The Weight Loss Diet market is buzzing with myriad of diet types with a new diet type being devised every other month. And why just weight loss, there’s a diet available for weight gain, for weight maintenance, for hair fall, for strength and stamina, for vitality, for detoxification and what not …..
Following a diet type has become more of a trend rather than a lifestyle. Well, whereas there’s nothing wrong in adopting a specific way of consuming food for a specific reason, it is important that we focus on taking a balanced diet that truly nourishes our body and adopt it as a way of life for longterm effects.
With so many easy and fancy diet food and diet plan options available online and offline, it actually becomes really difficult to choose a diet that completely fulfils our requirements. A good way to be sure of what would suit you is to do a little research on yourself like finding your Body Type, any medical conditions you suffer from, any allergies you have and finally, understanding the Benefits and Side Effects of any diet regime in general.
So let’s ponder on some of the trendy diet types available, have a look on their good and the bad, to understand if we can choose them for us.
Here’s our list :
1. Vegetarian Diet
This diet type incudes grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. So basically, it does not have any meat item in it. There are some variations in it :
- The Lacto Vegetarian Diet – It includes dairy products with vegetarian food and no meat or egg.
- The Ovo-lacto Vegetarian Diet – This includes eggs as well, with dairy and vegetarian food.
Benefits:
- The Vegetarian Diet type helps to lower down Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure thus preventing Obesity, Heart Diseases, Cancers and Diabetes.
- This diet is great for the tummy as it comes with a diverse range of good bacteria that are good for the Digestive system and Strengthen Body’s Immunity.
- You are what you eat and that shows on your face. This diet type give a lot of glow to the skin that most of us have always wanted.
Side Effects:
- It can come across as a Protein Deficient diet type not because plant foods have lesser proteins (Infact they are very good protein sources) but because people get very choosy when it comes to eating vegetables, fruits, legumes etc.
- Nutrient deficiencies like that of Iron, Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D could be an issue.
- The fibre in plant based foods can lead to Gastric Problems.
- Mindful eating is important since one might end up eating refined grain foods, products with excessive sugar and fats that might still increase their cholesterol levels.
2. Vegan Diet
The Vegan Diet is strictly plants based, not even dairy or eggs are included. All animal based products are avoided including honey, beer, wine, bakery items etc.
The Benefits and Side Effects are same as the Vegetarian Diet.
3. Non-Vegetarian Diet
The Non-Vegetarian Diet type involves consumption of meat like white meat, red meat or sea food, which serves as the major source of protein.
Benefits:
- It’s a nutrient rich diet type – there’s Protein, Iron, Vitamin B-12 – which one does not get through vegetarian diet. Apart from this, other B-Vitamins, minerals like Zinc, Selenium are available aplenty.
- Calcium is available in much higher amounts as compared to vegetarian diet.
Side Effects:
- Higher consumption of red meat in particular, can lead to High Blood Pressure & other heart diseases.
- It can upset digestive system thus leading to Constipation, Acid Reflux etc because of it’s high protein content.
- It can lead to Obesity.
4. Keto Diet
The Keto Diet type is a low carb diet. Here, the emphasis is on minimising the consumption of carbohydrates and substituting that with fat and definitely some protein.
When there’s a drastic reduction in carbs intake, the body gets into Ketosis, a stage where the body’s energy demands are fulfilled by burning of the body’s fat reserves, thus helping in weight loss. The carbohydrate intake can be as low as 20gm each day.
It is always recommended that one starts the diet under an expert’s supervision.
Benefits:
- It helps to reduce the risk of heart related diseases as it improves the Good Cholesterol Levels or HDL.
- Along with weight loss, it also aids in treatment of various medical conditions like Diabetes, Obesity, Cancers, Migraines, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.
- It makes one feel really energetic throughout the day.
- The diet is Anti-Inflammatory and good for the Digestive System.
Side Effects:
- This diet type is somewhat difficult to follow since carbohydrates form an impressive part of our daily food routine and as such, there are cravings which become difficult to resist for most.
- It causes dehydration that leads to Headache, Dizziness and Fatigue.
- It leads to nutrient deficiencies in the body.
- The diet requires to eliminate many food varieties that are fibre rich thus leading to constipation.
- Kidney stones or damage due to increased nitrogen levels as a result of increased protein intake.
- It can cause muscle loss.
5. Atkins Diet
This is another low carb diet type but is lesser restrictive as compared to the Keto diet. However, the basic concept of Ketosis and using body’s fat instead of carbohydrates for energy generation continues to be the same.
