What is the best diet? Which one is right for you? We’ll help you decide.

It seems like every day, more and more diets are popping up. The low carb diets, the vegan diets, the paleo diet ones. They’re all tough to keep track of – and it’s kind of confusing.

If you’re like us, you want to know:

So what is the best diet?

They all claim the same thing:

You’ll lose weight! You’ll slim down! You’ll shed the pounds! You’ll become healthier and fitter! You’ll feel great, you’ll look even better! You’ll feel and look the best you ever had!

If they all provide the same thing, why are they all so different? What is the best diet? How can we have so many different options when they’re all working toward the goal of losing weight?

Think about it this way, if we knew what the best diet was, we’d all be eating the same way.

The truth is:

There isn’t one single diet that is best for everyone—sorry, it’s just that simple.

So, what do we do about this?

It comes down to understanding your body’s own specific needs. And, you’ll need to be flexible and make adjustments along the way. A little trial and error, and a focus on learning more will go a long way.

It takes 3500 calories to make a pound
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The Best Diet Starts With You

The results of any diet depend on many factors. If you’re wondering, what is the best diet for me, start by considering:

• Your unique body type:

If you have more weight to lose, you’re going to lose it faster than someone who is very thin. On the other hand, have you been working out, following a diet plan and reached a plateau? You’ll need a different approach for that too.

• Your Individual Preferences and Lifestyle

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration when it comes to your diet. Do you eat meat? What is the best diet on a budget? Do you often eat your meals on the run or do you prefer a sit-down style? Are you able to spend hours on meal prep to maintain your diet when you’re busy? Will you sacrifice more of your hard earned money to cleaner foods? Are you ready to give up eating animal products?

• Budget

Some people have more than others to spend on food. Unfortunately, higher quality food sources cost more. So you’ve got to be strategic if you’re on a budget.

• Your Nutritional Knowledge

You might be experienced with eating a healthy diet. You might not. Either way, it is important to make learning a priority for yourself. You learn from research and by doing. What works for your body is unique to you. Your health is worth trying new things outside of your comfort zone

• Your Time

Not everyone has unlimited time (or money) to dedicate to their wellness and fitness. But the more time you make, the more options and opportunities you’ll have to be healthier. If you’re really short on time, we still have some ideas for you.

Do I Need A Nutritionist to Determine The Best Diet for Me?

Luckily, the best kind of nutritionists and coaches can adapt to whatever their client presents to them. Good nutritional coaches won’t tell every client to follow one specific method, or they shouldn’t.

But a good coach won’t give you one specific method to follow. Because while that specific method worked for you at some point during your life, that doesn’t mean it’ll work everyone else. Adapting to the client is one basis of good nutritional coaching.

If you’re wondering: do I need a nutritionist?

The answer comes down to whether you can motivate yourself to stick to a plan. The knowledge is available to you to do it on your own. The question is, will you?

Diets Around the World

Need any demonstration of how differently different human bodies adapt to various diets? Just look around the world. Some traditional diets in Africa are bursting with animal fats and very little vegetables. Many South Pacific have diets low in fat and consist mostly of starchy carbs and veggies. Then other groups around New Zealand subsist on diets high in saturated fats.

So obviously, there’s not really much in common between those diets. And yet somehow, all of these people are healthy and don’t suffer from things like strokes, obesity, diabetes, or heart diseases.

So basically, different diets that have nothing to do with each other are still producing healthy bodies in different conditions.

See what we’re getting at here?

This is evidence that the body can adapt to some pretty widespread and amazing diet choices. And that’s also good news for you – this means there’s a ton of different things you can try. The best diet for you IS OUT THERE. So when one method doesn’t work or you feel burnt out, you have a ton of other options to pick from.

The message here – don’t give up when it doesn’t work the first time!

You’ve got a laundry list of other things to try before throwing in the towel. Don’t give into the warm embrace of your couch. You haven’t tried everything.

You can build a healthy diet that doesn’t restrict meat or veggies or carbs or fats. The right balance of these macronutrients is key. When you completely restrict one of these, you end up crashing. You just have to be willing to try new things, new ideas, new theories, make sure to read up on the latest and greatest in best diets.

So by now, you’re probably asking yourself how all of these madly different ‘best diets’ can all bring you to positive results. Carb diets, plant-based diets, meat diets, low carb diets, no dairy, no gluten.

Is your head spinning? We understand.

The Best Diets All Have ONE Thing in Common

These diets may not be as crazy different as you think. Here’s something to think about. What is the one thing all these different methods to the best diet have in common?

They ALL increase your overall awareness and attention to nutrition and health.

We all know everyone loves talking about food – what you should eat, what you shouldn’t eat, what’s good for you, what’s bad for you, the carbs, all the facts, the pros and cons of proteins.

But now, studies are shifting their focus a little bit. Now, they’re looking at what happens when people are just paying attention to what they eat.

Their results are pretty astonishing.

