Your Search for the Magical Diet

There is always a new diet to try. And certainly, a new approach can bring hope if previous diets have not worked. When you hear about a new diet craze, does it excite you? Maybe this diet will be the one!

From years of experience with scientific research on nutrition and weight loss, I have some suspicions about what makes a diet truly magical. And by "magical," I mean the one that actually helps you lose a meaningful amount of weight without it bouncing right back. I offer you my thoughts on magical diets so that it may help you to simplify your search, and your life!

The broad conclusion of my scientific exploration of diets for weight loss is this: The magic of a diet is not in what you eat, when you eat, or how you eat. The diet that you can follow consistently to eat fewer calories is the magical one.

What should you eat?

The battle over what to eat has been mostly examined in regard to macronutrients. Does it help to avoid carbohydrates or fat, or to eat more protein? Clinical trials have tried nearly every combination of macronutrients to see what works best. What they always find is that there is very little difference between macronutrients. The main weight-loss effect comes from the reduction in calories!¹

This means that if you are excited about eating a low-carbohydrate, moderate-fat, and moderate-protein diet, it’s probably a perfectly fine way to lose weight. But if it’s not working out for you, that is not a reason to stress – other approaches can work also.

Does timing matter?

The most popular strategy to shift the time you eat is called intermittent fasting. The most popular protocol is to eat only during a short window, say 8 hours during the day, and fast for the rest of the day and night. Or maybe you fast every other day. Several studies have compared fasting to reducing food intake on a normal eating schedule, and they have found very few effects of meal timing for weight loss outcomes.²

If you are keen on fasting and find it simple, it’s a perfectly fine way of losing weight. But if it’s not working out, that too is not a reason to stress. Eating during normal times of the day works just as well!

So what diet should I follow?

You may be starting to piece together the puzzle about what makes a diet "magical." Many strategies can work, according to the clinical trials. Is there any such thing as 1 magical diet?

No. There is no 1 diet that will work best for everyone all the time. Every diet is simply a strategy to help reduce calorie intake in a sustainable way. If that way happens to be compatible with your preferences and lifestyle, then it will be magical for you!

What this means is, if you have followed a diet in the past and it has helped you lose weight, you may want to start there. Unless something major about your health or lifestyle has changed, it is likely to work again. As the saying goes, "If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it."

Just because you regained weight after a certain diet does not mean the diet didn’t work. If you have a tendency to gain weight, following a diet for a while doesn’t change that. If you stopped following a diet, it’s fair that the diet would stop working. But that does not mean it won’t start working again when you pick it back up.

Factoring in your preferences and lifestyle

This also means that if a new diet approach sounds appealing to you, there may be an important reason. It may be that it is in line with your dietary preferences. Or it may mean that it fits well into your lifestyle. In that case, as long as it is nutritionally sound and dietitian approved, give it a try!