On the question of which diets are the 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 akin to which candy is the best, which country is the best to live in, or whose mother is the most beautiful. . . engaging the minds of children of all ages; ).
No, this is not a hint that the answer does not exist. It's a caveat that it goes beyond the specific name of a single-best-diet-that-works-for-everyone.
Despite the somewhat unclear beginning, I promise that below you will still understand which diets are the most effective for losing weight (we will provide a list of the top 5 most effective diets), why there are many of them (and not just one), and whatthey all have "the best" in common.
We will also tell you how the most popular diets work today and why they are not always the most effective.
All diets are most effective. . .
There are several hundred, if not thousands, of diets.
They are created by cultures (Japanese, Brazilian), individuals (Pierre Dukan), at their center are individual products (pumpkin, kefir, egg, rice, oatmeal, cottage cheese) or groups of products (protein diet), on some of themyou can eat almost anything (intermittent fasting), at others - nothing (fasting).
And guess what?
The creators and supporters of each of these hundreds of diets, so different and so controversial, claim that their diet is the most effective for weight loss.
And as an answer to the question posed in the title of this article, we could list all these diets and the result with which you will come out of here, the name of a particular diet, the best and most effective, will depend only on how convincingly wewe described it here. . .
At the same time, I'm sure that few people are interested in listening to talk about everything or, again, just being convinced of something. By "effective diets" each of us understands something very specific and specific, narrowing the list from hundreds of diets to a few units.
Classification of diets
The entire variety of existing diets can be reduced to only a few groups based on the principle of their action:
- removal of fluids from the body with the help of drugs;
- removing fluid from the body by reducing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet;
- limiting calories by eating the same foods and completely eliminating certain food groups;
- limiting calories by reducing the amount of food eaten;
- limiting calories by eating certain foods with a high satiety index;
- activation of fat burning by limiting the time of food consumption.
This is a very conditional classification, which nevertheless well illustrates the principles of action of almost all diets. They differ in the degree of possible damage to health and in how easy or difficult they are to follow over time.
Many diets positioned as the most effective are very 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 mean at least the following:
- a diet that allowslose weight fast;
- a diet that helps you lose weightno harm to healthso thatthe weight did not come back;
- a diet thatit just helps you lose weight, as many of them don't work at all for some people.
What did you come here to seek?
I predict the answer will be - all of them. And fast, and harmless, and with a long-lasting result.
Then let's talk about everything in order.
How popular fad diets work
Different people have different meanings to the term "weight loss. " For some, it's a decrease in the reading on the scale, for others, it's a decrease in body fat percentage.
Can you feel the difference?
Weight loss during weight loss is not always 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, the use of laxatives for weight loss or diuretics (diuretics).
They are very effective at quickly changing scale readings, but they domanipulating not body fat content but water content.
This may be acceptable to some, but it is important to understand that all such dietsdo not give long-term results: The weight returns very quickly as soon as the "diet" stops.
In addition, long-term adherence to such diets is fraught withvery serious risk of damage to health.
All of the most falsely effective fast weight loss diets manipulate the body's fluid content, not fat. None of them gives a long-lasting result and all of them are very dangerous to health.
For fashion stars popular "super effective" diets
The most popular diets, which are named after stars of show business, the Kremlin and Hollywood, have two common characteristics:
- Theyvery strictly limit the number of types of productsnutrition in the diet;
- they are characterizedvery low carb.
How it works? Quite simple.
On the one hand, severely restricting the variety of foods facilitates the task of counting calories; on the other hand, it reduces the likelihood of overeating, as the diet becomes monotonous and tasteless.
Why do people gain weight quickly on carbohydrates but lose weight quickly without them?
When we eat carbohydrates, the level of the hormone insulin rises in the blood, whose function is to transport energy (carbohydrates) into the cells for use as energy.
If energy needs are low, then carbohydrates are stored in short-term stores - glycogen in the liver and muscles. When these stores are full, excess carbohydrates are converted to fat and stored in long-term stores as fat, the location of which is known to all.
