The word “diet” describes: the type of food a person, animal or community habitually eats.
A diet should include everything you need to survive.
For example, your diet should provide you with enough calories to keep your body functioning.
It should also include all of the important food groups and not leave you with any sort of deficiency.
When talking about effective diets for weight loss, it’s important to remember this.
Many diets that claim to help you shed pounds can be fairly dangerous.
Some diets are designed to help you lose weight in a short amount of time.
This is called rapid weight loss and isn’t usually recommended.
The most effective diet for weight loss is one that you can stick to on a long-term basis.
This means that you’re more likely to maintain any weight loss that you achieve.
If you’re hoping for long-term weight loss, you should look at making improvements to your diet in order to boost your chances.
Generally, most people find that eating a healthy, balanced diet is effective for weight loss.
This is because it follows the guidelines of what we should be eating anyway.
Making sure to eat a balanced diet (not just your meals), you should be well on the way to making positive lifestyle changes.
The important thing to remember with any kind of diet is that you will need to be in a calorie deficit for weight loss.
Because of this, we recommend weighing and measuring your food regardless of which diet you’re following.
Knowing how many calories you’re consuming can help you to have more control over your diet.
Everyone is different, and a diet that suited your friend might not suit you.
It’s entirely possible to still enjoy food whilst losing weight.
Please don’t think that you have to cut out all of the foods that you enjoy.
A balanced diet can help you to enjoy foods in the right quantities.
Is A High Protein Diet Good For Weight Loss?
A high protein diet is often recommended to people that are embarking on a weight loss journey.
This is because foods that are rich in protein are more likely to keep you fuller for longer than other foods.
However, you don’t necessarily need a lot of protein in order to lose weight.
With a high protein diet, you may be advised to slightly reduce your carbohydrate intake.
This doesn’t mean cutting them out completely though.
Reducing your carbohydrate intake in favour of more protein could help to reduce how many calories you eat.
This is important for weight loss, as you want to be aiming for a calorie deficit.
Protein generally contains fewer calories than many carbohydrates and fats.
This is often the reason why high protein diets are recommended.
Some people choose to increase their protein intake via powdered shakes.
However, you shouldn’t need to do this if you’re eating enough food.
Protein shakes are only really recommended for people that either aren’t getting enough calories from solid food, or for those that are wanting to gain weight or build muscle.
As long as you’re eating a healthy and balanced diet, you shouldn’t need to start taking any protein supplements.
Lean protein is often best complemented with vegetables and low-GI carbohydrates.
Following basic guidelines such as these should help you to build a healthy high protein diet for weight loss.
Does A Vegan Diet Help Weight Loss?
Many people trying to lose weight wonder whether switching to a vegan diet might help them shift the pounds.
However, it entirely depends on the type of vegan diet that you’re following.
Whilst it’s true that some vegan diets are incredibly healthy, others can be fairly unhealthy.
With any diet that you follow, you’ll still need to be mindful of which foods you choose to eat.
You should also stay aware of how much you might be eating.
Even if you follow a healthy vegan diet, it can still be easy to over-eat.
If you’re already following a vegan diet, we would recommend making sure that you eat plenty of plant-based proteins.
You should also make sure to include a good variety of fruits and vegetables in your meals and snacks.
If you’re considering a vegan diet for environmental or ethical reasons, that’s great!
However, we wouldn’t recommend cutting out animal products purely to lose weight.
Foods that we get from animals are an important part of most peoples’ diets.
It’s entirely possible to incorporate animal-based foods into a healthy diet.
Essentially a vegan diet is like any other when it comes to weight loss.
You still have to make sure that you’re eating the right amount.
Is A Low Fat Diet Good For Weight Loss?
When it comes to weight loss, reducing your fat intake is generally a good idea.
Fats contain a lot of calories, particularly hydrogenated or trans-fats which are found in a lot of baked goods and “junk” foods.
Limiting your fat intake means that you should consume fewer calories.
A lot of the time, you can just make healthy swaps, too!
This means that you shouldn’t have to miss out on anything that you like.
You can start by making small changes such as swapping semi-skimmed milk to skimmed milk.
You might even want to look at healthy alternatives to some snacks. especially if your regular snacks contain a lot of fat.
Following a low-fat diet for weight loss is often recommended, this is because a balanced diet should also contain low amounts of fat.
The Eatwell Guide should tell you more about what a balanced diet should look like.
myBMI recommends that you limit your fat intake (though not cut it out entirely), and you should also make sure to eat plenty of lean protein, as well as fibre.
