five minutes a day to track some calories seems pretty dang worth it to me.
00:18:53
Speaker
That's kind of the perspective that I look at it through. Yes, it takes a little bit of extra time, but i think that trade-off is worth it for a lot of people. The other thing that tracking calories can lead to for some certain types of people is that they start to focus on the numbers too much and they get obsessive with it. And some people can develop eating disorders and things like that. So if you're like the super obsessive or very like compulsive with these type of things, then maybe this approach isn't necessarily the best for you.
00:19:23
Speaker
And the other con that I would mention too is that sometimes you get so focused on the numbers that you forget to actually think about how your body actually feels when you're eating meals. And what I mean by that is like you have this specific target that you want to hit or maybe this amount of protein.
00:19:39
Speaker
And rather than actually listening to your hunger cues and how your body feels on certain foods and whether this gives you low energy or high energy or different things like that, you just strictly focus on the numbers and you don't actually focus on what's actually going on in your body, which I think is really important for long term adherence is just.
00:19:57
Speaker
actually taking some time to kind of check in with how you feel on certain diets. Because if you're hitting the numbers, you might see some progress and things like that. But like if you feel terrible, like if you have low energy, if you don't actually feel like good and energized and vibrant and things like that on a certain diet, but you're hitting these numbers and you're seeing progress, like I don't know if that's probably the best approach for you. So you want to make sure that you're paying attention to the signals that your body is giving you as well.
Focus on Whole Foods: Paleo and Mediterranean
00:20:22
Speaker
The next on the list would be paleo. And this is one that you've probably heard of. Simply put, you're just eating real food. And so this is eliminating a certain food group, basically processed foods.
00:20:33
Speaker
And your goal is to only eat things that are single ingredient foods. So these would be things like fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, All those things that people used to eat in the Paleolithic times, which was years and years and years ago, they didn't have access to processed foods. They just had plants and they had animals and those were the things that they ate.
00:20:54
Speaker
And this focuses on whole foods, which is a good thing. You improve your diet quality, you improve your satiety so you're not as hungry. And typically this leads to people eating less because they're not eating highly processed things that are very easy to overeat.
00:21:07
Speaker
And this was really popular for a while, probably 10 years ago or so. Paleo was one that was super popular because it's simple and it's very easy to explain and pretty simple to abide by. You basically just eat real food. You don't eat anything that's not in a whole single ingredient form.
00:21:23
Speaker
Some of the cons about this is for some people, it can be a little bit too restrictive. So if you're somebody who wants to have some things in moderation, like you wanna to have some processed foods or things like that, this is obviously is going to be very hard to stick to.
00:21:35
Speaker
But overall, I think it's a fairly decent plan. It's incorporates a lot of really good foods and nutrients and things like that. And the rules are pretty simple, which is good. And so this can be good for somebody who likes clear rules, but who doesn't want to have to think about things too much. And it's also not a bad idea for those people who maybe are eating tons and tons of processed foods. And like, you just want to break from those things and kind of just reset a little bit and not from like a, you're resetting like your metabolism or anything like that. But I found that when you take time away from like highly processed things, lots of fast food, lots of eating out, things like that, and you give yourself a period of time where you're just eating more whole foods, you will notice how much differently your body feels, how much less cravings that you will have after a period of time, how much less you're just overeating. And so if you want to have that experience and use this paleo type of diet,
00:22:29
Speaker
I don't think that's a bad idea to use the paleo diet as one of those things. Next up on the list, Mediterranean diet, which you probably heard of this one. And essentially what this one is, is the diet that a lot of people in the Mediterranean region rely on, which is a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, which is just like beans and things like that.
00:22:51
Speaker
Olive oil, nuts, lots of fish, little bit of dairy and chicken, And then they try to limit red meat. And that's kind of a diet that they follow. And so a lot of whole foods and this diet has been studied quite a bit. And there's been some associations with having good evidence for long-term heart health and metabolic health.
00:23:10
Speaker
And essentially you're just eating a lot of whole foods, a lot of things that are really good for you. And so you're doing those things and you're not eating tons of processed things, you're probably going to have some pretty good health benefits. Good satiety on this. It's fairly sustainable for a lot of people.
