The Most EFFECTIVE Diet In The World!

I feel inclined to write this based on something I saw on social media in the last few days.

A friend of mine posted about ‘the most effective diet she’s ever tried’, which immediately seemed to gain particular interest from a number of people.

This diet was apparently called ‘The Egg Diet’.

Here’s the breakdown of ‘The Egg Diet’:

Have two boiled eggs for breakfast with a citrus fruit.
For lunch have grilled chicken with salad and more fruit.
For dinner have two boiled eggs and salad again (you can rotate between lunch & dinner each day)
It’s VITAL to drink plenty of water
Avoid fast food
Avoid fizzy drinks
Avoid alcohol

In contrast, here’s a few key points I emphasise on in a 40 page nutrition guide I recently wrote for our members:

Eat lean protein with every meal (e.g. eggs, meat, poultry, fish) - Many people fail to consume enough protein. Protein can help to regulate insulin and blood sugar levels as well as improve recovery after training.
Drink plenty of water - Staying hydrated is a vital part of fat loss and many people are semi-dehydrated without realising it. Our bodies are 70% water and sufficient hydration is crucial to concentration, flushing toxins from the body, healthy cell function and every metabolic process, including fat loss. Aim to drink between 2-3 litres of water a day, or around 1 litre per 25kg of bodyweight.
Avoid sugary snacks and drinks - Many snacks and fizzy drinks contain obvious and not-so-obvious ‘simple’ sugars, which can affect your calorie intake and insulin levels throughout the day. These calories can add up quickly and stall fat loss - try and avoid snacks or foods containing simple and refined sugars (i.e. sweets, fizzy drinks, cakes, biscuits, etc.)
Reduce alcohol intake - Alcohol has a series of negative effects on fat loss and recovery. Alcohol is high in calories, which means many people over can over consume ‘liquid’ calories. Excessive alcohol consumption can also lower testosterone in males and also depress the central nervous system which will effect recovery and fat loss.
As a general rule I recommend restricting carb intake for post-workout meals (though this is entirely individual and depends entirely on INDIVIDUAL calorie requirement).

It doesn’t take the brains of a physicist to see a correlation here.

Back to ‘The Egg Diet’…

Here’s the truth: The Egg Diet (like most others) will fail and send you back to where you started. A bold statement I know. But one I’m entirely confident in.

Why?…

The Egg Diet is advertised as a short-term/quick fix approach to weight loss - I’ve already covered the negative impact and bullshit marketing of quick-fix diets in more detail in previous posts (‘The Diet Industry Is a Lie - Part 1’ and ‘The Diet Industry Is a Lie - Part 2’).
The Egg Diet doesn’t address the most basic and fundamental issue that affects nutrition: habit change. Effectively, even if you CAN adhere to this diet for 1-2 weeks (which by my reckoning is EXTREMELY difficult and frankly, very unhealthy), as soon as the diet finishes, people will generally revert straight back to the previous poor nutritional habits that caused them to want to lose weight in the first place. Weight will rapidly be replaced and we have therefore initiated a ‘yo-yo’ dieting cycle.
The diet relies on a ridiculous and unhealthy calorie restriction. By my calculation, a days intake falls around 680 calories. I’ll say that again - 680 calories is a RIDICULOUS and UNHEALTHY calorie restriction - guaranteed to leave you feeling crappy, lethargic and probably climbing the walls with psychotic/murderous tendencies within a few days.
All fat loss diets rely on a caloric deficit (consuming less calories than you burn) but there is a healthy way to do this for sustainable fat loss. This calorie restriction is ENTIRELY INDIVIDUAL to you and nobody else - there is no ‘one size fits all’ method. Which brings me to my next point…

I would generally reserve a daily intake of 680 calories for somebody with a body weight of 62lbs (28kg / 4.4 stone).

Now show me a single grown adult that falls into that bracket?…

Didn't think so.

