Which Diet is Right for You?
The secret to weight loss…
The “secret” to weight loss and dieting success is finding the diet that is right for you. It’s as simple as that. Sometimes, in order to find the diet that works for you, you have to try every diet out there…and fail each one.
Luckily, however, failure is key to the process of change. People so often feel ashamed about failure and try to forget it ever happened, but it is such a valuable and, dare I say, positive, part of the journey! Stop shaming yourself, drag your failures out of hiding, and LEARN from your mistakes. That’s how I got here, down 64 pounds and counting. I got here by failing forward, and you can, too.
64 pounds down, man! I can’t believe it myself.
And when I say, “I failed,” I mean I FAILED, baby. I crashed and burned on a lot of diets before I got to this point. My epic train wrecks, in hindsight, were key in identifying which diets were not right for me. I eventually realized that I only failed because whatever diet I was on didn’t fit my lifestyle, my tastebuds, or my personality. Therefore, keeping with it long term, meaning for the rest of my life, would be impossible. Failure was inevitable.
Think about it: it’s against human nature to endure misery and pain without a good incentive. If I had to diet or die, I could do it…but that isn’t the case here. Usually the incentive is “I want my pants to be less tight.” That’s just not enough reason to keep with a rigid diet day after day, when the chips are down and a greasy cheeseburger is staring you in the face. Trust me when I say, you have a much higher chance of success if you pick a diet that fits into your current lifestyle and includes the foods you enjoy.
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So which diet is right for you?
Short answer: I don’t know. You know yourself better than I do, but I can share my experiences on some of the most popular diets out there, and some diets I just made up along the way. Then you can say, “Yep, that sounds like me,” and learn from my mistakes. I’ve taken one – or 100 – for the team to give you a dieting head start, or at least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. Here is the extensive list of diets I have already tried and failed for you.
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My List of Attempted Diets to find the right diet
Whole 30
The Whole-30 turned into what I like to call the “Potato Diet”. I would just make oven fries for every meal, and then drench them in about a half cup of Tessamae’s ranch. After three days on this diet it dawned on me that if I were just going to eat potatoes dipped in ranch, it probably wasn’t the right diet to make me a healthier person, so I quit. I still use Tessamae’s, so I’m glad I did Whole 30, or I would never have tried it.
21-day Sugar Detox
I actually completed the 21-day detox, but I honestly don’t remember if I lost weight, which probably means I didn’t. I just remember it was a major inconvenience. Eating a bushel of green apples everyday trying to get my sugar fix probably wasn’t a good idea either. I am thankful I did this diet, though, because I discovered my love for Kombucha, and now I brew it for myself.
21-Day Fix
The 21-day fix was my most short-lived diet. I kid you not, I only made it to lunch the first day. Everything about it was horrible, and the food containers you’re supposed to use for portion control were just so small…so very small. But I’m glad I tried it, because those little containers have come in super handy for storing dips and dressings.
No Meat and No Sweets
This isn’t a diet you will recognize because I created it myself. On this diet I basically just kept eating bread. I called it my “Bread Diet” and, as you can imagine, it did not do good things for my body.
No Wheat and No Sweets
This was another homemade diet I came up with and adhered to in the name of health. I lasted 6 whole weeks with this one, during which time I lost 10-15 pounds and kept it off. The problem was I mostly ate highly processed wheat alternatives with a lot of ingredients, and overall I just didn’t feel good. Ironically, I felt great when I added wheat back into my diet.
Intuitive Eating
The first time I successfully lost weight I was in high school, dropping an impressive 40 pounds, was with intuitive eating. I did so by not eating after dinner, and listening to my body’s hunger cues without logging any food. I also incorporated daily exercise. It worked well, but I suspect the weight came off more easily then because of my young age. I never actually learned anything about nutrition either, so I gained all 40 pounds back by the time I was 25.
Macros
I feel like gagging just typing that. When I counted macros, I ended up eating an insane amount of meat on this diet, mostly shrimp. Seafood is not my thing, so I didn’t enjoy it. I always ran out of my “allowed” fat grams by the time I was halfway through breakfast. I was eating far too many “high protein” processed foods, rarely a fruit or vegetable, and it grossed me out. Any weight I lost while tracking macros, I eventually regained. Maybe someday I will revisit macros because I think I could eat better this time, but today is not that day.
Related Post: Why I Don’t Track Macros
Low Carb
As you may assume from my history with the “Bread Diet,” adhering to this diet proved to be quite challenging. I think, as a long-distance runner, my body just craves carbs, so giving up bread and pasta was not fun and didn’t last long. The longest I have made it on a low carb diet is 2 days, which I actually feel pretty proud about.
Mediterranean Diet
I started eating the Mediterranean diet way because my husband had high cholesterol. It helped bring his cholesterol down, but I ended up losing no weight. I was basically drinking olive oil by the end of it, and I would compensate for anything I felt like I was giving up with full-fat greek yogurt. I will always find a diet loophole. It’s a problematic talent.