Why is weight loss fast when you eliminate carbohydrates from the diet?
Each gram of glycogen binds several grams of fluid.
If we reduce the amount of carbohydrates in the diet, then very quickly (within a day) glycogen reserves are emptied, the water that was used for its storage is removed from the body and body weight decreases.
Most of the popular "super effective" diets that promise quick results are based on removing fluids from the body and severely restricting allowed foods
The basic principle of all proper effective diets
Remember one simple rule: all diets that are based onreducing caloriesdiet effective for weight loss.
In fact, there are many such diets. Why? Because you can restrict calories in a huge number of ways, from inducing vomiting to accurately counting calories in meals on a scale or by severely restricting carbohydrates and fats in the diet.
Effective from the point of view of the lack of harm to health and the 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 satiate hunger.
All the most effective diets are based on calorie restriction. This is achieved in different ways with varying degrees of damage to health.
Why is the calorie count so important?
Scientists call the excess calorie content the main cause of obesity in our time. This is by no means a lack of physical activity, although modern people have indeed begun to move much less.
See what researchers have to say on the science portal, whose mission is to investigate the effectiveness of various nutritional supplements and debunk popular myths on the topic of nutrition, based on scientific research:
". . .
The fact that excess calories in the diet of modern man is the main cause of obesity is proven by a huge number of scientific studies.
A large number of scientific articles have been written on this topic.
On the Internet, there are many examples of losing weight with absolutely unhealthy foods in the form of 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:
Only the number of calories is important for losing weight, but what we eat is important for health. All diets that are based on reducing calorie intake are good for weight loss.
The most effective diet is the one that works for you and that you can stick to for a long time.
On the Internet, there are many stories of successful weight loss on completely different diets. Among them there are deceitful ones and there are truthful 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 all people, mostly because each person, due to their individual characteristics, requires different efforts to follow them.
For those who love meat, it will be incredibly difficult to "sit" only on vegetables, fruits and grains. But they will undoubtedly like the protein diet of Pierre Dukan or the Kremlin diet, which are essentially the same thing.
Those who do not want to change anything in their food basket can appreciate the advantages of intermittent fasting, which does not require drastic changes in the diet, but only implies eating at a certain time.
Well, those who are not tied to this world by taste preferences can try for themselves the benefits of the ketogenic diet, which is touted as one of the healthiest.
At the same time, the ketogenic diet is not recommended for athletes and is quite difficult for physically active people to follow, as it almost completely eliminates carbohydrates, the main source of energy for our body.
Thus:
The best diet for you is the one that works for you and that you can stick to for a long time, ideally your entire life.
It is impossible to follow a diet for a long time that leads to a state of chronic hunger and nervousness.
That is why very often after achieving the desired readings on the scale, he returns to his favorite eating habits and previous weight.
Fat cells are very resistant. They do not die immediately when losing weight, but only decrease in size. Start feeding them - and very soon (and quite easily) they will return to their "normal state".
To lose weight permanently, you must change your eating habits permanently.and only a diet you can live with for the rest of your life will help with that.
To lose weight permanently, you must permanently change your eating habits.
Top 5 most effective weight loss diets
So, the most effective diet is one that:
- aimed at reducing the percentage of body fat, not water;
- restricts calories;
- allows you to stick to it for a long time;
- It provides all the nutrients the body needs to stay healthy.
Calorie restriction is important for weight loss, and food composition is important for health.
The most effective weight loss diet is one that limits the number of calories in your diet, results in a reduction in body fat percentage, not water, and is not harmful to health.
Many popular diets are effective. Below is a list of the top 5 of the best of them.
Low carb diets
Most popular diets achieve calorie restriction by reducing carbohydrates. Of primary importance are sugar and fructose, the excessive consumption of which is recognized by scientists as the main cause of obesity.
