How to Choose your Weight Loss Diet

If you want to lose weight, there are many dietary approaches that work. There are many diet books out there that offer great ideas and practical step to lose weight. I really recommend you to use them, as they can help you immensely. I encourage you to critique them as a scientist, though. As you may know, there are many authors that promise quick fixes and make irrational claims. Here I give you some guidelines to filter those books and diet plans.

Avoid a diet book or diet plan if:

1. It tells you to avoid a major food group. For example, if they’re telling you to avoid carbohydrates at all cost. I don’t even need to explain anything more about this. Read my articles about carbohydrates, protein and fats to learn why you need all of them.
   
   
2. It claims “quick fixes”. I’m sorry to tell you the bad news, but quick fixes don’t work. If you want to lose weight and keep it down, you’ll have to work your way.
   
   
3. It gives irrational food instructions, like you have to combine your foods, or “you can’t get this food with that food”. Your gut is a very sophisticated organ, and you can digest most food combinations. There are books out there that say “don’t eat protein and carbohydrate together, because when it gets in your gut, it putrefies and becomes rancid”. If you know anything about digestion, you know how ridiculous this is. Your body is an amazing food-processing center. Think about this, if your body couldn’t digest protein and carbohydrate together, all the country would be thin.
   
   
4. It claims to cure diseases associated with weight loss. Anything that claims something like the “diabetes cure” or “the cholesterol cure”. These are diseases that you developed over many years, and they can’t be cured with 3 months of dieting, in most cases.