On the question of which diets are most effective for losing weight, there are countless opinions, proportional to the number of people in the world who have managed to lose weight, nutritionists and Internet sites.
This question is similar to which sweets are the most delicious, which country is the best to live in or which mother is the most beautiful. . . occupying the minds of children of all ages; ).
No, this is not an indication that the answer does not exist. This is a warning that goes beyond the specific name of the best diet that works for everyone.
Despite the somewhat vague beginning, I promise that below you will still find out which diets are most effective for losing weight (we will provide a list of the 5 most effective diets), why there are many of them (and not just one). ) and what all the "best" ones have in common. "
We'll also tell you how today's most popular diets work and why they're not always the most effective.
All diets are the most effective. . .
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of diets.
They are created by cultures (Japanese, Brazilian), personalities (Pierre Dukan), at their center are individual products (pumpkin, kefir, egg, rice, oatmeal, cottage cheese) or groups of products (protein diet), in some of them you can eat almost everything (periodic fasting), in others – nothing (fasting).
And guess what?
The creators and supporters of each of these hundreds of diets, so different and so contradictory, claim that their diet is the most effective for losing weight.
And as an answer to the question asked in the title of this article, we could list all these diets and the result you would leave here with, the name of a specific diet, the best and most effective, would only depend on how convincingly we have described it here. . .
At the same time, I am sure that few people are interested in listening to fairy tales about everything or, again, simply being convinced of something. By "effective diets" each of us understands something very specific and specific, narrowing the list of hundreds of diets to a few units.
Classification of diets
All the variety of existing diets can be reduced to just a few groups based on the principle of their action:
- removal of fluid from the body with the help of medications;
- removal of fluid from the body, reducing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet;
- limit calories by eating the same foods and completely eliminating certain food groups;
- caloric restriction by reducing the amount of food eaten;
- limit calories by consuming certain foods with a high satiety index;
- activation of fat burning by limiting the time of food consumption.
This is a very conditional classification, but it well illustrates the principles of action of almost all diets. They differ in the degree of possible damage to health and in the ease or difficulty of monitoring over time.
Many diets, positioned as the most effective, are often based on a combination of all these factors, which allows you to lose weight as quickly as possible, but is not always effective in terms of maintaining health and long-term results.
The most effective diet for weight loss is. . .
First we need to make sure we speak the same language with each other.
An effective diet can be understood as at least the following:
- a diet that allowslose weight quickly;
- diet that helps you lose weightno harm to healthfor whatthe weight didn't come back;
- a diet thatonly helps you lose weight, as many of them don't even work for some people.
Which one did you come here looking for?
I predict the answer will be – everyone. It's fast, harmless and with long-term results.
So let's talk about everything in order.
How falsely effective diets work
Different people have different meanings for the concept of "weight loss. "For some it's a decrease in scale readings, for others it's a decrease in body fat percentage.
Do you feel the difference?
Weight loss during weight loss does not always occur due to fat: in many so-called effective diets for rapid weight loss, weight is lost due to the removal of fluid from the body.
Among these diets: detox diet, use of laxatives for weight loss or diuretics (diuretics).
They are very effective in quickly changing scale readings, but they do somanipulating not the fat content in the body, but the water content.
This may be acceptable to some, but it is important to understand that all of these dietsdo not give long-term results: The weight comes back very quickly as soon as the "diet" ends.
Furthermore, long-term adherence to these diets is fraught withvery serious risk of harm to health.
All falsely effective diets for rapid weight loss manipulate the fluid content in the body, not the fat. None of them give long-term results and they are all very dangerous to your health.
About popular "super-effective" diets of fashionable stars
The most popular diets, named after stars of show business, the Kremlin and Hollywood, have two common features:
- Theyvery strictly limit the number of product typesnutrition in the diet;
- they are characterizedvery low carb.
How it works? Very simple.
On the one hand, severely limiting the variety of foods makes the task of counting calories easier; on the other hand, it reduces the likelihood of overeating, as the diet becomes monotonous and tasteless.
Why do people gain weight quickly with carbs but lose weight quickly without them?
When we eat carbohydrates, the level of the hormone insulin increases in the blood, whose function is to transport energy (carbohydrates) to cells for use as energy.
If the energy requirement is low, carbohydrates are stored in short-term storage - glycogen in the liver and muscles. When these stores are full, excess carbohydrates are converted to fat and stored in long-term reserves as fat, the location of which is familiar to everyone.
Why does weight loss occur quickly when eliminating carbohydrates from the diet?
Each gram of glycogen binds several grams of fluid.
If we reduce the amount of carbohydrates in the diet, very quickly (within a day) glycogen stores are depleted, the water used to store it is removed from the body and body weight decreases.
