The Best Diets For Easy Fat Loss (Ranked By Science)

What are the best and worst diets for fat loss? With so many options, it's tough to cut through the noise. So today we're ranking the 12 most popular diets, whether it's keto, carnivore, intermittent fasting, calorie counting, and others, based on science and my own personal experience of coaching over 20,000 clients with their fat loss journey. To rank highly, a diet needs to check these 3 boxes. Number 1, a sustained calorie deficit. Fat loss requires eating less calories than you burn, so the diet must create and maintain a calorie deficit. Otherwise, it's getting an F tier, no exceptions. And by the way, if you need to know exactly what your calorie deficit should be, there's going to be a link in the description of this video for my free calorie deficit calculator. You can use that after the video if you'd like. The second box is sustainability and a feel-good factor. It should be practical, fit into your real life, and avoid hunger, misery, or nutrient deficiencies. A diet you can't stick to won't work. And the third box, simple adherence and progress tracking. Having clear guidelines and easy progress tracking for your diet are key. Because complexity kills consistency. After ranking these diets from S tier for super and F tier for fail, I will crown one diet as the best for fat loss, elevating it to an S tier plus, and I'll crown one for the absolute worst, sending it to F tier hell. Now let's go ahead and get started on the first diet. The first diet we're going to rank is Herbalife. This is a meal replacement shake and supplements sold through multi-level marketing. This one I'm probably going to put in the F tier, and here's why. For creating a calorie deficit, meal replacement shakes can create a deficit, but there's no evidence to show that Herbalife's blends should be replacing whole foods. And a 2017 study in Nutrition Journal found that meal replacement shakes can work short-term, but weight regain is usually common because number 2, it's not sustainable to only drink meal replacement shakes for the rest of your life. One of our clients, Natalie, came to us from Herbalife and she felt constantly hungry Deprived, not to mention being tied to costly products. Good luck going out to eat with your friends and bringing your Herbalife shake. And because you're not eating real foods, nutrient deficiencies are a risk. In the last box for adherence, it's rigid, expensive, and it really teaches you no eating skills. And for the last box, adherence and progress tracking, it's rigid, expensive, and it teaches you no eating skills. You're just following a script to eat their meal replacement shakes. It could maybe be used as a part of a more sustainable diet, but if it's all you try to do, it's probably not going to work for you. And that's why Herbalife crashes into the F tier. Now our next diet is very popular on social media right now, and that's going to be the carnivore diet. The carnivore diet is all meat, No carbs, no plants, and no fun. I'm gonna put this diet in the D tier, and here's why. For creating a calorie deficit, if you go next to no carbs and you eat a lot of meat and fat, this can be more satiating, which just means you'll stay fuller for longer. So it can help curb your appetite and potentially put you in a calorie deficit. But depending on which meats you choose, that's what she said. You could run into some higher fat meats, which then could erase that calorie deficit. And if you think that you can eat however much food you want on carnivore and you'll still lose weight, you could easily overshoot your calorie deficit. For the second box, sustainability, in my opinion, I think it's brutal. No fruits, no veggies, no grains, which means you might risk. Some nutrient deficiencies like fiber or vitamin C. And typically clients that we have worked with who have tried carnivore in the past might feel great initially, but then hit a ton of fatigue from the lack of carbohydrates. They hit gut issues and bloating from the lack of fiber and vegetables. And socially, it's very isolating to go out to eat and not be able to have things with your friends. And the third box for adherence, it's very simple, which is basically just eat meat and that's it. But it's very vague in terms of it doesn't recommend or talk about portion sizes. It doesn't recommend or talk about calories at all. And you're really just kind of eating meat and hoping that you're in a calorie deficit. I don't usually find that to be very beneficial or successful. And not to mention, it just gets boring as hell. So although I love meat, Again, that's what she said. I think the carnivore diet is too extreme and unrealistic for sustainable, long-lasting fat loss. And I already know there's going to be a guy named Paul in the comments who's like, fuck you, Eric, carnivore is the best. I get it. If it works for you, Paul, that's fine. But it hasn't worked for a lot of the clients that I've worked with. Okay, now let's