Pegan, Paleo, or Keto? Find Out Which Diet Will Give the Best Results

From Whole 30 to Keto, paleo to gluten-free, and vegan to Pegan, there are so many diets on the market fighting for the number one spot that it can be hard to determine which one suits your lifestyle and weight-loss goals the most.

Dieticians say that one size doesn’t fit all which is why the diet that may have worked for your friend or co-worker may not suit your specific goals. Here are some of the most popular diets in the weight-loss community and exactly how they are meant to help you lose weight. Read carefully before choosing the one that you think is right for your lifestyle. Almost 45 million people in America go on a diet every year and spend $33 billion on products that are meant to help them lose weight.

Keto

Keto has quickly risen to popularity over the past decade and has an impressive celebrity fan following including the Kardashian sisters, Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry. Although, the restrictive diet isn’t easy to maintain over the long term because it requires you to cut out carbohydrates from your diet completely to initiate ketosis – a process where your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy.

This diet has plenty of proven benefits such as weight loss, reduced risk of cancer, diabetes and other neurological diseases. However, people who follow keto tend to gain all the weight back once they revert to their old eating habits.

Paleo

Probably one of the trendiest diets of our time, Paleo has been around for centuries, practiced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors whose diets mainly consisted of proteins and fats. Paleo, like its close cousin Keto, also focuses on eliminating sugar, processed high-carb foods and dairy.

The diet promotes the consumption of foods high in protein such as lean meats as well as healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Although paleo is a fairly healthy diet to follow due to high whole food consumption, it does have certain drawbacks such as low energy levels and glycemic load due to lack of carbohydrates.

Dairy-free

Following a dairy-free diet is definitely beneficial for people who are intolerant to lactose, but it also has proven health benefits for the rest of us such as weight loss, reduced consumption of hormones and antibiotics, and improved digestion, only to name a few.

Moreover, people who suffer from seasonal allergy and frequent viral infections could also benefit from cutting out dairy products from their diet since they are known for creating excessive mucus in the body. There are plenty of those plant-based foods that can help you fulfill your daily calcium requirement.

Pegan

The Pegan is a combination of paleo and vegan which mainly focuses on plant-based foods high in protein and fats as well as organic meats and eggs. Pegan is one of the newer diets on this list which has gained popularity after Dr. Mark Hyman raved about it in his book, Food, What the Heck Should I Eat? As the name suggest, Pegan is a combination of two diets – paleo and vegan – which mainly focuses on plant-based foods high in protein and fats as well as organic meat and eggs so that you can have the best of both worlds.

This diet is more lenient than vegan and paleo separately and has shown health loss benefits like weight loss and reduced inflammation.

Gluten-free

People who suffer from celiac disease have no choice but to follow a gluten-free diet in order to survive, but other individuals can also reap the benefits of eliminating gluten from their diet.

Gluten is known for causing inflammation in the body which is why it is especially bad for those who have an autoimmune or inflammatory disease. Some researchers have also proven that gluten-free diet can alleviate the symptoms of ADHD/ADD. For some, eliminating gluten is a way to control their carbohydrate intake whereas for others it reduces bloating and gas.

Intermittent fasting

Intermittent Fasting isn’t about what you eat as much as it is about when you eat it. People who follow this eating approach tend to fast for a specific time period from 16-20 hours a day and then have all their meals in shorter ‘eating window’ which can range from 4-8 hours.

When performed correctly, intermittent fasting can be the most effective way to lose weight without gaining it back in the long term. It also has other health benefits such as normalized blood sugar levels as well as reduced risk of heart diseases and diabetes.