What Diet is right for you?

Which Diet is Right for You?

Keto, Paleo, Intermittent Fasting or Evolution Weight Management Program

There are countless new dietary fads flooding our social media feeds and getting air time on TV. But when you’re looking to overhaul your eating habits, choosing a diet that will work for you isn’t always easy.

Whether you’ve been looking into diet plans or not, chances are you’ve heard of Keto, Paleo, and Intermittent Fasting. Before you can decide which plan to follow it’s important to understand exactly what they are and what sets them apart.

The Keto Diet

The keto diet, before going mainstream, was mainly prescribed by doctors for those suffering from epilepsy. The keto diet restricts your total carbohydrates and protein intake.

How does the Keto Diet Work?

By severely restricting your carb intake, your body is forced to burn ketones for energy. Ketones are produced by the liver when there is a glucose deficiency. This puts your body in a state of ketosis where you burn stored body fat instead of gaining energy from carbohydrates.

Research has found higher ketone levels lead to reduced seizures for epilepsy patients, hence the popular use among doctors.

The Keto Diet Breakdown

Following the keto diet means consuming 25-30 grams of total carbs, 5% protein, and 70-80% fats.

Common food allowed on the keto diet:

Pros & Cons of the Keto Diet

The research is still out on whether or not the keto diet is successful in driving weight loss. But there are several pros and cons to consider before making the switch.

Pros:

• Reduces Inflammation –
  High levels of insulin have been linked to high inflammation. Carbohydrates carry a high level of insulin and can often result in more inflammation throughout the body.
• Reduces Sugar Intake –
  Carbs carry a lot of sugar, which can lead to water retention and longer imbalances between sugar and blood levels. The keto diet, with the restriction on carbs, automatically helps to improve the balance of sugar in your body and helps you lose the excess water weight.
• More Healthy Fats & Less Cravings –
  We often aren’t eating enough healthy fats, and on the keto diet, this becomes your main source of food. Healthy fats (fresh fish, nuts, avocados) take longer to digest, helping you feel full longer and reducing the urge to snack.

Cons:

• Long Term Effects are Still Unknown –
  While short term success can be had, there aren’t enough studies to show the long term implications of eating a high-fat diet.There is a possibility of kidney damage, nutritional deficiencies, and side effects including constipation, and dehydration. The keto diet means high volumes of fat and animal proteins which increase cholesterol levels and is a risk factor for heart disease.When your diet is 70-80% fat many run the risk of eating the wrong kind of fats: highly saturated animal fats.
• Difficult Diet to Follow –
  Many on the keto diet have a hard time sustaining the dietary restrictions as it is such a big shift from most of our current eating habits. The keto diet is also a nightmare for those who have a hard time digesting protein and fats. Not all of us can digest a vast amount of protein or fats easily and if you start on this diet without first speaking to a digestive specialist, you can cause a lot of undue hardship on your digestive system.
• Not for Highly Active People –
  If you live a sedentary lifestyle, as many do, where working at a desk all day restricts your activity and you engage in light exercise, a keto diet may work for you. As a light exerciser, your body doesn’t need a huge carb intake to fuel your muscles. By restricting your carbs, you can make your small allowable intake work harder for you by timing your carb intake around more intense workout days.But if you are highly active and seeking to get the most out of your training, going keto might not work for you. Studies have shown the negative impact of a keto diet among athletes and those with high-intensity workout routines. Power and endurance levels both sink without enough carb intake.

The Paleo Diet

The paleo diet, often called the caveman diet, has been around since the ‘70s and stems from the idea that we need to eat as our ancestors did. The paleo mindset is that during our hunter/gatherer years, we were our most healthy and it was only when we moved from hunters to farmers growing things like grain, we started to face obesity and other chronic illnesses.

And as the thought goes, if we can get back to eating as we once did, we shouldn’t suffer in the way many Americans currently are. However, the debate on exactly what our ancestors ate and the types of diseases suffered is ongoing.

The Paleo Diet Breakdown

Unlike the keto diet, the paleo diet has no restrictions on food portions, however, the diet does restrict certain food groups, like all carbs.

Pros & Cons of the Paleo Diet

Pros:

• Clean Eating –
  Your restricted from eating processed foods, high fat, sugary, and overly salty foods. This means your system will be operating on a variety of whole foods.
• Decreased Inflammation –
  Like the keto diet, because you’re eating fewer carbs and no sugars, this diet helps reduce and eliminate inflammation in your body.
• Decreased Food Cravings –
  With an intake in healthy, lean fats that take longer to digest, you will feel fuller longer. Which decreases your cravings and cuts down on the need to snack.