get into the next diet that's also very popular, which is going to be Intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting, like 16:8, which means you fast— don't eat— for 16 hours, and then you do eat for 8 hours. This one I'm actually going to put into the B tier, and here's why. For the first box of creating a calorie deficit, if you shorten the windows that you are able to eat in, this can as a result decrease the amount of calories you are consuming in a given In fact, a study in 2021 showed that fasting could match traditional calorie restriction for some people. But here's the issue. Even if you do fast, let's say you're doing 16:8, if you are eating everything during those 8 hours and you're taking yourself out of a calorie deficit, then you will not lose weight Even if you're fasting. Now, for the second box, in terms of sustainability, this really comes down to the person. For example, if you don't like eating breakfast to begin with, then intermittent fasting might actually flow right in with your lifestyle. But if you're someone like me who I do love eating breakfast, it doesn't fit into my lifestyle that much. I would also add that if you don't have a very healthy relationship with food, doing fasting can make you a bit hungrier, and it might be hard to not overcome that hunger and then end up overeating when you do finally get to your eating window. And not to mention, if you're socially eating, whether it's going out for breakfast with your parents or whether it's having dinner with your friends, if you can't eat past 7 PM or before noon, then it makes social aspects a bit challenging. And the last box for adherence, it's very simple, which is why a lot of people tend to like it, because there's no real food rules. You just look at the clock and you base your eating around that. But depending on your schedule and depending on your fasting discipline, if you want to call it that, sometimes those can be hurdles for clients to overcome. And again, my last gripe is it doesn't teach you about proper portion sizes or education around calories. It just says eat here, don't eat here, and so it's lacking that education. So that's why it can be effective and some people do like it, but I'm going to put it in the B tier. Now our next diet is very popular for a short period of time, and that's going to be the Whole30 diet. If you're unfamiliar with the Whole30 diet, it's basically an elimination diet cutting out grains, dairy, sugar, and processed foods For 30 days. And while I actually like some of the components of the Whole30 diet, I'm going to put it in the D tier. And here's why. In terms of the first box of creating a calorie deficit, eating only whole foods can absolutely help you create a calorie deficit. But the couple of issues are, since there's no focus on how many calories you are eating, which, by the way, if you need to know exactly how many calories you should be eating for fat loss, there'll be a free calorie deficit calculator in the description of this video. Whole30 leads to inconsistent results because you might be in a calorie deficit some days, but you might not be in a calorie deficit the other days depending on what you eat and how much you eat. Because although it is easier to not overeat on whole foods, it is still possible. And in terms of checking the second box for sustainability, it's not long-term because it's not meant to be. A long-term fix. It's meant to be a habit reset, which can be beneficial at times, but many people who end up doing a Whole30-type diet usually rebound with weight gain after because what they're doing isn't sustainable. So the results that they see are not sustainable. And not to mention, cutting out so many food groups makes it incredibly difficult to stay consistent with, especially if those foods are foods that you enjoy eating, because you're only going to do something you hate for so long. And for the last box, adherence and progress tracking, it's clear that you can only eat whole foods, but it's very rigid rules. A lot of times what we have seen this diet create with our clients that we have worked with is this all-or-nothing mentality. It gets you into There's good foods and there's bad foods. And let me tell you this, if there's one way to start a binge eating disorder, it's by labeling foods good and bad. Because when you have a bad food, you're gonna think, I ruined all my progress, I already gained fat, I already fucked everything up, I might as well keep going. Does that sound at all familiar? So to avoid all of that, you can take some things from the Whole30 diet, like trying to incorporate more whole foods, but don't get into the all-or-nothing mentality of that's all you can eat. And this actually brings me to my next diet, which is probably, in my opinion, the most popular diet there is— the keto diet. Keto, you're doing very high fat, very low carb. This diet I'm gonna put in the C tier, and let me explain why. For checking the first box of creating a calorie