Best Diet Plan For Your Healthy Lifestyle
Have you ever wondered why dieting feels impossible and rarely works? Is it because you haven’t found the right diet plan yet nor has your idea of dieting been twisted into something too unrealistic to stick with?
It turns out there’s at least one “diet” out there that doesn’t leave you feeling famished, broke, or miserable by the end of the second week. Experts have even called it the easiest diet to follow out of all the “official” diets on record. Have you tried it?
Why is Dieting So Hard?
The short answer is dieting seems hard because most people approach it with unrealistic expectations. A diet is not something you do for two weeks with the hope of magically acquiring the body you’ve always wanted. It’s nearly impossible to lose weight quickly and keep it off. And restricting calories and nutrients create more problems than it solves. So why do some diets works, and others don’t? Because they’re not really “diets” at least, not the kind most people think of when desperate to lose weight in a matter of days.
Types of Best Diet Plan
There are various diet plans which can be espoused and carried forward by a being such as:
1. Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is more of a way of eating instead of a traditional diet. There are no meal plans, no “forbidden” foods, and no exaggerated promises. Guidelines are simple and flexible. It’s not only nutritionally balanced and safe for everyone, but also relatively inexpensive, convenient, and simple. It doesn’t eliminate food groups. It doesn’t restrict calories. You’re allowed to eat dessert and drink wine! You can easily eat out or order in. Its recommended foods are super filling which you might save time prepping meals in advance. You don’t have to spend extra money on specific foods or programs.
Guidelines for following this diet are loose. It doesn’t tell you how much to eat or what you “can’t” have. It’s basically a brief list of suggestions (in the form of a pyramid) to help you make better choices, eat more healthy foods, and eat fewer less healthy options.
Is the Mediterranean diet good for weight loss?
The Mediterranean diet is suggested as Best Weight Loss Diets. It doesn’t specify that you have to eat fewer calories to lose weight, so if you don’t cut back, you probably won’t see a huge weight change. It also doesn’t outright discourage many of the foods people tend to overindulge in, such as desserts.
Technically, the diet wasn’t designed as a weight loss plan — which is why it doesn’t rank in the top 10 among programs such as Weight Watchers. If your only end goal is to lose weight “as quickly as possible,” this probably isn’t the diet for you.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have health benefits. It’s good for your heart and has the potential to decrease your risk of the mental decline often associated with dementia. It encourages the consumption of healthy fats, lean proteins, and produce.
If you’re willing to make a long-term commitment to following an overall healthy way of eating, there’s no reason why you can’t lose weight and feel better. It just might happen gradually over many months instead of in a few weeks.
2. Intermittent Fasting (IF)
Intermittent Fasting is basically an eating pattern, which includes fasting as well as eating. Conventionally speaking, it is not the type of diet where you starve for the whole week. It requires you to fast for 16-24 hours twice a week.
Think of the past now! What did hunters and gatherers eat? There were times when they could not find food anywhere. They would do fasting! We have not seen pictures of hunters and gatherers, but we do reckon that they were leading a healthy lifestyle. There were no spices, oil, or junk food. They would hunt for animals and eat fruits and plants. Fasting is not an unnatural way of leading your life. Human beings can function without food for a few hours.
The Different Methods:
Life is about creating a balance and that’s precisely what the IF is all about. When you are not eating, you are basically fasting. Read on to find out about how it really works!
There are three ways of following this fast:
- 16/8 Method: Skipping breakfast and eating two meals in a day. Give an 8-hour gap between those two meals.
- Eat Stop Eat: You would need to fast for 24 hours. After having your dinner tonight, you will take the next meal the very next day at the same time.
- 5:2 Diets: Eating 500-600 calories two days of the week and eating normally rest of the days.
3. Plant-Based Diets
Plant-based or plant-forward eating patterns focus on foods primarily from plants. This includes not only fruits and vegetables, but also nuts, seeds, oils, whole grains, legumes, and beans. It doesn’t mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy. It focuses on minimally processed foods, specifically plants, and is effective at stimulating weight loss and improving health.
