The best diets for weightloss…What does a vegan/pescetarian/atkins dieter really eat? (The Diet Dictionary)

we’ve pretty much all been there, you’re having a conversation with someone and they use a word you don’t know, you’re stuck there.. trying to guess (what the hell does that mean?) … “what were we just talking about? Gosh”.
You go ‘BLANK’…I’m here to solve your woes and worries and give you all you need to know about the top ten diets that work..you’ll notice they pretty much all have one thing in common.You go ‘BLANK’…They’re a Pescetarian-omnivarian-paleo-caveman, and that’s just the diet they’re on at the moment!I’m here to solve your woes and worries and give you all you need to know about the top ten diets that work..you’ll notice they pretty much all have one thing in common.

All of the diets
All these words are just too much!

 

Dietary Plans

In no particular order and as with anything it can be called several things, Whether you choose to eat the way you do, or your unable to digest foods or morally don’t want to, that’s your choice but it’s still a ‘diet’ as diet is the word for eating habits. Whether it’s meat vs meat free it’s your choice to make, I’m just giving you the information to decide what’s best for you.
I’ve collected a lot of my data from personal experience or from “Popular diets” Please don’t think I’m calling vegan-ism a diet or I’m saying they’re not all great choices as they’re your choices to make and only you can make them.

I’m just here to give an overhaul on what eat diet consists of so everyone can make the best choice for them.

Pescetarian

This is a ‘normal’ diet , in terms of most popular, it’s less a  weight loss plan and more a way of eating. It’s one of the first transition into a healthy eating plan, most people pick up eating more fish and gradually cut out meat and fats from their diets. Essentially, anything goes but the only animal ‘meat’ you consume is fish-based, they still consume eggs, milk, cheese etc.

Vegetarian

This again is a ‘normal’ diet , in terms of most popular, it’s less a weight loss plan and more a way of eating, however many people who consider weightloss may include vegetarian dishes in their diets. Strictly no animals to be consumed at all, not even fish, eggs milk and cheese are still consumed though, most of their diets consist of vegetables and carbohydrates.

Vegan

Again, less a weight loss diet and probably pretty bad for weight loss as they eat a lot of carbohydrates and ‘bulking’ foods. Strictly no by-products from an animals, it’s out. No cheese, milk, eggs cream or anything like that.
 It’s seen to be the more limiting of any diets but as you can see from this list there are plenty of diets that remove certain food groups but when things are removed new styles come in to replace things.
 Just remember there’s nothing you can’t replace and there are plenty of new and innovative small businesses creating vegan-friendly alternatives, they have vegan-friendly ‘burgers’ now.

 As with most diets that aren’t for weight loss there are also ‘semi’ vegans, or ‘part-time’ normally doing it for health purposes with the back burner or animal rights they try their hardest to stay with the lifestyle but i’ve tried and for me personally vegan is a hard lifestyle, so even better for anyone who’s doing it. It’s very honourable!
*Learn more about vegans from a vegan*

 

Fruitarian

People who eat only fruit, no vegetables or grains,legumes or meat. Vegetables you’d think would be fine but they’re banned as they’re considered starchy and too fibrous, this is a very rare lifestyle and the only people I’ve ever heard of that have taken this on have done it for a few months to a year.
I have previously tried being fruitarian and found myself eating anywhere from 100-280g of sugar a day, It’s such a hard lifestyle to do and isn’t cheap, fresh food in large quantities is expensive. The body gets addicted to having a lot of sugar too, find out more about the body on sugar.
They often have a very active lifestyle and really thrive with having such a high sugar diet, burning around 3,000 calories a day in their activities.
*How to make sensible sugar swaps.

Paleo Pizza Image
Paleo Pizza (Casual/Modern)

Paleo
I talk about this a lot here but there’s a lot of misconceptions about the word so I want to explain it a bit more..It’s not a ‘low-carb’ diet, however gluten is cut our of the diet as most gluten is ‘man-made’. So a gluten free diet is necessary for Paleo, but Being gluten free doesn’t mean you follow Paleo. The paleo diet least we forget is essentially the ‘basic’ human fuel diet. For thousands of years we had no way of combining grains and fats to create foods that we have today, those foods are now stuffed full of saturates, salt sugar and tonnes of chemicals.

This diet is just saying “don’t eat non-handmade food”, yes there are purists out there who won’t have even olive oil (even though it’s essentially pure) and they won’t have corn because of the high sugar contents, but that’s their choice.
Paleo can also be changed in several ways, you have purists (cavemen),casual cavemen and modern-paleos.

