This week Emmet from Rushe Fitness Letterkenny breaks down four of the most common diets, and shares some caveats to work off when starting any new regime.

 If you google the word diet, you will get 93 MILLION suggestions that you can click on relating to the term. 

Diets are a contentious subject and there is so much written about them that most people don’t know where to turn when it comes to choosing one. 

When it comes to dieting people have 2 defaults. 

  1. They are on a diet.
  2. Or they are completely off their diet.

There is never an in-between and, for most, they really struggle to get any real long-term success with any diets they follow. 

With more than 93 million sources of information out there and hundreds of diets to choose from, the question is;

Which diet is best for you?

This is where it gets tricky for most people. 

People like to follow what is ‘in trend’ at the time they are thinking of starting a diet and they also like to do what the majority of their social circle deems right. 

This is why you will see different diets rise up in popularity, only to fade away for a period of time, before remerging again and having another rise in popularity.

Here’s the truth when it comes to all diets and weight loss. 

They all do exactly the same thing. 

If you are losing weight on them, it is because they are all putting you in a calorie deficit.  

Many of the people who follow the many different diets that are out there will argue this point. 

But they always end up proving what I am saying and I’ll give a few examples of why this is and remember I am talking specifically about weight loss here. 

  • Weight Watchers counts points in food, each point is worth calories, so by limiting the number of points you can eat, they are limiting the number of calories you eat each day.
    Slimming World follows a similar model with counting Syns.
  • A Low Carb Diet or Keto Diet reduces the amount of carbs you would eat each day.
    This also reduces the amount of fun carbs we tend to over-eat along with the healthier alternatives.
    So, you end up reducing the number of overall calories you would eat each day by reducing or removing an entire macronutrient (that we tend to over eat).
  • A Vegan Diet eliminates meat, fish, eggs, dairy etc from your diet.
    This elimination of the above foods and also the default elimination of a lot of junk foods that may have been eaten will drastically reduce the overall calorie intake of the person following the diet.
  • The 5:2 Diet or Intermittent Fasting.
    These diets work off a time-based eating schedule.
    The most widely used Intermittent fasting model is the 16:8 model.
    You have an 8 hour eating window where you eat an allotted amount of calories and then you fast for 16 hours.
    This reduces times where people tend to over eat, e.g snacking at night etc and there fore reduces over all calories.
    The 5:2 diet gives 5 days of eating with 2 days of ‘fasting’ where you eat one 500 calorie meal each day.
    So, overall weekly calories are reduced, and weight loss occurs.

I could go on and on with any of the other diets that have been around. But the results would all be the same.  

If you are losing weight loss on these, it is because you are in a calorie deficit. 

So, what does this mean for you?

It means that as long as you are in a deficit, the type of diet you follow should fit your preference. 

The above are just examples and aren’t recommendations by any means, but if you are thinking of trying them, here are a few caveats to work off when starting any diet.

  • It should be healthy and not overly restrictive. 
  • Any of the shake or pill diets should be avoided at all costs. 
  • You should not go Low fat ever as your body needs it for your health. 
  • It should not alienate you from your family and friends.

Providing you are sticking to the above, your diet should be the one you can stick to long term and is getting you the results, you desire.
#rushefitness

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