Cons:

• Weight Loss Due to Restricted Diet –
  Most of the weight loss you will see is due to a very restricted diet, but there is often a tendency to overindulge on higher fat items. Because there is no strict guideline on amounts of food, many overeat high fat, snack-like items such as nuts.
• Not For Vegetarians –
  Since this diet prohibits eating legumes and beans, this diet isn’t sustainable or well-advised for vegetarians or vegans. Beans and legumes are important sources of nutrition for vegetarians and eating a vegetarian diet without those can lead to deficiencies.
• Not for Highly Active People –
  Much like the keto diet, the paleo diet isn’t ideal for athletes and highly active people. With the complete omission of carbs, you’ll be quick to feel fatigued, especially during high endurance workouts.
• Not for Those with Digestive Issues –
  Much like the keto diet, the paleo diet places a huge emphasis on meats and proteins. But if you have any issues with protein digestion this diet isn’t for you. Large amounts of protein our bodies into overdrive and if you have digestive issues before starting a diet, you’ll want to speak with a nutrition and digestion specialist.

Intermittent Fasting Diet

Unlike the keto and paleo diet, intermittent fasting is a lifestyle adjustment, not a diet based on cutting out whole food groups.

How does Intermittent Fasting Work?

The idea behind intermittent fasting is restricting food intake during certain parts of the day or week. Two common examples are a 5:2 diet, which is eating normally for five days and fasting (eating between 500-600 calories) for two days. The second common iteration is time restricted fasting. Time restricted fasting often looks like consuming all your food during 10am-8pm and then fasting from 8pm-10am the next day.

The goal of any type of fasting regiment is to lose weight and decrease your appetite by slowing your metabolism.

What can you eat on an intermittent fasting diet?

Well, you can eat whatever you like. The goal would be to eat healthy, well-rounded meals made of whole foods, but you don’t have any restrictions on the amount or type.

Pros:

• No Calorie Counting –
  There are no calories to count or food portioning during your “feast.” Depending on which fasting plan you choose, you might not need to worry about calories during your fasting times either.
• Reduce Overeating & Snacking –
  Reaching for that post-dinner bowl of ice cream or mid-morning snack has become commonplace. But during the time restricted fasting, you learn to offset these cravings and learn new eating habits.
• Aids Your Cleansing System –
  Our bodies need time to digest and process the foods we eat. But if we are eating around the clock, we are putting extra strain on our digestive systems. Giving our body’s a day or even 12 hours allows us to better process and cleanse our bodies.

Cons:

• Not Always Sustainable –
  While this might be the most sustainable diet of the three, depending on your work and other lifestyle choices, fasting might not be the best long term option. Fasting can make going out with friends or keeping odd work hours a challenge.
• Fasting on the Wrong Foods –
  It can be very tempting to ‘veg’ out on pizza, burgers, and other high fat, processed food on your feast days. But those types of foods will not help you achieve weight loss and will make your cravings and withdrawals very hard during your fasting periods.
• Not Ideal for Diabetics –
  Going lengths of time without food for diabetics is not medically advised. If you have any sort of medical condition you should always consult your doctor first before choosing a restricted diet plan.

Evolution Weight Management Program

Lean Body and Active Lifestyle Protocols are two methods that many homeopathic and alternative wellness practitioners suggest for clients for safe and fast natural weight loss. The Evolution Weight-Management Program is based on three different types of fat in the body, two good and one bad type.

The two good types of fat are Structural fat (which protects joints and organs) and Essential fat (which is evenly distributed throughout the body and used as a day-to-day source of energy).

Abnormal fat (the bad type) is difficult if not impossible to eliminate during normal diet and exercise. This “obesity-causing” fat tends to accumulate around the hips, thighs, waist, stomach, buttocks, behind the upper arms (in women), and the upper chest, back, and neck (in men). They are typically retained as “emergency” reserves and usually only released as a last resort in instances of severe long- term starvation.

The Evolution Weight Program has historically been key to opening the pathway to losing the right type of weight and has two distinct options.

Lean Body Protocol: a stringent program intended to provide improvement in body composition for clients with significant weight loss goals and sedentary lifestyles.

Active Body Protocol: a program that combines exercise with more modest dietary restrictions for active client’s seeking improvement in body composition and overall health.

PROS:

• Practitioner supported 6-week program with great results
• Supportive homeopathic supplements.
• Comprehensive detox that detoxes every major organ system within the body.
• Easy to follow meal plan and recipes.
• Shopping list
• No exercise required

CONS:

• Calorie restricted for 6 weeks
• Current medical condition may not be suitable for the program
• Low fat diet

Which Diet Plan is Right for You?

Choose a diet plan starts with identifying sustainable goals and should be looked at as a lifestyle change, not just a set of restricting rules.

The best way to start the keto, paleo, fasting, or any diet is to first pay attention to the foods you are currently eating.

• Are they whole foods?
• Am I balancing meats, carbs, veggies, and fruits?
• Can I slowly cut out processed and added sugars?
• Am I mindfully eating and being aware of my ‘full’ signals?
• Do I have time to exercise, and do I want to?

Before jumping into any diet, consider speaking with a digestive health specialist for guidance. They can help you assess your current lifestyle, overall health, and dietary goals to ensure you are choosing a sustainable diet. If you’d like to get the conversation started, give us a call today.