The Best Weight Loss Diet 2021
Answers From Real People
FIRST PERSON
I lost 34 lbs in the span of 6 months and still counting. Its all about 70% nutrition and 30% workouts.
- First 3 months I started walking 3 miles a day. Stopped eating rice and sugary foods.
- Eventually decreased consumption of junk food, soda and dairy food
- Completely eliminated fatty foods, fried foods, refined sugars from my diet
- Lost 20 lbs in first 3 months with above walking distance and diet. I joined gym and also I started following calorie deficit.
- Earlier I used to take food with 2800–3000 calories before weight loss, gradually decreased calorie intake to 2500, 2200, 2000, 1800, 1500 in the order. I lost another 14 lbs here.
- Coming to workouts, I joined Orange Theory Fitness and used to go 5 times a week where we used to rowing, strength training and cardio for 20 minutes each altogether 60 minutes of HIIT workouts. This helped me in getting in good shape with little muscle and reduce my waist 3.5 inches from 38.5 to 35.
- My diet comprises of Macros with 50% Carbs, 30% Protein and 20% Fat.
- Important numbers in diet and health to take care of
- Fiber intake >30g
- Sugars ❤7.5g (Added + Natural sugars)
- Protein >135g
- Carbs with Glycemic Index <55
- Calorie deficit =500 calories daily (on average)
- Water >3 litres
- Sleep >7–8 hours
- Body fat <20%
- Hip/Waist ratio — 0.80 to 0.85
- Steps >10,000
- Screen time <1 hour
- Sun light = 20 minutes (minimum)
- Power nap = 40 minutes (ideal)
- BMI — 18.5 to 22.9 (for Asians)/18.5 to 24.9 (rest of the world)
- Supplements (optional)
- Fish Oil 1000mg (for cholesterol control)
- Vitamin D2 (for bone strength)
- ZMA (for good sleep)
- Ideal Timings
- Workout — 6–7am
- Breakfast — 8am
- Lunch — 12pm
- Protein Snack — 4pm
- Dinner — 6:30pm
- Mini snack — 8pm
- Good Macros
- Prefer Carbs composition with 33% fiber and 66% starch foods
- Carbs with Glycemic index less than 55 and sometimes foods with 56–67
- Prefer Unsaturated fat, limit saturated fats and avoid trans fats
- Protein intake = weight in lbs (only if you do heavy workouts and only for men, for women it could be 0.8 times your body weight in lbs)
- Gut health, stress management, sleep, hormonal balance, eating habits with food quantity and food quality were key in success
- Fruits are best answer for sugar cravings
- Micros like vitamins and minerals are really important and you should not ignore them as the are underrated
- Take care of bloating, acid reflux, and inflammation for good gut health
- Try taking Kefir or Yakult milk or any other probiotics based on your condition for good bacteria in your gut
- Take VIOME test to analyze your microbiome condition and customize your diet based on the feedback. After 90 days take 5strands to analyze your food insensitivities and allergies.
- Avoid nutritional deficiencies
- SUGAR is the biggest culprit in weight gain
- Buy interior house plants like peace lily or bromeliads which needs less maintenance like water and sunlight as plants purify your room/house and gives good air.
- Try aroma diffuser with essential oils for pleasant feeling during this lock down period at home.
- Prefer olive oil for low smoking point and avocado oil/flax oil for high smoking point cooking.
- Avoid shortcuts, there is no luck or any magic in weight loss.
- It needs enormous patience as you fed your body with junk food all these decades and you can’t expect your body to turn into 6 pack or fit body within days/weeks.
- Treat your body like holy temple
- Good luck with your weight loss journey and happy health. Share knowledge and spread positivity
Diet is temporary but lifestyle changes yields permanent results
Note: I am not health or fitness expert above facts or health hacks worked for me. Remember each and every individual’s body type is different and also depends on individual’s medical condition, habits and their genetics.
SECOND PERSON
According to me to lose your weight you should follow the following diet plan:-
- Drink 1 glass of lukewarm water with honey or Lime Juice as soon as you wake up from your bed.
- Take the light and protein rich breakfast like Oats, Poha, Boiled egg, Sprouts, Bananas.
- In midmorning take 1 fruit.
- Coming to the lunch, eat fresh and healthy food like you can take 2 Multigrain Rotis, 1 bowl of Vegetable, Salad, 1 bowl of Curd(avoid taking rice and oily food).
- For Snacks you can have a Green tea, Green coffee, Black Coffee with Roasted Chana. You also can go for Protein shakes, Apple slice with Peanut Butter.
- Now coming to the last meal of the day. You can have Besan Chillas(2–3)or Multigrain Rotis, 1 bowl of Vegetables, salad, Tomato Omelette. If you are a Non Vegetarian then you can also have grilled Chicken or Grilled Fish.
