Diets range the spectrum from low carbs to high carbs, low fat to high fat. What gives? Which diet approach is best for you? That all depends on your level of activity and how much fat you hope to lose. To some degree your genetics will play a role as well. Below I’ll review some of the most popular approaches to gaining muscle and losing body fat. They include Low-Fat Diets, the Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet, and the One Meal a Day Diet.

The Low Fat Diet
The premise in a low fat diet is that by avoiding fatty foods, you control your daily caloric intake. When calories are controlled, you lose fat. The premise more than holds water, it’s outright true. The fact remains; the low fat diet is an excellent way to get rid of unsightly body fat. Here’s why. Gram for gram, dietary fat yields more calories than either carbohydrates or protein. For example 100 grams of either protein of carbohydrates yields 400 calories in the body while 100 grams of fat yields 900. Obviously, watching your fat intake is a way to keep calories under control. Of the three macronutrients (carbs, protein and fat) fat is usually the nutrient more likely to be stored as body fat.

Protein is used to support muscle repair and most of your carbohydrate intake is burned during training leaving very few left over to influence fat storage. On the other hand, outside of supporting hormones and immunity, much of the dietary fat intake is efficiently packed away as body fat. For the athlete who is very active and for the hard training bodybuilder and fitness enthusiast, I always suggest a low fat, higher carbohydrate diet. The final benefit: the carbs. If you are very active, you’ll need the carbs to train hard. Hard training, I mean real hard training, is the thing that not only helps keep the metabolic rate elevated, but also helps you maintain muscle mass while calories are somewhat lower. As long as you can continue to train hard, you’ll keep your metabolic boosting muscle. And, training hard becomes impossible when you severely cut your carbohydrate intake.

Typical food choices for the Low-Fat Diet
Protein: skinless chicken and turkey breast, fish, egg whites, fat free cheese, protein powder, extra lean beef (on occasion)
Carbohydrates: yams, potatoes, rice, pasta, beans, oats, fruit, veggies
Fat: limited to that naturally occurring in protein foods

Pros

* High carb intake fuels training which allows you to maintain muscle mass.
* Flexible. You get to eat a wide variety of carbohydrates.

Cons

* Many dieters simply overestimate their carb needs and eat too many, which makes a calorie deficit and fat loss challenging.
* Those who tend to have a very slow metabolism, or a high level of body fat, often find it difficult as a high carb diet can stimulate the appetite in these groups.
* Some research shows those who carry a lot of body fat may do better with a lower carb diet.

The Low Carb/High Protein Diet (Atkins, others)
I’ll try not to contradict what I said about low fat diets. A low carb diet can be effective. The premise is that decreasing carbohydrate foods helps keep calories under control and leads to a drop in body fat. However, the primary success of the low carb diet comes from old fashioned appetite control. When you eat less carbs, in general, the appetite begins to come under control- especially after 8 to 10 days into the diet. One reason: carbohydrates increase the production of the hormone in the body called insulin. Insulin is a primary trigger of the appetite. In fact, in animal research, rats injected with insulin often eat until their stomachs explode while those with the pancreas removed – the source of insulin in the body – often die of starvation. They forget or refuse to eat. Low carb diets are usually effective for obese individuals or those with 35 or more pounds of fat to shed. That’s because obese individuals often over produce insulin. When an obese person eats a baked potato, they produce more insulin than a leaner individual.

The repercussion here is that elevated insulin not only triggers the desire to eat but also is a potent stimulator of fat storage. Outside of total caloric intake, insulin levels play a role in body fat storage. If you’re really overweight, you might want to try a low carb diet and limit your daily carbohydrate intake to 70-100 grams daily. On the flip side, when carbohydrates are low – and you’re training with weights – you run the risk of shedding muscle mass. Therefore, I suggest you increase your protein intake to 1.25 grams per pound of bodyweight daily. Thus, the 200-pounder would eat 250 grams of protein daily. The slightly higher protein intake can offset a loss in muscle mass. Why? The body will burn the extra protein you eat rather than burn away your muscles, which are comprised of protein.

Typical Food Choices for the Low-Carb (Atkins) Diet
Protein: Skinless Chicken (all parts) turkey, extra lean beef, whole eggs mixed with egg whites, low fat cheese, fish including salmon
Carbohydrates: Veggies for the most part and usually one small serving of complex carbohydrate daily such as a small potato, a small yam or 2 thin slices of whole grain bread
Fat: Very moderate use of salad dressing, oils, nuts. The diet also allows for protein foods that are a little higher in fat including beef, lamb and low fat dairy products

Pros

* Easy to use. Just avoid carbohydrates.
* Works well with overweight individuals who are not sufficiently fit to engage in a lot of physical activity.
* Helps Control the appetite.

