This article will acknowledge the fact that there are so many different diets claiming to be the ultimate for both weight loss and health improvement. I am not talking about fad diets. I am talking about diets where you consume only natural, whole foods, preferably organic, with at least some science to prove the underlying theory. All these different diets have been discussed in our articles before.

“It’s not a short term diet. It’s a long term lifestyle change”

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The proponents of these very different diets are very dogmatic and critical of the others. It also has stringent and restricting rules to follow. The only thing all has in common is the claim that their specific diet is the only way to achieve weight and health goals. And these claims are accompanied by many real testimonials as proof.

The aim of this article is not to go into depth into these diets again, but rather to compare them and the underlying mechanisms. It should give you guidance as to which diet will best serve you in your attempt to live your best life.

The diets discussed will be the vegan diet, ketogenic diet, the balanced diet, and fasting.

• The vegan diet has been proven over and over to successfully help people lose weight and get healthy. These are the reasons why:

  • Plant-based diets generally have much fewer calories compared to the ketogenic food which is higher in fat.

  • Plant material also moves much quicker through the gastrointestinal system due to the high fiber content. Fiber also fights insulin resistance. These two factors will promote both weight loss and health.

  • The phytochemicals in plants are very healing because it protects against cell damage, it repairs cell damage and also promotes cell death where damage is irreversible. Furthermore, it has the ability to cut off blood flow to tumors to strain their development.

• • Many people who wanted to lose weight and get healthy following the ketogenic diet, realize to their surprise that they could eat as much cheese and eggs, and all the fatty meat we were taught will kill us; provided they have very limited sugar intake. The reasons for this are:

    • The theory behind this diet is that in the absence of sugar there is a decrease in the secretion of insulin.

      • Because insulin is a fat-storage promotor, fat now gets used up and not stored. As a side benefit, you could also see your cholesterol go down.

      • Insulin also drives inflammation; thus, aches and pains diminish.

      • Another problem with too much insulin is water retention which leads to high blood pressure. On the ketogenic diet, blood pressure should normalize.

    • Because fruit and some vegetables contain so many carbohydrates (which break down into sugar), consuming too much of these might counteract the effect of the ketogenic diet.

• These two very different mechanisms by which the vegan and ketogenic diets work, make it challenging to combine the two to achieve the same result. So the question becomes, is it possible to lose weight on a balanced diet, including all animal products, fruits, and vegetables? The answer must be yes; as the oldest modern-day example of this is the Weight Watchers movement which started in America and spread through the world in the seventies and eighties. Although we could easily find thousands of people who successfully lost weight on this program, statistics will show most of them gained it all back. It seems to me that with a balanced diet, it is critical to determine the number of calories you should consume each day and stick to it.

• Cutting calories will always help to reach weight goals faster, while too many calories will cause the opposite. The critical number of calories to be successful in any diet will differ from person to person. While it is challenging to come up with an exact formula for each individual, it is easy to determine. While you lose weight, you eat little enough, and when you stop losing weight, the opposite is true. When you start gaining weight, you must know to plan your diet differently. You must either follow the guidelines of the diet more closely or cut more on your calories. You could even consider intermittent or extended fasts. It is hugely successful for both weight loss and health.