The Best Diet For...

“No one wants to hear about your diet. Just eat your salad and be sad".” … anyone else resonate with this?

When it comes to losing weight, gaining weight, or building muscle, it’s hard to decipher which diet is best for you. Between the Keto diet, eating Paleo, doing low-carb and high-protein, or implementing the anti-inflammatory diet or vegetarian/vegan diet, there’s a lot of choices out there!

Want to know the big secret? These one-size-fits-all diets do NOT fit all. At the end of the day, the way you eat and what you eat has to support YOUR body, YOUR movement, and YOUR health and fitness goals. And many of these diets listed above were developed for completely different bodies and goals.

For example, if you’re doing Keto, and you’re expecting to have the energy to complete intense and/or endurance workouts, this may not be the best diet for you.

Tacos.jpg

In general, below are some good guidelines for navigating diets, supporting your training schedule, and losing weight.

GOAL: Reduce body fat, build lean/bigger muscles

  • RECOMMENDED DIET: Lower carb, lower fat, higher protein

  • RECOMMENDED MOVEMENT: Strength training/weight lifting and HIIT cardio

  • RATIONALE: Higher protein supports muscle growth and helps with satiety, and since resistance training with some cardio is out method, less carbs are needed.

GOAL: Support intense training schedule for endurance sports/activities

  • RECOMMENDED DIET: Higher carb, moderate fat, moderate protein

  • RECOMMENDED MOVEMENT: Cardio and endurance workouts, and muscle maintenance to support training

  • RATIONALE: Your body needs more carbs for higher-energy activities and longer workouts. Protein isn’t as high because your focus isn’t muscle building, but rather, muscle maintenance.

GOAL: Reduce body fat (that’s it)

  • RECOMMENDED DIET: Multiple options here, but a higher fat, lower carb, moderate protein diet could work for you

  • RECOMMENDED MOVEMENT: Light to moderate exercise

  • RATIONALE: Your body won’t have the carbs and protein it needs to build muscle, support longer workouts. or power a high-cardio lifestyle, but that’s your goal. I still recommend building muscle as a tactic for weight loss, as it’s most effective and helps in the long run.

GOAL: Reduce pain and inflammation

  • RECOMMENDED DIET: Anti-inflammatory and/or vegetarian/vegan diet

  • RECOMMENDED MOVEMENT: Low-intensity, body weight (think yoga), and steady-state exercise (like walking), light weight training and cardio

  • RATIONALE: Reduce inflammation and heal

While the above represents a great summary for general guidelines, I hate to tell you, but it also “all depends.” It depends on other health conditions, such as diabetes, PCOS, food allergies, etc., so this could all change. Talk with a coach or nutritionist to determine what’s best for you and your goals!

Until next time,

XoXo Peri