The vast majority of popular "super-effective" diets promising quick results are based on removing fluid from the body and strictly limiting permitted foods.
The basic principle of all correct and effective diets
Remember a simple rule: all diets based onreducing caloriesdiet, effective for weight loss.
In fact, there are many such diets. Why? Because you can limit calories in many ways, from inducing vomiting to accurately counting the calories in dishes on a scale or strictly limiting carbohydrates and fats in the diet.
Effective from the point of view of the absence of harm to health and ease of adherence for a long time (ideally, throughout life), among them will be those that provide the nutrients necessary to maintain health (vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates) and satisfy hunger.
All the most effective diets are based on calorie restriction. This is achieved in several ways, with varying degrees of harm to health.
Why is calorie counting so important?
Scientists consider excess calories to be the main cause of obesity in our time. This is by no means a lack of physical activity, although modern people have actually begun to move much less.
See what the researchers at the scientific portal say, whose mission is to study the effectiveness of various nutritional supplements and debunk popular myths on the subject of nutrition, based on scientific research:
". . .Our body weight is determined more by how many calories we eat per day (from carbohydrates, proteins, fats and alcohol) than by exactly what we eat (the nutrient ratio of fats, proteins, carbohydrates).
Eating too many calories is the onlyexplanation of the total obesity epidemic today.
The fact that excess calories in modern man's diet is the main cause of obesity is evidenced by a large number of scientific studies.
A large number of scientific articles have been written on this topic.
There are many examples on the Internet of weight loss with foods that are absolutely unhealthy, such as fast food, pizza, potatoes, which prove thatall it takes to start losing weight is to eat less.
So, the main thing that is important to learn:
For weight loss, only the number of calories is important, but for health, exactly what we eat is important. All diets based on reducing calorie intake are useful for losing weight.
The most effective diet is the one that works for you and that you can stick to for a long time.
There are many stories on the Internet about successful weight loss with completely different diets. Among them there are misleading ones and also true ones.
Some say the most effective way to lose weight is intermittent fasting, others say the ketogenic diet, and still others say the Dukan protein diet. And someone shouts that nothing is working.
Not all diets work for everyone, mainly because each person, due to their individual characteristics, requires different efforts to follow them.
For those who like meat, it will be incredibly difficult to "sit down" on vegetables, fruits and cereals alone. But they will undoubtedly like Pierre Dukan's protein diet or the Kremlin diet, which are essentially the same thing.
Those who don't want to change anything in their basic food basket can appreciate the benefits of intermittent fasting, which does not require drastic changes in diet, but simply suggests eating at a certain time.
Well, those who are not tied to this world by taste preferences can test for themselves the benefits of the ketogenic diet, which is said to be one of the healthiest.
At the same time, the ketogenic diet is not recommended for athletes and is quite difficult to follow by physically active people, as it almost completely eliminates carbohydrates, our body's main source of energy.
Then:
The best diet for you is the one that works for you and that you can follow for a long time, preferably for life.
It is impossible to follow a diet for a long time that leads to a state of chronic hunger and nervousness.
This is why often, after reaching the desired scale readings, there is a return to preferred eating habits and previous weight.
Fat cells are very resistant. They don't die immediately when losing weight, they just decrease in size. Start feeding them - and very soon (and quite easily) they will return to "normal".
To lose weight for good, you need to change your eating habits for good.and only the diet you can live on for the rest of your life will help with this.
To lose weight permanently, you need to permanently change your eating habits.
The 5 most effective diets for weight loss
So, the most effective diet is one that:
- aims to reduce the percentage of fat in the body, not water;
- limits calories;
- allows you to keep it for a long time;
- It provides all the nutrients the body needs to stay healthy.
To lose weight, calorie restriction is important and, for health, the composition of food is important.
The most effective diet for losing weight is one that limits the number of calories in the diet, leads to a decrease in the percentage of body fat, not water, and is not harmful to your health.
Many popular diets are effective. A list of the top 5 of them is given below.
Low Carb Diets
The most popular diets achieve calorie restriction by cutting carbohydrates. Of primary importance are sugar and fructose, excessive consumption of which is recognized by scientists as the main cause of obesity.
Examples of low-carb diets:
- ketogenic diet– a diet rich in fat, low in protein and very low in carbohydrates;
- dIeta Atkins– a diet rich in fat, rich in protein and very low in carbohydrates;
- PAleo diet(hunter-gatherer diet or stone age diet) – high fat content, high protein content and low carbohydrate content;
- protein diet from Pierre Dukan– a diet rich in protein (for meat lovers), low in carbohydrates.
