The top 5 trending diets are based around eating clean, healthy foods and avoiding processed foods.
Key Takeaways
The Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet can help you lose weight. It can help you lose up to 3 times as much weight as a regular calorie-restricted diet. The diet helps you manage your blood sugar levels and reduce your risk of developing heart problems.
The Paleo Diet
Healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocados help improve your skin, hair, nails, teeth, and mood and reduce stress. They also provide essential fatty acids necessary for normal growth and development. They also help lower cholesterol levels and reduce inflammation in the body.
The Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits and vegetables over meat and dairy products. It calls for eating mostly whole grains, legumes (such as beans), nuts and seeds, using olive oil instead of butter. The diet reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. It’s also linked to a longer life span.
The DASH diet
This is a healthy eating plan that’s based on the recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. It’s been shown to reduce blood pressure naturally over time, reducing your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.
The Volumetrics diet
It is a weight loss plan focusing on eating various foods, especially fruits and vegetables. The diet emphasizes the importance of choosing foods that are high in volume but low in calories and fat. The diet focuses on foods low in calories and high in fiber and water, both of which fill you up so that you don’t feel hungry between meals.
The Top 5 Trending Diets
If you’re looking for a diet that will help you lose weight fast, then the best thing is to avoid all those fad diets that promise quick results but don’t last long.
The Ketogenic Diet
The Ketogenic Diet is a way of eating high in fat, moderate in protein, and very low in carbohydrates. It’s called a ketogenic diet because it makes the body produce ketones from fat and protein that can be used for energy.
Ketosis is a natural metabolic state you enter when fasting or on a very low-carbohydrate diet. Intermittent fasting or keto-adapted dieting could be an effective strategy to help you maintain your weight loss, improve health, and feel better all around.
The Ketogenic Diet was designed to mimic the metabolic state of starvation. When you’re starving, the body uses fat reserves for energy because it can’t burn glucose (sugar) as fast as it needs to keep the body running normally. When no more reserves are left, the body will start to burn fat instead of glucose for energy. This is known as “fat-burning mode” or ketosis, resulting in weight loss and better overall health.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of research into the effects of carbohydrate restriction on health outcomes like weight loss and type 2 diabetes reversal. There are also many anecdotal reports from people who have lost weight on
The Keto Diet is an extremely low-carb diet. Your body burns fat as its main source of energy instead of carbohydrates. It also helps with losing belly fat quickly because it reduces hunger pangs by keeping blood sugar levels stable. The ketogenic diet has been used to treat epilepsy since the 1920s. It was first approved for use on children in 1963.
Ketogenic diets work through different mechanisms from normal diets:
- They raise insulin thresholds, which inhibit glucose uptake into cells;
- They cause a shift away from carbohydrate metabolism toward fatty acid oxidation; and
- They can increase free fatty acid concentrations within cells, thus raising their calcium concentration.
It’s high in fat and low in carbs.
The ketogenic diet is very high in fat and low in carbs. It’s also a low-carb high-fat (LCHF) way of eating. There are several versions of this diet, but all of them involve eating lots of fat and a few carbs. In some cases, protein may be restricted too.
There are two types of ketogenic diets:
Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is what most people mean when they talk about the ketogenic diet, because it’s the most common type. It involves consuming 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate daily.
Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This type involves periods of higher carbohydrate consumption followed by strict low-carb days. Bodybuilders often use it to lose fat while maintaining muscle mass.
Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This type involves adding carbs around workouts to help you perform at your best.
The standard ketogenic diet is what most people mean when they say “keto”. It’s a high-fat, low-carb way of eating that has led to weight loss and improved health outcomes.
Keto diet foods
When following a ketogenic diet, you need to eat mostly fat, moderate protein, and very few carbs. Fat should make up about 75% of your total calories, protein about 20%, and carbs about 5%. Here are some examples of what you can eat:
- Fatty cuts of meat
- Full-fat dairy products.
- Nuts and seeds.
- Avocados
- Oils (like olive oil and coconut oil)
If you’re not sure how many calories you should be eating, start by following these guidelines:
- For fat, multiply your body weight in pounds by 0.45.
- For protein, multiply your body weight in pounds by 0.36.
- For carbs, multiply your body weight in pounds by 0.12.
