Keto vs Intermittent Fasting vs Others: Which is the Best Weight-Loss Diet?

Just like exercise, dieting is another piece of the weight loss puzzle. Diet and exercise play a crucial role in weight management.

However, with a variety of diets available, it’s difficult to decide which one is best for us. It is vital to understand the type of diet your body needs to shed excess fat. But, how should you begin?

Obesity is a complex disorder, and more than one factor influences it. Environmental, physiological, genetic, socioeconomic, and psychological factors can equally contribute to obesity. Moreover, as the causes of obesity can be unique to every individual, one weight loss plan might not work for everyone.

In the last blog, we talked about how exercising alone is not enough for weight loss. This blog covers another piece of the puzzle: Dieting.

How Does Dieting Help in Weight loss?

A healthy weight contributes to good health. The food choices you make play a vital role in maintaining a healthy weight and losing some of it. You lose weight when you are on a calorie deficit, i.e. you burn more calories than you consume. Similarly, when you burn an equal amount of calories you consume, your weight stays stable.

In a world where junk food is available at the tip of our fingers, some weight gain comes easily. People often eat food that causes weight gain and consume a lot more calories than their bodies need. Through this, they are increasing the risk of obesity and its related complications.

In conclusion, people with obesity choose dieting as an initial way to lose some inches. If done the right way, dieting, a crucial element of weight loss, can be highly beneficial.

How to Begin with Dieting?

To begin with, measure your BMI and set a weight loss goal. BMI, which stands for body mass index, calculates body fat mass based on height and weight. You have a normal weight if your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 and are overweight if it’s between 25 to 29.9. However, if your BMI is 30 and above 35 and 40, you come into obesity phases 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

Once you know your BMI and weight loss goal, you are all set to choose a diet. But, what are the different types of diets for weight loss?

Keto vs Intermittent Fasting Vs Others: Which one to choose?

There are several diets for weight loss. Some of these diets include:

• Low-Calorie Diet
• Keto Diet
• Intermittent Fasting
• Vegan Diet
• Paleo Diet

The main purpose of these diets is to either restrict your calorie consumption or add and avoid certain kinds of food to help you lose weight. Remember, skipping meals and staying hungry for hours will not help in losing weight or in the prevention of obesity. Moreover, dieting is not just about restricting food. It’s about planning your meals and sticking to a particular diet plan.

An important question to ponder is: What is the difference between different diets and how to choose one? Keep reading to understand what each diet means and which plan is most suitable for you:

1. Low-Calorie Diet: It is an individually designed diet that includes moderate calorie restriction to achieve slow progressive weight loss. Usually, it involves a deficit of 500-1000 calories/day. These plans can’t be standardized across individuals.It is an easy, effective and safe diet. However, a low-calorie diet includes proper planning, and there is a potential for elevated hunger.
2. Keto Diet: Keto diet, also known as the ketogenic diet, includes low carbohydrates (carbs) and high fats. It majorly replaces your carb intake with fats and puts your body in a ketosis state, where the body burns fat for energy.The keto diet excludes sugar, major fruits, wheat-based products, root veggies, alcohol, chips, grains and the like. Contrarily, it includes meat, eggs, healthy oils, almonds, avocados, poultry, berries, and the like.If planned and stuck to it properly, a keto diet shows evident weight loss results. However, it may also result in nutritional deficiency, food obsession, renal risks and can be difficult to sustain.
3. Intermittent Fasting: Although not a diet plan, intermittent fasting divides the body’s cycle into periods of fasting and eating. It is more of an eating pattern that controls when you eat your food rather than what you eat.
   There are different types of Intermittent Fasting like:
   • 16/8 Method: It involves fasting for 16 hours and eating only during the rest 8 hours. It includes eating healthy food items and excluding overeating of junk food.
   • Eat-stop-eat Method: This involves 24-hour fasting twice or thrice a week.
   • The 5:2 Method: During this diet, one has to eat five days and fast for the other two.
   • Alternate-Day Fasting: During this method, you fast every other day of the week.
   • The Warrior Diet: In the warrior diet, you eat small portions of vegetables and fruits during the day and eat one huge meal at night.

   You have to consult a specialist or a dietician to know which method is best for you.

4. Vegan Diet: It is a diet that restricts all animal products from the diet for several purposes. It excludes dairy products, eggs, animal-based meats and includes sweet potato, quinoa, beans, tomatoes, and the like.A Vegan Diet is a plant-based diet, and hence, it decreases the risk of heart diseases and diabetes. However, it also lacks some nutrients like vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium, iron, zinc, and the like.
5. Paleo Diet: It follows the concept of eating what our ancestors ate before the development of agriculture. It includes whole foods, vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts and lean proteins. Furthermore, it excludes sugar, processed foods, grains and dairy products.If planned and followed regularly, it can help in significant weight loss. It can also help reduce the risk of heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, insulin resistance, and the like.

In conclusion, each diet is different, and it is best to choose one based on your body. It is recommended that you talk to a specialist to pick a diet that is most suitable for you. It is important to note that no one diet might be perfect for all individuals. These diets have to be customised to the person.

Choosing a diet is not enough. Sticking to it and following it regularly can help you lose that stubborn fat. For this reason, it is best to ensure that the diet you pick is sustainable in the long run. And while dieting can be highly beneficial in losing weight, adding weight loss workouts to your routine may elevate your results.

All the diets are helpful, and stating which one is the best, is difficult. Therefore, choose a diet based on your BMI, weight loss goals and flexibility. Choosing a hard diet that you end up not following, will be a waste of time and effort.

If you find that you can’t lose weight by dieting and exercising, consult a specialist. There can be other factors causing obesity that require medical attention.

Ref. Links:

Botchlett R et al, Diet Composition for the Management of Obesity and Obesity-related Disorders. J Diabetes Mellit Metab Syndr. 2018;3:10-25.

Sacks FM et al, Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein,  and carbohydrates. N Engl J Med. 2009 Feb 26;360(9):859-73.

Freire R, Scientific evidence of diets for weight loss: Different macronutrient composition, intermittent fasting, and popular diets. Nutrition. 2020 Jan;69:110549.

Paoli A. Ketogenic diet for obesity: friend or foe? Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2014 Feb 19;11(2):2092-107