A diet low in carbs? Low in fat? Intermittent fasting? Eating healthy? After all, what is a healthy diet?

People who follow a Paleo Diet will say that they have the ideal diet for health, fitness and body composition. But men and women who follow IIFYM say that they have the best way of managing food. Those who follow a keto diet, as well as vegetarians, vegans and all other diet followers try and promote their methods as being the best.

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The truth is that, when you’re talking about the perfect diet, there is not right answer.

What is perfection?

Regarding results optimization, we can look at studies, but we will still wonder if it’s the most adequate way to choose our diet.

We can be sure that some factors play a very important role in a diets’ success, with which everyone agrees, such as:

1) high fiber intake is certainly a good idea;

2) fruit and vegetables are rarely a bad idea;

3) you must ingest an adequate amount of protein in order to “build” muscle;

4) food should be the least processed as possible;

5) alcohol, trans fats and a few others should be avoided in high quantities.

Still, in addition to these factors, there are many other being debated. In the extremes of the diet world, there are studies that show that fasting has positive effects regarding insulin sensitivity, metabolic rate and satiety, while others demonstrate that it increases eating disorders, it diminishes muscle protein synthesis and doesn’t create a strong commitment to the diet.

On that note, we have low carb intake vs. high carb intake, low fat intake vs. high fat intake, the need or not to consume grains…

The truth is that the concept of a perfect diet is very ambiguous and always has many aspects to be taken into account. But, for us, “The best diet is the one you can follow”. So, since there is no plan that is perfect in theory, nor a diet that guarantees fast and effective results, sticking to the diet will be faced in a flexible way.

Being very strict and dedicated is a great start to any diet, but willpower has a limit. At some point in time, even the most strict and motivated ones can cave.

Look at the low carb or keto diets for example.

This type of diet normally implies a minimal consumption of carbohydrates on a daily basis (normally around 50g, although some plans allow up to 100g and others recommend bellow 30g). So let’s look at the most extreme end of the spectrum and consider the 30 gram per day limit: this limit means, essentially, that you will depend exclusively of foods like meat, eggs, cheese, oils, nuts and possibly legumes all day. All fruit is out of the equation, as well as all the vegetables rich in starch and most dairy products like milk and yogurt. Foods like rice, bread and pasta are out of the question.

Let’s consider for a second that science had proven that the best diet for those looking to lose fat was the keto diet.

Well, what if that person loves carbs? Or if he really likes food high in fat? Or if eventually he has digestive problems and needs to ingest fruit and fiber? Or what if work involves many social situations and having to entertain clients and therefore drinking alcohol two or three times a week?

In these cases, it doesn’t really matter what these people could have achieved following a keto diet, because it simply wouldn’t be possible to sustain that diet with their lifestyle. It would be a miserable experience and, despite the results being potentially “the best”, they would be suffering every minute until they reached them. All meals would be feared, which would end in a stray from the diet in an intermittent or definite fashion.

Let’s dive into the pool of personal preference… it’s crucial to include peoples’ personal preference in a diet plan, because you can’t just rely on results due to the mechanisms of the diet in itself, you must also find something that works as well on the body as it does on paper!

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If we love steak fried in butter, snacking on olives and almonds, and if we think a higher ingestion of protein and fats leaves us fuller and that it burns more fat afterwards, then we should do it. We will be in the hands of a low carb diet. But, if this isn’t what we love, this diet won’t be ideal for us, so it doesn’t really matter if it’s effective in theory.

How to choose the best diet for each of us? The first step to adjust a diet not only to achieve the best results but that also works for our lifestyle is to find any possible flaws.

The worst that can happen is finding yourself following a diet that you’re struggling with! Finding the aspects where you struggle is the first step. If we are restricting the diet in order to maintain a certain meal as ideal as possible, or if we’re counting every gram of every macro, well maybe something more flexible would be best.

If we’re thinking about starting a diet, instead of removing all the food we love from our life like most people do, then we should pay more attention to what we can add to our diet to make it better!

Protein for breakfast? Exchanging French fries for regular potatoes that have less fat? All of these simple changes will make our diet easier to follow.

Finally…we must be FLEXIBLE. Our last tip is to be flexible with your diet. The great advantage of following a flexible diet is that we can count calories and macros nutrients so that we have freedom of choice regarding the food that we eat. This way we maintain a balance between our health and well-being.

What this all means is that it’s possible to achieve the body we desire and easily adjust our meal plan for fat loss or muscle gain without having to follow any strict and absurd rules. We can adapt everything according to our personal preference.

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Now we have a diet where everyone can achieve great results. Results come when we follow what works best for us and when we create a plan that is custom to our needs. We’re all unique. All we have to do is find out what works for each of us!

With our help you can create this plan and implement it based on your personal preference and lifestyle. This is the only way to achieve consistent results and also being consistent in our diet. This way we will achieve the physique we desire.