There are many diets and new ones constantly emerge as people persistently seek convenient ways to lose weight. In the mass of various diets, we reviewed and made a list of the nine most effective diets, which descriptions you can find in further text. A better understanding of diets, their methods, benefits, and disadvantage, will help you find the one that best suits your needs, lifestyle, and expectations.
But first, let us have a word about dieting. Probably any diet will show its results regarding weight loss, at least in the beginning, until your metabolism adapts new calorie regime intake and regains stability again. Therefore, establishing healthy diet and lifestyle habits, practicing physical activity, and calorie deficit, is the only way to ensure a healthy body and maintain optimal weight or help you with extreme weight loss without surgery.
- Intermittent fasting
IF is considered a diet strategy, as it appraises eating and calorie consummation at a set time during the day and fasting the rest of the time. There are various time approaches in this method, and the most popular is the 8:16 split – meaning, you have an eight-hour time for eating (whenever and whatever you want to eat during these eight hours) followed by 16 hours of fasting. Other eating regimes can be 16:10, 10:16, or 6:20 of the eating: fasting scheme. There are even some extreme cases where individuals opt for a 1:23 split and consume all recommended daily calorie intake in just one hour while starving for the rest 23 hours.
During the fasting period, a person should avoid any calorie intake including beverages such as sports drinks, alcohol, coffee, sweetened and soda waters, and teas.
This method results in weight loss but also can show improvement in improving insulin resistance, reduction of oxidative stress and risk of stroke, and balancing blood sugar levels and pressure. Additionally, it promotes brain functions such as memory, and focus and banishes brain fog.
Besides, its advantages, IF also can manifest its negative effects such as the feeling of dizziness, headache, increase stress, thyroid problems, and hormonal disbalance, and can impact irregular menstrual cycle in women.
- Mediterranean Diet
This diet regime is inspired by the dieting habits of people who live in the Medittarean sea region. Mediterranean diet is rich in vegetables, fish, olive oil, fruit, grains, nuts, yogurts, and cheese. What makes this diet different than one in continental parts of the continent, is that impart of red meat in this diet is reduced to a minimum. This is one of the favorite diets nowadays as it provides diverse flavors with low saturated fat.
The benefits of this diet are numerous, from regulating blood sugar, and pressure to reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Also, this diet covers all major food groups.
The cons of the Mediterranean diet are that it can cause low iron levels due to insufficient meat intake.
- Ketogenic diet
This diet is the most debated and discussed diet lately. The Keto diet refers to keeping the body in a near-constant state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state in which the body burns fat to produce energy and creates ketones, instead of making energy from glucose (sugar from carbohydrates which is the body’s basic energy source).
The Keto diet prioritizes fat (between 65% and 75% of daily calories), following the protein content of 20% to 30%, and little amount of carbs (not more than 5%, while some forms of Keto diets completely exclude carbs).
The benefit of the Ketogenic diet is that it regulates blood sugar, insulin, and pressure, and reduces acne and body weight.
The negative side of the Keto diet is a nutrient deficit, kidney stones, liver diseases, and osteoporosis for a long period of practice, while sort-time application might lead to “keto flu”, a condition with symptoms resembling flu such as brain fog, headache, upset stomach, and fatigue.
- Carnivore diet
Carnivore’s diet puts its accent on animal-based products and it is kind of the opposite of veganism. It is also called a “Zero Carb Diet”. This diet considers only eating eggs, meat and milk products, and animal-delivered fats. The carnivore diet excluded any kind of vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and grains. By the food selection, you can tell that this diet prefers proteins and fat, and prohibits carbs.
The advantage of the Carnivore diet is its high efficiency in weight loss goals, but the negative side is increasing in cardiovascular diseases and overall health risks due to the lack of vitamins and minerals that are contained in fruit and vegetables.
- Paleo diet
This diet is also called a “Caveman diet” and it`s similar to the Carnivore diet. Besides meat, the Paleo diet allows eating fish, vegetables, nuts, and fruits but forbids grains, legumes, beans, processed food, sugar, and products that contain trans fats and vegetable oils.
Suggestions are that this diet, besides promoting weight loss, affects blood sugar and pressure regulation.
The cons of this diet are that its unsustainable for long period and might produce a yo-yo effect.
- Sirtfood Diet
This diet was created by a nutritionist Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten. The concept of the Sirtfood diet is focusing on high sirtuins food. Sirtuins are a group of signaling proteins that contributes to metabolism regulation. Food high in sirtuins are red wine, walnuts, dark chocolate, coffee, extra-virgin olive oil, capers, and arugula.
Aidan Googles and Glen Matten have developed a system of two phases in the Sirtfood diet. The first phase considers eating only one full meal of sirtfood and drinking three green juices, and that intake contains around 1000 calories for the first three days. The second phase of this diet occurs on the fourth day and considers the increased amount of calories of 1500, in three sirtfood rich meals and one green juice daily. The second phase lasts for about two weeks, and after that, you can repeat the process.
The lack of calories will currently result in weight loss, but other than that, this diet is believed to slow down aging.
Concerns about this diet refer to low-calorie intake and nutrition deficit that can cause health problems such as weakness, vomiting, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and diarrhea.
- Veganism
Veganism implies excluding any animal-based products, and also considers a lifestyle (avoiding any products of animal origin). Vegan dietary is based on vegetables, beans, grains, legumes, and fruit. As a vegan diet excludes eggs as well, many food products are customized with egg-free recipes to correspond with vegans.
Some studies have shown the beneficial properties of a vegan diet in reducing the risk of heart disease and risk of cancer.
However, vegans have a risk of nutrient deficits regarding calcium, iron, vitamin D, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids.
- Zone diet
The Zone diet stands that nutrition balance can lead to weight loss. This diet concerns meal portion that accommodates 40% of carbohydrates, 30% of fat, and 30% of proteins. The Zone diet controls the insulin level which indeed contributes to weight loss.
The advantages of this diet are that it encourages the consummation of a high-quality carbohydrate-rich food such as avocado, nuts, and olive oil and basically covers nutrient requirements.
The disadvantage of the Zone diet is that it is difficult to constantly sustain the required percentage of meal components. Another con is that it excludes much food rich in fiber such as pasta, cereals, legumes, and beans.
- Raw food diet
Raw food diet considers the consummation of raw food, ideally organic. Raw food regards unprocessed fruit, vegetables, freshly made juices without additional sweeteners, beans, grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, raw vegetable butter, coconut, almond, and nut milk, cold pressed oils, yeasts, raw eggs, raw fish (sushi and sashimi), raw and dried meat, and other non-precessed food and unpasteurized milk products.
This diet is rich in fiber, improves vitality and energy levels, contributes to weight loss, and improves overall health.
Prons of this diet are that it can cause food poisoning and bacterial infections.
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at BlueFashion. She has been steering the website's content and editorial direction since 2013. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra's expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.
