The Best Diet For Weight Loss

You’re ready to find the best diet for weight loss.

You’re finally ready to get started on your health and wellness goals. Or maybe you tried losing weight before but it didn’t work. And now you’re ready to take another shot at it.

Now you’re wondering. And this is the million dollar question. What’s the best diet for weight loss?

I’m going to break that down in this video. I’m also going to talk about the mistakes that people tend to make when they’re trying to figure out which diet is going to work optimally for them.

The Best Diet For Weight Loss – Explained

When you’re looking for the best diet for weight loss that will not only help you lose fat, build muscle, promote longevity, and achieve whatever your goals are. But also help you maintain that progress because you want long term sustainable results.

The number one factor. The number one key for finding the best diet for weight loss is finding the diet that optimizes your health.

And you get that through achieving a state of metabolic efficiency. It’s where your body is able to tap into your fat stores for energy efficiently in between meals. That why I always say that 80% of your body composition is determined by your diet.

And this is going to be based on your current state of health and your goals. For example, just to quickly go through some popular diets. A low carb diet or keto diet might be really good for you if you have insulin resistance.

That’s why I talk about it a lot on my YouTube channel. Because 88% of American adults have some form of metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance. That’s almost nine out of every ten. If you’re one of those people, a low carb/keto diet is most likely the best diet for you to moderate your insulin levels. Which will then overall improve your health.

That’s what we want. Which will then ultimately help you lose whatever weight you want to lose. The less insulin your body has to produce every time you eat, the longer you’re going to live. A low carb/keto diet is also extremely muscle sparring if done properly.

An elimination diet like the Carnivore diet on the other hand, which is the ultimate low carb diet if you think about it. It might be really good for you if you have gut issues or digestion issues. Or if you have an autoimmune disease because it cuts out a lot of foods that give people digestion problems that tend to be really inflammatory for the large part of the population. I’m talking about foods that are high in anti nutrients here.

If you’re not familiar with the Carnivore diet, go on instagram and you look up any of the big names in the Carnivore Diet space, they are all absolutely shredded and a lot of them will tell that the’ve reversed a lot of their pre-existing health problems and auto immune disease. it’s fascinating stuff.

A vegan diet, which is the opposite of carnivore, is going to be optimal for you don’t want to harm animals. I respect that. Just know that there is a grand total of zero studies that shows that a vegan diet is the healthy diet for humans.

Following an intuitive style of eating might be good for you if you don’t want to track calories. But that could be a slippery slope for some people especially if you have an unhealthy relationship with food. Because if your intuition tells you to just eat junk every day, then that’s probably not going to help.

On the flip side, following If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), or doing some form of calorie tracking might be the best diet for weight loss for you if you’re a numbers person and you want structure in your life. IIFYM can offer people a lot more freedom with their food because they know exactly how much they have to eat. And it can be really powerful if you use the right macronutrient ratio.

But just because I’m having success on a low carb diet, and this is the diet that I build my program around. And all my students have had great success with it. Doesn’t mean that that is the best diet for weight loss for everyone.

Where The Problem Starts

This is why people can become so attached about different diets and say, “My diet is way better than yours!” It almost becomes a religion. And the followers become zealots of that eating principle.

If they find out that you’re following a different diet they’ll say, “What are you doing?” “You should just count calories. It’s all about the calories.” Or, “You should go vegan to save the planet!” Or something like that. You’re not saving the planet by the way if you go vegan.

Because when they find a diet that clicks. That works with their current state of health, to improve their health, it feels like a miracle. It genuinely feels like you’ve found the answer to everything. You discovered the secret to life and you’re enlightened. But that’s not the case. It’s just that you’ve found a diet that works best for you. For your current situation.

For example, if your diet consists of eating Mcdonald’s and Chinese take out every day. Then you watch a stupid documentary like Game Changers or What The Health. None of the health claims from those documentaries are based on good science by the way. None. But they do a great job of pulling your little heart strings. So let’s say you switch to a vegan diet. You’re probably going to lose weight and feel better. I’ll give you that.

But you’re going to lose weight and feel good because you’re taking out a lot of highly processed foods from your diet. Vegetables also tend to be really low on calories so it automatically puts you in a calorie deficit.

So right away, people will feel good when they stop eating so much junk. They’re also almost automatically on a calorie deficit from eating more vegetables. So they lose weight.

But that concept is not exclusive to the Vegan diet. That also applies if you go Paleo, or Keto, Carnivore, or IIFYM, or if you just stop eating like an asshole in general.

But what I really wanted to dive into today regarding this topic is where people go wrong when they’re trying to find the best diet for weight loss. I’m going to give you the 5 most common mistakes I see when people are experimenting with new diets. And this happens all the time regardless of what diet people end up following.

