Savvy marketers have been confusing us all by promoting different weight loss strategies, some even emphasize on losing weight fast with their restrictive programs. All weight loss programs claim to be “the best” at helping people reach their weight loss goals but none of those programs talk about how people can continue to sustain that weight loss and keep their weight off for good. Is one really better than the other? There is no such thing as one being the ‘best’ but one may work better for someone than another because it may suit their lifestyle or eating habits better. But believe it or not they all work in the same way – helping to create a caloric deficit. Reducing food and caloric intake by restricting a certain food group like in paleo or the keto diet or by restricting the time of when you’re having the meals like in intermittent fasting. These weight loss diets all work but only if you can sustain it forever and make it a lifestyle.
Many of us have heard of these diets:
- Keto
- Intermittent Fasting
- Low Carb Diet
- Paleo
Just to name a few!
They’re all meant to help people either reduce their food intake through restrictive time eating or restricting certain food groups. The diet should be suitable for your lifestyle and help make the diet easier to stick to.
For example many of you aren’t morning people and don’t have the time to make breakfast or don’t even enjoy eating breakfast early in the morning – in this case intermittent fasting might be a good weight loss strategy for them because it’s based on time restrictive feeding. People can choose to have 3 meals between the hours 12 and 8 pm and fast for the remaining 16 hours. This should help limit food and snack intake (basically overall food intake)
But we’ve also had many clients come to us with the idea that you can eat whatever you want in those 8 hours, and have ended up gaining weight because of this! And same goes with the keto diet, avoiding carbs at all cost isn’t a magical solution, calories still need to be counted for.
So what’s the best one? The one you can adhere to long term. If you’re on a restrictive diet and you cant stop thinking about the next time you’re gonna have a slice of bread with nutella, then maybe paleo or keto isn’t for you!
We suggest trying flexible dieting where there are no restrictions on certain food groups and you can include all the things you love but in moderation and as long as caloric intake is tracked especially if weight loss is your goal.