Dieting. It’s easily one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions. However, many health experts say, when it comes to "going on a diet," most people go about it all wrong.
We decided to look into some of the most popular diets out there, explain them-and have two health experts weigh in on them.
We started with the Atkins diet. This by far one of the most long standing and popular diets. it requires you to significantly lower your intake of carbs. The problem according to many experts is most people take it to the extreme and completely cut out carbs.
Jarett Nobles is a personal trainer at Trophy Fitness in Dallas. He is certified by the National Association of Sports Medicine. "Cutting carbs all the all the way is where a lot of people fall into trouble," said Nobles. "You have the instant success of pulling carbs, so you lose weight, but then there are the cons," he said. "Your body is constantly running on nothing . There are a lot of health risks with no carbohydrates, hormonal damage can show up and that’s going to slow your metabolism more."
The gluten free diet has picked up a lot of steam in recent years. NASM certified trainer Elisa Jacobo is the lead trainer at Trophy Fitness. "The craze is, if I stop eating glueten and breads, I’ll lose weight,” she said.
According to Jacobo, the gluten free diet is great for people who have gluten allergies or celiac disease, but leaves something to be desired for most others. "Everyone just started saying, 'oh, well when I stopped eating bread, I felt better,' well, a lot of times, it’s not about the bread, its about what you put on the bread.”
Her final verdict, many who try the gluten free diet end up cutting carbs, which cuts energy, which forces your body to take from your muscles, slowing your metabolism. She also said, it’s an expensive diet to maintain.
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The Paleo diet is also very popular among people who do crossfit training. It’s referred to as the cave man’s diet. Nobles said, the trouble with the Paleo Diet is, it eliminates food groups, which in the long term can leave your body lacking certain nutrients, which he says can be dangerous and unsustainable.
"A lot of times, the issue with that is, you start running into eliminating nutrients, like vitamins, and we start losing some of those, and fibers, and that is going to ultimately have the health concerns on the back end of it," he said.
Juicing is also a popular diet for people trying to lose weight. Jacobo says, similar to other diets, it definitely has its merits. It’s when people take it to the extreme, like living exclusively on juices for long periods of time, that things can go wrong. According to Jacobo, "Your body is constantly in survival mode, so the more you deprive it of what it needs, the more you’re harming it.”
On diets in general, Jacobo says, "Our body will look for the route of least resistance, so it’s going to hold on to fat if you try to deprive it of fat, because it’s protecting the organs.”
Both Jacobo and Nobles agree, if you’re going into the new year with hopes of health and sustained weight loss, the best moves you can do right now are drink lots of water, get lots of sleep, eat a balanced diet, and don’t be afraid to reach out to a trainer or other health expert for a consultation. You might be closer to your goals than you think.
According to Nobles and Jacobo.
Biggest Mistakes men make when it comes to building muscle and losing weight according to Jarett Nobles
"Guys tend to focus in on one or two body parts and hammer it out. To actually increase your hormones and stimulate muscle growth and fat burn, you need to train your whole body, and you need to actually feed it. Since men have a higher
muscle content, we want to make sure that your proteins are up, along with your healthy fats from red meats, mono unsaturated fats from avocados and nuts, that will optimize your cholesterol and testosterone levels and really keep your
body functioning on all levels".
Biggest Mistakes women make when it comes to weight loss according to Elisa Jacobo
"Women need more calcium and we need more fat. We naturally have that in our bodies, so when we cut those out, our bodies go into shock. Women need to lift weights and take in protein. Protein gives us better skin, hair, and we need
those fats to get the proteins to where they need to go."
"Cutting things out of your diet to lose weight is going to be more harmful in the long run, so you might lose a ton of water and cut a lot of muscle off, but your muscle is what keeps your metabolism going. I think women have this idea
that if they take their calories down to nearly nothing, physically they’re doing themselves good, but you’re actually going in the opposite direction. Women have to be more accountable to what their bodies need."