Health Benefits of the Keto Diet
Weight loss: The ketogenic diet is effective at helping you lose weight. In one study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found that overweight people who followed the plan lost 2 to 3 times as much weight as those who followed a normal low-calorie diet.
Heart health: The ketogenic diet helps reduce bad cholesterol and triglycerides and raises good cholesterol levels. These changes can reduce your risk of heart disease by lowering your blood pressure and improving circulation throughout your body.
Blood sugar control: Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose molecules for energy use; when carbohydrates are limited or eliminated from your daily diet, your body turns to fat for fuel instead of glucose. This process produces ketones in the liver for use as energy instead of glucose, which improves insulin sensitivity and reduces insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes.
The Paleo Diet
The Paleo diet, or paleolithic diet, is a nutritional plan based on foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans during the Paleolithic era. The diet avoids foods that are not easily digestible by humans, such as dairy products and grains. The diet also excludes processed foods, refined sugar, and trans fats. Proponents of the diet recommend that it be used in conjunction with regular exercise to maintain healthy weight loss and optimal health.
The Paleo diet has been criticized for lacking scientific evidence to support its claims. Critics also argue that following this diet may lead to nutrient deficiencies and a lack of fiber intake.
Proponents of the paleo diet claim that it aids in weight loss and overall health by eliminating processed foods from your diet. They also claim that it helps stabilize blood sugar levels and increases energy levels due to its high protein content.
The Paleo Diet encourages you to eat natural foods that are free from additives or preservatives and those that do not include genetically modified organisms (GMOs). You can eat meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts while avoiding grains and legumes such as corn, wheat, or soybeans. You should also avoid dairy products such as milk and cheese, but you can still have yogurt if you choose to do so because it contains live and active cultures.
The Paleo Diet allows you to eat three meals per day, or more if you are hungry. Each meal should consist of a protein source, a healthy fat source, and vegetables. You can also have snacks throughout the day if you feel the need to do so.
There are two types of the paleo diet.
1. Ancestral Diet- This Paleo diet focuses on eating only foods available in the Paleolithic era. It’s all about eating whole foods like fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, lean meats, and seafood. The idea behind this diet is to avoid all processed foods because they don’t exist in nature. Dr. Loren Cordain popularized this paleo diet in his book The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat (2002).
2. Primal Diet- This Paleo diet focuses on eating only wild plants and animals instead of domesticated ones like cows, chickens, and pigs, as well as avoiding grains, legumes, and dairy products completely from your meal plan altogether! In his book The Primal Blueprint, Mark Sisson popularized this paleo-no-carb diet: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy (2009).
Paleo Diet Foods
Meat: Meat is an essential part of any paleo diet as it provides protein and B vitamins, which are essential for the proper functioning of your body. Meat can be consumed in any form, but it is important to opt for lean cuts as they are less fatty than other cuts. You should choose organic meat as it does not have any antibiotics or hormones added, making it healthier for consumption than non-organic meat products.
Seafood: Seafood like fish and shellfish contains omega 3 fatty acids, which help fight off depression and improve brain function by increasing blood flow. Seafood is also a good source of protein and B vitamins. It is important to choose wild-caught seafood over farm-raised as they are usually given antibiotics and other chemicals that make them less healthy for consumption.
Fruits and Vegetables: Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. They help boost your immune system, improve digestion, and prevent various chronic diseases.
Nuts and Seeds: Nuts and seeds are a good source of healthy fats, protein, and fiber. They help keep you full for longer and regulate blood sugar levels.
Healthy Fats: Healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil help improve your cholesterol levels.
Health Benefits of the Paleo Diet
1. Weight Loss: The Paleo diet is a high protein, low carbohydrate diet that has been proven to help with weight loss. When you eat fewer carbs, your body is forced to burn fat for energy, which leads to weight loss.
2. Increased Energy Levels: The Paleo diet is also a high-protein diet, which means you will have more energy since protein is essential for cell growth and repair.
3. Improved Digestion: Since the Paleo diet consists of whole, unprocessed foods, your digestive system will easily break down and absorb the nutrients from these foods. This can lead to better overall digestion and improved gut health.
4. Lower Risk of Disease: The Paleo diet has lowered the risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases. This is likely because the paleo diet eliminates processed foods from your diet, which are known to be detrimental to health.