The Best Diet For Weight Loss – 5 WORST Mistakes

1. People are not giving the diet enough time for their body to adapt to it.

We live in a society where instant gratification is the name of the game. That’s why people are so addicted to their phones trying to get as many likes and followers as they can.

Unfortunately, that concept gets applied to their diets as well. But for any major dietary shift to have a fighting chance of succeeding, your body’s going to have to go through an adaptation period of at least two weeks. Other diets can take longer like up to 8 weeks.

Keto is a perfect example of this. When you get rid of basically most carbs, especially processed carbs from your life. And your body has to learn how to switch to burning ketones for fuel, which it probably hasn’t done since you’re a baby. That takes a lot of work on your body to relearn how to burn ketones for fuel.

And you’re mostly likely going to go through what’s more commonly referred to as the keto flu. Where you just feel like crap for a couple of weeks. It’s perfectly normal. Think of your body literally going through carb withdrawals during this time. That’s why any research about keto that’s anything shorter than 8 weeks is trash. It’s not accurate. You’re still going through the adaptation period.

When people go Paleo or Vegan, they might experience some digestive issues at first. Mostly because they’re not used to eating so many vegetables. So they end up with a lot more fibre in their diet and their body goes, “Hold on. What is this healthy stuff? What are we trying to digest?” But eventually your body figures it out and you’re fine.

Same thing with intermittent fasting. The whole notion that breakfast is the most important meal of the day has been ingrained in our heads for decades now. So when you start fasting, and you start skipping breakfast for example. Your body is going to freak out a little bit. But again, you’re fine. You’re not going to die.

You have at least 100,000 calories worth of stored energy in the form of body fat waiting to be used. It’s not just there for looks.

Basically, when you’re starting a new diet or a new way of eating. Don’t be surprised if the first couple of weeks are a lot harder than you anticipated. If you feel worse at first. Again, there’s an adaptation period. Think one step back, two steps forward.

Think of it like when you start working out. Or when you switch to a different way of training. You’re going to be sore for the first few days or first couple of weeks. You’re going to feel like you just got hit by a bus. Twice.

But that doesn’t mean that your new workout program is bad. It just means that your body is going through an adaptation period. And once it gets to the point where its adapted, you’re going to be fine. Your clothes are going to fit you better. You’re going to look good shirtless.

The only way you’re going to know if a diet is actually working for your body is if you get past that adaptation period. And let your body settle into this new way of eating. So that it can actually function properly on whatever diet you’re trying.

Which leads me to mistake number two. The opposite of the first mistake.

2. The concept of sunk cost bias.

It’s when you try to force a diet to work when it’s clearly not working.

If you’ve gone through the adaptation period, you’ve been on your diet for a couple of months, and you still feel like hot garbage. You feel weak, lethargic, and your energy levels are down. If you feel irritable and moody. If your mental health and clarity is just not there. And you’re just forcing yourself to continue your diet because you think it’s what you should be doing. You need to stop. Pump the brakes.

Not all diets or ways of eating is going agree with your body. And that’s totally fine.

It’s okay to put a couple of months of your life into trying out a new diet and have it not work. You tried it, you learned something, and now you can grow from that and find something that’s going to work even better for you.

This is what it should look like when you’re trying out a new diet. You give yourself a solid couple of weeks for adaptation. Once you’re adapted, hopefully you feel better. Maybe you’re not feeling so good.

But if it’s the latter. If you’re still not feeling great. If you feel like something is off. And your body will tell you. You have no energy and you feel like hot garbage. Then you need to assess your current diet. Figure out what you could be doing wrong. Because there’s a lot of different ways to mess up certain diets.

If you’re doing IIFYM and you’re eating Doritos and Snickers bars every day. Even if it fits your macros, that’s probably why you’re not feeling good and you’re always hungry.

If you’re vegan and you find yourself actually gaining weight because you’re eating a ton of carbs. Which is very common for vegans. And you’re not feeling great? Well, it’s because there are certain vitamins like K2 and B12 that your body needs that you can only get from animal products. Meat is also some of the most satiating and nutrient dense food on the planet.

But try out different diets. And then if it’s been multiple weeks or months but you’re still not feeling good. Or you’re feeling worse? You have to bail.

Cut ties with the sunk cost fallacy. There’s no reason to keep doing something that’s clearly not working. That’s the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.

3. Thinking that the diet you’re doing is gonna be your magical unicorn weight loss tool.

I hate to break it to you.

No diet is going to be the magic cure all weight loss tool. Not even intermittent fasting. If you’re eating on a surplus of processed carbs and sugar for an extended period of time while intermittent fasting, you will gain weight. It doesn’t matter that you’re intermittent fasting. If you’re on a calorie surplus of crappy food, you’re going to gain weight.

