What's The Best Diet?

I hear so many people ask, What’s the best diet?

Or I’ll hear this one too, “Suzy’s vegan and she’s super healthy, I think I’m going to try vegan..”

That’s how the diet industry thrives is that it works for one person and has a ripple effect.

When we want to lose weight, our first thought is to find someone who has lost weight and do what they’re doing or we ask the question, should I do vegan, vegetarian, paleo, low carb, high carb, fasting, should I eat breakfast or should I not?

With so much information out there, I mean how are you supposed to know?

Let’s say the perfect diet is the paleo diet. It’s great, you have lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. But someone said you can get cancer from eating meat.

Okay, so let’s try the Mediterranean diet. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, potatoes, whole grains, breads, herbs, spices, fish, seafood and extra virgin olive oil, that sounds good right? But someone said you can get cancer from fish and it’s not healthy.

Let's move on to a plant-based diet. That’s all natural. It must be healthy! But what about the pesticides on the plants and I can’t get organic year round?

Intermittent fasting must be it! Let’s just not eat. Let’s go for long periods of time not eating anything and then when it’s time to eat let’s just force ourselves to eat as much as we can.

When I first started my health and fitness journey, I had no clue what I was doing. Although I knew how to somewhat workout due to sports in high school, I still didn’t know how to eat right and workout right in order the get the results I wanted.

I would look on Pinterest for workouts and diets. I would see results but then fall off track or gain the weight right back and feel even worse because I couldn’t stick to anything.

So how do you know which one is best for you before you decide?

Before you decide which diet is best for you, my question to you would be why do you want to know?

I want to lose 20 lbs and just gain more energy. Okay, great you don’t need to know which diet is best for that solution. What you need is fitness and nutrition coaching to help you get there based on your lifestyle.

So again, you ask what is the best diet?

One that fits your lifestyle and is sustainable for you.

In 2013, there was 4 meta-analysis published summarizing between 13-24 major trials…

What this means is that researchers gathered a bunch of different weight loss/diet trials and published a meta-analysis of the average conclusion.

What they found was consistency or commitment was the ONLY factor associated with weight loss and disease-related outcomes.

So it didn’t really matter about the macronutrient ratios of Fats, Carbs and Protein.

All diets are simply composed of macronutrient ratios. Low carb, high carb, low fat, high fat, etc.

What mattered was consistency. If someone could commit and stay consistent, they would be able to see results.

You’re probably asking, how does someone eating high carb lose the same amount of weight as someone who’s eating low carb?

The question then becomes, what about a diet makes people change or see results?

1. Well for one, they’re simply more aware of what they’re eating.
2. Diets raise awareness around food.
3. You also start focusing on food quality.
4. They help eliminate nutrient deficiency.
5. They control your appetite and food intake.

So really, all diets have this effect no matter which one you’re on and in turn you’ll see results no matter what.

Nutrition is more than just food.

I can't just tell someone to eat better or show them how to eat better.

It’s based on other factors such as:

• Food preferences
• Food tolerance
• Cultural or religious tradition
• Food availability
• Food budget
• Body type
• Nutritional beliefs
• Lifestyle
• Food knowledge
• Starting point

Diets force people to cut these things out or force them to be someone their not.

They’re saying, I don’t care who you are. You need to be more like me and stop living your life.

I would challenge you to stop asking what is the best diet and instead ask what does my body need based on these different factors?

So many of us see someone who is fit and instantly ask, what are you doing? What are you eating? Can you send me a meal plan?

Don’t get me started on meal plans! I’ll talk about that in another post but what you need to know is that meal plans are not sustainable.

If you don’t see yourself doing it for the rest of your life, then why do it?

I don’t know about you but I want to enjoy my life and be fit while doing it.

We all want the sprint to success without putting much effort into it.

But what happens when we do that is we fall off and sometimes go back to where we started if not worse.

We didn’t take the time to build health and fitness INTO our life.

So to answer the question...there is no best diet. Cut out the word diet. And start focusing on building healthy HABITS slowly and strategically over time.

If you’ve made it this far, this is the perfect opportunity for you to apply for my FIT180 coaching program where I coach you through your limiting factors and help you build healthy habits to get results that are sustainable.

If you’re someone who wants to lose fat and gain more energy to feel more confident, this is for you.

Stop looking for the next diet and start making health and fitness FIT for YOU!  

If you're ready to get started or just want to see if it's for you, click HERE to apply and we'll see if we're a good fit to work together. 

As always, thanks for reading!

XO

Courtney Marie