With the sheer number of diets touted on the internet, the buzzwords all start sounding the same. You might even wonder why we developed our latest detox system, the Keto Cleanse, to help those who are undergoing the ketogenic diet transition smoothly and get better results. In this article, we take three of the most popular diet for weight loss plans and compare them to give you a better idea of their differences. We hope that this will help you decide which one suits your needs best.
Low Carb Diet
This is probably the easiest to follow out of the three. Just as its name suggests, a low carb diet requires you to minimize your carbohydrates intake to at most 15 grams of carbs daily. You’re free to make up for the lost calories with either protein or healthy fat. If you’re doing this diet for weight loss, you won’t have a hard time eating out because all you need to do is stay away from starchy food like bread, pasta, potatoes, corn, etc. The rest is up to you.
Paleo Diet
The Paleo Diet is part of a lifestyle plan rather than a standalone eating plan. Also known as the “caveman diet”, proponents of this diet believe that eating and living like people in the Paleolithic era will bring good health.
This means doing physical activities with the same effects as hunting and gathering like short bursts of intense workouts. Stress-relieving exercises such as yoga and meditation are also recommended.
Since there wasn’t farming yet at that time, grains like rice, wheat, corn, and legumes like beans and lentils weren’t available and so cannot be eaten with this diet. This also applies to dairy products like milk, cheese, and butter, but you can eat eggs.
Ketogenic Diet
The Ketogenic Diet is a high-fat low-carb diet. The goal of this diet is to bring your body into a state of ketosis wherein it uses your stored fats for fuel instead of glucose, which is converted from carbohydrates. Keto does this by emphasizing the consumption of healthy fats from avocados, nuts, coconut or olive oil, and fatty fish.
Since you can eat up to 15-20% of your daily diet in carbohydrates, that doesn’t mean all carbs. Low-sugar fruits like berries and non-starchy vegetables like leafy greens should make up your carbohydrates intake. They also have high amounts of dietary fiber, which is helpful for your digestion.
Low Carb Diet vs. Paleo
The main difference between these two is the carbohydrates restriction. Paleo only restricts carbohydrates based on their historical availability. However, other sources of unfarmed carbs like say, bananas and potatoes, are okay to be consumed with little restriction. Low carb, on the other hand, restricts all kinds of carbohydrates. They will be converted to glucose in the bloodstream, that’s a no for low carb.
Paleo vs. Keto
While these two diet plans have a few similarities when it comes to food choices, Paleo is dictated more by the lifestyle surrounding it while Keto is all about macronutrient ratios.
With Paleo, you look at how the carbohydrate is sourced. Like we mentioned before, ones that are readily available for gathering (no need for farming) are okay to eat. There is no set limit of how much of these you should consume daily, as long as you’re eating the right kind. In this way, Paleo can become a high-carb diet.
Keto, on the other hand, is very strict with macronutrient ratios because it needs to keep your body in ketosis. Unlike Paleo, you’re free to eat some soy products like tofu and some legumes on Keto. But your carbs must mostly come from veggies and non-starchy fruits. Keto is okay with dairy consumption, even encouraging high-fat dairy like full fat cream and grass-fed butter. After all, its main focus is consuming healthy fat the most.
However, both Paleo and Keto encourage the consumption of whole foods – those that have zero to minimal processing before it reaches your plate. They’re both good diet for weight loss plans, but Keto has an edge when it comes to fat loss.
Keto vs. Low Carb Diet
Technically, the ketogenic diet is a low carb diet. But the low carb diet is not usually ketogenic. Why is that?
Their difference lies in healthy fat consumption. The low carb diet dictates carb limitation but doesn’t control the other two macronutrients. You can consume as much protein or fat as you’d like to make up for the missing carbs. However, there’s a chemical reaction called gluconeogenesis, which is when excess protein gets turned into glucose. If you choose to compensate for lost carbs using protein, there’s a chance you’ll develop this chemical reaction. Since the restriction on carbs is to limit glucose in the blood, then gluconeogenesis produces the same result as the one you’re trying to avoid in the first place.
With Keto, you restrict your carb intake and moderate your protein, pulling the rest of your calories from healthy fats. This way, your body is forced to use fat as fuel because no excess glucose is produced from your diet, resulting in fast fat loss.
Which diet for weight loss should you choose?
If you’re looking for a diet that you can maintain for longer, then the Paleo diet would make for an easier choice. You’d have more options when it comes to dining and you don’t have to stay conscious about whether you’re in a specific state or not.
However, if your goal is to end all sugar cravings, lose weight fast, especially getting rid of body fat, the Ketogenic diet is the best choice. In the first few weeks it may take more caution to maintain like measuring your ketones every day, but it has seen the best results when it comes to fat loss.
Don’t forget to boost your diet with a detox for weight loss!
Now that you have a better idea of what these three popular diets for weight loss plans are about, you can prepare your body for the new eating style by going on a detox cleanse!
Cleansing is a good way to clean your slate. It helps your body to adjust to new flavors and makes way for all the nutrients to be absorbed. Our Keto Cleanse is great for minimizing the effects of the “keto flu” if you’re going for the ketogenic diet. It also has components that aid in fat loss even when you’re not actively working out! You can click here to find out more.