The Best and the Worst Diet Trends
Congratulations!
You have finally decided that you want to lose weight.
Now what?
The most obvious next step is to pick the diet which you will be following. Dieting and exercise are the cornerstones of weight loss. You cannot lose weight if you do not control what you eat.
There is no lack of diets available today. You can go on the internet and you will be bombarded by so many diets that you can follow. It would help to know which diets are good and which ones are bad.
The Best and the Worst Diet Trends
It would be helpful if you can learn the best and the worst diet trends that you can follow. Let’s start with the bad diets that are out there.
- Diets That Focus on Only a Few Food Groups
Diets like raw food diets, vegan diets, and low carb diets can be potentially harmful. The problem is that focusing on a few foods will mean that you will have limited nutrition. You can lose weight following those diets but it is not sustainable.
- Detox Diet
There are also detox diets like liver flushing, body cleansing, and hormone injections. These diets and regimens are questionable and most of the time, they have no scientific basis.
Most health experts can tell you that a healthy body is very efficient already when it comes to flushing out toxins and other harmful stuff from the body. The colon, liver, and kidneys make up a very efficient detoxification system.
Another problem connected with detox diets is that most of these are very low on protein. Drinking several glasses of green juice daily may help you to shed those extra pounds, even if that is temporary, but it will not help your body to get the protein that it needs. Some of the weight which you could lose might be muscle mass and that is not a good thing.
- Diets with Miracle Foods
Diets that rely on some miracle food are also questionable. All foods would have a place in a healthy diet. It’s just a matter of finding the right amount. So, picking some kind of miracle food that will do wonders for you is not going to be a good idea.
- Diets That Offer Cheat Days
This is not a diet in particular but more like a common practice. The idea is to have a single day when you can eat all the foods that you want, even those that are usually restricted.
The idea behind a cheat day is that you will spend the rest of the week, looking forward towards the day when you can eat whatever you want. That kind of attitude defeats the purpose of dieting.
- Fasting
Fasting has religious and cultural roots. Fasting is okay if it’s just for a day, but using it as a basis for a diet that can help you to lose weight is not going to be sustainable.
Fasting may be a quick way to lose weight but its effects would not last long. Weight that you lose easily can be gained quickly too. What is worse is that it actually slows your metabolic rate so the diet that you are following before you go fasting is even more fattening.
It’s time to move on to the best diets that you can try. Remember that a diet is not a guaranteed method for losing weight. Its effectiveness will still depend on how you follow it and whether you are strict enough with yourself.
- DASH Diet
The Dash diet is designed to control high blood pressure but it can also be helpful when it comes to losing weight. This diet was praised by experts because it is a lot more complete when compared with other diets.
Protein, fiber, potassium, and calcium are all crucial in controlling high blood pressure, but it’s not necessary to keep track of each one of those nutrients. All you have to do is to eat the foods that have always been emphasized by experts. There are good reasons why those foods are always recommended.
- Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fish, vegetables, oils, and other foods that are quite healthy. The idea behind the popularity of this diet is that people who live around the Mediterranean Sea live longer and are in general, healthier.
If we’re going to be technical, then there is no Mediterranean diet. The diet of the people who live in Greece is quite different from those who live in Italy and both of those are Mediterranean countries. The important thing to take note of is the fact that they share many principles when it comes to their diets.
As mentioned before, they emphasize many of the same foods. Just remember that this is more like an eating pattern and not a diet in the traditional sense of the word. This means you will still have to figure out on your own, the amount of calories which you will be consuming.
- Weight Watchers Diet
The Weight Watchers diet is the best one to follow if you would like to lose weight. That’s the main aim of this diet. The idea behind is that weight loss is more than just counting calories. This diet is designed so that people will eat healthier, have more physical activities, and change their overall mindset.
Launched in 2015, the Weight Watchers Beyond the Scale Program was designed to make people eat better and move more. In other words, it takes a broad approach towards weight loss.
As it name suggests, weight loss goes beyond the weighing scales. It assigns points to foods based on its nutritional content. Healthier foods have lower value for example.
- Flexitarian Diet
As you might have realized, the term flexitarian comes from combining vegetarian and flexible. The idea behind this diet is that you do not have to completely remove meat from your diet in order to benefit from a vegetarian diet. You can be a vegetarian usually but still eat meat from time to time.
Unlike a vegetarian diet, the flexitarian diet is not about taking away food groups from your diet but adding to it. But like vegetarian diets, the flexitarian diet revolves around plant proteins.
- TLC Diet
TLC stands for Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. This is a diet that focuses on heart health and in reducing cardiovascular diseases. The key for this diet is in reducing the consumption of saturated fat. It also emphasizes the increase in the consumption of fiber. It can help people to manage their cholesterol.
When you follow a TLC diet, you will be eating more fruits, vegetables, cereals, pasta, and grain. You will have to reduce your consumption of meat down to a minimum. If you have to eat meat, it is recommended that you stick to turkey, fish, and skinless chicken.
These are the worst and the best diets that you can now follow today. It’s really up to you to decide which diet you will be using. But in picking your diet, you have to remember what your aim is. Normally, people will go on a diet in order to lose weight but there are other aims too.
Author Bio :- Amanda Bentley has 5 years’ experience in the food and beverage industry and currently works as a Content writer at Qavashop. Qavashop is an online store for all the “coffee aficionados” located in the GCC. Apart from providing its customers with quality coffee machines and consumables, it also provides them with skilled, knowledgeable advice on how to make their own restaurant quality espresso at home.