These studies have found that the more attention you give your diet, the better your results will be, including losing fat, getting thinner and leaner, and increasing your overall health and wellness.

And it doesn’t matter where your attention is going. It can be going toward getting more veggies or less meat. It could be focused on eating more organic fruits and less packaged foods. Whatever and wherever your focus is going, it’s all good!

Your focus is being spent in the right place and your intention is on eating better.

Does Natural Make the Best Diet?

Another thing about these diets –they all care about the quality of the food. Let’s say you’re on board with the low carb-ers or the Paleo Diet pushers. Now these methods encourage you to eat natural, organic, local (if possible) foods, with free-range grass fed animal meats. These diets tend to be high in things like protein and fat, and aren’t processed AT ALL.

Vegans and high carb-ers also encourage you eat more natural foods that are based around plants. And, needless to say, these diets are higher in things like antioxidants and fiber. Much like the diet above, these also aren’t processed.

Do you see the pattern here? The closer to the farm, the better.

There are hardly any diets (are there any, actually?) that push you to eat processed foods. And by processed foods, we mean junk food. Obviously, no diet advocates for this (though we kind of wish this was a thing).

On the flipside, basically every diet out there tells you to eat these kinds of food – full of nutrients and whole foods, with very little processing involved.

Focusing on natural, unprocessed foods is one of the biggest factors in achieving real lasting nutrition.

All of these diets also help get rid of any nutrient deficiencies. Now, the best dietician (and the best diet) will keep you far, far away from food that’s been processed. These foods are usually super low when it comes to nutrients. Why? Because any and all goodness has been taken away during the processing and preserving.

So obviously, a good coach will steer you right toward whole foods – aka no processed foods. You want your nutrients nice and intact.

How the Best Diet for Your Rids Nutrient Deficiencies

Needless to say, the best diet will get rid of any nutrient deficiencies. These are things like specific vitamins, dehydration, minerals, critical fatty acids, and proteins.

This is a pretty important step. When we don’t have these nutrients in our bodies, we can majorly feel the effects – we don’t perform, feel or look great.

But if we can get rid of these insufficiencies, then we can go back to feeling awesome. In fact, you’ll be feeling a lot better than you’ve ever felt.

When you feel healthy, you’re also less likely to impulse-eat.

Most diets (the good ones, again) like we said, make you a lot more aware of what you eat in a daily basis. This opens your eyes to what types of food are more filling and how certain foods make you feel.

Pro Tip: tracking your meals on an app can also help make you more aware and accountable for what you eat.

It also makes you feel more satisfied and inspired to keep up healthy choices. Odds are, you’ll start eating less junk because you’re paying some serious attention to what’s going from your fork to your mouth. So you’ll start seeing those numbers on the scale drop, your muscles start growing, and your overall performance increase.

If tracking is too much of a commitment, that’s ok. You don’t have to count every calorie if you don’t want to. Instead, we’re talking about awareness of food and quality. This in itself is generally good enough for people to focus on their hunger and appetite.

So literally – they’re watching what they’re eating without actually watching what they’re eating.

Temperature can affect appetite. A cold person is more likely to eat more food
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The Best Diet Includes Exercise

Movement is a nutrient; feed it to your body. What else goes hand in hand with watching what you eat? Exercise. With increased awareness, you should be thinking about your level of physical activity. Basically every diet encourages some type of exercise on a regular basis. This is a great theory, especially because dieting and exercise go hand-in-hand.

Think about what happens when someone exercises on a regular basis. By mixing high and low intensity activity, you’re putting that healthy food to work. You’re building a stronger house with better materials. You’re taking the food that you eat and transforming it into purposeful tissue. What would it turn into otherwise? Fat. Lots and lots of extra fat.

Now do you see how all of these various diet philosophies may seem 100% opposite but have some of the same basis?

So let’s get back into why one sole diet doesn’t make sense.

Conclusion

One Size Does Not Fit All

We’ll say it again – there isn’t one diet that’s suitable for everyone. This is why it’s important to explore all options. You need to find what fits for you and your unique lifestyle.

Often times, reaching out to a nutritionist or a coach can be extremely beneficial. They can help you decide where to get started and how to keep close to your goals.

And, as we’ve learned, seemingly different diets actually have a lot in common. Those similarities are helping you keep your appetite at bay, focusing on the quality of food, and encouraging exercise to increase your overall awareness of nutrition and wellness.

As we said, looking into a coach might be a good solution for you if you need some extra help. But you don’t want a coach that tries to seal you in on one sole method or philosophy.

And think about it this way – a diet is great only as long as you can stick with it. Developing healthy and long-term habits is a lot more important than trendy short term diet. A healthy habit always wins over any other diets or rules you may follow.

So what’s the best diet you should follow?

The one that fits you and your individual needs. If you want to try a low-carb diet, go for it. If you want to cut meat out of your life, that’s great. Whatever you think you can stick with and maintain in the long run, that’s the best diet – for you. Keep track of your progress, be aware, add lots of movement and you will see results.

-Terry Asher