Cavemen don’t eat grains, corn, high GI foods (inc potatoes and beans) and really stick to eating and cooking naturally, no ice creams or pancakes, no matter what they’re made from. The purists I’d call cavemen, they eat purely and barely cook their food, like cavemen.

Paleo Pancakes Image
Paleo Pancakes (Modern)


The casual cavemen, they eat as pure as possible but won’t necessarily use cavemen ways of going about things, cooking things in natural oils, like olive oil.They tend to combine ingredients more and make more soups and natural-breakfast bars, new innovative recipes.

The modern-Paleo’s, I’m calling them this because they use modern technology to combine all of the natural ingredients and use new processes (not traditional to the diet) to create healthy alternatives to food groups, such as paleo pancakes** and cakes. The modern paleo’s tend to do it part-time too. Any change is a good change.

Find out more about paleo & Paleo recipes

The ‘New’ Atkins

MEAT MEAT MEAT is all I think when it comes to this diet but here’s a bit more information for those who want to consider it..
The diet encourages people to go gluten free* most processed carbs and alcohol along with a lot of other healthy foods too, may I add. With its diet high in fats of red meat, butter, cream, cheese and mayonnaise, it’s one of the diets that appeals more to men.
The high intake of saturated fat may increase your risk of heart disease. The New Atkins diet plan is almost the same as the original one, but includes more practical advice on how to implement the diet and variety to reduce boredom.

The theory is that by starving yourself of carbohydrates, your body will start burning fat for energy. New Atkins is similar to the old Atkins, except it allows a wider variety of foods to make it more nutritionally balanced. During the first two weeks of the diet, you’re on a protein-rich diet with no restrictions on fat and a daily carb allowance of just 20g,  regular exercise is encouraged and more carbs are introduced to your diet – initially 5g and later 10g at a time – with the aim of working out what your ideal carb intake is.
*What is “gluten free?”
 

South beach Diet
The South Beach Diet is almost exactly the same as the paleo diet, it’s just more accepting of sugary, carby goods whilst still focusing on consuming healthy carbohydrates, proteins and fats as part of an overall healthy lifestyle. While not a true low-carb diet, the South Beach Diet does restrict refined carbohydrates and sugars.

A key difference between the Paleolithic and South Beach diets is the level of food restriction required, it’s essentially a diet plan, while paleo is more a lifestyle choice, you decide what you let yourself eat. While the South Beach Diet requires avoidance of many foods during the first two-week phase of the program, later phases are less restrictive and allow a wide variety of foods in moderation. 
The South Beach Diet restricts low-fiber starchy and sweet vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, corn and peas, along with all fruit as they’re un healthy, healthy foods during phase one. (Similar to fruits that are cut out on the Paleo diet) Fruits and vegetables with a low glycemic index which at the start of the diet are banned are slowly reintroduced. In phase three of the South Beach Diet, all vegetables, fruits, dried fruits and 100 percent fruit juices are your choice to introduce.

The Dukan

The Dukan diet is a low-carbohydrate (carb), high-protein diet, like many others on this list, that’s got to be saying something, right? There’s no limit on how much you can eat on the dukan diet..as long as you stick to the rules! So you start off on a strict lean protein diet, you get a list of 72 reasonably low-fat protein-rich foods, such as chicken, turkey, eggs, fish and fat-free dairy.

Carbs are off limits, except for a small amount of oat bran. The next three phases of the plan see the gradual introduction of some fruit, veg and carbs, and eventually all foods. The aim is gradual weight loss of up to 2lb a week and to promote long-term weight management. There’s no time limit to the final phase, which involves having a protein-only day once a week and taking regular healthy exercise.

The 5:2 diet

I’m trying to be non biased so I had to include a fasting diet and this one is 7th on the list of top 10, so it’s clearly an equally important choice when starting dieting.
Luckily I have some personal experience with this one as my sister did it for a few months so over to her “I found that this diet was more tolerable then anything else I’d tried”, Why’s that? What stopped you previously from achieving your results? ” It’s just that I don’t like structure, diets tell me what to eat and what not to, this didn’t it was just eat what you want but not on this day, easy really”.

However..
The last diet really summed everything up to me, It’s about who you are and how you eat, not the plan that your on that dictates whether you’ll succeed or not, sometimes it’s about your inner strength and motivation, so.. if one diet plan doesn’t work, try something new!
Go out hiking or cut out a food group, test things out..after all you it’s your health, do what works for you.

If you’re looking for help in choosing why not complete my survey and I’ll give you my honest opinion on what’s best.

 
If you’re on one of these diets and think I’ve missed something or want to share a recipe let me know!
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