What "diet" is the right diet for life?
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The best diet is the best one for YOU. Everyone is different and has different needs. Some people need special diets though due to existing conditions or health risks. I will say try to get a lot of veggies and fruits daily and good fats. This will help your body work at its optimal level. Additionally, limit red meats and dairy as they are linked to lots of disease and health problems. Try to limit yourself on highly processed foods too. And I know someone with out any health education will come in here and say the contrary, all because someone else told them this wasn't true. Read some actual evidence-based studies instead of parroting info you read or heard on a blog or from an unqualified person. Looking good on the outside does not equal healthy. PERIOD. Also, it is OK to have a treat once in awhile. Small bowl of ice cream, a small piece of cake, 2 slices of pizza etc once a week or less often is alright. However, if you are the type of person with little self-control/willpower you have to be more careful.0
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I guess what I want to know is for those of you who have lost weight and maintained do you have any information on what is the right diet for a healthy life?
Step 1 - define what "healthy life" means for YOU.
IMO a huge part of people's problems is they want bodies that aren't consistent with their activity level. Someone living the typical bed-to-car-to-chair-to-car-to-bed lifestyle so typical in the US can put on a LOT of weight before their body is incompatible with their lifestyle. So if you are highly sedentary, it's going to be hard to keep the weight off because you are going to be constantly fighting your own body, which frankly speaking, doesn't need to shed the pounds based on the lifestyle.
I think an awful lot of people are going about this completely backwards. Figure out the lifestyle you want first...
This is really good advice.
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I agree with the concept of developing an eating lifestyle that never requires dieting.0
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herrspoons wrote: »The one that you can maintain for the rest of your life.
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The one that you don't even know you're on.0
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mommyof2boys562 wrote: »There is no such thing as a diet unless your looking at short term results.
I took the OP's question to be not about "diet" in the sense of "short-term plan that I will follow until I have lost weight, then abandon," but rather, about "diet" in the sense of "normal way of eating." It's the difference between the South Beach Diet and the Mediterranean diet.
If there's a capital letter on "Diet," it's probably the first kind.0 -
I don't think it can be put much better than this.Sinistrous wrote: »Start with the count your calories diet.
NEVER eat something you don't like, as that will not sustain you.
Learn portion control.
Make sure you do some sort of strength training.
Stay active.
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mommyof2boys562 wrote: »There is no such thing as a diet unless your looking at short term results.
I took the OP's question to be not about "diet" in the sense of "short-term plan that I will follow until I have lost weight, then abandon," but rather, about "diet" in the sense of "normal way of eating." It's the difference between the South Beach Diet and the Mediterranean diet.
If there's a capital letter on "Diet," it's probably the first kind.
I just assumed diet was in regards to a actual planned diet since she mentioned a lot of different ones in her post.0 -
@sing809 @FatFreeFrolicking @JoseCastaneda
Ok I looked into the IIFYM calculator and it is giving me an astronomically large amount of calories to meet even when I set it to "aggressively lose weight"....
Any thoughts on the # of calories it advises you to eat? Honestly I have my calories set to 1800 (i have been tested and my BMR is about 2,000) and I never make my calories. And this thing wants me to eat 1950 calories?0 -
@bwogilvie right diet as in what is the proper human diet. Just like my cat has a diet that he eats what are humans supposed to eat. (obviously its not twinkies). But that is what I meant. My references to Diets with a capital D was in regards to which of them or parts of them were the right way to eat/proper diet for human.
But yes it appears to be a complicated subject.0 -
First off get rid of the word DIET. It's not a diet rather a lifestyle change. If I think I'm on a diet I'm not going to stick to anything and I'm going to way overeat. Lifestyle change is for now and future and it's almost like changing the way you think about foods.
Lots of veggies and lean protein, no soda, no sugary drinks etc.0 -
Yes, you get to eat lots of calories! I'm 5'4" tall and I've lost 20 pounds eating around 1500 calories a day.
People recommend the scooby calculator to find out what your daily intake should be.
Counting calories works.
However, in addition to tracking calories, you also need to keep an eye on WHERE those calories are coming from: protein, carbs, and fat (and alcohol, but MFP doesn't track that).
For instance, I could eat 500 calories of protein, 500 calories of fat, and 500 calories of carbs to meet my 1500 calories. That would be 33% protein, 33% fat, and 33% carbs.
Most people use the recommended percentages that MFP sets -- 45% protein, 35% carbs, 20% fat or something like that.
For me, however, I need a lot more fat in my diet or else I feel hungry. So I changed my percentages to increase my fat and decrease my protein.
Knowing what the right percentages are only comes through time and trial and error.
Best of luck to you!0 -
@DeirdreWoodwardSanders yea I'm currently working on my macros trying to figure out the percentages. The first few weeks I was on low carb (15%) but now now that I've kicked started some weigh loss I'm trying to change around my settings and see what works for me. I'll try out the scooby calculator. As you see above i tried out the iifym which is the same concept but it did spit out a large # for my calories!0
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I get too confused too. So I am making it simple and sticking to calories. When it comes to weight loss, calories are what counts.
