What is the best diet for weight loss?

It’s mid-January and like many people, you might have made a New Year’s resolution to ‘lose weight’ or ‘eat healthier’. So, I’m here to help with that.

It might be disappointing to hear, but the best diet for weight loss is the one you can stick to, in the long term. It’s not keto, low fat, or intermittent fasting. It’s whatever style of eating is best for you.

What is your diet? 

‘Diet’ is actually defined as the food you habitually eat. Meaning, the foods you normally eat on a regular basis is what forms your diet. But now the word diet is usually used to mean a short term restrictive eating plan for weight loss. For the purpose of this blog post, I’ll be referring to diet as the food you eat on a regular basis.

Your diet is influenced by many things, like what foods are available to you, your cooking ability, your upbringing, and your financial status. You might not realise but you probably eat similar foods week in week out. You’re in the habit of eating certain things and eat them without thinking.

For example, chicken is a regular part of my diet, as opposed to pork. My mum doesn’t like pork and so never bought it or cooked it for us as children. So now, if I was meal planning, I would automatically think of making a chicken dish and not pork one.

Building healthy habits: 

If you want to lose weight and maintain the weight loss, you need to make healthier choices an automatic habit. So, your diet and lifestyle will comprise of mostly healthy choices that you make without thinking. Weight loss can often be seen as a temporary thing you do, and that once the weight is lost, you can then go back to ‘normal’. But unfortunately, this won’t help with long term weight loss.

Changing your eating habits will help make weight loss not seem as unmanageable. I won’t pretend that it’s not difficult to do this and I know it takes a lot of effort. It can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days to create a habit. So, it can help to manage expectations and not to expect an overnight change.

Habit stacking: 

One way to build healthy habits and change your diet is to habit stack. Habit stacking is when you pair a new habit you’re trying to build, with an existing one. This can help you form a cue for the habit.

For example, when you cook a meal and start to dish onto your plate, start with filling half your plate with vegetables. Aiming for half your plate to be vegetables is a good way to fill up on nutrient rich foods that are low in energy. If every time you’re plating up, vegetables are in the forefront of your mind, you’re likely to soon get into the habit of having lots of veg.

An example with exercise could be doing some movement while the kettle boils for your morning cup of tea or coffee. A few star jumps or jogging on the spot will get your heart pumping. Linking together some exercise with something you already do every day is a good way to get into the habit of doing it.

Set realistic goals: 

Another way to build your ideal diet is to set realistic goals. Setting goals you can achieve can be really motivating, and help you to continue on your journey. It also makes it not seem as daunting as you won't have the fear of failing.

A realistic goal will look different for everyone so it’s worth having a think about what will work for you.

For example, you may want to aim to get your 5 a day (5 portions of fruit and veg daily) but if you’re not at that stage yet, you can aim for a lower number and then work your way up. And if you remind yourself of your goals regularly, you can help them become an automatic thought at the front of your mind. This means you’ll then be thinking of ways to meet your goals and can get into the habit of doing things that will help you reach them.

Meeting your needs in healthier ways: 

There are many pieces of the puzzle when it comes to long term weight loss and your diet. Another thing to consider, that you may not have thought of, is how you meet your needs.

Manage emotions/stress without food: 

Stress and emotions are a part of everyday life, and how you manage them can play a part in your weight. Emotional eating is very common. For some of us, it’s almost a reflex to reach for a chocolate bar or glass of wine after a hard day. But if food is your only way of coping with your emotions, it could be adding up.

Coming up with other ways to deal with these emotions can help alter your diet in a positive way. You can try to think of some scenarios you may encounter, and other ways to deal with them. 

For example, if you’re feeling stressed, you could do some deep breathing or meditation instead of having wine. Or if you’re emotionally drained, you could go a walk and get some fresh air instead of curling up on the sofa with a tub of ice cream.

These are just examples of ways to manage your emotions so that eating less nutritious food regularly isn’t a key part of your diet.

Have healthy foods ready to go: 

A good way to manage hunger is to have healthy meals prepped and ready to go. This means that you’re meeting your needs with nutritious foods. Meal planning and prepping can seem daunting at first, but once you get into it, it can be a lot easier.

Any small thing you can do to help your future self will be a great step in the right direction. Whether it’s cutting up vegetables and fruits so they’re ready for you to snack on, or batch cooking a healthy meal for the freezer. Planning ahead to satisfy your hunger can help you lose weight and stick to it.

Weight loss and changing your diet isn’t easy. But the best ‘diet’ for weight loss is really being able to change what you eat and maintain it in the long term. Finding 1 thing to start with and work on can help you make sustainable changes.

If you want to learn more about the steps you can take to manage your weight, you can find it in my e-book. Available on Etsy.

Key points:

• Diet is the food you eat regularly, and it’s influenced by many things like upbringing, financial status, and cooking ability.
• Making healthy food choices a regular habit is a good way to maintain weight loss. You can do this by habit stacking and setting realistic goals.
• Another way to aid weight loss is to meet your needs in healthier ways. You can do this by managing emotional eating, and meal prepping to prepare for hunger.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and it’s given you some food for thought when it comes to dieting.

Bye for now! 👋

References:

Weight maintenance: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28281891/

Habit formation: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.674

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/diet

https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2e-health-social-behaviour/social-behavioural-determinants