On the question of which diet is 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 websites.
This question is similar to which candies are the tastiest, which country is the best to live in, or whose mother is the most beautiful. . . captures the minds of children of all ages; ).
No, this is not a hint that the answer does not exist. This is a warning that it goes beyond the specific name of the one-best-child-that-works-for-everyone.
Despite the somewhat vague beginning, I promise that below you will still find out which diets are the most effective for losing weight (we will list the top 5 most effective diets), why there are many of them (and not just one). ) and what all the "best" have 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 the most effective. . .
There are several hundreds, if not thousands, of diets.
They are created by cultures (Japanese, Brazilian), personalities (Pierre Dukan), in their center are individual products (pumpkin, kefir, egg, rice, oatmeal, cottage cheese) or groups of products (protein diet), on some of them you can eatalmost everything (periodic fasting), on 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 in answer to the question posed in the title of this article, we could list all these diets and the result you would leave with from here, the name of a particular diet, the best and most effective, would depend only on how convincingly it is described here. . .
At the same time, I am sure that few people are interested in listening to fairy tales about everything or, again, simply to make sure 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
The entire 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 drugs;
- removing fluid from the body by reducing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet;
- limiting calories by eating the same food and completely eliminating certain food groups;
- caloric restriction by reducing the amount of food eaten;
- limiting calories by consuming certain foods with a high satiety index;
- activating 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 potential health damage and how easy or difficult it is to monitor over time.
Many diets, which are 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 be understood as 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;
- diet whichit just helps you lose weight, since many of them don't work at all for some people.
Who did you come looking for?
I predict the answer will be - everyone. And fast, and harmless, and with long-term results.
Then let's talk about everything in order.
How popular fake effective 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, a decrease in body fat percentage.
Do 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 such diets: detox diet, use of laxatives for weight loss or diuretics (diuretics).
They are very effective at changing scale readings quickly, but they donot manipulating body fat content, but water content.
This may be acceptable to some, but it's important to understand that everyone is such a childthey do not give long-term results: The weight comes back very quickly as soon as the "diet" stops.
In addition, long-term adherence to such diets is burdensomevery serious risk of damage to health.
All the most effective diets for rapid weight loss manipulate the body's fluid content, not fat. None of them give long-term results and all of them are very dangerous to health.
About the popular "super-effective" diets of fashion stars
The most popular diets, which are named after the stars of show business, the Kremlin and Hollywood, have two common characteristics:
- Theyvery strictly limit the number of product typesnutrition in diet;
- they are characterizedvery low carb.
How does it work? Very simple.
On the one hand, severely restricting food variety makes the task of counting calories easier; on the other hand, it reduces the probability of overeating, because the diet becomes monotonous and tasteless.
Why do people gain weight quickly with carbohydrates, but lose quickly without them?
When we eat carbohydrates, the level of the hormone insulin increases in the blood, whose function is to transport energy (carbohydrates) into the cells to be used as energy.
If the need for energy is low, then 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 stores as fat, the location of which is known to everyone.
Why is weight lost quickly when carbohydrates are eliminated 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) the glycogen stores are emptied, the water that was used for storage is removed from the body and the body weight decreases.
The vast majority of popular "super-effective" diets that promise quick results are based on removing fluid from the body and strictly limiting allowed food.
The main principle of all correct effective diets
Remember a simple rule: all diets that are based oncalorie reductiondiet, 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 your meals on a scale, or by strictly limiting carbohydrates and fats in your 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 nutrients necessary for maintaining health (vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats, carbohydrates) and satisfy hunger.
All the most effective diets are based on calorie restriction. This is achieved in different ways with different degrees of damage to health.
Why is the calorie count so important?
Scientists call excess calories 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 the researchers of the scientific portal have to say, whose mission is to study the effectiveness of various nutritional supplements and dispel popular myths on the topic of nutrition, based on scientific research:
". . .
A huge amount of scientific research testifies that the excess calories in the diet of modern man is the main cause of obesity.
A large number of scientific articles have been written on this topic.
On the Internet, there are many examples of losing weight on absolutely unhealthy food 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 to learn is:
For weight loss, only the number of calories is important, but what we eat is important for health. All diets based on reducing calorie intake are useful for weight loss.
The most effective diet is the one that suits you and that you can stick to for a long time.
There are many stories on the Internet about successful weight loss on completely different diets. Among them there are liars, and there are also truthful ones.
Some say the most effective way to lose weight is intermittent fasting, others say the ketogenic diet, and still others the Dukan protein diet. And someone shouts to do nothing.
Not all diets work for all people, primarily because each person, due to their individual characteristics, requires different amounts of effort to adhere to.