If you are concerned about health, just focus on eating heaps of veggies and good fats / fish etc. Any diet that bans foods is a waste of time. Moderation is key.
Keep it simple0 -
I don't know what the ultimate best diet is, but I'm a big fan of moderation, along with enough variety to cover a range of nutrients. If you're looking for a diet for life, it's got to be sustainable, which means it's got to be easy for you to stick to. And I think that won't be the same thing for everybody.
You don't need to count calories IF you have another way of limiting your intake, so it depends whether it suits you to do so or not (it's certainly more precise, but I think that MFP database has grown so huge that I find it much more of a faff than I used to a couple of years ago). I used the No S diet (no snacks, no sweets, no seconds, except on S days) when I started, and I plan to use a version of it along with portion control for life, to restrict intake. There's nothing magical about it and I'm not promoting that diet in particular - it's just one that I found fitted into my life quite well. But there are other ways to control intake by restricting times of eating, portions, what you eat, etc. I like to stick to a routine of meals rather than eating when I'm hungry (and I find that helps me lose weight), but other people find the opposite. I also like to write down what I'm eating, even if I'm not logging calories - helps me keep a handle on it.
I think you can't go wrong eating a lot of vegetables - generally low calorie and nutritious. Protein is supposed to be more satisfying, so I try to have a bit at every meal. I like to have a bit of fat in my diet. Foods that are particularly high calorie/low nutrition (pastry, etc.) I don't eat regularly, but nothing is absolutely banned. I think it's important to find a way of eating that fits with your social life.
Honestly, I think the trick is just making it as easy as possible. See what suits you. Good luck!0 -
Moderation, portion control, and moving more. Finding what works for each of us is part of the process. We are not all the same. What works for one, will not necessarily work for another. The same goes for maintenance.
I have been on MFP for almost 3 years. Maintenance for almost 15 months. I have lost 160 pounds. For me, monitoring my weight is something I will have to do for life. Nutrition is important to me, so I am trying to eat healthy from all food groups and eating very little overly processed foods.
The statistics are staggering for the percentage of people that gain the weight back, sometimes even more, 5 years after having lost the weight. People that keep the weight off for more than 5 years, are the true success stories, and they are a very small percent. It is a lot easier to lose the weight, than to keep it off.
Experiment, and find what works for you best. We all need to be able to sustain this way of eating and maintaining for life to be successful for the rest of our lives.0 -
"... The subcutaneous fat in infants allows them to remain in ketosis. The mother’s milk depot is also constituted by evolutionary design to keep the child ketotic for the first 3-5 years of its life. Yes people, human children are designed for extended breast feeding contrary to modern cultural belief."
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"Today’s modern world is our biggest nightmare for our species and why we have been de-evolving since the Younger Dryas. There is evidence that shows hominids have lost 125 grams of brain tissue in the last 125,000 years."
We are born in ketosis. Mother's milk is ketogenic.
I don't know about you, but if we're born that way, maybe that's how we're supposed to be.
It's the only diet that has ever worked for me.
Source of Quotes.0 -
Everyone's body makeup is different, what works for one, will not work for others. You be the ginny pig. Change or eat something and see how you fell. (comment in the food box to look back on). EX.. You had rice for dinner... so in comment box put. feel bloated, 1hr after eating rice, ate my whole kitchen. or had rice for dinner, feel full, satisfied, seems like I have more energy... Through trial and error on your part, you will start to see what works for you and what doesn't. Same with if foods make you lose weight, stay at same, add weight etc. Try to stick with your Calories, Sodium guide lines. Then you can tweek the protein, fiber, carbs, etc. Good luck0
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Breast milk contains lots of sugar too. Why would nature impose ketosis on infants?0
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stabbycakes wrote: »"... The subcutaneous fat in infants allows them to remain in ketosis. The mother’s milk depot is also constituted by evolutionary design to keep the child ketotic for the first 3-5 years of its life. Yes people, human children are designed for extended breast feeding contrary to modern cultural belief."
...
"Today’s modern world is our biggest nightmare for our species and why we have been de-evolving since the Younger Dryas. There is evidence that shows hominids have lost 125 grams of brain tissue in the last 125,000 years."
We are born in ketosis. Mother's milk is ketogenic.
I don't know about you, but if we're born that way, maybe that's how we're supposed to be.
It's the only diet that has ever worked for me.
Source of Quotes.
Doesn't work for athletes though. Body fat doesn't burn fast enough.
I breast fed my baby but at 4 months he was happily eating other stuff, by 6 months he was on a variety of foodstuffs, by 1 year he was eating everything in sight. He was still underweight. I was still breast feeding him at 13 months.
Breast milk isn't enough, and that's a weak argument for Keto diets.
I'm happy the diet is working for you! You will need an iron will, deep pockets and an indifference to feeling left out of social occasions to make it a lifestyle though.
Restrictive diets can be very harmful to your social life!
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It's really pretty simple if you just take a step back and apply common sense. There is no one right choice.
