So Many Diet Plans! Which One Should I Choose?

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”  – Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, author of Physiology of Taste, considered father of the low-carb diet as well as other diet plans.

There are a ton of diets out there. So many your brain can explode with the possibilities of what you can or can’t eat. The age-old question is…what is the best food for me to eat? Or what makes a good diet?

Or maybe the tweet hash tag would be “#WhatShouldIPutInMyPieHole?”

Well the truth is that it will vary for each person because of their genetic makeup. Their cells and hormones will let some get away with more junk food or even certain kinds of healthy foods compared to others.  There are some common foods that should be consumed by everyone, but others you may have to minimize or cut out all together. And the truth is that as you grow older you have to be more conservative with food.

In this series we will go through several well-known diet plans at a high level, but the are a few common truths about foods that exist no matter what name you slap on a diet.   If you follow these steps, it will go a long way toward helping you find the best diet plans, get healthy and getting the most out of your exercises.

What Makes Good Diet Plans?

No Sugars and No Grains

All good diet plans are based around little to no sugar and grains, especially liquid sugary carbs. These foods flood your body with glucose and fructose that spikes the insulin levels in your body, which in turn causes you to get fat. Grain and sugar do a ton of other nasty stuff with gut irritation and hormone sensitivity that makes life pretty crappy short and long term.

You become more addicted to these foods as you eat more of them and you tend to find yourself not satiated (full) after you eat.  Not only to do you get more fat, but it leads to quite a few chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and mental disorders.

I would also avoid dairy and legumes.  They have the same gut irritation problems and insulin spiking issues.  They do more harm than good.

No Calorie Restrictions or Counting

First, calories counting can be tedious.  It is hard to keep up.  If you trust your body, it will tell you when to eat.  If you are eating the right foods, then it will take care of itself and you will see results.  Calorie counting should only be option number seven-ish after testing numerous other things like:

• Are you eating the right food?
• Are you cutting out those poor foods I mentioned completely?
• Are you getting enough rest between exercise?
• Are you getting at least 8 hours of consistent sleep in a cool, dark area?
• Are you getting a variety of exercise 4-6 days out of the week that is cardio and weight training?

A lot of people talk about calorie restriction, but how much you eat isn’t as important as what you eat. Calorie restriction only matters when it involves restricting the poor calories such as sugar, grains, starches, and sugary liquids. What is more important is focusing on eating the right foods.

There are a few problems you run into when you focus on cutting calories instead of cutting the wrong foods.  Yes with calorie restriction can have an indirect cause of fat loss because as you cut calories, you are also cutting those harmful carbs. Unfortunately as you cut those calories it is very common that you cut nutrients, amino acids, and antioxidants that are important for building lean muscle tissue, cutting fat, and building other vital organs in your body. This doesn’t work for anyone.

It isn’t just about avoiding the bad stuff, but also about getting in plenty of the right stuff.  What is the “right stuff”?  I will tell you…

Foundation of Healthy Diet Plans

All healthy diet plans should include animal protein, fat like olive oil and coconut, and insoluble fiber carbohydrates like veggies and fruit.  The diet plans that work should be focused primarily around those foods and simply they are the best diet plans for weight loss.  From there some of you may get away with minimal levels of grains, legumes, and dairy.  The safest bet is to go without them.

So why these three primary foods? You can get satiated or full on the right foods. If you get full it prevents you from overeating unlike those other foods.

Also if you are getting satisfied and full, then it makes it easier to maintain.  A lot of those crash diets may seem like easy diet plans, but they are actually hard to maintain.  It becomes so easy to binge on junk food.  This is because we were meant to eat food and not be in pain!

The best diet is something you can maintain forever and not feel agitated doing it.  It should be a natural part of your life, while also keeping you healthy.

Up Next

So now that we know what we should consider with any diet we choose, let’s take a look at a few options starting with the Paleo diet.

About Cade

Cade is the founder of Know My Body. Sorry...no doctor degree, fancy gym, multi-million dollar fitness program, or label as a self-proclaimed health guru of biblical proportions. He is a common guy just like you. Maybe that helps him get you a bit better.

He has worked the past several years trying to get a grasp of "health knowledgeries" from the perspective of a person working a 9 to 5 job and dealing with the normal and not-so-normal challenges that life gives. Visit our About Page to chew on some more knowledge about Cade and how we want to help you at Know My Body.