Finding THE ideal diet to lose weight quickly is not easy. Among all the slimming methods available to us, not all of them offer the same guarantees… especially since all men are not equal when it comes to weight loss (thank you metabolism!).
We will try to see more clearly in this article. What is the most effective diet for losing weight?
Comparison of the most effective diets for weight loss
Whether at the beginning of the year, at the time of good resolutions, before the summer to be able to play the handsome kid on the beach, or at the start of the school year to start off on the right foot after the summer excesses, there is always a good reason for wanting to lose weight . And therefore to start a diet.
Wanting to lose those few extra pounds is very honorable, even if it should not turn into an obsession or harm your health. However, among all the slimming solutions available to us, it is not easy to choose. Is it better to try Dukan or chrononutrition? A high protein diet or a Mediterranean diet?
Whichever you choose, you will need to take certain precautions to ensure that the effects of your diet are long-lasting. And tell yourself that the miracle diets that the press and the Internet offer you are not all as effective and miraculous as we want to tell you .
Besides, before getting to the heart of the matter, keep in mind that to allow you to lose weight and fat, regardless of the method used, it will have to create a CALORIE DEFICIT . It is him and only him who will allow you to activate the use of your dear plumpness. Obviously, to do this in an effective and healthy way, you have to respect many principles… and this is where the diets below most often fail.
The Atkins diet
The Atkins diet explains that excess weight is not due to the fact that we eat too much , but comes from an imbalance in our metabolism, due to poor assimilation of sugars.
This diet excludes all carbohydrate intake , so it is free of starches, pulses, fruits, milk, sweets and alcohol. On the other hand, it authorizes green vegetables and foods rich in proteins and lipids are authorized at will (meat, fish, eggs, unsweetened dairy).
Benefits :
- Rapid weight loss (about 6 kg / month).
- No feeling of hunger.
- Easy to follow even in the restaurant.
The inconvenients :
- Side effects due to the absence of carbohydrates in the diet: the body synthesizes ketone bodies with appetite suppressant properties, but also responsible for a nauseous state.
- Fats and muscles provide the energy the body needs to function properly: muscle wasting, fatigue and depression.
- Deficiencies in antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C), minerals and fiber.
- Increases cholesterolemia.
The diet plan
This is a balanced low-calorie diet that meets daily nutrient and micro-nutrient needs. This diet is personalized and adapted: it takes into account food tastes, lifestyle, physical activity of each person but also any existing pathological criteria (cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, etc.).
It is not synonymous with severe restrictions, frustrations and monotony: the meals are very varied. It is accompanied by a multitude of general advice on food , on cooking… which allows you to eat healthily.
Benefits :
- Long-term action that allows you to acquire and maintain good eating habits.
- All nutritional needs are met by this balanced diet: no negative side effects.
- Diet perfectly suited to each because takes into account individual characteristics.
The inconvenients :
- Slow weight loss.
The dissociated diet
The combination of certain foods makes you fat: you must therefore consume only one family of foods per meal (or per day, depending on the method chosen) . No other restrictions, even eating at will is possible.
Benefits :
- Reduces the amount of food ingested by satiety and the disgust that engenders the consumption of a single type of food.
- Guaranteed weight loss during the first weeks.
- Simple to follow.
- We can crack without worry or guilt for a food that we love and eat it until saturation.
The inconvenients :
- Not based on any scientific basis: fats, starches or proteins undergo the same digestive processes, whether they are consumed together or separately.
- Side effects: the body assimilates food less well.
- Micronutrient deficiencies.
- Muscle wasting and weakness.
- Beware of the boomerang effect when stopping the diet.
- Generates fatigue.
- Monotonous and difficult to follow over a long period.
The Dukan diet
Widely acclaimed in the late 2000s before falling out of favor, the Dukan method still has its followers. This diet offers a return to basic foods with a wide choice of 100 foods including 72 proteins and 28 vegetables and can be consumed at will.
This diet is divided into 4 phases:
- an attack phase of a few days. Its short duration varies according to the weight to be lost and consists in feeding exclusively on protein-rich foods that can be drawn at will from a list of 72 foods.
- a cruising phase which must be continued until the “target weight” is obtained. During this phase, the diet must alternate days of food protein and days of protein accompanied by the vegetables from the list.
