The Science of Effective Weight Management – Part 1 – Biology (concluded)
As we were discussing earlier, our target for weight loss is a negative net-caloric-balance. Although exercise surely can contribute, it only factors in for about 10% of weight management, so we focus our attention on dietary changes first.
Which brings us to our next topic, “What kind of dietary changes are best?”
Let’s take a look at the various diets out there:
About 408 million results. That’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s narrow that by looking diets with which you might be familiar with, sorted into some commonly used categories:
Low-Carbohydrate Diets
- Atkins
- Eco-Atkins
- Dukan Diet
- Medifast
- Paleo Diet
- South Beach Diet
Low-Fat Diets
- Macrobiotic Diet
- Ornish Diet
- TLC Diet
High-Protein Diets
- Dukan Diet
- Medifast
- Paleo Diet
Nutritionally Balanced Diets
These feature regular ratios of carbohydrates, fats, and protein
- Abs Diet
- Anti-Inflammatory
- Biggest Loser Diet
- DASH Diet
- Engine 2 Diet
- Flat Belly Diet
- Flexitarian Diet
- Glycemic-Index Diet
- Jenny Craig
- Macrobiotic Diet
- Mayo Clinic Diet
- Mediterranean Diet
- Nutrisystem
- Slim-Fast
- Traditional Asian Diet
- Vegan Diet
- Vegetarian Diet
- Volumetrics
- Weight Watchers
- Zone Diet
There are so many different tactics which can yield results. There is more than one way to induce a net-caloric-deficit. So, the obvious question is,”What are the common attributes among successful tactics?”
Successful weight loss tactics get you to pay attention to what you’re eating, whether you’re counting carbs, calories, fat, or protein, so you eat less. Ultimately, whatever metrics you’re using, it all comes down to calories.
Eating fewer calories than you need over a non-trivial period of time results in weight loss. Which brings to our next topic, the math behind effective weight management.