But if you think of diet as a tool. And then using it as a way of losing weight, building muscle, and optimizing your health and longevity. That’s going to give you a much more realistic expectation for any new style of eating that you try.

So since we’re already talking about intermittent fasting, let’s use that as an example. Intermittent fasting is not a magical weight loss tool. However, if you have insulin resistance, and again 88% of American adults have some form of it. Intermittent fasting will drastically improve that. Because one of its main benefits is improved insulin sensitivity. That by itself improves your health.

So as you get healthier, it becomes easier to lose fat and build muscle. As a byproduct, intermittent fasting can help you build the body that you want.

But if you start intermittent fasting but two weeks later your body hasn’t changed. It’s not because there’s something wrong with intermittent fasting or you’re doing it wrong. It’s because you’re most likely still eating like asshole.

4. Eating way too little or way too much on a given diet.

People eat way too little or way too much expecting the results to be completely different from what their calorie intake would suggest that their results would be.

No matter what diet you’re doing. If you start eating way too little or if you’re eating under your BMR for example, that’s going to freak your body out. That’s going to cause a cortisol response. That’s not healthy. Chronically high cortisol levels will stop any weight loss progress on its tracks. No matter what foods you’re eating.

If you’re massively under eating, your body is going to freak out. And it’s not going to do what you want it to do. Your food intake needs to align with your goals. You also need to hit certain markers like getting enough protein every day because protein is the building block of life.

It you don’t get enough protein because you’re scared of the calories, then that’s when you start to feel weak and you literally start withering away. Your body will start breaking down your precious muscles because it’s in survival mode. This is also when you see people start losing their hair. You don’t want that.

Yes, you need to be on a calorie deficit to lose weight while optimizing your hormones for fat loss at the same time. But not too big of a deficit where your metabolism slows down and your body literally starts shutting down.

And this is why whenever you start a new diet, I highly recommend tracking your food for a few days, or even up to a week when you’re just starting out. See what it looks like. Just so you have a general ball park idea of how much you’re eating. Because it becomes very easy for your calories to be out of control without you noticing.

And this is such a great way to trouble shoot any diet especially if you’re not losing weight. One of the first things to check is how much food you’re eating, your daily protein intake, and your macro ratio.

5. Treating your diet like it’s a religion.

This is what we have come to as a society.

You identify with a certain diet. You box yourself in a little corner. And then you’re just eating foods within that box to fit in everything you can. Even foods that might not necessarily be the healthiest. And I definitely think the IIFYM crowd is some of the biggest offenders in this.

Not that everyone who does IIFYM is eating a ton of junk food. But, I see a lot of people do this from years of experience.

I see a lot of people consistently eating really unhealthy stuff. The thinking is that it’s totally fine or totally healthy because it fits their macros.

But I hate to break it to you. Eating Halo Top ice cream and low calorie rice cakes, putting splenda or stevia in your coffee, and drinking skinny vanilla lattes and diet coke every day is not healthy for you. Even if it fits your macros.  I know because I used to believe in the calorie myth.

And I see this with other diets as well. There’s so much vegan junk food out there, it’s not even funny. But the vegans say it’s healthy because it’s vegan. No, it’s not. There’s nothing healthy about vegan chocolate cake.

It gets even worse when we get into plant based substitutes like vegan cheese. I don’t even want to know what that tastes like. Same thing with beyond burgers. The amount of processing that a plant would have to go through in order to look like a burger patty is insane.

There is nothing healthy about eating food that’s gone through that much processing. It has something like 17 ingredients. Where as if you eat a burger patty, there’s only one ingredient. Beef.

Same goes for Keto. There’s so much processed food that you can eat while on Keto, it’s not even funny. Keto balls and keto bombs are perfect examples of this. You’re just eating dessert with the word ‘keto’ attached to it.

Same thing with any food with the word protein as a prefix. Like protein muffins, protein pancakes, protein donuts, protein cookies. Yeah, they’re all delicious. But guess what? You’re still eating a cookie. You’re still eating a donut. Let’s call a spade a spade.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s totally fine to indulge responsibly. Have your dessert, have your cake, and have your pizza. But doing it every day just because it fits within the guidelines of the diet you’re following is not healthy.

At the end of the day, the ultimate goal for weight loss, health, and longevity is to achieve metabolic efficiency. That is the definition of the best diet for weight loss. Whatever diet you end up following needs to have that goal in mind.

And that’s where the idea of adherence comes into play. You have to find something that works and something you can sustain long term. Personal preference and diet flexibility will always trump any regimented diet protocol.

As always, if this was helpful, share it with a friend who could benefit from it as well!

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