What is the best diet?

Keto? Low carb? High Fat? Low Fat?

There are SO many diets out there, it can be really confusing to know which diet to follow and why.

I often get asked about different diets and what my take is on them and my answer is always the same:

Every diet works if you stick to it!

Ok, so let’s unpack that. Firstly, I never tell my clients to follow any diet, because, for most people diets do not work in the long term, because they are really hard to maintain for long periods of time.

This is because most diets are restrictive in one way or another asking you to either cut out an entire food group or to massively restrict our calories. Even with all the will and good intentions, most people cannot sustain that for more than a few weeks.

By restricting calories or cutting out  food groups, you are creating a calorie deficit, i.e. taking in fewer calories than you are expediting and that is why you start losing weight. The higher the calorie deficit, the more weight you lose, especially at the beginning.

What most diets don’t account for however is “normal life”. Diets only work in a perfect environment, when you can control everything. What happens when you want to go out for a meal with friends, or attend a wedding or fancy a takeaway with your family? Most diets don’t make allowances for such things, so you either miss out on fun meal times with your friends and family by always being that person who is on a diet. Or you give in, go overboard with all the food you have been depriving yourself of, pack the diet in completely, and put on more weight than you lost in the first place.

So, what is the solution?

I believe in the 80/20 rule to maintain a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. 80% you should eat  healthy and nutritious food that is also delicious and that you enjoy eating, whilst 20% of the time you should eat indulgent foods like meals out, wedding food, party food or your favourite takeaway.

Here are some tips to help you achieve this:

1. Plan your meals for the week – including your treat meal, e.g. Friday night takeaway
2. Write out your food shopping list and do your shopping online. This way you only buy what is on your list and don’t get tempted to buy things that aren’t (The chocolate and biscuit aisle tries to get me every time!)
3. Batch cook some food in advance. Even if you have planned out your meals for the week ahead, it’s still a great idea to cook some of them in advance, especially if you know that you have a busy week ahead. There’s nothing worse than finishing work, being hungry and then having to wait for another 30-40 minutes before your meal is ready.

I’m sure we have all tried at least one diet or another, I’d love to know which ones you have tried! Tell me in the comments below!

I’ll go first: I did 5:2 for a couple of weeks (I mean literally 2 weeks LOL), I have tried juicing (didn’t last very long), HFLC (high fat, low carb) and have most definitely tried skinny tea (biggest waste of money!)

*Disclaimer: When I talk about diet here, I am not referring to vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian as I believe these are lifestyle choices and not short-term diets.