On having a quick look at this diet online, the problems and associated issues become quickly evident. The explanation itself even states:

‘This is a low-calorie diet intended for fast weight loss. It is not meant for long-term weight loss. Your body needs calories for energy, and by depriving your body of nutrition for an extended time you can damage your body, weaken your metabolism, and increase your risk for various health conditions.’

Now, let me draw your attention to the following points I took from that…

‘This is a low-calorie diet intended for fast weight loss’…(‘it won’t last’)
‘It is not meant for long-term weight loss’…(‘this is actually really unhealthy and unsustainable and will make you feel like shit. It also won’t last’)
‘Your body needs calories for energy’…(‘forget the basics of energy balance, we’re going to impose a ridiculously unhealthy calorie restriction anyway’)
‘By depriving your body of nutrition for an extended time you can damage your body, weaken your metabolism, and increase your risk for various health conditions’…(‘that’s right folks - we’ve just blatantly told you this diet is unhealthy’)

On a side note: the website I took that exerpt from is called 'Family Health Freedom Network'. Suffice to say, I wouldn't entrust my families health to those monkeys.

Folks…eating lean protein with every meal, fresh fruit in moderation, drinking plenty of water, and implementing a sensible calorie restriction (in relation to your bodyweight and exercise output) doesn’t need to be peddled as an unsustainable ‘quick-fix’ or a short-term thing. This is otherwise known as ‘good nutrition’ or ‘common sense’, which can be applied and adhered to in the long term, to illicit healthy and consistent fat loss if the right approach is taken.

BUT…

The people who tend to search out these diets and quick-fixes do so because they FAIL to follow sound nutritional habits 90% of the time. They lean towards crash diets with extreme and unhealthy calorie restrictions, which last a couple of weeks before they’re feeling shitty and lethargic, which in turn, simply triggers a physiological response that leads to rapidly regaining weight.

Unfortunately, it seems people consistently reach for the bullshit approach with the snappy name and word ‘diet’ after it.

It seems common sense is so rare these days it’s practically a super power!

So…

Allow me to offer you The Most EFFECTIVE Diet In The World!

THE COMMON SENSE DIET!

It works as follows:

Maintain a healthy and sustainable caloric deficit that is individual for you
Eat nutritious food 3-5 times a day
Eat lean protein with every meal
Drink plenty of water
Reduce alcohol intake
Avoid sugary snacks and drinks
Stick to consuming whole foods
Avoid processed or convenience foods
Move more, or for much faster results, find a method of exercise which is proven to be more effective that incorporates functional movements, carried out at relative intensity and trains multiple energy systems - here’s a good place to start!

Do this 90% of the time and reap the following benefits:

Healthy and sustainable fat loss for the long term
The addition of flexible nutrition which allows you to eat the things you like, instead of loads of stuff you don’t
Not feeling hungry to the point where you become a physical threat to your partner or the public in general
No lethargy or energy crash. In fact coupled with effective exercise you’ll feel awesome, have more energy and be fitter, stronger and move better

Let me leave you with a few points:

The human body isn’t built for rapid weight loss. Weight that is very quickly lost is unhealthy and will very quickly be regained. Fact.
Losing body fat isn’t a two week fix. Weight isn’t gained in two weeks - it won’t be sustainably lost in two weeks. Fact.
Sustainable nutritional principles aren’t difficult to implement for the long term - it just takes the right approach.
I've said this before and I'll say it again - a diet that causes you to lose a any amount of bodyweight, but then regain it within a month, didn't 'work'. What it most likely did, was make you feel crap and cause you to lose lean muscle tissue - effectively SLOWING your metabolism and making it HARDER to lose body fat.

I appreciate that my approach is fairly direct and might not be everybody's thing. That’s fine. I don't sugar coat my words and I don't deal with what people want to hear. I deal with what people need to know.

But I also deal in integrity, sustainability and results.

Don’t believe the bullshit folks - there is no quick fix. But there is a right way which will make you leaner, fitter, stronger and healthier for life.

If you want more information on training, weight loss or nutrition, CLICK HERE to get in touch!