5. Improved mental clarity: Studies have shown that the paleo diet can improve cognitive function and mental clarity due to its high intake of healthy fats and nutrients.
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional eating habits of people from Greece, Southern Italy, and Spain. It includes vegetables, fruit, grains, and beans; fish and seafood; olive oil; nuts; legumes and other plant-based foods; red wine in moderation; dairy products such as cheese and yogurt in moderation; meat and poultry in small amounts; sweets are consumed in small amounts; snacks are limited to fresh fruit or vegetables.
The Mediterranean diet is not a specific weight loss plan but a healthy way of eating that can be followed for life. It is high in fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and K, folate, potassium, and other minerals. It also contains less sodium than most diets, which helps lower blood pressure.
The Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease because it contains high omega-3 fatty acids that reduce inflammation in the blood vessels. It also lowers blood sugar levels by reducing insulin resistance.
This diet reduces symptoms of diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels while increasing insulin sensitivity.
The Mediterranean diet type
There are different variations in the Mediterranean diet. The traditional Greek diet is high in potatoes, olives, and extra virgin olive oil, while the traditional Italian diet has more pasta than bread. And while all three diets include plenty of fruits and vegetables each day, they vary somewhat in the amounts of meat products consumed (fish versus poultry versus red meat) or dairy products used (cheese versus yogurt).
Mediterranean Diet Foods
- fruits and veggies.
- Fish. Eat the fat ones too.
- Grains, beans, olive oil. Use butter sparingly, if any.
- Grains Examples of grain choices include brown rice, quinoa, oats, barley, millet, buckwheat, amaranth, teff, spelt, farro, bulgur wheat, couscous, cornmeal, polenta, rye flour, sorghum, triticale, and wheat berries.
- Legumes. Fish twice per week.
- whole grains daily.
- vegetables every day.
- Fruit once or twice weekly.
Healthy oils
Healthy oils include olive oil, avocado oil, flaxseed oil, walnut oil, almond oil, hazelnut oil, sesame seed oil, sunflower seed oil, pumpkin seed oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, coconut oil, butter, cheese, yogurt, milk, cream, mayonnaise, and salad dressing.
Nuts and seeds.
Nuts and seeds should make up about 10% of daily calories eaten. They contain essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, and phytochemicals. Some nuts and seeds include almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pistachios, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, tahini, and walnuts.
Olive Oil.
Olive oil contains monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, polyphenols, and other nutrients. Use extra virgin olive oil when possible.
Cheese.
Cheese provides calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, selenium, iodine, riboflavin, B12, pantothenic acid, biotin, choline, lutein, lycopene, beta-carotene, and many more important nutrients.
Health Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet
A study by Harvard researchers showed that people who ate more than four servings of vegetables or two servings of fruit per day had lower rates of heart disease than those who ate less than one serving per day. The study also found that people who ate at least seven servings per week had a lower risk of stroke than those who ate less than three servings per week.
A lowered risk of type 2 diabetes: Eating more fresh produce may help prevent type 2 diabetes. A study published in Diabetes Care found that women who ate more than five servings per week were less likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than women who ate fewer than two servings per week.
A lowered risk of cancer: A diet rich in fruits and vegetables has been linked to a reduced risk of various types of cancer, including ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, throat cancer, mouth cancer, stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer.
A healthier weight: The Mediterranean diet is proven to lose and keep weight off. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that people who followed this diet lost more weight than those who followed a low-fat diet.
A longer life: The Mediterranean diet has been linked to a longer life expectancy. Studies have shown that people who follow this diet have a lower risk of dying from heart problems.
The DASH Diet
The DASH Diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, is a diet designed to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods. It also stresses whole grains, lean meats, and fish or poultry without skin.
The DASH diet has been studied by researchers at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in conjunction with other studies on hypertension. The study showed that the diet can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels when followed strictly.
The DASH diet was developed by a team of researchers led by Dr. Lawrence J. Appel of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. It was based on three earlier diets:
The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial compared four diets that were high in nutrients thought to be essential for preventing hypertension and lowering blood cholesterol levels: A control group following the American Heart Association (AHA) Dietary Guidelines; an AHA diet rich in fruits and vegetables with reduced amounts of saturated fat; a Mediterranean-style diet enriched with nuts and olive oil; and lastly, a low-fat diet similar to the AHA guidelines but with less sodium intake.