deficit, when you cut out an entire food group, sure, it might make it easier to create a calorie deficit. And a 2020 meta-analysis showed that keto did slightly outperform a low-fat diet, but the calories were the most important thing that mattered. And you have to be careful because for every 1 gram of carb that you eat, it has 4 calories. For every 1 gram of protein that you eat, it has 4 calories. For every 1 gram of fat that you eat, it has 9 calories. So although you might not be eating any carbohydrates, Fat actually has the most calories per gram, so it can be easy to rack up the calories you're eating even with a keto diet. Now for the second box of sustainability, I'm just going to be honest with you, it's tough for most people to stay consistent with eating under 50, 40, 30 grams of carbs per day. One of my clients who's now actually a coach for me, her name is Jamie, she started with me, she lost over 110 pounds. And she was somebody who really was avid in the keto world. But she just found she wasn't able to consistently stick with it, which is why she would lose some weight, gain the weight back, lose some weight, gain the weight back. Now that she switched to one of the diets that we'll talk about a bit later in the video, she's lost 110 pounds and has kept it off for the better part of 2 and a half years. And I want you to know something: a lot of people try the keto diet, they lose some weight, they can't stick with it, and then you think it's your fault. It's not your fault if you can't stick with keto. It is not meant for most people to stick with and be consistent with. You need to take a different approach, which we might talk about later in the video. And not to mention, with keto, it's hard to get a good amount of fiber and micronutrients because you're cutting out a lot of carbohydrates. And the last checkbox for adherence and progress tracking, we already talked about, it's difficult to stick with, but especially when you're eating out or you're trying to strictly track your net carbs, that can be very hard to calculate and track. And while yes, you might see rapid weight loss When you first start keto. There's a reason why. For every 1 gram of carb that you eat, you store 3 to 5 grams of water weight. So if you're cutting out a bunch of carbs, you're also cutting out a bunch of water weight. And this is also why if you have a night where you add a lot of carbs back in, your scale is going to go up the next day. This makes it tricky for a lot of people. The fluctuations in the weight can be absurd, and it's just not sustainable for most people to stick with. Now again, what I think you can pull from keto, which is actually something I like a lot, is the focus on protein. We have had a lot of clients come to us, like one of our clients Nick here, who maybe they dabbled in some keto before and because they did that diet, they learned how to get in high protein options because when you can only eat fat and protein, you learn how to get more protein in. So Just like the Whole30, you can take things from the diet, implement it into your journey without having to adopt the entire diet. And this actually segues perfectly into our next diet, the vegan or vegetarian diet. The vegan or vegetarian diet is no meat, all plant-based. And for me, it earns a B tier. And here's why. First, I have to be honest. I have 2 coaches on my team. One is Coach Irene and the other is Coach Judy, and they both follow a vegan or vegetarian diet and they're jacked. So it can work. The first box we're looking at checking is the calorie deficit box. Because a lot of plant-based foods are lower in calories and higher in fiber, it's very easy to get very full and to consume less calories. So both of those 2 things can aid in creating a calorie deficit. In fact, a 2021 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that vegan diets can drive weight loss, especially when paired with whole foods. Now, sometimes processed vegan or vegetarian foods can be higher in calories, but that goes for any processed foods. One of my gripes with a vegan or vegetarian diet is they don't inherently focus on calories, but we can talk about that a bit later in the video. In terms of checking the second box of sustainability, I think this one really depends on the individual. I'll just be very honest, there is no way I would be able to stick with a vegan or vegetarian diet. I love my meat. That's what she said. I love my protein. But for some people, especially if you're doing it for ethical reasons, it can be very easy to stick to. Or we've had clients in the past where like they hate making eggs, or they hate chicken, or they can't stand fish, or whatever the case may be. So this one really is person dependent. Now, I will say it becomes harder when you're hitting a vegan or vegetarian diet to hit protein goals as an example, or potentially things like B12 deficiencies. So you would have to make sure you're either supplementing with a lot of protein and you're getting