A scientific look at which diet works best.

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Trusylver

Trusylver

Sport and Exercise Coach
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Scientific evidence of diets for weight loss: Different macronutrient composition, intermittent fasting, and popular diets. - PubMed - NCBI

New dietary strategies have been created to treat overweight and obesity and have become popular and widely adopted. Nonetheless, they are mainly based on personal impressions and reports published in books and magazines, rather than on scientific evidence. Animal models and human clinical trials have been employed to study changes in body composition and metabolic outcomes to determine the most effective diet. However, the studies present many limitations and should be carefully analyzed. The aim of this review was to discuss the scientific evidence of three categories of diets for weight loss. There is no one most effective diet to promote weight loss. In the short term, high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting are suggested to promote greater weight loss and could be adopted as a jumpstart. However, owing to adverse effects, caution is required. In the long term, current evidence indicates that different diets promoted similar weight loss and adherence to diets will predict their success. Finally, it is fundamental to adopt a diet that creates a negative energy balance and focuses on good food quality to promote health.

As I have said many times before, there is no best diet for everybody, for me, that is Keto, for others the best diet may be completely different.

Eat quality food and watch your calories, there are no super secrets for losing weight.
 
of course i skipped right to the IF discussion.

i have my doubts about some of their their study...

i found this sentence bizarre.... "... Moreover, modified IF allows a small amount of intake to avoid persistent hunger. ..." holy cow...these guys obviously do not understand the word.... fasting means EVERYTHING. in everything i've written about IF, i always say YOU WILL GET HUNGRY. it's what you do with the information that matters the most.

why did the study on rats seem to be positive, yet the human trials were inconclusive? hey, i've got an idea... RATS CAN'T CHEAT...!
 
intermittent fasting has the same effect as Keto. i couldn't do Keto for a week (too much calculation), but i'm been intermittent fasting for over 14 months now... the last 9-10 just for maintenance. i'm not sure if it's getting easier, but it's not any more difficult either. it's around noon now. i could have eaten this morning, but i just didn't feel like it. that's about how most days go. add that to no late night snacking and even 6-7 hours of sleep and IF becomes a no-brainer.
 
overlandflyer said:
intermittent fasting has the same effect as Keto. i couldn't do Keto for a week (too much calculation)
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I find keto easy to maintain but IF is not suitable for me when I have a heavy training load, especially during preparation for competition. There are benefits and drawback to both and everybody has to find the way that suits them best.
 
Good article, and one that provides a technical basis for what most of us know, this isn't rocket science. Eat fewer calories than you burn and you lose weight, and visa versa. Simple as that.

I think the hard part is overcoming our psychological need or drive to eat too much. I think that is in part why so many of the diets can be successful, if you think hard about what you are eating and what you should eat its easier to control the eating.

I believe there probably is some value to what I think of as tricking your metabolism into letting you eat a few more calories, low carb diets and IF are good examples. But in the end I doubt the differences are profound. As you say Trusylver, figure out what works for you and do it.

Flyer, I know you have done well with IF, you even have me thinking about it. I also however believe from your posts you eat a pretty healthy diet, probably a lot better than when you were overweight. I suspect your success is due to a combination of the IF and eating right; perhaps the IF helps you eat better. Anyway I know it works for you and others.
 
alligatorob said:
....

Flyer, I know you have done well with IF, you even have me thinking about it. I also however believe from your posts you eat a pretty healthy diet, probably a lot better than when you were overweight. I suspect your success is due to a combination of the IF and eating right; perhaps the IF helps you eat better. Anyway I know it works for you and others.
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when i started IF, i did make a few dietary changes. with drinks i used to drink non-Fat milk and diet soda. overnight i eliminated milk... i occasionally have some almond milk, but even that i buy maybe a qt/ month. in 2020 so far i maybe have had a dozen cans of diet soda and maybe 3 or 4 2-liter bottles. i also completely eliminated any sort of boxed mixes except for some soup and even that i mostly make my own stock now. i have probably also cut back at least 50% of the time and more likely 75-80% of the times i'd order in... Chinese or pizza. now maybe once a month, if that.

so i have always cooked and eaten good food, but now i just do it much more often. and now with the pandemic, it's hardly even a choice anymore. i find it interesting that i haven't had a beer in over 6 months now and i used to drink 3-4 pints maybe 2-3 times a week. you'd think that i would have seen a weight loss merely due to that. but somehow i think that even when i'm thinking i've been good or that i've been bad, things tend to compensate and even out.
 
speaking of science, though, i believe my greatest epiphany was finding out about the ways we can actually get at the fat we want to burn. through intermittent fasting or alternately a Keto diet, you try to achieve a low insulin level. without that, you literally can't turn fat into the sugar you need for energy. but it then got me to wonder how people who don't achieve that dietary level burn fat. it's not a myth. you can eat a calorie deficient diet without any concern for your insulin level or without ever achieving that period of time (IF), but if you do throw in periods of exercise you can lose weight (fat).

exercise puts your body in a different mode. live a semi-sedentary life and the stored energy in your muscles and liver will suit your activity level just fine. but exercise demands a momentary increase in energy. through the same hormonal mechanism as adrenaline provides (epinephrine and norepinephrine), your body starts turning fat into sugar you can burn.

of course there are other variables, but at a base lever, this is why i IF to control my weight and i only count on exercise to stay a bit more healthy.
 
I am skeptical about diets, even if they helped me, I still gained weight afterward. What really helped was a caloric deficit. On one diet I didn't eat sugar for two weeks, and that helped me, but once the diet was over, I gained even more weight than I had. It's true that everything is individual.
 
Being in a caloric deficit is a diet. It´s what makes any diet work. Different diets just have different ways of making the deficit bearable. Go back to eating and living the way you did when you were overweight and you will become overweight again, no matter what strategy you lose weight with
 
i look at it from the other direction. caloric stability is the key to any diet. due to the availability of food, most people overeat and believe that is normal so in order to gain control of their weight they cut back on their overeating and convince themselves that isn't normal... they believe they are eating a caloric deficit diet.

DG... you gave up sugar... a totally unnecessary nutrient... for 2 weeks. holy *&$%... you want a medal? then you went right back to overeating and gained weight. gee... what a surprise. over two years ago i quit eating most added sugar and for over two years i've managed to maintain a healthy BMI. in a way you are right... the choice of what you eat is "individually" up to you.
 
overlandflyer said:
DG... you gave up sugar... a totally unnecessary nutrient... for 2 weeks. holy *&$%... you want a medal? then you went right back to overeating and gained weight. gee... what a surprise. over two years ago i quit eating most added sugar and for over two years i've managed to maintain a healthy BMI.
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Well done, Overlandflyer! I've been sugar free for about 4 months plus so I'm new to this, but I'm convinced sugar-free is the ticket. We'll see. After I lost weight on previous diets I thought I could eat sugar in moderation and the weight always came back on. So now I know - or think I know...
 
54 spam posts in this thread to date, so am closing it :flame:
*sigh*
Tru, please reopen it if you don't want it closed. Spammers are pathetic!
 
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