For a person with no medical need to eat a restricted diet, the healthiest diet is going to be the one that provides adequate nutrition while keeping you satisfied enough that you don't feel the need to overeat.
If you have a medical condition that requires a restricted diet, then you might never be truly satisfied with what you are allowed. But some things are beyond our control, so you just do what you need to do.0 -
People can stay healthy on an astounding variety of diets. They can lose weight on them, too, by counting calories. That said, I think Michael Pollan's advice is sound: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." By "food," Pollan means something that your grandmother would recognize as food.
Probably at this point, it's better to say "great-grandmother," unless you're already a grandparent yourself, and to say "anyone's great-grandmother," since my Norwegian grandmother probably would not have recognized a Thai green coconut curry as food.
The point is that highly processed foodstuffs, which are cheap to make on an industrial scale, and shelf-stable to boot, are highly profitable to the food industry, but they aren't necessarily the healthiest. And they can encourage overeating, e.g. by being digested relatively easily or not providing a feeling of satiety.
A simpler way to put this is that most of your food should come from the outside of the supermarket: vegetables, fruit, seafood, poultry, meat, and dairy; relatively little should come from stuff in boxes that has been processed and then (re)enriched with (some of) the very nutrients that were processed out of it.
Now, a lot of MFP forum members will point out that you can lose weight eating processed food and even fast food. I've made that point elsewhere, because if you're overweight to the point where it affects your health or well-being, it's most important to lose weight by starting where you are rather than make huge changes. It's also true that if you lose weight by making changes that you don't plan to sustain for the rest of your life, you're likely to gain it back. But since you asked specifically about diet, I'll stick with this answer.
If you want to read further, I'd suggest Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food, Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim, Why Calories Count: From Science to Politics, and maybe Mark Bittman, VB6 (his book about a "vegan before 6 pm" diet).
Ultimately this. Ultimately eat food (that your great grandmother would recognize), not too much, mostly plants.
Yes, you want to lose weight. You also want to be healthy. Work toward healthy eating that will initially sustain your weight loss goals, and ultimately sustain you in a healthy life at a pace that you can handle.0 -
I have had the same information overload and become paralyzed at times. Throw GMO's and digestive issues into the mix, and it's very overwhelming. The best approach is one that you can sustain. That's the bottom line. Get calories under control, and the rest will follow.0
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stabbycakes wrote: »We are born in ketosis. Mother's milk is ketogenic.
I don't know about you, but if we're born that way, maybe that's how we're supposed to be.
It's the only diet that has ever worked for me.
That's nonsense. Breast milk is loaded with carbs. In fact, it has about 5x more carb grams than protein grams, so if you're going to be using breast milk as a guideline, you'd better be eating a low-protein diet.
Who publishes crap like this in an era where it takes 30 seconds of googling to realize it's horse poop?0 -
I think you are correct.Need2Exerc1se wrote: »It's really pretty simple if you just take a step back and apply common sense. There is no one right choice.
For a person with no medical need to eat a restricted diet, the healthiest diet is going to be the one that provides adequate nutrition while keeping you satisfied enough that you don't feel the need to overeat.
If you have a medical condition that requires a restricted diet, then you might never be truly satisfied with what you are allowed. But some things are beyond our control, so you just do what you need to do.
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Confirmation bias anyone. People like to find support for their actions and decisions. More than likely a low carber. Then when presented with proof that they may be wrong, they continue to gather data that supports their hard fought platform, it's human nature I guess.stabbycakes wrote: »We are born in ketosis. Mother's milk is ketogenic.
I don't know about you, but if we're born that way, maybe that's how we're supposed to be.
It's the only diet that has ever worked for me.
That's nonsense. Breast milk is loaded with carbs. In fact, it has about 5x more carb grams than protein grams, so if you're going to be using breast milk as a guideline, you'd better be eating a low-protein diet.
Who publishes crap like this in an era where it takes 30 seconds of googling to realize it's horse poop?
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Your body needs carbs, proteins, and fats to function - too much or too little of one of the 3 is not going to be good for sustaining you -- opt for non processed foods and for lean proteins and seek out the good fats -- I think the 40% (carbs)/40% (protein)/20% (fat) balance in the diet works wonders.
In all reality at the end of the day what ever you do has to be what you want to do and what makes you happy, cuz if you are just following what someone else is saying or doing because they were successful with it but you are not enjoying it, you are not going to succeed accomplishing your goals.0 -
GiveMeCoffee wrote: »The Keep it Simple Diet:
Find a reasonable calorie deficit
Log food accurately and honestly
Learn moderation, portion control and to have patience
Find an activity you like to do
Well that will never sell any books or inspire any fear mongering documentaries... Can you jazz that up any? Work on a better acronym? FLLF doesn't really roll off the tongue, unless you have a mouthful of cookies.
In all seriousness OP - listen to GiveMeCoffee. She's lost 120 lbs (maybe more, I lose track of her awesomeness) eating foods that she loves, heck, that everyone loves, in moderation.
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