Good diet plans are like good cars. How exactly do you judge them? I’ve been wanting to write a piece about this topic for a while because most people ask me which ones are good diet plans before they ask how to properly squat. I think in the beginning, working on the diet is easier for most people to get involved in before heading to the gym is.
So back to the original question. I think good diet plans should be judged by the result you want to achieve and the physical state you are in now. Let me explain.
Good diet plans for competitive bodybuilders are not going to be the optimum diet plans for those seeking the ultimate in long sustained performance. Like in the case of a football player or rock climber. For those wanting to concentrate only on the leanest possible body, then a competitive bodybuilding eating schedule would be great.
If you ask some people about the high protein diets they would say they are good diet plans. But what if a person runs better with higher carbohydrates or if they are in an acidic state or maybe they are vegetarian? Pretty hard to suggest that Atkins type schedules are good diet plans for those that can’t or won’t eat animal proteins.
So What Is The First Step For A “Normal” Person?
Good diet plans for a normal person wanting to lose some fat, keep or gain a little muscle and feel healthy start with the basics. First, get rid of the chemicals. I can’t stand diet programs that require you to eat so much protein that you then go to ingesting a ton of protein powder from a terrible source that is full of artificial sweeteners and chemicals. You shoot yourself in the foot right away and think you’re doing great. That is a whole other topic though so let’s move on.
So we get rid of chemicals and preservatives. Why? Because you are what you eat literally. Your body knows what food is and it has no idea what chemicals are so it has to get rid of them. This causes your body to either work really hard to eliminate the toxins or to put the toxins into tissues where they will not harm the rest of your system. Good diet plans will not cause damage to your body. Not short term or long term. You just can’t mess with the way the system is designed. If you put garbage in, your body will do something to try and fix it. Most often you will not like the result.
Next, good diet plans will not have you cutting out whole macro nutrients. You need Fats, Proteins and Carbohydrates. This is how your body works. You can’t just cut any of these out of your diet totally and not expect bad things to happen. Maybe not right away but it will. Don’t think that any of these in their own right are bad for you. The body needs carbohydrates in the diet. But it needs good ones, not refined sugars. Good diet plans will have fats in there too. Just not the kind you find in french fries. You need protein as well, maybe in varying amounts from what some suggest and definitely not from bacon and sandwich meats. Lean and clean.
Don’t you find it suspect that most big name diet plans are so out to lunch that they then get to sell you pre packaged food? Tell me there are no chemicals and preservatives in there please. Which brings me to the next point.
Good diet plans include fresh, live food. Found in their most unadulterated natural state with lots of water. Mixed in with adequate protein from a clean source. Period. You can get by on supplements for a long time but there sure is a difference between eating super processed aspartame sweetened whey every day or organic free range eggs. The whole nutritional profile is different.
Enough Bashing.
So as far as out of the box diets go, what are some good diet plans? Well, if you want a pre set up system. I like the zone diet for pretty much all round look and feel great reasons. Just like any diet though, the prescribed ideas, numbers and such may need to be tweaked for your individuality. Maybe you need a tad less carbohydrates and a bit more healthy fats from almonds and avocados to feel somewhat full. You need to play a little.
I also think that the paleo diet and the Mediterranean diet are good diets plans. They both go the route of normal, natural state foods as you would find them by living a more natural lifestyle. This also brings up genetics and ethnic questions though as well.
This is personal opinion but I think genetics and ethnicity play larger roles in picking good diets plans for people than most give credit. From the stand point of Inuit vs maori, one of these groups will be able to handle larger amounts of fruit sugars that the other without severe problems. It’s thousands of years of breeding and eating the same foods. The body HAS to be adapting. If you take an Inuit person who past generations have been eating high fat and protein endlessly and then shove him or her on an all mango diet to “Cleanse” their system, I don’t think that makes intuitive sense. But that is my opinion.
At this point the topic gets very large and the answers become a little “Well, it depends..” So if you have any questions about good diet plans I’ll offer my two cents below.
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