DASH Diet Foods
All fresh or frozen vegetables without added fats or sugars; canned vegetables without added salt; dried beans or peas without added fats or sugars; 100 percent fruit juices without added sugars; watermelon (ripe).
Lean meats: Fish, poultry, and lean meats provide protein while keeping calories low. Protein helps keep you feeling full longer than carbs or fat, so it’s important to have enough of it at each meal.
Whole grains: Whole grains are full of fiber and other nutrients to help lower blood pressure. For example, oats contain beta-glucan fibers that may reduce cholesterol levels when eaten regularly over time. Other whole grains include brown rice, barley, quinoa, buckwheat groats (kasha), and bulgur wheat (cracked wheat).
Health Benefits of the DASH Diet
The DASH diet has been studied in several research studies to determine its effectiveness in lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol levels, and losing weight. Research shows that this eating plan can help people prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering blood pressure and improving blood cholesterol levels.
The main goal of the DASH diet is to promote overall health by lowering blood pressure, reducing bad “LDL” cholesterol, and increasing good “HDL” cholesterol levels in your body through changes in your diet. Nutrition experts developed the plan at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The Volumetrics Diet
The concept behind this diet approach is to focus on eating foods high in water and fiber but low in calories. Doing this will make you feel fuller for longer periods and less likely to overeat. Foods that are high in water include fruits and vegetables, whole foods that are high in fiber include whole grains, beans, lentils, and nuts.
The Volumetrics diet also encourages eating more slowly and chewing your food thoroughly so as to avoid overeating. The idea is to eat until you are satisfied but not full, so there’s no risk of overeating or feeling uncomfortably full after a meal.
A key component of the Volumetrics diet is portion control—measuring out foods before you eat them to ensure you’re getting the right amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats each day without overdoing it.
Phases of Volumetric Diet
Phase 1: Rapid Weight Loss – This phase lasts two weeks and includes six daily meals. The meals are low in calories but high in volume, which helps you lose weight quickly. Each meal contains about 300 calories, although some meals may have fewer than 300 calories. You should stick to Phase 1 for two weeks before moving to Phase 2.
Phase 2: Ongoing Weight Loss – During Phase 2 you can transition into a regular eating pattern with three meals and two snacks daily. Each meal should contain under 500 calories while snacks should be under 200 calories each. You should continue with Phase 2 until you reach your desired weight or until you reach your goal date (e.g., birthday) then move on to Phase 3.
Phase 3: Maintain Your Weight – In this phase, you adjust your eating patterns to four meals per day with two snacks. Meals should have 500-600 calories each, while snacks should have 200-250 calories each. You will stay in this phase for as long as you need to to maintain your desired weight.
Volumetrics Diet Foods
Vegetables: Some vegetables are better than others at filling you up. For example, tomatoes are high in fiber and water content, which can help you feel full longer. Vegetables also tend to be lower in calories and fat than other foods like meat or cheese.
Fruits: Fruits are another good source of fiber and water content for those trying to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight range. They’re also rich in vitamins and antioxidants which may have health benefits beyond just helping you feel full longer after meals.
Whole grains: contain complex carbohydrates that take longer for your body to digest, which can help you feel full for longer periods. They also tend to be high in fiber and other nutrients like magnesium, linked with health benefits such as lowering blood pressure.
Beans and legumes are another good source of fiber and protein, which can help with weight management. They’re also lower in calories and fat than other protein sources like meat.
Soups are a great way to get in extra vegetables and whole grains while feeling fuller for longer periods.
Volumetric Diet Has Volumetric Health Benefits
The Volumetrics diet is based on the idea that you can eat more and still lose weight. It’s a low-calorie diet (1,200 calories per day), but it focuses on “high satiety” foods—those high in fiber and water content—to help you feel full while eating less.
The diet focuses on foods that contain a lot of water or fiber, which helps you feel full while eating less. These include fruits and vegetables, beans, lentils, brown rice, and oatmeal.
According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who followed the Volumetrics program lost an average of 5 pounds after two weeks. Those who followed a low-calorie diet lost only half that amount.
Top Trending Diets
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