Almost everybody has tried dieting at least once in their life. There are hundreds of different diets out there, and each one boasts a large following of people who swear it’s the reason they lost weight, but there can be more than one way to reach your goals. The following is a list of a few popular diets right now. It includes what’s good about them and what isn’t.

High-Fat Low-Carb

This is a diet that consists of limiting the amount of carbohydrates you eat in your diet, sometimes limiting it to almost nothing, while keeping fats very high. By doing this, your body will run out of glycogen stored in the muscles and liver and be forced to burn fat in the form of ketones for fuel.

PROS:

• Lower carbs force the body to produce ketones from fat to use as energy
• Has proven to be successful for many people
• The brain and other organs prefer ketones as a source of energy

CONS:

• With a lack of glycogen in the body, it takes longer for your body to convert fat into energy, which can lead to sluggishness and fatigue
• Because fat has more calories per gram than carbohydrates or protein, it can be easier to accidentally eat too many calories on a high-fat diet

Paleo

Paleo is a newer diet, popular especially in the Crossfit community. It can be viewed as another form of a high-fat low-carb diet with an emphasis on eating animal meats, vegetables and eating a high amount of protein.

PROS:

• Strong benefit from eating food that is less processed
• High in protein and provides enough energy for a workout
• Paleo food brands starting to become popular

CONS

• No dairy, or vitamin-rich legumes
• Excessive amounts of red meat has been shown to be unhealthy for some
• Looking at remains from the Paleolithic era, skeletons show large nutrient deficiencies. They were far from healthy.

Carb-Backloading

Carb-backloading is a newer diet geared toward people who exercise frequently. Carb-backloading is the tactic of eating all of the carbohydrates in your diet right after your workout. Proponents of this diet point to some scientific evidence that shows that certain transporters within the body are activated by exercise, and glucose from the carbohydrates consumed post-exercise will be preferentially deposited into muscle cells and not fat.

PROS:

• Allowed to eat a higher amount of carbs, some even advocate consuming higher glycemic carbs before bed to have a shorter but higher insulin spike
• Diet is simple and provides lots of energy

CONS:

• The science behind Carb-Backloading still isn’t well understood, and more studies need to be done to confirm the benefits.

Slow Carb Diet

This is a diet popularized by Tim Ferris, who wrote a best-selling book about getting in shape by doing the minimum amount of work to achieve maximum results: "The 4-Hour Body."

PROS:

• Some carbs are allowed
• No calorie counting
• Good balance between a few of the diets above

CONS:

• It may be hard for some people to stay away from starches, which you can’t have in this diet
• No dairy

If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM)

If it fits your macros (IIFYM) is a very popular diet right now, especially in the fitness community. In this diet, each of the three macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbs) are given a percentage of the total calorie intake. As long as these percentages are met, regardless of the source they come from, you are sticking to your diet.

PROS:

• Simple and easy to follow
• Good for beginners just starting to lose weight

CONS:

• Ignores the source of the macronutrients in the diet
• Processed foods are treated the same way whole foods are treated
• This higher amount of processed food can be unhealthy

These are just a handful of diets that are out there and are geared toward people in the fitness community. Each one has its benefits and faults. The most important thing to get from this article is to pick a diet that works the best for you and stick with it. Losing weight doesn’t take days; it takes months of consistent discipline.

The best diet is the one that you can stick to. It’s better to do something less effective consistently than do something more effective inconsistently.