Vegan
The problem here is the fact vegans are pretty lenient when it comes to sugar intake. I have a raging sweet tooth, so I ran with it and used natural sugars much too liberally. Sugar replaced all the foods I wanted but couldn’t have. Needless to say, I gained about 4 pounds as a strict vegan.
The Military Diet
The military diet is just stupid. It promises a 10 pound loss in just three days if you follow the meal plan. The plan includes hot dogs, so it’s obviously not the most nutritious diet out there. I followed this diet for the whole three days, mainly out of curiosity. I lost about 4 pounds and was miserable the entire time, which means I quickly gained it back. Don’t buy into diets that promise significant weight loss in a short amount of time.
Weight Watchers
Despite all the weight I have successfully lost on Weight Watchers and kept off, I struggled big time on this program. I ended up quitting WW for good in December of last year because after 56 pounds lost with the program – I was no longer making progress. Plus, I often felt deprived of the foods I love, which led to uncontrollable binging. I ended up switching to Noom on my quest for food freedom after reading this book.
Counting Calories
Until recently, I had never been a successful calorie counter. Oh, yeah, I’d faithfully log my food into MyFitnessPal…all the way to 4,000 calories some days. I have always been a successful eating machine. The issue I had with calorie counting was the stupid, “recommended” 1200 calorie daily limit for weight loss. It was mentally demoralizing and I regularly went rogue to avoid it’s sadness.
Once I significantly increased my calorie intake limit, read and applied Brain-Powered Weight-Loss, and switched my calorie logging platform from MFP to Noom, my mental hangup with counting disappeared. I am now happy to report I have lost 18 pounds, and counting, so far this year by tracking calories with Noom. I plan to continue calorie counting for the foreseeable future.
Which Diet is right for you?
If any of the negative issues I experienced with these diets sound like issues you’d have too, don’t even try them! Even if someone you know in real life, or on Instagram, was wildly successful on a particular diet, it doesn’t mean it’s the right one for you. They are not you, and your body has unique demands and cravings.
Do you love eating meat? Don’t be a vegetarian.
Are piles of bread and pasta calling your name? Don’t do Keto.
Do you hate fake sugar and have a sweet tooth? Weight Watchers isn’t for you.
Does the idea of tracking calories sound completely overwhelming? You will probably hate macros even more.
Do you love cheese and cream? I don’t recommend the Vegan lifestyle.
All Diets Work…only one is right for you
Any of those diets, however, will result in weight loss if you can adhere to them day after day, month after month. Just find the way of eating you enjoy, that also aligns with your goals. THAT’S the right diet for you!
If you LOVE fruits, grains, and vegetables, and can keep your sweet tooth under control, the Vegan lifestyle may be just right for you.
Tracking macros definitely works, just check out Instagram – everyone counts macros and looks like Greek gods. If tracking data and attention to detail is your thing, check it out.
Counting calories is probably the oldest running method for weight loss, going back decades and still going strong. If you crave 100% food freedom to eat ANYTHING, within your calorie limit, try it out. Noom’s trial is a good place to start. Join Mom’s Kids and check out my planner. Also, get yourself a food scale, because you’re gonna need it!
WW works like a charm when you stick to the program. Check out the Skinnyish Dish for awesome recipes, and get ready to use the 2 ingredient dough daily! You can even excel at Weight Watchers as a Vegan, if you need some help limiting sugar.
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The right diet creates consistency
It doesn’t matter what diet you choose, if you consistently follow the program, you will lose weight…so pick one you can be consistent with long-term. If you hate every second of a diet, you will eventually fail. You will struggle to keep off any weight you might have lost and that is the ultimate goal.
If you find a diet that fits seamlessly into your life, it will be easier to keep the weight off forever. Because, seriously, once that weight is off do you ever want to gain it back? No!
Pick the diet that is right For You!
Weight loss really is that simple, but sadly, society, diet culture, and comparison has made it way too complicated. Stop thinking about what worked for them, and start thinking about what will work for you!
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Think about the foods that bring you joy, that you can’t stand to part with, and let that shape your decision. Pick a way of eating that seems like it fits the bill, and if it doesn’t end up working out, move on to something else that might, without fear of failure. It’s much like dating – don’t settle, and don’t stop until you find your perfect match.
Pro-Tip:
In the past I would consider how I wanted to eat long-term to be healthy, and try to work backwards from there. Unfortunately this never worked, because it was based on this made-up, hypothetical version of myself I pictured in my head. I was relying on this person that didn’t actually exist to dictate my current situation and methods.
What you need to do instead is choose a diet based on who you are right now. Right this moment. Then, as successful weight loss happens, reshape your diet accordingly so it continues to work for you and your initial longterm health goal.
What diets have you tried and failed? Which diet will you choose going forward? Let me know in comments, and follow me on Patreon as I continue on my own weight-loss journey!
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