Can Healthy Snacks Help with Weight Loss?
When you’re on a diet, some people find that eating little and often helps them to stave off cravings and hunger between meals.
With that being said, typical snacks like crisps & biscuits can often contain a large number of calories, making you feel like you’re stuck in a catch 22 of feeling hungry but not wanting to eat too many calories.
We’re not going to advise that you cut out any of the foods you enjoy entirely, but there are some healthy snack options you could turn to to help stave off hunger throughout the day.
Here are a few of our favourite healthier options to replace high calorie snacks:
- Fruit – either alone or with low-fat yoghurt
- Vegetable sticks – alone or with a low-fat dip like salsa, hummus, or cottage cheese
- Mixed nuts
- Oatmeal or overnight oats
- Olives
- Peanut butter (with no added sugar) and apple slices
- Rice cakes or oat cakes
- Small amounts of dark chocolate
- Homemade trail mix
- Air-popped popcorn
Do Diet Shakes Help With Weight Loss?
Many people who decide to begin a weight loss journey consider using protein shakes or meal replacement shakes to try and reduce their calorie intake.
Although meal replacement drinks can help certain patients who need to lose weight rapidly for medical reasons or those who are preparing for surgery, they aren’t always the best option for the average person who is trying to lose weight.
If you replace your regular meals with meal replacement shakes or foods, you run the risk of reducing your calorie intake too quickly and depriving your body of the nutrients it would get from a healthy, balanced diet.
Many people who turn to meal replacement for weight loss also find that they put the weight back on after they go back to eating normally – this is often because they haven’t changed the habits that caused their weight gain in the first place.
In the vast majority of cases, our experts recommend making changes to your diet and increasing your activity levels, rather than replacing food with protein shakes or similar products.
This will not only help you achieve consistent and healthy weight loss, but will mean that you’re more likely to keep the weight off long-term – you may feel impatient, but slow and steady wins the race!
Can Dieting Alone Help In Weight Loss?
Ideally, dieting should be used alongside exercise in order to have the best chance at weight loss.
However, if you have mobility issues or struggle to exercise, it’s still important to eat healthily.
Any improvement is better than no improvement.
Making sure that you eat a healthy diet is important for many other health reasons other than weight loss.
It’s possible that by eating a healthy diet, you could reduce your calorie intake enough to help you lose some weight.
We would generally recommend that to lose weight, you should incorporate exercise into your daily life.
However, we also recognise that this isn’t possible for some people, for those that do struggle, we would always encourage healthy eating habits.
Whilst you might not lose as much weight with diet alone, you should still lose some.
Any amount of weight loss for someone with obesity would help with reducing the risk of various health issues.
Diet is always an important part of weight management and it’s also an important aspect of our general health.
It’s always a good idea to make improvements to your diet in order to nourish your body.
Will I Still Need to Diet if I Exercise?
In order to maintain your weight loss consistently, you’ll need to be at a calorie deficit for an extended period of time.
Although you can achieve a calorie deficit every day through diet alone, it can be easier if you exercise too, as you’ll burn more calories during a workout.
However, just because you’ve hit the gym or gone for a run, it doesn’t mean you can eat 10 fast food burgers and call it a day!
It’s harder to burn calories than it is to eat them, so you’ll need to find a balance that works for you.
Basically, diet and exercise work hand in hand to help you achieve your daily calorie deficit, and although you can lose weight through one without the other, you’ll generally find it easier if you commit to both.
If you get the balance right, you should be able to eat a balanced diet, which includes sensible amounts of the things you love, get some exercise, and maintain your weight loss.
What Is A Good Balanced Diet For Weight Loss?
A well-balanced diet consists of carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetables.
A balanced diet shouldn’t ever restrict a main food group – these groups are recommended for a reason.
We get most of our energy from carbohydrates, and protein is essential for growth and repair.
It’s also incredibly important to eat fruit and vegetables as these can help to support the immune system as well as provide a host of other health benefits.
As far as weight loss is concerned, all you need to make sure of is that you’re eating the right foods to nourish you in the right quantities.
You don’t have to eat anything that you don’t like or give up anything you enjoy.
A balanced diet should be just that – balanced.
Whilst a balanced diet might not be the fastest track to weight loss, it’s unarguably the healthiest.
A balanced diet will provide you with everything you need.
Following fad or crash diets that promise to shed large amounts of weight in weeks aren’t sustainable in the long term.
However, a balanced diet is what you should be aiming for.
By following a balanced diet during your weight loss journey, you’ll be making healthy lifestyle changes to support yourself in years to come.