THIRD PERSON
I have been taking several diets for weight loss for the past several years. With 149 cm high, I went from 54 kg to 48 kg. So, I would like to give some of my own perspectives about those diets:
Totally recommend: Low — carb, Eat Clean and Intermittent Fasting — good for weight loss, overall health and life quality. Until now, my diet is kind of a mix between the three.
Recommend for those who want to lose much fat, stubborn fat: KETO diet
Don’t recommend: GM diet
- General Motor Diet (GM diet)
It was about a year and a half ago, I found out this diet while surfing internet. I was so obsessed with my weight loss and decided to try for one week.
And I would never ever do it again after that 7 — day GM diet.
You can google for more details. It is kind of diet that you consume mostly fruits and vegetables with almost no protein and very little carbs in a course of 7 days.
I was not going to work at that time, just staying at home. That’s why I can applied this one. I feel no energy at all, continuously feeling hungry. And I just lost 0.4 kg after 7 days and gain back soon after back to normal diet the following week. Sounds funny.
I don’t recommend this one for those who want to have a long — term plan to reach an ideal weight.
2. KETO diet
I tried KETO diet in a course of 10 days. I lost 1,5 kg, mostly my stubborn fat — arms, thighs and upper belly.
I totally recommend this diet to those who is struggling to lose a lot of fat or very very stubborn fat. I don’t recommend this diet for those who just want to lose from 1–3 kg. And I don’t favor this one as a daily diet in the long run.
I already wrote a detail answer about side effects of KETO , you can find here for more information.
Compared to other diets, I see KETO is a bit easier to apply if you cannot cook everyday and cannot keep a regular schedule. With KETO , you can still go out, choosing dishes that doesn’t contain carbs and sugar.
3. Intermittent Fasting — IF
Among the six ways to do IF, I choose 8/16 because it can fit my schedule and workloads. I eat for 8 hours and fasting the remaining 16 hours of the day.
The principle of IF is when you fast, the HGH — Human Growth Hormone will soar, around 5 times as usual, helping the body to lose fat and increase muscle.
This method is quite nature — friendly because in the very old day, our ancestors didn’t eat as much as we do today. Because there were no fridges to store foods and the main way to get food is hunting and collecting, our ancestors didn’t have as many meals as we are taking today and even could actively spend days without eating anything at all.
When we fast, inside our body, cells will start their cell — fixing process, gen will change its function to increase our longevity and reduce diseases. IF is not just good for weight loss but also good for our overall health and life quality.
Until now, I still favor Intermittent Fasting as a way to treat my body, especially after days of excess and out-of-control eating. When I can control my schedule, I prefer to have two main meals, one is around 10–11 am and another is at around 4–5 pm. Between these two meals, I can take some fruits or seeds as snack if I feel like I really want to eat something.
4.. Eat Clean
The goal of this diet is to eat the whole food as much as you can.
- Cook at home
- Apply natural ingredient
- Say no to preservative and coloring
- Minimize food processing
The nature of Eat Clean is to detox, reducing those toxic impurities which cause negativity and fat on our body and to add more nutrition to our daily diet.
After a while applying this diet, I feel my body fresher and more gentle, my skin get brighter and smoothier.
In reality, it’s really hard to maintain this diet if you have to go out to work daily and can not cook frequently. But every time you eat out, you can always choose an option with less ingredients.
5. Low — carb
I think it is a very popular diet that everyone is already familiar with. There is just one thing you have to focus is to remove sweeten sugar and eliminate “bad — carbs” out of your diet.
For me, carbs like rice, bread are not the cause for our gain — weight. Because we eat too much of everything, that’s why we keep gaining weight. So, when we want to lose weight, we have to apply some strict rules.
I like to part that we should remove sweeten sugar and processed food but regarding carbs like white rice, after a while observing on my own, , eating proper carbs doesn’t add weight to my body anymore if I maintain a “clean diet”.
At the moment, I don’t have to try so hard as I did in the beginning to “strictly follow a diet” because it really becomes my habits. I don’t like to take sweeten drinks or cakes as I usually did before. I don’t like packaged food anymore. When I go shopping for food, I automatically choose something like vegetables, seeds, fruits or fish as my first picks.
My current daily diet is kind of a mix of Intermittent Fasting, Eat Clean and Low — carb (but still eat white rice). And I still have sugar or fast food when I feel like, it’s totally fine to keep at a certain quantity.
Besides, I maintain a yoga schedule to stay fresh, flexible and focused.
I used to be so obsessed with my measurement and weight and all kind of diets I could think of. I measured myself almost everyday. Everything is okay now, finally.
Some of my experiences after “those days”:
- There is no “best diet” but the most suitable diet to you. If you don’t know it yet, just try some and you’ll found one, at last.
- If you want to be successful, you have to be disciplined in the beginning and be consistent. After a while, it will becomes your habits.
- Give yourself a break, some “cheat day”, relax and continue. Diet is a long-term plan for your better life quality, not just for weight loss.
- Eat just enough, don’t overeating or starving yourself.
Wish you success on your journey!
