Which Diet Works Best?
What works for others may not be right for you. Fortunately, there’s more than one way to eat healthy.
Monica Reinagel, MS, LD/N, CNS
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Which Diet Works Best?
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a nutrition and fitness event hosted by my colleague Ben Greenfield, host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast. On the plane ride home, I was mulling over the conference, in search of a take home message to share with you. There were a couple of speakers who described their own dramatic and life-changing weight loss experiences. Both had lost a large amount of weight in a short period of time. Even more note-worthy, both claimed that they experienced no hunger or food cravings, despite fairly restrictive diets. As compelling as each of their stories was, I was more struck by the contrast between them..
Jimmy Moore told the audience about his experience with “nutritional ketogenics,” Jimmy has lost 80 pounds in about 10 months on a diet that is about 80% fat and less than 5% carbohydrates and features extremely energy dense foods. The previous day, attendees heard speaker Ray Cronise talk about his experiments with “hypothermics.” Ray has lost 70 pounds on a diet that is almost the inverse of Jimmy’s: he gets most of his calories from carbohydrates, eats little fat, and emphasizes foods with a very low energy density. (Ray’s regimen also includes cold showers and walking around without a coat to force the body to burn fat in order to maintain your body temperature.)
Both of these topics, nutritional ketogenics and hypothermics, deserve episodes of their own. But today, I want to focus on a slightly larger picture. I think it’s very common for people who have had success losing weight to assume that what worked for them will work for everyone—and that any other approach is doomed to fail. (This seems especially true when the regimen they used is particularly unusual, elaborate, or intense.)
See also: Which Diet Is Best?
By the same token, when we hear dramatic personal stories from charismatic personalities like these, it’s also tempting to assume that if we simply follow the same path, we will have the same results. We start to suspect that any failures we previously experienced were simply because we hadn’t yet discovered whatever “magic” the person in front of us is now revealing. And yet, the fact that these two speakers had very similar results using two diametrically opposed methods suggests exactly the opposite: There is clearly more than one way to lose weight.
What Does a Nutrition Diva Eat?
My own diet is nothing like Jimmy’s or Ray’s. I get around 45% of my calories from carbs, 35% from fat, and 20% protein. Mine is more of a “little-bit-of-everything, not-too-much-of-anything” approach. I eat meat, but not very often. I eat grains, but in moderation. I use olive oil, but also butter. I try to eat several servings of vegetables every day. I also indulge in sweets sometimes and even the occasional French fry.
Now, granted, I’ve never lost 70 or 80 pounds. In fact, I’ve been within five pounds of my current weight for the last 20 years or so. But my point, again, is that there are a lot of ways to maintain a healthy weight. (And, of course, there’s more to being healthy than just the number on the scale—but that’s a topic for another day.) Stories like Jimmy’s and Ray’s may lead you to explore some different approaches. But ultimately, you need to find what works for your body and your lifestyle. Because this isn’t only about biochemistry, folks.
Eating Within Your Means—And Loving It
If I were your financial advisor, my first priority would be for you to live within your means. We’d set up a budget so that you’d know how much you could afford to spend without going into debt. And obviously, your budget would be unique to your circumstances: how much you earn, the cost of housing in your part of the country, whether you have children to put through college, and so on.
If I were a really good financial advisor, though, I’d want to do more than just keep you out of debt. I’d also try to understand what things you value, so that I could help you maximize your happiness and satisfaction—while living within your means. If travel is your great love, then maybe you’d be better off with a more modest home that doesn’t suck up your resources only to sit empty. If, on the other hand, you love entertaining, a larger house and smaller travel budget might be what maximizes your happiness.
Similarly, as a nutrition advisor, one of my goals is to help you eat “within your means.” We need to figure out how much you can afford to eat in order to maintain a healthy body weight. And your dietary “budget” will be unique to your circumstances, such as your age, body composition, level of activity, and history.
But I want to do more than simply figure out how many calories you can eat without gaining weight. I also want to help you figure out what eating style brings you maximum satisfaction for those calories. What approach satisfies your hunger and your senses, is built on foods that you enjoy, can afford, and have easy access to? What plan makes you feel the best, mentally and physically? What diet maximizes your health as well as your weight? What approach could you happily follow for the rest of your life?
How to Find Your “Thrive”
The good news is that there are a lot of different ways to put together a healthy diet. You’ll find people who thrive on a hunter-gatherer diet, others on a plant-based regimen, still others on a Mediterranean-style eating plan. That’s why, although I discuss the pros and cons of various diet strategies, I don’t endorse any one approach. And the bad news here isn’t really that bad. It may take a little experimenting and reflection to figure out what makes you thrive. Here’s a good place to start: How to Create Your Own Best Diet.
Also check out my book, Nutrition Diva’s Secrets for a Healthy Diet: What to Eat, What to Avoid, and What to Stop Worrying About. It has loads of reasonable, practical advice on eating within your means—and enjoying it!
Do you have a success story to share? I invite you to post it in the comments section. The idea here isn’t to campaign for one approach over another but simply to illustrate that there are many valid paths to health. Let’s support each other in finding and fine-tuning the approach that works best!
About the Author
Monica Reinagel is a board-certified licensed nutritionist, author, and the creator of one of iTunes’ most highly ranked health and fitness podcasts. Her advice is regularly featured on the TODAY show, Dr. Oz, NPR, and in the nation’s leading newspapers, magazines, and websites. Do you have a nutrition question? Call the Nutrition Diva listener line at 443-961-6206. Your question could be featured on the show.