5 Things You Should Know Before You Start a New Diet

At A Glance

1. No diet works equally well for everybody. You have to experiment to find what works best for you
2. Know your body. Eating for good health is about more than just losing weight. Get a checkup and blood work.
3. Don’t change your diet just to lose weight. Make sure you eat high quality food that meets all of your nutritional needs.
4. Losing weight is about more than counting calories. Learning how to control certain hormones can help you achieve your goals faster
5. Understand the fundamentals of a healthy diet

If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you have decided you need a new diet. Maybe you just want to lose weight so you can look and feel better.   Perhaps you’re dealing with an existing health challenge (such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease) or you see one in your future if you don’t make changes.  Then you look at all the “diets” out there and don’t know where to start.  Should you try Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Carnivore, pre-packaged food, Mediterranian, low-carb, low-fat?

While there is no definitive guide to tell you which you should choose, there is a foundation of knowledge about how our bodies work that can help you start a methodical process for determining what works best for you.  When I refer to “diet” in this article, I’m not talking about something you do for the short term to give you quick results, although that can be part of your strategy.   Your diet is how you eat for life.  It does no good to go on a strict diet to lose weight only to return to your old eating habits and gain it back.  In fact, that can be harmful to your body.

So let’s get to it.

There’s Nobody Like You

Even though we metabolize food through the same basic mechanisms, there is tremendous variation in individual metabolism.  A diet that works great for your friend may not work at all for you. THERE IS NO DIET THAT WORKS EQUALLY WELL FOR EVERYONE.  You will likely have to experiment to find the best new diet for you, and you may have to adjust as your body changes with age and condition.

Know Your Body

You already know whether or not you need to lose weight and where your aches and pains are, but do you know what’s going on inside your body?  What are your cholesterol levels?  How is your blood sugar?  How well are your kidneys, heart, and liver working?  What is your blood pressure? Knowing your health challenges should drive your priorities when choosing a new way of eating.

If you haven’t gone for a checkup in a while, get one now.  Even though I have never been overweight, two years ago I discovered my blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, A1-C level, and LDL cholesterol were high.  None of them were bad enough that I needed medication immediately, but the doctor warned me meds were coming soon if I didn’t make some changes.  Addressing  those issues became my top priority in choosing my diet.

Your New Diet Should Be About More than Losing Weight

We all know we need macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins) but we also need micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, etc.).  Focusing on rapid weight loss can motivate people to adopt highly restrictive diets which can be deficient in micronutrients. To that end, I suggest a different approach in choosing a diet that helps you lose weight. 

Choose a diet that is dense in micro-nutrients while adjusting the macro-nutrients (carbs, fats, protein) to achieve your weight loss goals.  For example, if you go on a ketogenic diet, make sure it includes lots of vegetables. You can always add supplements to correct the shortfall, but getting nutrients from your food is the best way to go most of the time. Remember your goal is to find a diet you can stick with for the rest of your life.

Losing Weight is About More Than Calories

There is truth to the notion that, in order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you take in.  But there is more to consider when it comes to choosing a new diet that works for you.  Human metabolism is incredibly complex.  For example, three hormones play an important role in regulating our metabolic processes: insulin, leptin, and ghrelin.  Most of us are familiar with insulin and insulin resistance, which can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. But leptin and ghrelin aren’t as well known.  Both hormones work by sending signals to the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that regulates metabolic processes in the body.

Leptin is produced by adipose tissue (fat cells). It decreases appetite. If you have more body fat, you produce more leptin, which should curb your appetite so you eat less.  Unfortunately, things aren’t that simple.  Obese people can become leptin resistant.  Lots of fat is making lots of leptin, but the hypothalamus doesn’t get the message.  So it responds like the body isn’t getting enough to eat and triggers a hunger response. 

Ghrelin is produced by the stomach.  Unlike Leptin, it acts in the short term. When your stomach is empty, it produces ghrelin to tell the hypothalamus that it needs to eat.

There is still much to learn about these hormones and how they interact with insulin levels and control appetite.  It’s complicated, but has the potential to be a game changer.   A good article on leptin and ghrelin is HERE.

You can learn about some foods that suppress appetite HERE.  There are many more than the ones mentioned in this article, but it’s a good starting point.

Understand the Fundamentals of a Healthy Diet

The recommendations for effective diets seem to be all over the board: high-fat, low-fat, plant-based, meat-based, high-carb, low-carb, lots of little meals, intermittent fasting, etc. All of these dietary strategies have been successful for people. As I mentioned earlier in this article, it may take some experimentation to figure out which one works best for you.   But even before you start your research, you can implement some changes that are common to almost all of these diets. Making these changes may be all you need to do.

1. Cut way, way back on sugar and artificial sweeteners. 
2. Switch from refined (white) to whole-grain starchy foods. 
3. Cut way back on processed food. If you have a hard time pronouncing the names of the ingredients, it’s processed. 
4. Eat lots of vegetables (5+ servings a day) and fruit (2 servings a day).
5. Eat healthy fats every day (fatty fish, olive oil, nuts, avocados, coconut oil, etc.).
6. Control portions. Read the label to see what a serving size really is.  
7. Drink water, especially if you feel hungry and right before every meal.  This is a great first step toward a healthier lifestyle.

Metabolic physiology (the study of how our bodies process the food we eat) is a little more complicated than rocket science or brain surgery.  It involves enzymes, hormones, processes that take place within each cell, bacteria that live in our intestines, mechanical processes of digestion, and much more.  But don’t let that discourage you from taking control of your body’s metabolism.  While the bank of knowledge is vast, it all boils down to making some basic choices about how and what you eat.

Understanding a few core concepts gives you a solid foundation for determining the next step on your journey to better health.  Check out THIS ARTICLE for more ways to help you choose a diet. Stick with us at Do Something 4 Health for more insights and ideas that will help you succeed in developing new eating and exercise habits.