- a consolidation phase allowing a gradual return to normal and the aim of which is to maintain the lost weight. The duration is 10 days per kilogram lost, and allows you to have fun over 2 meals.
- a final stabilization phase in order to adopt a diet allowing the new weight to be maintained.
Benefits :
- Rapid weight loss.
- Little frustrating.
- No time or quantity constraints.
- Allows you to maintain a social life.
- Reduced risk of regaining the lost weight thanks to a stabilization phase.
The inconvenients :
- The body synthesizes ketone bodies with appetite suppressant properties, but which can also be responsible for fatigue during the first days.
- Risk of deficiency during the first phase.
- Lack of vegetable fat.
The Weight Watchers diet or WW method
It’s about following a food program based on a quota of points which is assigned according to your gender, height, weight and physical activity. In addition, there are meetings in order to discuss and obtain moral support.
Everything that is eaten or drunk is rated in “point units,” based on calories and fat levels and the energy your body uses to digest it. This guarantees a balanced diet and follow-up of the program without having to weigh your food.
Benefits :
- Balanced diet (the ANSES report published in 2010 considers the Weight Watchers diet “not so badly balanced”).
- Group dynamics enhance the effects of a well-designed diet.
- Follow-up set up.
- Viable in the long term.
- Relearning about food and acquiring a healthy lifestyle.
The inconvenients :
- Constraining and not very individualized weekly meetings.
- Fairly expensive program: about 12 euros per week for the meeting.
Chrononutrition
Based on the principle of chronobiology, chrono-nutrition makes it possible to consume all the foods usually prohibited by conventional diets, but at the right time .
According to Alain Delabos, the creator of the diet, any food is beneficial if it is consumed according to the biological clock of the body. Its essential principles can then reach their site of cellular action, while the same food, taken at another time, is moving towards a storage pathway.
Benefits :
- We eat everything.
- We take pleasure.
- Low risk of deficiencies.
The inconvenients :
- You have to be rigorous.
- Binding method.
- We don’t eat what we want when we want it.
The Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on a lifestyle that includes healthy eating, exercise, leisure time and pleasure to celebrate every moment of life. It is often synonymous with good health and longevity. This diet includes mainly foods from plant sources such as bread, cereals, fruits and vegetables, seeds and legumes. Protein comes from cheese, eggs, meat and fish which are eaten in small amounts.
What’s more, for heart health, diets high in monounsaturated fat—from peanuts and olive oil—are more beneficial than diets low in fat.
Benefits :
- Prioritize natural ingredients.
- Ensures optimal weight maintenance over the long term.
- Suitable for gourmands because it is tasty.
The inconvenients :
- Difficult to follow.
- Not effective for weight loss.
The Montignac diet
According to this diet, weight gain would be linked to the consumption of “bad” carbohydrates or more specifically foods with a high glycemic index . These lead to a spike in insulin and generate fat storage. Eliminate bad sugars – sugar, white bread, potato, french fries, white rice, white pasta, corn – increase fats and proteins and you will lose weight, due to a complex physiological process that has nothing to do with do with the calories.
The Montignac diet is neither more nor less than a hypocaloric diet , even if it obeys certain specific principles. It is forbidden to consume fats and sugars together because this association would be largely responsible for weight gain. Pastries, both fatty and sweet, are to be avoided, as is the classic duo of cheese and dessert taken during the same meal. The association proteins-lipids is authorized as well as the good carbohydrates – wholemeal bread and rice, lentils, fruits, vegetables.
Benefits :
- Pleasure diet.
- Consumption of legumes, vegetables and whole grain products encouraged.
- No feelings of deprivation.
- Offers many recipes.
- An effective method.
The inconvenients :
- Long-term effects of a high-fat, high-protein diet not known.
- Weight loss because low calorie diet (according to a study by the University of Laval, we consume on average 25% fewer calories).
- Requires knowledge of food composition.
- Feeling of fatigue linked to the lack of sugar.
The high protein diet
This diet is possible only under medical supervision and for a very short time . It is mainly intended for people who need to lose weight quickly in view of surgery. It can also help those who need a little boost to start losing weight. The Dukan method is another example of a high protein diet.