00:23:23
Speaker
Some of the cons about this one compared to some of the other ones, it's like you don't have as many like strict and hard rules. So you could still easily be eating too many calories or eating too much, even when you're only limited to those foods that were mentioned above. And so that is something that you still have to think about.
00:23:40
Speaker
But overall, again, I think this is a solid diet because it has a lot of whole foods. You're eating a lot of good things. And so For a person that this is good for, like if they want a more balanced, more long-term health approach, I think for quite a few people, this style or like Mediterranean-ish style of diet is a pretty good focus for a lot of people.
Exploring Plant-Based Diets
00:24:01
Speaker
Next on the list is plant-based or like vegan or like mostly plant-based. This is one of the few diets on this list that I have never tried. i love protein. I love like hamburgers. I love All that different kind of stuff. Like I love animal products. And so for me, this is probably not some sort of diet that I will ever try.
00:24:20
Speaker
Maybe there will be a time where I try this, but I highly doubt that I will ever give any extended period of time to just being straight plant based because I love protein that much. But for some people, this works very well.
00:24:32
Speaker
You eliminate animal products. A lot of people are typically going to eat less calories. But there's definitely some pros, there's definitely some cons with this one here. And so some of the pros of this one, you're getting lots of vegetables, which is good. You're getting lots of fiber, a lot of micronutrients, lot of things like that, which are going to be good for you.
00:24:48
Speaker
For some people, they're motivated to do like plant-based or vegan based on like environmental or ethical reasons, which like if that's something that's important to you, then that could be a pro. That can be a really strong motivator for a lot of people to adhere to this certain type of diet. So that can be a positive.
00:25:04
Speaker
Some of the cons though, like you're not getting a ton of protein from just vegetables unless you're very conscious about what types of vegetables you're getting, but also like having to supplement for certain types of things that you would get in animal products that you're not getting now that you're strictly eating plants is something that you also have to be very aware of. So things like iron or B12 are things that you're getting in animal products that you're no longer getting from strictly just plant products. So If you decide to go the vegan route, you really have to be smart about the things that you're eating. and It takes a little bit more planning to get adequate amounts of protein and make sure you're covering all your bases with the nutrients that you need.
00:25:43
Speaker
One of the other things I would say about this is now a lot of the products just with like marketing and things like that, you'll see labels of like vegan this or vegan that or different styles of foods that claim to be vegan, but are just extremely, extremely highly processed and have tons of different ingredients in it.
00:26:03
Speaker
And like if your diet is just consisted of like vegan mac and cheese and vegan chips and vegan, like all this stuff that's just in a package, That's probably not the best thing either, because I think with most of these diets and with a lot of things that people do really well on, like they feel good, they're also able to lose weight and things like that. They're focused around whole foods.
00:26:24
Speaker
But if you're strictly just eating tons of processed foods, like that's not going to be a good thing either. So pros and cons to this diet as well. I think for who this fits for, obviously somebody who is not super high on animal products, I think this is going to be a good option for somebody who's like really driven by like the ethical or environmental reasons. Like if you and really enjoy vegetables, like this could be a diet choice for you. But again, I think it's very important to be smart about this because if you're not the type of person who's going to put in the time and the planning to make sure that you're getting the things that your body needs, then it could end up being a detriment to you if you're following this type of diet.
Simplicity of Intermittent Fasting
00:27:01
Speaker
Next on the list, intermittent fasting or time-restricted feeding. And then I'll throw OMAD in this as well. So this is just condensing down the amount of time that you have to eat in a day, which will cause you to eat less calories most of the time. And so there's different styles of this. There's time-restricted feeding, which typically a lot of people will do like a 16-8 protocol. Some people will do like a 20-hour, four-hour protocol. So like 16 hours of the day. you're not eating or 20 hours of the day, you're not eating and then you're just eating in a smaller window.
00:27:32
Speaker
Some people will even do this days at a time. So they'll go alternate day fasting. Some people will do this just like OMAD. So they pick one meal per day where they eat that large amount of food and then they don't eat the rest of the day.
00:27:44
Speaker
And so this is really good because it's simple. A lot of people like this style of eating because it's extremely simple to remember and to apply once you get used to it.
