Jun 2021

The Best Diet Ever

A Plethora of Diets

Fad diets come and go with the seasons and have been doing so for decades. For most, a sound
diet is the most challenging facet of fitness to understand and control in maintaining a healthy
lifestyle compared to training, recovery, and supplementation. One of the main reasons being is
that we are surrounded by unhealthy food choices. Our North American Diet that the government
deems as the standard of healthy eating is forever changing, and in the opinion of most educated
professionals, considered actually unhealthy and a contributing factor to our current state of
health, or lack thereof.

How is proper diet and nutrition subjective? It seems like every month, another study is
released that completely contradicts a previous study that says food X is good or bad for you.
Without getting into the complicated politics of most studies and trials, it’s fair to say that if you
want to control the outcome of a study to promote a product, it is easy to manipulate the
variables to get the desired and biased result.

The Issue with Modern Diets

The problem with diets isn’t the diets themselves, although most diets are fundamentally
flawed. The problem is that 95% of people who try a diet never follow it through to the end. Yo-Yo
dieting is when an individual follows a diet, loses weight, then goes off the diet, resumes poor
eating habits, gains back all the weight or more, and then goes back on the diet or a new diet. This
perpetual cycle of gaining and losing weight is very common and can go on until the frustrated
individual gives up on dieting due to their lack of sustainable results.

Most diets also neglect to prioritize increasing your daily energy expenditure or exercise. You
need to expend calories/energy by being less sedentary and moving around to lose fat and
maintain your existing muscle tissue to aid in fat loss. This is where exercise becomes crucial.
Despite the abundance of health products and the importance placed on convenience, there is no
quick fix for our body and optimal health.

Calorie Deficits

Most diets, if adhered to, can help you initially lose weight as they generally share a similar
philosophy of cutting back the total amount of calories consumed to the point where you
are in a calorie deficit. Being in a calorie deficit will force the body to mobilize stored glycogen, fat,
and even protein from muscle tissue to fuel the body, causing weight loss. What’s not generally
known is where the weight loss is coming from. Ideally, you want to burn stored body fat when
dieting, not muscle tissue, as muscle tissue is metabolic and burns calories, stimulating your
metabolism. So diets that cause you to lose both fat and muscle are not ideal, and losing strictly
stored fat can be difficult. It also becomes difficult to continue losing weight as your metabolism
slows down during prolonged periods of calorie restriction.

We all have different tolerance levels to certain foods and, therefore, different results. Most diets
generally tend to be one size fits all. As humans, we are generally considered omnivores meant to
consume meat and plants. Both food groups provide us with different micronutrients, vitamins,
and minerals required in the body for normal physiological functioning. So with diets that exclude
an entire food group, you’re eliminating food that provides your body with essential micronutrients
that serve as catalysts for a myriad of chemical reactions that keep us alive and healthy. You can
always supplement with vitamins and minerals to cover what may be missing in your diet, but
consuming adequate amounts of each macronutrient can provide your body with the required
nutrients.

Incorporate Protein

The best diet is going to be similar for most people. Every day each of us needs a certain
amount of protein to stay in a nitrogen balance to maintain existing muscle tissue. Muscle tissue
is highly metabolic, and by having a surplus of nitrogen from dietary protein, you can gain
muscle from exercising, which in turn raises your metabolism and allows you to burn more
calories throughout the day.

Protein can come from meat, dairy, eggs, legumes, grains, etc. Different protein sources provide
various micronutrients and amino acids. You want to consume complete protein sources that
contain a full amino acid profile. When consuming plant-based diets, one needs to consume
various foods to ensure they get a complete source of protein, as most plants are
deficient in varying amino acids.

Carbs for Energy

Carbohydrates are primarily used for energy. Consumed carbs get broken down into glycogen
which is used to fuel our muscles and brain. Your body stores glycogen in the muscle and liver for
when it needs it. Having stored glycogen ensures the body will utilize it and spare burning muscle
tissue when it needs energy. The fibre found in carbohydrates aids with digestion helps control
cholesterol and has numerous other vital functions. Healthy carb sources include fruits,
vegetables, legumes, seeds, nuts, etc. Unhealthy and all too commonly consumed carb sources
are basically all processed foods in a box or bag. These convenient, fast, cheat foods are high in
sugar and fat, and low in nutrients.

Healthy Fats

Healthy fats are also required in the diet to provide energy, support the growth of new cells, aid in
the absorption of nutrients and help produce various hormones in the body. There are good
and bad fats to consume. The good ones come from meat sources, nuts, seeds, and certain
oils. Bad fats, including trans fats, should be eliminated from your diet; they are commonly
found in most fast and processed foods.

Calorie Counting

Every day a certain amount of calories need to be consumed to maintain your current
bodyweight. To lose or gain weight is quite simple. Calculate your daily maintenance calories
and either cut or add 3-500 calories per day. The only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie
deficit, where your body starts mobilizing energy from stored energy sources, ideally fat. Your
body is clever and will eventually adapt to your calorie restriction, and your weight loss will
plateau. The trick is to increase calories for a few days to trick your metabolism into not
dropping. To prevent lowering your metabolism, you need to incorporate exercise. Exercise
stimulates hormones that increase your metabolism, enhances your health and well-being,
conditions all your body’s tissues and systems, and builds lean muscle tissue, which causes you
to burn more calories daily.

Final Tips

Most diets just aren’t sustainable, they can’t be maintained for long periods, and they
tend to eliminate whole food groups that, if properly consumed, are good for your body. Our
bodies will synthesize what is needed if we are deficient in a needed macronutrient. The body is
very resourceful and functions to survive and maintain homeostasis no matter what you’re
ingesting. But the all-around best diet is to just eat whole foods rich in nutrients, in moderation,
every day. There’s nothing wrong with a cheat meal here or there. It doesn’t have to be all or
nothing; moderation is key. Living a healthy lifestyle requires dedication, self-control, consistency,
and hard work.

To be a healthy human being, it is important to eat purposefully, supplement appropriately
depending on your individual needs, exercise consistently to improve your fitness level, and get
enough sleep. So, if you want to see sustainable long-term results, abandon your diet and start
eating responsibly.