How to Choose the Right Diet

There are hundreds of diets out there, how can you tell which ones will produce the results you want?  This post will give you some guidelines that will help you ensure weight loss success.

Here are some simple guidelines given by the Mayo Clinic that can help you decide.  I renamed and reordered them so you can remember them, just think of the acronym BEEF:

• Balanced. A weight-loss plan should include proper amounts of nutrients and calories for your individual situation. Diets that direct you to eat large quantities of certain foods, such as grapefruit or meat, that drastically cut calories, or that eliminate entire food groups, such as carbohydrates, may result in nutritional problems. Safe diets do not require excessive vitamins or supplements.
• Enjoyable. A diet should include foods you like and that you would enjoy eating for the rest of your life — not just for several weeks or months. If you don't like the diet, if it's overly restrictive or if it becomes boring, you're probably not going to stick to it and therefore won't lose weight in the long term.
• Exercise. Every weight-loss program should include physical activity. Exercise plus calorie restriction can help give your weight loss a boost. Exercise also offers numerous health benefits, including improving your mood, strengthening your cardiovascular system and reducing your blood pressure. And exercise is the most important factor in maintaining weight loss. Studies show that people who maintain their weight loss over the long term get regular physical activity.
• Flexible. Look for a plan that doesn't forbid certain foods or food groups but instead includes a variety of foods from all the major food groups. A healthy diet includes vegetables and fruits, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean protein sources, and nuts and seeds — and even an occasional sweet indulgence. A diet plan should also feature foods that you can easily find in your local grocery store.

Check out the U.S. News rankings for best diets as one place to look for ideas.

The Shrinkinguy Diet
People often ask me how I eat and what diet do I follow.  First of all, there is no Shrinkinguy Diet.  I reject the word diet.  On one had it just means the particular food plan you follow, but on the other there is a connotation of a temporary change in the way you eat in order to achieve some specific short-term results. Like "I need to lose a few pounds in order to fit into this dress," so a woman might drastically change the way she eats for a few weeks in order to quickly accomplish that goal.  Yes, the goal might be achieved, but not in a sustainable manner.  The woman has no intention of living like that forever, and chances are it wouldn't be healthy to live that way anyway. That's the opposite of healthy weight loss.

If the changes you make aren't permanent, then the results you achieve won't be either.  Isn't the overall objective to lose and keep the weight off?  You need to lose the weight in a manner that you feel comfortable doing for the rest of your life.  In addition to the Mayo Clinic principles above, here are some guidelines for eating that I use for myself and encourage others to follow:

• Make sure that the dietary changes you make are sustainable in the long-term.  For example, if you decide to drink more water and less soda, drink one more cup of water and one less soda per day for a while.  Once you've adjusted to that change, you can consider additional steps to reducing or cutting out soda.
• Avoid overly processed foods.  A good rule of thumb is, the fewer the ingredients, the better the nutritional value.  For example the other day I was looking for some sour cream at the store.  I found two that claimed to be "light", meaning fewer calories.  Brand A contained "Cultured Milk, Cream, Skim Milk, Whey, Modified Corn Starch, Gelatin, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Calcium Sulfate and Locust Bean Gum, Vitamin A Palmitate, and Enzymes."  Brand B contained "Cultured cream, skim milk, and vitamin A palmitate."  It was immediately apparent to me that Brand B was a healthier choice with only 3 ingredients rather than the 13 of Brand A.  
• For lunch and dinner, eat vegetables, fruit, lean meats and healthy starches. Pretty much in that order.  Start by filling at least half of your plate with vegetables and fruit.  Then take a single (palm-sized) portion of lean meat and a serving of starch.  You can use the same guideline for breakfast, but I don't.  I typically have foods like eggs, turkey bacon, whole wheat toast, or oatmeal with fruit and nuts.
• Eat satisfying foods, avoid sugar and unhealthy trigger foods.  There's a difference between foods that will satisfy hunger and foods that increase your cravings.  For example, if I ate 3 cups of broccoli I would feel very full and satisfied.  If I ate 1 chocolate chip cookie for the same amount of calories, I have just whet my appetite and I will continue to eat more cookies without regard for whether they are satisfying hunger.  Caving in to cravings on a regular basis will lead to fat gain.  Know what your trigger foods are, and try to avoid having them around most of the time.
• Don't demonize any food.  And that includes sugar.  While sugar is really, really bad for you, if you tell yourself "I am not going to eat any more sugar" you are setting yourself up for failure.  For most people, having off-limits food will typically increase the desire to have that food.  So just eat treats sparingly.  
• Eat well 80% of the time.  Going along with the last point, if you eat well 80% of the time and a little worse the rest of the time, then you are more likely to be able to sustain your eating habits.  
• Know whether you're eating to gain, maintain or lose weight.  It helps to know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), the amount of calories your body needs to function at rest.  Then factor in calories expended through exercise, and balance that with the calories you get from food intake.  I explain this in another blog post, but if that's too difficult-sounding, then just track your weight on a weekly basis.  If you weight is going up, then you're probably eating too much.  If your weight is staying even, then your calories in and out are balanced.  If you're losing weight, then you're eating fewer calories than you're expending.  

There are more tips and advice I could give, but these are some good basic ones. Keeping these principles in mind you'll achieve the weight loss success you seek.

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