00:27:55
Speaker
And you'll notice that you typically will have less snacking and lower calorie intake with condensing down this window. Some people will also say like following this style of diet, they feel like they're more focused. So when they're not having to eat multiple times throughout the day, they just feel like they're more locked in and more focused. And so there's like some mental benefits that some people will report when on these types of diets.
00:28:17
Speaker
Some of the cons, from a social aspect, it's kind of weird. Like if you have a family or you wanna go on a brunch or a breakfast or a dinner, but like it's not in your time window and like you don't want to eat, well, that kind of messes with like your social life a little bit. Not that it's the end of the world, but it's just something to think about a little bit.
00:28:38
Speaker
With this, another counter be, it's not magic. A lot of people think that because they're doing intermittent fasting, it's like this magic protocol. But as I stated before, it's the same principle that still applies here. A lot of people eat less, so they lose weight.
00:28:53
Speaker
But... For the wrong person, for somebody who can eat a lot of food like myself or somebody who eats a ton of highly processed things or a lot of fast food or eats out a lot or just eats things that are very high in calories, you could still very easily go over your calories and be in a calorie surplus eating too many calories and you're not losing weight and you could even be gaining weight. And so if you're the type who like can binge a ton of food or eat lots of food and this style of eating could backfire on you. And I've seen it go both ways. Obviously this works for some people, for other people's, this is a really bad strategy.
00:29:31
Speaker
And so for people who just want some type of structure and who don't have those issues with tons of overeating, this can be a really solid strategy for them. Next up on the list, we got carnivore.
Controversies of the Carnivore Diet
00:29:42
Speaker
This has been probably one of the most popular diets in the last couple of years. And it's basically you just eat animal products. So you eat beef, pork, you can eat chicken, you can eat fish, eggs. Some people eat dairy and organ meats, but the whole idea is that you're not eating anything outside of that. No plant foods, you're not eating any processed foods, you're not eating anything outside of those animal products.
00:30:03
Speaker
It's extremely simple. And so a lot of people like it because they don't have to make tons of choices. Like a lot of people will just strictly eat some sort of beef and then have like some eggs and like put some salt on it. And then that's really it. Like they're not eating a ton of different types of foods outside of this. And so the rules are very simple.
00:30:20
Speaker
A lot of people will see very quick weight loss on this. And so that's motivating to some people because they're not eating any carbs. And when you're not eating any carbs, you're going to lose a ton of water weight very quickly.
00:30:31
Speaker
Some people also report that like when they get on this style of diet, they start to see improvements like in their gut or in their autoimmune type of issues that maybe they're having or digestion issues that they were having, they start to get rid of some of those things. And part of that could be they're just eliminating a lot of crap out of their diet, which the standard diet does include a lot of that stuff just from what people are eating on a regular basis. And when you go to something very simple, you're going to eliminate a lot of those things. But There are definitely some cons to this because we don't really know the long-term effects of a lot of these diets because they are relatively new.
00:31:05
Speaker
And so we don't know by eliminating plants and fruits and different nutrients like that, like that could lead to some things down the line that we don't know the effects of yet. You're not really getting a ton of fiber with this type of diet.
00:31:17
Speaker
And the research on fiber is overwhelmingly very, very good. Like getting ah high amount of fiber in your diet is good for a lot of things, for digestion, for weight loss,
00:31:28
Speaker
for longevity, for a lot of different health benefits, having good some good amount of fiber in your diet from fruits, vegetables, even some whole grains. And a lot of these different diets is a good thing, but this kind of diet does not have that.
00:31:41
Speaker
We don't really know the long-term ref effects. It doesn't really have a lot of fiber. Those are definitely some of the cons. What I've seen with this diet getting more popularized over the last few years or so, one of the people who was very instrumental in really pushing this movement, his name is Paul Saladino,
00:31:57
Speaker
And he wrote an entire book on this. He was known as like the strict carnivore guy. This guy himself has changed his views and changed his diet over time because he started to notice negative health effects. And so he's been living this lifestyle for a really long time, but he started having some health effects with not being able to sleep with heart palpations with like things coming up with like skin issues and different things like that. And so he has slowly added some carbs back into his diets because of some of these negative health effects that he was having. So now he'll include like lots of fruits in his diet. I'll have some honey and things like that. He's still more animal based, but he has included some carbs back. And I think that goes to show you that like
00:32:38
Speaker
There is no one size fits all. So like if you're doing these diets and you're trying this for a substantial amount of time and you may feel really good at first, but like if those things start to change, if you start to notice some differences, if you start to feel lethargic or you start to just notice things that just don't feel right, pay attention to that because a lot of that has to do with the things that you're eating and the diet that you are following.
