3 Questions to Help You Choose the Best Diet

The Best Diet for You at a Glance

Assess your current physical condition such as current weight, health conditions and metabolism.
Decide what you want to achieve. Be as specific as possible.
Consider your personal preferences.
Your best diet should work with your financial, social, and personal limitations.

How can you determine the best diet for you? There are so many choices, making that decision can be overwhelming. Here are some choices that are just the tip of the iceberg:

Mediterranian
Keto
Vegan
Plant Based
DASH
Paleo
South Beach
Atkins
Flextarian
WW
Optavia
Nurtisysem
Nordic

And the list goes on and on. So where do you start? How do you approach making dietary changes to lose weight and/or deal with other problems such as high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or inflammation?

Where Are You?

The first step is to look at your current health and weight. Are you overweight? How many pounds do you need to lose? Do you have any diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or autoimmune diseases? Diet can make a big difference in many of these conditions. How fast or slow is your metabolism? Our metabolic rates vary. If you have a high metabolism, you may be able to achieve results with relatively few changes. A slower metabolic rate will generally require bigger changes.

What Do You Want Your Best Diet to Achieve?

You have to know where you’re going before you can decide how to get there. So here are a few questions to ask yourself. You may come up with others I didn’t mention here. If so, let me know in the comments.

Do you need to lose weight?If so, is it for the long term, or a quick 10-15 pounds for a special event?
Do you want to prevent or reduce your dependence on medications for lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, or cardiovascular disease?
Are you willing to make big changes to get fast results or would you rather make smaller changes to your current eating habits?

Weight Loss

Most people change their diets primarily to lose weight. If permanent weight loss is your goal, shoot for a diet that helps you lose 1 to 2 pounds per week. You generally have to make fewer changes to your current diet to achieve those results. And once you hit goal weight, your chances of maintaining it are much better. To achieve rapid weight loss, you’ll have to make drastic changes with more severe calorie restriction. Chances are, you won’t keep that weight off, and repeated yo-yo dieting can have an adverse effect on your body.

Adverse Health Conditions

Our understanding of how diet contributes to “lifestyle illnesses” is growing. There are lots of changes you can make that may reduce or eliminate the need to take drugs. For example, diabetics can benefit from a ketogenic diet where fat comprises the majority of daily calories and carbs are kept to a bare minimum. When you base your meals on plant foods instead of meat you can keep inflammation down. I don’t mean a vegan diet, but one where meat and animal products are kept to 1-2 servings a day. This type of diet can be helpful for arthritis, neurological disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

Preferences

The last question focuses on your preferences. Unless you are highly motivated, wholesale changes to your diet can be a recipe for failure. Making more gradual changes is usually more effective in the long term. I make some suggestions for what changes to start with HERE.

What Are Your Limitations?

Clint Eastwood uttered this iconic line in the movie Magnum Force; “A man’s got to know his limitations.” It definitely applies when choosing the best diet for your future. Below are a few areas that can help you eliminate some of the possibilities.

Financial

Some diets come with prepackaged meals that can cost hundreds of dollars a month. If money is tight, you don’t need to choose a diet that makes your wallet lose weight. There are lots of affordable options out there.

Physical

Do you have food allergies or sensitivities? Do you have dietary restrictions because of a physical condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, or cardiovascular disease? Obviously, you have to avoid diets where it’s difficult to avoid foods that can have adverse effects on your health.

Social

Will you have support from your family, or is changing the menu at supper going to be a battle? Your best diet will be one that will take that into consideration. It may mean more subtle dietary changes for everyone or one where you can prepare something else for yourself. Do you need a support group? If so, you may prefer something like WW that offers social reinforcement.

Personal

Are your motivation and willpower strong enough to overcome most temptations to stray from your diet? If it isn’t, stay away from extremely restricted diets. Are there foods you absolutely do not want to give up? Then choose a diet that allows “cheat days” or “cheat meals” or choose something like Trim Healthy Mama that gives lots of options so you can still enjoy your favorite treats without the sugar and junk, or the Mediterranean Diet that operates on a “more and less” principle.

By answering these questions, you can eliminate a lot of potential diets and simplify the process of choosing the best diet for you.

Now, go Do Something 4 Your Health.