People who follow vegan diets abstain from consuming any animal products, including dairy, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and honey. Vegetarians exclude all meat and poultry from their diets, but some vegetarians eat eggs, seafood, or dairy. The WFPB diet, on the other hand, is more flexible. Followers eat mostly plants, but animal products aren’t off-limits. While one person following a WFPB diet may eat no animal products, another may eat small amounts of eggs, poultry, seafood, meat, or dairy.
4. The Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet attempts to remove foods that are inflammatory or act as anti-nutrients (bind to other nutrients preventing absorption).
Some of the benefits attributed to the Paleo diet are:
- Weight loss / body fat reduction
- Lower blood glucose / increased insulin sensitivity
- Improved blood pressure control
- Lower triglycerides / improved cholesterol ratios
- Reduced cravings / improved appetite control
- Reduced chance of nutrient deficiencies
- Improved sleep / improved cognition
- Improved hormone levels / improved fertility
- Reduction in skin issues / reduced sunburn susceptibility
5. Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers is a popular weight loss program that attracts hundreds of thousands of new members each year. Its flexible, point-based system attracts many dieters and highlights the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. Studies have found that Weight Watchers is an effective way to lose weight and not get it back.
6. The DASH Diets
The DASH diet eating plan is a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, low fat, or nonfat dairy. It also includes mostly whole grains; lean meats, fish, and poultry; nuts, and beans. It is high fiber and low to moderate in fat. It is a plan that follows US guidelines for sodium content, along with vitamins and minerals. In addition to lowering blood pressure, the DASH eating plan lowers cholesterol and makes it easy to lose weight. It is a healthy way of eating, designed to be flexible enough to meet the lifestyle and food preferences of most people.
Maintain a Healthy Diet Plan: Maintaining a healthy diet plan is very necessary for one’s daily planning. There are various ways that can be carried forward to maintain a healthy diet plan such as:
7. Fruits and Vegetables
Eating at least 400 g, or five portions, of fruit and vegetables per day reduces the risk of NCDs and helps to ensure an adequate daily intake of dietary fiber. Fruit and vegetable intake can be improved by:
- Always including vegetables in meals
- Eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks
- Eating fresh fruit and vegetables that are in season and
- Eating a variety of fruit and vegetables.
8. Fats
Reducing the amount of total fat intake to less than 30% of total energy intake helps to prevent unhealthy weight gain in the adult population. Also, the risk of developing NCDs is lowered by: (nih.gov)
- Reducing saturated fats to less than 10% of total energy intake
- Reducing trans-fats to less than 1% of total energy intake
Fat intake, especially saturated fat and industrially produced trans-fat intake can be reduced by:
- Steaming or boiling instead of frying when cooking
- Replacing butter, lard, and ghee with oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, canola (rapeseed), corn, safflower, and sunflower oils
- Eating reduced-fat dairy foods and lean meats, or trimming visible fat from meat
9. Salt, Sodium, and Potassium
Most people consume too much sodium through salt (corresponding to consuming an average of 9–12 g of salt per day) and not enough potassium (less than 3.5 g). High sodium intake and insufficient potassium intake contribute to high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.
7. Sugars
Sugars intake can be reduced by Limiting the consumption of foods and drinks containing high amounts of sugars, such as sugary snacks, candies, and sugar-sweetened beverages (like all types of beverages containing free sugars – these include carbonated or non‐carbonated soft drinks, fruit or vegetable juices and drinks, liquid and powder concentrates, flavored water, energy, and sports drinks, ready‐to‐drink tea, ready‐to‐drink coffee, and flavored milk drinks) and eating fresh fruit and raw vegetables as snacks instead of sugary snacks.
The best diet for healthy living is to maintain a healthy diet plan. A healthy diet throughout the life course helps to prevent malnutrition in all its forms and other diseases. There isn’t one “perfect” diet for everyone, owing to individual differences in genes and lifestyle. Rather than choosing foods based only on caloric value, think instead about choosing high-quality, healthy foods, and minimizing low-quality foods. Stay healthy, stay happy.