Keto: Rapid Loss vs. Sustainability
00:33:00
Speaker
Next on the list, ketogenic diet. Everybody's heard of keto. Essentially, this is just a super low carb diet. super high fat diet and kind of a moderate approach with protein.
00:33:11
Speaker
what you're doing here, you're eating lots of fat. So you're eating like fatty fish, you're eating fatty cuts of meat, you're having oil, butter, eggs, some vegetables you can get in there, like some lower carb vegetables, but you're not really eating much for fruit, you're eating full fat dairy, you're essentially just trying to get a lot of fat within your diet, and trying to take out the carbs. And so when people follow a keto diet, they typically try to keep their carbs below 50 grams, which is not a lot at all. That's like a banana and an apple or that's like a cup of oatmeal or a cup of rice would give you 50 grams of carbs or more and so you're really really restricting carbs a lot with the idea to get into ketosis and to get your body burning fat for fuel
00:33:53
Speaker
I think when people hear this, it's like, oh, keto sounds really good. I'm going to lose a lot of weight really quickly. And it's kind of easy to follow because the rules are simple. And you can see some pretty rapid short-term weight loss, again, because you are reducing carbs just like you do with the carnivore diet. So you may lose a ton of water weight very quickly.
00:34:09
Speaker
for some people another pro is they use this for like brain conditions so people with like epilepsy they have noticed that using a keto style approach with their diet has helped with certain health conditions like that and so it can be more of a tool for things like that but i think from like a constant point it's very difficult to maintain especially from a social aspect if you can only eat mostly fats like it just makes it hard to eat And so from a long-term perspective, for a lot of people, it's not going to be very good. For some people, that's what they like. They can do this forever and they really enjoy this style of eating and they like it and it's their jam. But I think for a very, very large majority of people, this is probably not going to be the long-term answer
00:34:50
Speaker
for people. But with that being said, it's good for people who like really simple rules and who want that structure and who don't really thrive on tons of carbs. Maybe you're the type of person who doesn't like eating lots of carbs and you don't mind the lower carb approach, then this could potentially be something that you want to give a try.
Low Carb vs. Low Fat Approaches
00:35:07
Speaker
Low carb is the next on the list, which is not keto because you can have a little bit more carbs on the lower carb approach. And so in keto, you're trying to eat like 25 to 50 grams of carbs, which is not much at all. In a lower carb approach, some people might be a little bit higher with carbs. So maybe like around 100 or 150 people would still consider that a low carb approach.
00:35:28
Speaker
And with this, again, you're eliminating or really reducing the amount of food that you're eating from a certain food group, which in this case is carbs. So you're typically going to eat less. Pros of this one helps to regulate some appetite.
00:35:41
Speaker
Typically, you'll start to reduce some of your sugars because carbs are sugars. And so when you are trying to really stick to lower carbs, you're not going to be having as much sugar and things like that. Less highly processed foods and all that kind of stuff.
00:35:54
Speaker
Sometimes carbs will get a really bad rep, but people don't really understand that it's not necessarily like these carbs that are like making them fat. Like carbs don't make you fat, just like fats don't make you fat, just like certain foods don't make you fat. It's the overeating of all these things. And so I think it's really important to understand those things, especially when picking one of these diets.
00:36:13
Speaker
When it comes to some of the cons, if you're somebody that's very active and you enjoy carbs, then going low carb probably doesn't make a lot of sense because carbs are energy and they're really helpful for working out for running for cardio for being active and all those different types of things so if you have like a really active job or you work out a lot like a low carb approach probably not the best option for you in a social setting like being super low carb can be a little bit harder sometimes not impossible like you can always skip on carbs if you want to but it can be a little bit more difficult a little bit more restrictive in like social settings
00:36:49
Speaker
For people who this would be good for, like you just feel better on fewer carbs. So there's some people out there who they feel a lot better when they eat more fat and less carbs. There's people that feel better when they eat more carbs, less fat.