For those who love meat, it will be incredibly difficult to "sit" only on vegetables, fruits and grains. But they will undoubtedly like the Pierre Dukan protein diet 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 benefits of intermittent fasting, which does not require drastic changes in the diet, but only suggests eating at a certain time.
Well, those who are not bound to this world by taste preferences can try for themselves the benefits of the ketogenic diet, which is rumored to be 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 adhere to, as it almost completely eliminates carbohydrates, the main source of energy for our body.
so:
The best diet for you is one that works for you and that you can stick to for a long time, ideally a lifetime.
It is impossible to follow a diet that leads to a state of chronic hunger and nervousness for a long time.
That is why very often, after achieving the desired scale readings, there is a return to favorite eating habits and previous weight.
Fat cells are very resistant. They don't die immediately when they lose weight, they just shrink in size. Start feeding them - and very quickly (and quite easily) they will return to "normal".
To lose weight forever, you must change your eating habits forever.and only a diet that you can live with for the rest of your life will help you in this.
To permanently lose weight, you must permanently change your eating habits.
Top 5 most effective diets for weight loss
Therefore, the most effective diet is one that:
- aimed at reducing the percentage of body fat, not water;
- restricts calorie intake;
- allows you to stick with 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 diet for weight loss is one that restricts the number of calories in your diet, leads to a reduction in body fat percentage, not water, and is not harmful to health.
Many popular diets are effective. The list of top 5 of them is below.
A low-carbohydrate diet
Most popular diets achieve calorie restriction by reducing carbohydrates. Of primary importance are sugar and fructose, the excessive consumption of which scientists recognize 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;
- dCompany Atkins- a diet rich in fats, proteins and very few carbohydrates;
- Paleo diet(hunter-gatherer diet or Stone Age diet) – high fat content, high protein content and low carbohydrate content;
- protein diet Pierre Dukan- a diet rich in proteins (for meat lovers), low in carbohydrates.
- intermittent fasting– while 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 givegreater feeling of satietyfor a long time.
Almost all such dietsIt is recommended to eat food that is less "loaded" with calories, which contain more vegetable fiber and water: half a kilo of broccoli contains fewer calories than half a kilo of cereals, and even more cakes; ).
Carbohydrates cause overeating and, as a general rule, you always want to eat a lot of them (especially if they're 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 ensure appetite control; with regular consumption of carbohydrates (especially sugar and fructose), immunity to these hormones can develop, resulting in uncontrolled appetite and overeating;
- after consuming sweets, there is a sharp increase in the level of insulin in the blood, whose task is to control blood sugar; after it has finished working, the sugar drops sharply, which also causes a feeling of hunger.
This is confirmed by scientific researchlow carbohydrate dietone of the most effective for losing weight, because they make you want to eat less, take in fewer calories and you are less likely to overeat.
The list of the top 5 most effective diets includes a low-carb diet. All of them are effective for weight loss, because. . . Limit your calorie intake and prevent 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 weight loss, 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 the most effective weight loss strategy.
Intermittent fasting involves eating only at certain times of the day, within an 8-hour interval. Why? Because it allows you to maximize the fat burning process.
There is no strict restriction on the set of permitted foods on this diet: only common foods harmful to weight loss in the form of simple carbohydrates, primarily sugar and fructose, are excluded. This is an element of a low-carb diet.
It's all pretty simple, and the health benefits are huge.
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 a few popular myths that are often put forward in many diets as the key to effective weight loss.
Balanced and separated diets (mono-diet) 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 the secret: you can lose weight even from fast food, cakes, sweets. . . if you eat them carefully, respecting the principle of calorie restriction.
The following statement holds true for all mono-diets:
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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 quantity. However, from a health point of view, mono-diets are more harmful to health.
The timing and frequency of meals are not important for weight loss
For weight loss, only the total caloric intake during the day is important.
of courseEating 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 at root – it's simply 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 matter if 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.
Radical rejection of food seems quite logical as a method of effectively solving the problem of excess weight.
But that's not true.
The problem is that fasting leads to a significant reductioninternal metabolic rate.
According to scientific data, resting metabolism (energy spent at rest only 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 hunger lasts for several days, the rate of metabolism decreases significantly.
Weight loss during fasting is mainly due to a reduction in the amount of fluid in the body. Also during prolonged starvationa lot of muscle mass is lost, because the body begins to break down muscle proteins in order to provide energy for its most important life functions.
Mild calorie restriction, however, does not have such a dramatic effect.
Fasting is very ineffective for losing weight, because it reduces the rate of metabolism - the main consumer of calories in the body. It is lost mainly due to fluid excretion and loss of muscle mass.