Your fitness goals, personal preferences, budget, lifestyle and health can all play a role in determining which style of eating fits your needs. Ultimately the best weight loss diet for you is the one you can stick to long term. This means finding a healthy, balanced meal plan that includes foods that you enjoy eating. Identifying nutritious options that match your personal taste preferences is the best way to build better eating habits that stick around. If you love bread, pasta, and starchy foods, there’s no way you’ll survive on a low carb diet! You don’t have to sacrifice everything to get results.
Remember that everyone's nutritional needs are different. Consider reading both the nutrition facts and the list of ingredients. See How to Read Nutrition Facts on Food Labels for more information. Some consumers, for example, are very concerned about avoiding high-fructose corn syrup. Reading the ingredients can also tell you what kind of oil (such as canola, soy, or palm) is used in the food. Read the nutrition facts to find foods that meet your nutritional needs. Some people need to lose weight and eat low-calorie foods; other people need to gain weight and eat high-calorie foods. Some people have digestive disorders and need to increase or decrease their intake of fiber.
Cutting fat will certainly help you cut calories, but make sure that you are getting enough of the good fats, such as monounsaturated fats and essential fatty acids, including omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Olive oil, canola oil, fatty fish, nuts, seeds, and legumes are sources of good fats that may benefit lipid profiles. Low-fat peanut butter (such as Better ‘n Peanut Butter) gives you fewer calories, but you miss out on good fats. Bad fats include long-chain saturated fatty acids and trans fat. Limiting bad fats is particularly important for individuals with heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. Remember that a gram of fat has nine calories, but food labels usually round the numbers. For a food with two grams of fat, the label may read, “Calories from fat: 20,” although the fat actually contributes eighteen calories.
Some people are not getting enough protein; some people are getting too much. Protein helps build muscles, repair cells, and form hormones, such as thyroxine from tyrosine or serotonin from tryptophan. Athletes need a high protein intake to maintain their bodies. Unfortunately, too much protein is hard on the kidneys.
Complex carbohydrates are starches and take more effort to break down than simple carbohydrates (a.k.a. sugars), stabilizing your blood sugar. Whole grains help keep your blood sugar more stable than refined carbohydrates. Athletes consume carbohydrates for energy; they call it “carb loading.” Carbohydrates are the body’s principal source of energy, but if you choose to follow a low-carbohydrate diet, fats and proteins can also be used for energy.
Fiber is a carbohydrate that is incompletely absorbed and can be divided into soluble and insoluble types. The average person gets only about half of the fiber that he needs. A few people have digestive disorders and need to cut fiber, especially insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel that soothes the intestines. It may benefit some people with digestive disorders and relieve diarrhea by slowing the movement of food through the intestines. By contrast, insoluble fiber does not dissolve water and is more difficult for the body to digest. It has a rough texture (which occasionally may be bad for digestive disorders) and helps prevent constipation by moving food through the intestines. Both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber promote regularity by providing bulk to the stool. Fiber may reduce the risk of colon cancer and diabetes by slowing the rise in blood sugar after eating food.
Some healthful foods, such as yogurt and spaghetti sauce, can be quite high in sugar, so look at the sugar content in Nutrition Facts. Remember that many foods contain at least a couple of grams of sugar naturally, so you should also check the ingredients. Sugar goes by many names, including corn syrup and dextrose.
Do not be deceived by fruit-flavored products. Before you buy those fruity popsicles or candies, make sure that you are getting real fruit. Fruit-flavored products may not contain any fruit at all; check the ingredients. The term “fruit-flavored” on the product is generally a red flag; the product has been made with the flavors of fruit (which have no nutritional value) and added sugar. Drinking real fruit juice is much better than drinking a fruit-flavored beverage with only ten percent juice.
Sodium increases your blood pressure by suppressing nitric oxide, a gas that relaxes the blood vessels. A single side dish, such as sliced potatoes, may use up one-fifth or one-fourth of your allowance for sodium. You can also find no-sodium substitutes for salt at the grocery. Sodium is less of a concern for people who do not have high blood pressure. In fact, athletes may need more sodium because sodium is lost in perspiration. Sodium is a mineral necessary for life.
Only animal products contain cholesterol, a fat-like substance that may increase the risk of heart disease by narrowing the arteries. - Understand that dietary cholesterol is not the same as serum (your internal) cholesterol, and generally has very little correlation with it. Poor cholesterol metabolism is not aggravated by eating cholesterol-laden foods, except in certain (very rare) cases.
On What's The Right Diet For You? A Horizon Special, we profiled 75 people to understand why they had problems losing weight. Medical and nutritional experts tested their hormones, genes and attitudes towards food, categorising them into three groups: Constant Cravers, Feasters and Emotional Eaters. Our experts then gave each group a different diet to follow, using a scientific approach to weight loss.
Selecting the right diet starts with you," says Valerie Agyeman, a women's health dietitian and founder of Flourish Heights, a nutrition practice aimed at empowering women to thrive in health and have a better relationship with food and their body. "One of the first things to consider is to take a look at all the past diets you have tried, if any, and ask yourself what didn't work along with reflecting how it made you feel, both physically and mentally."
Take your present eating habits into account, says Maxine Smith, a registered dietitian with Cleveland Clinic's Center for Human Nutrition. Which positive habits do you already have and wish to continue? Which dietary changes are realistic to make with your available resources and lifestyle? "The right diet for you will include a wide variety of foods, with an emphasis on whole or minimally processed foods, and fit into your schedule and lifestyle," says Carrie Dennett, a Pacific Northwest-based registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nutrition by Carrie.
Are you primarily interested in losing weight? Is eating healthier and maintaining your weight most important? Do you want to save money or make eco-friendly choices? Being clear about your goal "can help you align your values with a particular diet," Smith says. For instance, if you're interest in food sustainability, the Nordic diet promotes concern for protecting the environment and producing less waste. However, Nordic food recommendations could strain your budget if saving money is a key objective. "Consider which diet you can be most consistent with," Smith says. "While aiming for perfection is a recipe for doom, consistency is very important for success."
Find Out What Makes Sense FinanciallySome diets nowadays are subscription- or membership-based, meaning they send the food to you. That can get expensive. Other diets are simple: eat veggies and meat and nothing else. That can be more affordable. There are upsides to both: subscription-based plans can send you food so all you have to do is cook and eat it, while other plans require you to do a bit more work. Let your wallet decide for you.
