Influencers and keyboard warriors have turned all diets that have ever been invented into a religion, and they're all wasting precious time fighting over which one is the "right" one.
The problem is, that if you've got underlying health issues that prevent you from losing weight (or gaining muscle, or maintaining, or just feeling healthy), then simply counting your calories for instance will probably not work. Or going on a high carb vegan diet may not be the best option if you're a diabetic.
So you can't force someone your lifestyle just because it works for you, nor just pick any one of them and pray that it works (without making you more sick in the process).
But if there's something that ALL of these diets have (or SHOULD) have in common, what everyone must do in order to ensure you reach your goals is this:
Stop the junk, and eat REAL food.
Fast food, processed food, anything with artificial sweeteners, sugar and ingredients you don't recognise will set you up for failure for these reasons:
- Processed junk will always have more calories than unprocessed food. So if you're going for a calorie deficit, eat real food.
- Processed junk will always have more carbs and sugars than unprocessed food. So if you're going for low carb/keto, eat real food.
- Processed junk will always make you feel more hungry, thus if you're into intermittent fasting, or calorie deficit, or whatever else you're doing, you're gonna be torturing yourself and eventually be in "need" of a cheat meal, or day, or week, or month (or just give up altogether).
- Processed junk are addictive and alter your taste buds. No wonder that broccoli tastes awful (or does it?) Completely giving up sugar and artificial sweeteners will reset your taste buds and healthy food will actually start tasting delicious, and thus you'll be able to stick to your diet, without worrying about overeating. And if you think you can lose weight by "eating only when you're hungry" while eating addictive sugary junk, think again.
- Processed junk got us spoiled with all these different options. Despite all the research and the tools we have, why do we struggle with obesity now more than ever? Because we now use food as entertainment, a solution to boredom, or it's our idea of having a good time or to "solve" whatever's troubling us. So many different flavors of ice cream, so many pizza toppings combinations, I mean just the amount of ways you could have your coffee at Starbucks? What if ice cream, pizza and coffee didn't exist? Penn Jillette (the magician) lost 100 pounds and kept it off by going on the potato diet, meaning eating ONLY potatoes for 2 weeks. Sadhguru mentioned that at some point of his life he survived just with peanuts and bananas. When you drown out all the noise and get rid of the junk for long enough, you will eventually find yourself appreciating the simplest and healthiest diet consisting of nothing but real, unprocessed foods.
- Processed junk cause malnutrition. You'd think obese people wouldn't have to worry about stuff like vitamin deficiencies, given that they could easily survive on some really long extended fasts. But if all you eat is junk, then you're not really giving healthy nutritious food a chance (or should I say space) are you? One of the reasons obesity causes (or makes worse) certain diseases is that you're deliberately setting your body to malfunction. High sugar, refined carbs and unhealthy fats will increase inflammation, cause insulin resistance, mental problems, and hormonal imbalances, all while depriving yourself from important nutrients that could boost your immune system, balance your hormones and make you smarter and happier. No wonder the dietary supplement market size is over 100 billion US dollars.