Meals are mostly made up of high-protein foods or industrial mixes of protein powder, vitamins, and minerals. Allowed fruits and vegetables provide vitamins and minerals.
Benefits :
- Immediate and spectacular results (up to 5 kg the first week and 12 kg in one month).
- Fat loss, with muscle mass protection.
- Absence of hunger (anorectic effect of ketone bodies).
- Feeling of well-being (psychostimulating effect of ketone bodies).
- Simplicity of implementation.
The inconvenients :
- Requires medical monitoring.
- Risks of undernutrition.
- Headaches (headaches) may occur in 10% of patients during the first days of the diet and will be treated with analgesics.
- Possible menstrual disturbances in women at the start of the diet, estrogen being partially synthesized by adipocytes (the reduction of fatty tissue forcing the body to adapt at the start of the cure).
- Vitamin and mineral supplementation.
- Fatigue of the heart.
- Extra work of the kidneys.
- High risk of recovery if no stabilization.
Keto diet, monodiet… The other most followed diets
To all the diets that we have just listed are added many other diets such as:
- the tailor-made diet (Fricker);
- the LeDiet method;
- the young ;
- the mono diet;
- the Kousmine regime;
- the ketogenic diet or keto diet;
- the mayo diet;
- the fiber diet;
- the Hollywood diet or fruit cure…
Some will obviously find it useful, but they are not all among the most recommended, especially since diets, whatever they are, always have negative effects.
The negative effects of diets
Since diets are not natural and generally lead to the achievement of a weight lower than its physiological weight, they are often responsible for collateral damage to the weight loss generated. Here are a few :
- in women, an anomaly of the menstrual cycle is frequently one of the consequences of a diet that is too restrictive, a diet that is too low in fat or a body fat that is too low. The disruption of ovarian hormonal regulation can compromise the fertility of the latter;
- dieting can be the cause of depression when loss is slow or non-existent or when the lost weight regains quickly after stopping it;
- it is often noted a loss of muscle , a state of chronic fatigue and a slowdown in metabolism with diets. Since muscles consume more calories, it is absolutely necessary to favor them in order to maintain substantial energy expenditure;
- diets often cause nutritional deficiencies due to high calorie reduction and low variety of foods consumed;
- Added to this are health problems such as: liver disorders, slow metabolism, osteoporosis, gallstones, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, cancer, weakening of the immune system, shortening of lifespan.
- relatively frequent occurrence of eating disorders or eating disorders.
The real most effective diet? A healthy lifestyle!
Rather than having to follow a diet, the “easiest” is naturally to opt for a healthy, reasoned and balanced diet on a daily basis! To put it simply, just eat everything reasonably and have fun when you feel like it!
The restriction is not recommended to maintain its weight in a sustainable way. It is then necessary to adopt a food hygiene respecting 10 fundamental principles :
1. favor basic foods (raw = the most authentic) and consequently limit those processed, even hyper-processed containing a large amount of fast sugars (sweets, pastries, etc.), saturated fats (whole dairy products, cold cuts, pastries, etc. ) and empty calories (alcohols);
2. respecter une frequence d’apports alimentaires reguliers, environ toutes les 3h, afin de limiter les pics de secretion d’insuline et de mieux reguler votre faim ;
3. consommer une quantite raisonnee et adaptee a vos besoins de glucides complexes. En privilegiant ceux a index glycemique faible et moyen, principalement issus des aliments complets : pates, riz, ble, quinoa…
4. consommer regulierement de l’eau tout au long de la journee car elle est indispensable au bon fonctionnement de l’organisme. Une deshydratation de 2% induit une baisse de performance de 20% ;
5. consume fruits daily for their vitamin, mineral and fiber content as well as for their impact on satiety;
6. consume a quantity of protein adapted to your needs in order to increase your metabolism and promote muscle recovery. On the other hand, an excess of protein is useless; go for about 1.5 to 2g of protein per pound of bodyweight;
7. consume oilseeds and oils daily for their content of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids;
8. Don’t dramatically reduce calorie consumption overnight . Instead, reduce your calorie intake gradually so that your body’s metabolism does not drop;
9. prepare healthy foods in advance (for the following days, to take to work or to school);
10. Include strength training in your weekly workout routine to build muscle and burn more calories each day.