Examples of low-carb diets:
- ketogenic diet– a high-fat, low-protein, very low-carbohydrate diet;
- eIetta Atkins– a high-fat, high-protein, very low-carbohydrate diet;
- Paleo diet(hunter-gatherer diet or stone age diet) – high fat content, high protein content and low carbohydrate content;
- protein diet by Pierre Dukan– a high protein (for meat lovers) low carb diet.
- intermittent fasting– along with limiting the amount of carbohydrates, limits the time during 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 givea greater sense of fullnessfor longer period of time.
Almost all such dietsIt is recommended to eat foods that are less "loaded" with calories, which contain more vegetable fiber and water: half a kilogram of broccoli contains fewer calories than half a kilogram of cereals and even more cake; ).
Carbohydrates provoke overeating and as a rule you always want to eat a lot of them (especially if they are sweet).
This is explained by the fact that their absorption is accompanied by certain hormonal changes in the body:
- they are involved in the synthesis of serotonin, the so-called "hormone of happiness" 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 provide appetite control; with regular consumption of carbohydrates (especially sugar and fructose), immunity to these hormones may develop, leading to uncontrolled appetite and overeating;
- after eating sweets there is a sharp jump in the level of insulin in the blood, whose task is to control blood sugar; after it has done its work, sugar drops sharply, which also causes a feeling of hunger.
Scientific research confirms itlow carbohydrate dietssome of the most effective for weight loss because they make you want to eat less, eat fewer calories, and are less likely to overeat.
The list of the top 5 most effective diets includes low-carb diets. All of them are effective for weight loss because. . . Limit calories and avoid overeating
Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective diets
Many modern scientists call intermittent fastingone of the most effective diets not only for weight loss, but also for health.
Unlike traditional fasting, it does not require complete abstinence from food, which is very difficult to tolerate and, as will be shown below, is far from the most effective weight loss strategy.
Intermittent fasting involves eating only at certain times of the day, within an 8-hour window. Why? Because this allows you to maximize the fat burning process.
With this diet, there is no strict restriction on the set of allowed foods: only the usual 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.
It's all very simple, and the health benefits are huge.
Intermittent fasting is recognized by many scientists as one of the most effective weight loss diets.
Some popular misconceptions about diets
Finally, let's look at a few popular myths that are often positioned in many diets as the key to effective weight loss.
Balanced and split diets (mono diets) differ in the degree of damage to health
Eating proteins, fats and carbohydrates together (balanced diet) or separately (separated nutrition 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 from fast food, cakes, sweets. . . if you eat them carefully, observing the principle of calorie restriction.
The following statement is true of all monodiets:
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For weight loss, it is not particularly important whether proteins, fats and carbohydrates enter your body in a balanced or separate form: what matters is their amount. From a health point of view, however, mono-diets are more harmful to health.
The time and frequency of meals do not matter for weight loss
For weight loss, only the total caloric intake during the day matters.
naturally,Eating small, frequent meals allows you to better control your appetiteand avoid overeating after long hours of abstinence. But it's important to see the same basic principle behind it - it's just one way to restrict and control calories.
If the calculated daily calorie content is 1500 kcal, then in terms of weight loss it does not really matter whether you eat them in one meal or in several.
About fasting: how effective is fasting for weight loss?
One of the popular weight loss diets is complete abstinence from food or fasting.
The radical refusal of food seems quite logical as a method of effectively solving the problem of excess weight.
But this is not true.
The problem is that fasting leads to a significant decrease ininternal metabolic rate.
According to scientific data, resting metabolism (the energy expended at rest just to maintain the body's internal functions) accounts for the lion's share of calories burned each day: around 70%. Reducing this value significantly reduces the rate of weight loss.
The benefits of fasting for weight loss are a myth.
If the state of starvation lasts several days, the rate of metabolism 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 protein to provide energy for its most important vital functions.
However, mild calorie restriction does not have such a dramatic effect.
Fasting is very ineffective for weight loss because it slows down the metabolic rate, the main consumer of calories in the body. Weight is lost mainly due to fluid excretion and loss of muscle mass.