It differs from the Keto Diet in the way the carbohydrates are eaten. In Keto diet, the carb content stays constant throughout the tenure of the dieting program whereas in Atkins, the carbs are added/ increased phase by phase until one’s weight goal is achieved.
Benefits:
- More fat means a good intake of Good fats and Bad fats. So, one must ensure to take more of HDL (good fat) so that there can be a lesser risk of heart diseases.
- One feels more active physically and mentally.
- The diet is Anti-Inflammatory and good for the Digestive System.
- It may help in slowing down the tumour growth in prostate, brain, lung and gastric cancers.
Side Effects:
- Nutrient Deficiency can be an issue.
- Kidney stones or damage due to increased nitrogen levels as a result of increased protein intake.
- It causes dehydration that leads to Headache, Dizziness and fatigue.
- The diet requires to eliminate many food varieties that are fibre rich thus leading to constipation.
- Like Keto, it’s restrictive, so one might have food cravings and hunger pangs.
- Weight regain once the diet is stopped or as carbohydrate content is increased.
6. Zone Diet
This diet type is one more addition to the list of low carb diets. In zone diet, a certain amount of protein, carbohydrates and fat is recommended to be taken in every meal and the entire food intake for a day needs to be divided into 5-6 meals.
It’s a versatile diet that can be followed for a life time as it covers the basic nutrient (carbohydrates, protein & fat) requirement of the body.
Benefits:
- This diet type is not very restrictive as other low carb diets and promotes balanced eating habits.
- Causes rapid weight loss.
- One can include lots of fruits and vegetables as part of diet.
- Refined carbohydrate cravings get reduced overtime.
- It is anti-inflammatory, protects against heart diseases, Diabetes etc.
- It makes one more active physically and mentally.
Side Effects:
- It gets time consuming to figure out portions and plan overall meals.
- It can be an expensive diet type to follow.
- If not taken proper care of then rapid weight loss is followed by rapid weight gain.
- It can still cause nutrient deficiencies.
7. Mediterranean Diet
This is a diet type adapted from the countries which are near the Mediterranean sea. It includes fish, nuts, beans, grains, cereals, fruits, vegetables, unsaturated fats such as olive and canola oil and low intake of dairy products and meat.
Benefits:
- It’s low in processed foods and sugar. Hence, helps to lose weight in a healthy way.
- It prevents a number of life threatening diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, cancers, depression, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease etc .
- Improves body’s immunity and makes one more active.
- It’s a merry diet wherein one eats everything but in controlled proportions.
Side Effects:
- It might not be an option for everyone since it encourages eating everything in moderation which might not be suited for all.
- It does not quantify any food proportions so, people looking for measurements and numbers would be disappointed.
- It’s not a cost effective diet option.
8. Raw Food Diet
As the name suggests, this diet type includes mostly or completely raw food items or those that haven’t been cooked above 48°C. It includes plant based food items like fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. It can also include raw dairy products and eggs.
Benefits:
- One gets to eat undiluted, unharmed nutrients from the foods. Cooking actually destroys many heat sensitive nutrients in the food.
- Raw foods are alkalising.
- It reduces the consumption of processed food.
- This diet type is anti-inflammatory as well and cuts down on the risk of heart diseases, blood pressure, cancers, diabetes etc.
Side Effects:
- Fulfilling body’s protein needs might become a challenge.
- Not just proteins, there can be other nutrient deficiencies as well
- Raw food is hard on the digestive system.
- All uncooked foods are not healthy. Hence, one should do a thorough information check before making a decision.
9. GM Diet
The GM diet type is purely based on calculating the total calories consumed in a day. It involves following a 7 day plan where in one can eat certain groups of foods which are very low in calories. This results in a person burning more calories than what is consumed.
Benefits:
- It’s a diet plan purely based on fruits and vegetables with fewer calories which create a calorie deficit and speed up the process of weight loss.
- This diet restricts all the items that trigger weight gain, which again helps in faster weight loss.
- Gives quick results – 3 to 5 kgs of weight can be easily shed in a week.
- It gives the digestive system a break and strengthens it.
Side Effects:
- This diet type lacks important nutrients and is not well balanced.
- Weight loss is temporary, as soon as the usual diet is resumed, there’s weight regain.
- It’s not a diet that’s suited for all and can be beneficial in the long run.
- It gets very restrictive.
- Nutrient deficiencies could be a big reason for concern.
Hope the list gave you the needed insight and clarity. If you have any queries, do leave them in the comments below and we will get back to you at the earliest.
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