The nutrition and fitness industry is constantly trying to sell you the secret, but when you control for calories, protein, and fiber no diet is likely to result in more fat loss than another [1-3].
Paleo, Keto, Zone, Carnivore, Vegan, Lacto-Ovo-Fruitarian, I don’t care…if you control for the variables above it very VERY likely isn’t going to matter for fat loss.
The messaging of the Keto world over the past decade has duped us into thinking that we can’t lose body fat while eating carbohydrates.
This is laughably false…wrong…not true....a lie [2, 4-52].
Just the fact that so many people have gotten results going plant based should cue us in that when we control for calories massive differences in dietary philosophies can BOTH result in significant fat loss.
Just to prove a point, people have lost massive amounts of body fat eating ONLY ice cream, Twinkies, potatoes, or white rice [29, 53].
Here is the dirty little secret that those selling Keto, Vegan, or Paleo diets don’t want you to know…the number one secret for short and long-term success doesn’t come from restricting entire food groups it comes from Dietary Adherence [54].
And if you look at the long-term studies on these types of extreme and restrictive dietary approaches most of us regular people can’t seem to maintain them [6, 8, 55].
In fact, by the end of these interventions, the researchers don’t even know what to call the diets because the people aren’t able to stick to the philosophy at six months and one year [6, 8].
Keto turns into a moderate carbohydrate approach and the fat content inevitably creeps up in the plant-based group.
It doesn’t look like most people can sustain carbohydrate intakes lower than 140 grams long-term [56] and there are five times more former vegan and vegetarians than current vegan and vegetarians which kind of highlights that this philosophy may not be super sustainable [57]. These all-or-nothing rigid dietary schematics also very likely have psychological downsides and can be prone to the “what-the-hell” effect where people go off the diet and repeatedly crash into a pool of chips and queso [58-62].
So why would we start with something that is likely unsustainable and isn’t going to get us any better results?
I can think of exactly zero reasons...other than we may feel peer-pressured into these types of rigid diets because our friends and family may have seen results with them. But, they very likely didn't need to go with such restrictive approaches to get their results, and unfortunately the research tells us that they are unlikely to be able to stick to these types of diets in their original form long-term.
I know this entire topic is confusing and as a scientist I genuinely wish in my heart of hearts that weight regulation was just as simple as restricting carbohydrates or fat, but it’s not and it never will be.
We will always want simple stories and many people read the paragraphs above and think we will never have the answer, but we already do!
A multitude of different dietary schematics can absolutely be healthy and result in significant body composition changes.
I can’t think of a more freeing sentence.
The secret key isn’t out there hidden on the internet somewhere.
The secret is working to find the dietary approach that works for YOU long-term.
#GIVEAFIT
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About Author: Mario Mendias