00:37:01
Speaker
And so just paying attention to how you feel on certain diets, I think it's important here. But like if you're very active and you enjoy carbs, You like bread, you like some whole grains, you like pastas, you like some desserts here and there. Like if you like carbs, then trying to cut out carbs is probably, again, not going to be the best long term strategy for you.
00:37:21
Speaker
And then the last one that I have on the list is the low fat diet, which is essentially just the opposite of the low carb diet. So still eating a good amount of protein, eating a good amount of carbs, but now lower fat is the goal here.
00:37:33
Speaker
Here, you're obviously just trying to reduce your fat. And so like you're still eating fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, things like that. But you're probably sticking to more like low fat dairy. You're trying to cut out some of maybe the oils that are higher in fat, the butter, the fried foods, like different things like that, that are going to have more fat in them. You're trying to cut those things out.
00:37:51
Speaker
Some of the pros with this one, when you're eating less fat, since calories in fat are higher, it's easier to eat less calories. And so what I mean by that is like you have lower calorie density. and so one gram of fat is nine calories one gram of carb is four calories and one gram of protein is four calories so for every gram of fat that you're eating you're eating twice as many calories as you would if you were eating a food that was mostly carbs or mostly proteins and so when you're eating higher amounts of fat like you're eating more volumes of fat you're typically going to get more calories from that and so by lowering that with a low-fat diet you're typically going to reduce your calories so
00:38:29
Speaker
That's why this can be beneficial for people. But some of the cons is like if you're getting super low in your fats, this may start to affect how you feel as well because we need fats for hormonal health and for testosterone and different things like that. So like if you're super low in your fats, you might start to feel some of the effects of that. So again, just paying attention to your body and how you feel on certain diets is important.
00:38:52
Speaker
And so for the people that this is good for, again, if you feel better on more carbs and less fat, then obviously this is probably going to be a pretty solid choice for you. And so those are some of the main diets that I wanted to just touch on because those are the main ones that you will hear about. And those are probably ones that you have heard about before, maybe even tried some of those things and think just understanding some of the pros, some of the cons, who these things are for, and the overall approach of these diets is helpful to picking the best method or at least trying some certain type
Creating a Personalized Diet
00:39:21
Speaker
of method.
00:39:21
Speaker
The last thing I'll say though, is like knowing all these different methods and trying some of these different things, you can kind of piece together different parts from each diet that you like and to create your own diet. And so for example, my diet that I follow is more so like a flexible dieting, more like Mediterranean style, but there's also times where I will do some calorie counting. And so i'm kind of mixing three different of these diets into one. And so like most of the time I eat whole foods.
00:39:49
Speaker
I, Follow the 80-20 rule where I'm eating lean proteins. I'm eating lots of fruits. I'm eating lots of vegetables. I'm having some healthy fats, some complex carbs. That is a large majority of my diet. But 20% of the time, I want to have some other things. And this is where the flexible dieting come in comes in. I want to have some desserts. I want to go out to eat. I want to have some wings. I want to have some pizza.
00:40:10
Speaker
I don't follow like a strict approach of like paleo or Mediterranean or anything like that. It's more so like a combination of these things. And then there's other times too, where like maybe I do want to lose 10, 15 pounds of fat.
00:40:21
Speaker
And so I'll go into more of a calorie counting style of dieting. And so I'm still mixing the flexible dieting, the Mediterranean dieting with calorie counting. And so I'm kind of molding all three of these things together into a style of eating that I really like, that I really enjoy, and that I know works really well for me.
00:40:39
Speaker
and there's other times too where like I'll use certain diets like these as tools. For example, like if I'm traveling, maybe I'm going to do more of an intermittent fasting type of style because I know that if I'm going out to eat and I'm not preparing my own food, I'm naturally going to be eating higher calorie meals at restaurants because of hidden calories with oils and portion sizes and different things like that. So instead eating three meals, I might cut out one of those meals and I'll eat lunch and dinner or I'll cut out lunch and I'll just eat a late breakfast, and then I'll have dinner. And so I'm using intermittent fasting in that way.
