WHAT IS THE BEST DIET TO LOSE WEIGHT AND/OR GAIN MUSCLE?

​As I will explain in this post, this is the wrong question to ask. There are many diets out there: Keto diet, Intermittent Fasting, Paleo, diet based on your blood type, vegan, vegetarian, Atkins, caveman diet, cabbage diet and all sorts of crazy diets that you didn’t even know they existed.

​All of them have strict rules you need to follow and interestingly, all of them claim they hold the key to weight loss. Their followers either lost weight and swear by it or they got no results, couldn’t stick to it and believe the diet should be avoided.

So what is the explanation for this? How come each of these diets produced favorable results with some of their followers, but at the same time other followers got no results at all. Is there a common denominator and what is it?

As I mentioned previously, weight loss occurs when caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake. In other words, you expend more energy than what you consume through food = you lose weight.

What these diets do is that they simply force you to cut calories in some way or another. For example:

Keto diet: no sugar and carbs = calories go down = lose weight (keto also causes large body water loses);
Intermittent Fasting: reduce food eating window = you eat less food = calories go down = lose weight.

This is not to say that all diets are bad and that you should not follow one, but knowing how they work and their pros and cons will help you be more flexible and make better food choices. A better strategy is investing time in developing skills and knowledge that will make dieting easier, enjoyable and sustainable.

Which bring me to the main point - we all have different physiologies, nutrient needs, food preferences, lifestyles etc. ; what works for you, might not work for someone else. You should not try to fit yourself into some diet’s mold, but design a diet that will take into account you as an individual.

So the better question to ask would be:

“What is the best diet for ME, given my current lifestyle and health/fitness goals ”.

Hope all this makes sense. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us to see how we can help you.