Cons

* Can be energy draining.
* For the most part, fairly ineffective for the hard training athlete or bodybuilder trying to maintain muscle mass while shedding fat.

The South Beach Diet
The South Beach Diet is yet another calorie controlled program. Any diet where calories are controlled will result in a loss in body fat. The South beach diet is a mixed diet. The user can eat carbohydrates and dietary fat – just can’t go overboard in either category.

The diet places special emphasis on low glycemic index carbs (LGIC). LGIC are more natural carbohydrates and natural carbohydrates tend to releases less insulin than refined carbohydrates. For example, 50 grams of natural carbohydrates from natural sources such as yams, wild rice, red potatoes oats and beans will illicit a smaller release in insulin than refined carbohydrates such as white bread, bagels, jam, jelly, low fat or fat free muffins, cold cereal and juices. The idea is to eat carbohydrates in moderation and avoid refined carbohydrates. Refined carbohydrates shoot insulin thru the roof making you hungry and also initiating the storage of body fat. By stressing LGIC, insulin is put under control and the dieter looses that ulta-desire to eat. He loses his “cravings.”

However, the South beach Diet puts even natural carbs off limits at the beginning stressing more low calorie vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and spinach with sparse use of LGIC. As you lose weight, you can start to include more LGIC. The reason is likely this: as you lose fat the amount of insulin you produce in response to eating any kind of carbohydrate begins to change (decrease). Therefore, as you slim down, you can slowly wade into eating more oatmeal and yams and less grass. I mean veggies.

One interesting little touch dieters might like is that it allows you to have a small dessert after dinner. Basically, if you keep your calories low all day – with small to very small portions of carbohydrates coupled with 3 meals of protein — you award yourself at the end of each day with a very small dessert.

The diet also permits moderate amounts of dietary fat. No you can’t go wild on butter, greasy or fried foods. However, the authors suggest moderate amounts of nuts including cashews, peanut butter, whole eggs and salmon. The concept here is that fats take a long time to digest and a big part of successful dieting is calorie control. Specifically eating less. If you can control the appetite, you’ll eat less food and lose weight. Thus the South Beach diet is a moderate to low carbohydrate diet coupled with moderate amounts of fat. The result is that you eat less. For fitness and bodybuilding, the Low fat diet is still the way to go. The only flaw to a low fat diet is the carbohydrate portions. Most people eat more carbohydrates than they really need, or they are not active enough to justify a portion of carbs someone like a professional bodybuilder would eat.

Typical Food Choices for the South Beach Diet
Protein: Chicken (all parts) turkey, lean meat, fish, eggs, low fat cheese
Carbohydrates: Small amounts of complex carbs, lots of veggies, some fruit – but not a lot. The carbohydrate amount is not zero or tremendously low with many low carb diets, but it is low.
Fats: Salad dressings, small servings of nuts, salmon

Pros

*Low calorie, you lose weight.
*Adequate diet plan for inactive individuals.

Cons

* Useless for athletes. Way too low in carbs and protein. At least low carb diets are pretty darn high in protein.
* Useless for bodybuilders. Lack of protein leads to a loss in muscle mass and a subsequent drop in metabolism.

The One Meal a Day Diet
Ok, a theme here is to eat less. Eat less food and less calories and you will lose fat. Guaranteed. One study showed the effectiveness of eating just one meal a day. The meal – participants could eat all they wanted – but just one meal, consisted of a variety of foods from carbohydrates to protein and fatty foods. The catch: all food had to be eaten at one meal. The results: participants lost weight over a 8 week period. The reason: most could only eat 1100- 1400 calories at each sitting (about that found in a 2 fast food cheeseburgers and a small fry). The remaining part of the day and diet, participants were told not to eat, though they could drink water, coffee and diet soda.

This gave birth to the One Meal a Day Diet where the dieter would replicate the study. Eat once a day. For the non-active individual, it’s not a bad approach because it works and it’s easy to follow. However, if you are training with weights of active aerobically, it’s not the way to go. The demand of training puts a stress on the body that requires eating multiple times thru the day. Eating multiple times helps prevent a loss in muscle mass – the main reason we head to the gym and the very component that gives us a “hard” look and appearance. Eating once a day would cause a mild loss in lean muscle mass. The last thing any of us wants.

Typical Food Choices for the One Mean a Day Diet
Anything goes

Pros

*Will actually work for an out of shape individual. In terms of dieting, “anything is better than nothing.”

Cons

*Wont be effective for athletes or bodybuilders.