00:41:13
Speaker
Or like, sometimes I'll use a low carb approach. Like for example, just came back from a bachelor party, had lot of alcohol, had carbs, had more food, had pizza, had all these different things. And so i was eating tons of carbs and just having more calories than I wanted to.
00:41:27
Speaker
And so to get rid of some of that excess water that I'm holding on to and just feel good again, I don't really need carbs for the next few days. And so I'll go a little bit more lower carb approach because I'm, my body's already got tons of carbs in there. I've overate all the carbs. They're all stored up in there. And so I don't need a bunch of excess carbs. And so I'll go like two or three days where I'm just going low carb, but lots of lean proteins, some fruits, lots of vegetables. And then after those three, four days, I'll get back to more of a moderate approach where I'm eating more carbs. And so finding
00:41:59
Speaker
different tools and finding different parts of these diets. Once you've tried them for a while, you can start to put these things together into a style of dieting that actually really works best for you.
Emphasizing Whole Foods and Protein
00:42:09
Speaker
And so to bring this all home,
00:42:11
Speaker
some of the practical takeaways to think about when really deciding on a diet or at least a diet that you wanna try, understand that there is no single best diet, like there is no universal best diet.
00:42:23
Speaker
You have to think about what you want out of this diet and think about the long-term results and think about the adherence about how well you can stick to this diet. Second thing I would say is Once you understand those things, make sure that you're matching these diet rules or these diet methods or protocols to you.
00:42:42
Speaker
And so do these things actually fit your lifestyle? Do they fit with the goals that you have? Do they fit with your preferences? And if you check all those boxes and they do, the last thing I would say is do you actually enjoy this style of eating? Because if you enjoy it and you can check all those boxes, you prefer this style of dieting, it fits your lifestyle and it allows you to hit all your goals, whether that be like fat loss goals or fitness goals or whatever the case may be. If you can check all those boxes, that's going to be a great diet for you.
00:43:13
Speaker
Third thing I would say is don't be afraid to experiment with some of these things short term and just see if There's something that you can learn from this style of diet because I tried so many different diets before i actually found what really worked well for me.
00:43:27
Speaker
Learning some of those things and trying some of those things. I also ruled out what I didn't want to do or things that I just didn't need to try again or that I didn't have to worry about again. Because once you have that experience, it's a lot more influential in helping you make a better decision long-term for what's actually going to work for you.
00:43:45
Speaker
And then the last thing I would say too is just understand like, a lot of these diets have a couple of trends. And so eating mostly whole foods is always going to be a good idea. think that's just should go without saying, but the fact of the matter is most people don't do that. And so always eating mostly whole foods is going to be a good thing. And then getting adequate protein is also pretty standard in all of these things. And so eat whole foods, get enough protein.
00:44:09
Speaker
As long as your diet is sound in those principles, you can start to manipulate some of the other things to make it gel with the other parts of ah diet that are important like I mentioned with lifestyle and preferences and goals and things like that.
00:44:23
Speaker
This was a lot of information. I know that this was a little bit longer than a lot of the podcasts that I've done, but I think it's a really important topic because Eating is something that you will do till the day you die. You've been doing it since the day you born. You're going to eat until the day you die.
00:44:37
Speaker
Two, three, four meals a day, multiple snacks. And so figuring out what diet works well for you and what style of eating works for you is one of the best things that you can ever do because your diet has such a huge impact on everything. has a huge impact on your mental health, has an impact on your physical health, has an impact on how you look, on how you feel, on your energy, your how well you sleep, like every little thing that you do is associated with your diet. And so spending some time to actually figure that out is important. So if you spend six months, a year, two years really nailing down what style of diet that you really like, I think that's time really well spent because now you just maybe spent
00:45:19
Speaker
couple of years trying to figure out the habits and the style of dieting and the methods that work best for you. But now for the next 30, 40, 50 years for the rest of your life, you have this way of eating that works really well and allows you to feel great, allows you to look great, allows you to live the way that you want to live. And that's pretty dang important. And so Yes, it takes some work, but I think it's one of the most important things that you can do.
00:45:45
Speaker
And so hopefully this was a little piece in helping you figure some of those things out. I appreciate you listening. As always, ah the one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes and we will see you next week.