- intermittent fasting– in addition to limiting the amount of carbohydrates, it limits the time in which food intake is allowed (see below).
Why are low carb diets so effective for weight loss?
Fats and proteins are digested more slowly than carbohydrates, so they providegreater feeling of fullnesslonger.
Almost all of these dietsIt is recommended to consume foods that are less "loaded" with calories, which contains more vegetable fiber and water: half a kilo of broccoli contains fewer calories than half a kilo of cereals, and even more cake; ).
Carbohydrates cause overeating and, as a rule, you always want to eat them in large quantities (especially if they are sweet).
This is explained by the fact that its absorption is accompanied by certain hormonal changes in the body:
- are involved in the synthesis of serotonin, the so-called "happiness hormone" in the brain, which stimulates the desire to eat; This is probably why we love sweets so much and eat chocolate for depression.
- affect the levels of satiety and hunger hormones (leptin and ghrelin), which control appetite; with regular consumption of carbohydrates (especially sugar and fructose), immunity to these hormones can develop, resulting in uncontrolled appetite and excessive eating;
- after eating sweets, there is a sharp increase in the level of insulin in the blood, the function of which is to control blood sugar; after the work is completed, sugar drops sharply, which also causes a feeling of hunger.
Scientific research confirms thatlow carb dietsone of the most effective for weight loss, as they make you want to eat less, take in fewer calories and be less likely to overeat.
The list of the 5 most effective diets includes low-carb diets. All of them are effective for losing weight, because. . . Limit calories and avoid overeating
Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective diets
Intermittent fasting is called by many modern scientistsone of the most effective diets not only for losing weight, but also for health.
Unlike traditional fasting, this does not require complete abstinence from food, which is very difficult to tolerate and, as will be shown below, is far from being the most effective weight loss strategy.
Intermittent fasting involves eating only at specific times of the day within an 8-hour window. Why? Because this allows you to maximize the fat burning process.
In this diet, there is no strict restriction on the set of permitted foods: only common foods harmful to weight loss in the form of simple carbohydrates, mainly sugar and fructose, are excluded. This is an element of a low carb diet.
Everything is quite simple and the health benefits are enormous.
Intermittent fasting is recognized by many scientists as one of the most effective diets for weight loss.
Some popular misconceptions about diets
Finally, let's look at some popular myths that are often positioned in many diets as fundamental to effective weight loss.
Balanced and separate diets (mono-diets) differ in the degree of harm to health
Eating proteins, fats and carbohydrates together (balanced diet) or separately (separate diet or mono-diet) does not in any way increase the effectiveness of weight loss, although from a health point of view the benefits of a balanced approach are obvious.
Let's reveal a secret: you can lose weight even with fast food, cakes, sweets. . . eat carefully, observing the principle of calorie restriction.
The following statement is true for all mono-diets:
"Any diet that promotes the complete elimination of any group of nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates or fats) is incorrect and is fraught with serious health consequences if followed in the long term. "
To lose weight, it is not particularly important whether proteins, fats and carbohydrates enter your body in a balanced or separate form: their quantity is important. However, from a health point of view, mono-diets are more harmful to health.
Meal time and frequency do not matter for weight loss
To lose weight, only the total caloric intake during the day is important.
Naturally,Eating small, frequent meals allows you to better control your appetiteand avoid overeating after long hours of abstinence. But it's important that you see the same basic principle at the root – it's simply a way to limit and control calories.
If the calculated daily calorie content is 1, 500 kcal, then in terms of weight loss it doesn't really matter whether you eat them in one meal or several.
About Fasting: How Effective Is Fasting for Weight Loss?
One of the popular weight loss diets is complete abstinence from food or fasting.
A radical refusal of food seems quite logical as a method for effectively solving the problem of being overweight.
But that is not true.
The problem is that fasting leads to a significant decrease ininternal metabolic rate.
According to scientific data, resting metabolism (the energy spent at rest just to maintain the body's internal functions) is responsible for the majority of calories burned every day: around 70%. Decreasing this value significantly reduces the rate of weight loss.
The benefits of fasting for weight loss are a myth.
If the state of hunger continues for several days, the metabolic rate decreases significantly.
Weight loss during fasting is mainly due to a decrease in the amount of fluid in the body. Also during prolonged fastinga lot of muscle mass is lost, as the body begins to break down muscle proteins to provide energy for the most important vital functions.
Mild calorie restriction, however, does not have as dramatic an effect.
Fasting is very ineffective for losing weight, as it reduces the metabolic rate – the body's main calorie consumer. Weight loss occurs mainly due to fluid excretion and loss of muscle mass.