What’s the Right Diet?

Vegan? Paleo? Keto? How about plant-based or gluten free?

There are SO many diets out there, and you don’t need to search extensively to find them. The fitness world is always coming out with the next best thing, whether that’s a new workout (#Crossfit) or a new diet.

We often hear that these fad diets don’t work and that people tend regain all the weight that they’ve lost. Two things about this:

1. People often believe that they must “diet” to reach a certain weight. Then, once the goal is reached, they can go back to business as usual.  For true weight loss and health, diets do not exist, only lifestyle changes do.
2. Sometimes the lifestyle changes that people make in order to attain a certain fitness goal are not sustainable. Granted this is subjective, but it all depends on what is manageable for you. Removing dairy, grains, and added sugars from your diet all at once is almost a set up for failure. By doing so, you can easily get trapped in what you’re leaving out, which can lead to frequent cheat meals or snacks.

What’s become popular lately, however, isn’t the typical fad diet. People have become much more concerned with the health benefits certain diets may provide and not so much the potential weight loss that it may provide.

Vegan/ plant-based diets are supposed to be very cleansing. The paleo diet is supposed to reflect how human are meant to eat. Gluten-free is supposed to be restorative to the body by decreasing inflammation, as well as benefit those who have an allergy to gluten. The Keto diet is supposed to help with weight loss, but it also assist in excluding processed food and added sugars.

So which is the right one? All of them, really. It all depends on what works for your body and what is most manageable for your lifestyle. It’s important to remember that just because a certain diet has been phenomenal for a friend or family member does not mean that it will work for you.

When trying a new diet, also make sure to give it some time. Typically, three months is a good way to judge if a diet is working for you.

Have you been trying any new diets? How have they been going?

-Marisol