I'm not going to beat around the bush here. There is no best diet for everyone.
Which diet is best for YOU, well, that will take some experimenting.
You need to take in to account your food preferences, your current hormones or health issues, your goals (lose fat, build muscle...improve health should always be part of the equation), and how many meals you like to eat.
Essentially, your diet will include protein, carbohydrates, and fat. And your diet should offer a variety of colors from fruits & vegetables, hit minimum fiber requirements, and be balanced in fat (monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated...trans fat should be ZERO).
Some people will do great with higher carbohydrates, meaning, you process them well, burn them as fuel and have good insulin sensitivity. Those who do not have good insulin sensitivity will be more prone to storing carbohydrates as fat!
This is one reason that weight training is so great! Your sensitivity to insulin goes up and your bodies' metabolism increases!
Some will better with slightly higher fat. I'm NOT talking keto here.
Side note: my opinion on keto or any diet where you are significantly reducing a food group and eliminating nutrients from those sources, is, it should be done under a doctors supervision. I think your doctor should be looking at health markers and repeating those tests every 6 weeks to see if the diet is helping or hurting. I think it's scary how many people are eating super high fat and their genes are not designed for it.
Moving on, slightly higher fat does not omit carbs completely but definitely limits the amount.
Protein should stay constant for both of these diets at around 1 gram per pound of goal bodyweight.
I don't think constantly tracking is necessary but tracking here or there to spot check and ensure you are getting ample amounts of protein & fiber, and to gain awareness of calories & macros is highly beneficial.
Decide the timing of your meals, write out your ideal meal template and try it on for size. You can track for a day or 2, and make adjustments.
The ideal is to find an eating template that matches your preferences, you can sustain it for a long period of time, allows you to feel good and is yielding the results you desire.
You should not only be looking at the weight on the scale, but also quality of sleep, hunger/appetite, cravings, digestion, and energy. If you are hungry all the time and low energy, it's just a matter of time before you crack.
Some hunger is necessary, if you are trying to lose body fat, so paying attention to hunger vs. cravings will be helpful. And if you've tracked in My Fitness Pal, are assessing results, you'll have an idea if you are eating the right amount, need to increase, or need to find strategies to reduce hunger.
People make nutrition WAY harder than it has to be. Ultimately, you want healthy habits, not numbers that you are following and not tracking everyday.
So start creating and focusing on healthy habits. Ditch fad diets and diets with man made food! Make YOUR diet fit you and make ENERGIZING YOUR BODY and FEELING GOOD the priority!!
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