Diets. Each of us has undoubtedly encountered one in our lifetime. If you haven't tried it yourself, you may have watched perhaps one of your friends trying to lose as many pounds as possible over a period of time.
Different kinds of diets are popular especially among young people who desire a perfect figure. However, these diets have several major problems. Why are most of them mere nonsense? And is there any diet that is 100% effective and works for everyone? Read on to find out.
A healthy lifestyle is a long haul
The world around us is constantly speeding up, so it's understandable that we also try to do everything as quickly as possible. Especially when it comes to something like weight loss. After all, who wouldn't want to get in perfect shape within a few months, or even just a few weeks. Unfortunately, that's not how the human body works.
When you decide to stick to a monthly weight loss cure, you'll probably be on herat the end of it, you'll weigh less than you did before, maybe even feel better. The question, however, is how long this condition will last. The reality is that a little while after you return to your normal routine, all the pounds you lost will come back off and you'll be right back where you started.
If this way of losing weight doesn't work, why do people return to it so often? Simply because these diets often make people feel good about doing something for themselves. Unfortunately, you are more likely to hurt your body this way and instead of losing weight, you will gain pounds.
What types of weight loss diets are there?
When you are actually committed to going on a weight loss diet, it is important to consider very carefully what kind of diet it will be. As I wrote above, there are actually many types of similar diets and they all have different advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, below we will take a closer look at the most popular ones and discuss their individual positives and negatives.
Low carb/keto diet
Diets based on a minimal carbohydrate intake are widely used today. It makes sense. As soon as you have to cut almost all sugars out of your diet, it will have a significant effect on the quality of the food you eat and the pounds will gradually come off. There are countless diets of this type, and although they are called differently, they generally work on the same principle. An extreme form of carbohydrate restriction is the so-called keto diet. With a completely minimal daily intake of carbohydrates, a person enters a state of ketosis, in which the human body draws energy from fats. In order to use fat tissue in this way, it must of course burn it. For this reason, the keto diet is extremely popular and is one of the most effective diet plans in terms of burning fat and losing excess weight. At the same time, however, it should be remembered that the keto diet represents a very strong interference with normal eating and is therefore definitely not suitable for everyone.
For more information on the keto diet, read our comparison of the best keto diets, where you will also find many useful tips on how to switch to the keto diet.
Paleo diet
The paleo diet is also a big trend these days. What makes it different? This diet plan is based on the same diet that our prehistoric ancestors ate, who subsisted mostly as foragers. Thus, the diet of a person following the Paleo diet includes vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, oils, seeds and so on. But at the same time, meat and eggs are not to be avoided. On the other hand, all processed foods, including dairy products, should be avoided. The downside, of course, is that many of the foods that the Paleo diet prohibits are not harmful at all and, on the contrary, can be beneficial to health.
Low fat diet
The principle of the low fat diet is quite simple and probably won't surprise anyone. The daily fat intake in this diet must not exceed 30% of all calories consumed. A stricter version of this diet limits fat intake to as little as 10%. While the low fat diet has proven to be very effective for people who are very overweight, it is not really very effective compared to other types of diets. At the same time, it should be remembered that fats play a number of extremely important roles in the human bodyimportant functions in the body, and restricting them can be quite dangerous in the long term.
Why don't most diets work?
Not only does our body react badly to radical diet changes, but we ourselves usually can't stick to them. This is simply because it is impossible to eliminate, for example, sugars from our diet for the rest of our lives. When you decide to follow a diet in which you limit your carbohydrate intake to the bare minimum, it may seem like a great idea at first.
But how long can you keep it up? Sooner or later, you'll go back to your original diet anyway, and the situation I described above will occur. If you're a steak lover, it's pointless to stop eating meat because you'll struggle at first, but you'll probably end up with a blob of meat on your plate anyway.
It's a different story if your eating habits are really unhealthy and your only source of food is McDonald's. In that case, a more radical change is understandably in order. But never limit your intake of essential nutrients such as fats, sugars and proteins to the bare minimum.
What should an ideal diet look like?
The right diet should meet several conditions that make it likely to work in the long run without harming your health. The rules are as follows:
1. It must not be difficult to follow
To be sustainable over the long term, the diet must not restrict you in any significant way. Otherwise, it is very likely that your commitment will not last long and you will fall back into a rut.
2. It brings results in a short period of time
In the beginning, you cannot expect any miracles. Despite this, you should start to feel better. Even if those around you don't notice any differences, you will start to notice subtle differences much faster. If you don't feel any difference after a month on a certain diet, it's probably not right for you.
3. It's not the right diet for you.
As I wrote above, a diet needs to have an effect primarily in the long term. Only then will the environment start to notice the changes. But what is important is that you can maintain these results and, in the best case, even improve them.
4. It sufficiently ensures the content of all nutrients
Cutting fats or sugars out of your diet completely, as some diets recommend, is complete nonsense. A healthy diet is balanced and contains all the necessary nutrients. There is no need to restrict what you like because of a diet. It is only important to eat everything in moderation.
5. It does not harm your health
This is the last but most important point of all. Extreme weight loss is the maximum way to bring health problems to yourself. Slow down, be patient and the results will come.
Taking the above points into account, it is easy to see what a proper diet should look like. It should consist of a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits, vegetables and everything your parents forced on you when you were young. Don't force yourself into anything because you wouldn't stick with it anyway. Find a compromise between what is healthy and what you like.
It's actually very easy to lose weight
The thing to remember is that nothing works the same for every person. What works for one may not work for the other and vice versa. That's why some people are able to eat fast food all their lives and not gain a pound, while others have to watch their diet closely. But what works for everyone?
If you eat a balanced diet that contains all the important nutrients, the only thing you need to watch is your calorie deficit. This can be achieved very easily without starving yourself. You just need to move around enough. Start running, go for longer walks or start going to the gym. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what kind of movement you do.
The important thing is that by doing so, you ensure sufficient energy expenditure, which will make your pounds go down. Movement and a balanced diet are all that is really needed to lose weight. Remember that no diet will help you maintain your health or a good figure in the long term.
That's all from us for today. Are you on a diet? If so, feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments, or contact us with your questions.
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Why won't any diet suit everyone?
We are all different. It may seem like a cliché, but it really is. We all have different eating habits, different lifestyles, different genetics, different physiques, different microbiomes. Just like we can't all wear the same size clothes, we can't all follow an identical diet when we want to lose weight. If one diet works for all the people around you, it doesn't automatically mean it will work for you. There is no one type of diet that suits everyone. To really find out what is best for you, you need to try each diet. Not feeling well on a low carb diet? No matter, try adjusting your diet a little and maybe it will be better.
The important thing is not to lose hend after the first setbacks the faith and will to change something. Over time, you will learn to gauge what works for you and what, on the other hand, you don't need to waste your time with. Just don't try to stick to a diet or nutrition plan from the internet at all costs if you don't feel good on it. If you don't stick with the first diet you try, it's not a sign of weakness and you certainly don't need to beat yourself up about it. It's quite possible that it simply didn't suit your body. However, even this approach has its limits and it is not a good idea to justify every breach of a diet plan in the same way.
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Why can you trust us?
Sport has been my lifelong passion, I have been close to it since I was a child. For a long time I was primarily involved in athletics, which also eventually led me to the gym. Every good sprinter knows that to get one tenth of a start, he must therefore sacrifice hundreds of hours in training. And it was this toil behind the curtain, which no one sees, that was my greatest passion.
Every kilo in the gym helped me to move a little closer to my goal and I fell in love with the gym very quickly. Even though I don't race anymore, nothing has changed in my relationship with uncompromising training.