your bloodwork done and making sure you're hitting all the nutrients that you need to be hitting. And in terms of a social aspect, I think especially these days, most places you could go in terms of going out to eat, you could find something that could fit within these guidelines. Now, the last part for adherence, it's pretty clear rules. It's easy to track and know if you're on track or not. I just think the biggest thing with this one is making sure you're planning things ahead and really making sure you can figure out how to hit enough protein per day as an example, to still see the fat loss progress that you want to see. And by the way, if you need to know how much protein and calories you should be eating per day, there'll be a link in the description of this video for my free calorie deficit calculator. So this is why, in my opinion, vegan or vegetarian diets get the B tier. It can be effective for the person if that's something you want to do, but it is going to require some planning and making sure you fill the gaps with some deficiencies. Now let's talk about one of the most popular diets that's that's ever been out there— Weight Watchers. Weight Watchers uses a points-based system to simplify calorie counting, and it lands in the B tier. But I do have some gripes with it. Let me explain. In terms of creating a calorie deficit, their way of tracking calories is tracking points. And so this is a way to almost gamify eating in a calorie deficit and making people mindful of calories which I think inherently is a good thing. But the fact that it doesn't teach calories, I believe, is wrong because there are some foods in Weight Watchers that are 0 points, but they are still a lot of calories. And vice versa, there are foods like a donut is 10 points, and for some people that's more than half of their day in points. But a donut could be 300 calories, and if your calorie deficit is 1,800, that's not half of your calories for the day. So I don't like that it doesn't actually talk about the calorie intake. The second box would be the sustainability of it, and again, I think that Weight Watchers does a decent job of not demonizing good and bad foods. And you can eat things that you like within the point system, but like we just talked about with the donut, if that's going to be 10 points and you only have 15 points for the day, I just don't think that makes any sense, and I don't think that promotes a very healthy relationship with food. And the second part of this is the protein. They don't focus a ton on protein, so somebody could be hitting their points but only getting 30, 40, 50 grams of protein per day, which for 99% of people is nowhere near enough protein for the day, but you're hitting your points, so it works in their eyes. I don't think that should be the case. And in terms of adherence and progress tracking, it's very easy for a lot of people to adhere to and to track your food intake because you're following the points system, and it's very straightforward. So I will give it that. But again, the fact that it lacks education on calorie and protein intake It just makes me knock it off a couple of tiers. And this actually leads right into our next diet, which is going to be finally calorie tracking. Calorie tracking, which is tracking overall calories and that's it. I'm going to put it in the A tier and here's why. Number one, for creating a calorie deficit, I think it's pretty effective if you're tracking your calories and you know what your calorie deficit should be. You're most likely going to create the calorie deficit. And again, there's a free calorie deficit calculator in the description of the video. And this truly is the gold standard. I could pick a million studies to choose from, but there was a 2018 Lancet study that showed calorie restriction drives sustainable weight loss. Now, for sustainability, I believe calorie tracking can be absolutely sustainable If number one, you're not eating 1,200 calories or 1,000 calories per day, because what most people do is they will take their calories so low, which will then drive their hunger, drive their cravings, develop an unhealthy relationship with food, and just make it too restrictive to stick to long term. Which is why we work with our clients on creating a sustainable calorie deficit where You might not lose 4 pounds a week like you want to, but if you're losing 1 to 2 pounds per week of fat loss on average, that would be incredibly healthy and sustainable fat loss progress. And the great part is you can eat anything within your calorie goal, and as long as you hit your calories, you're good. And a lot of our clients love the flexibility of calorie tracking. We talked earlier about the donut. If they're able to have a donut per day or chocolate, or they know they can go out to eat to McDonald's or Chick-fil-A or wherever the restaurant is, and they can get something and still stick with their calories and still lose weight. That is a very flexible way of approaching your nutrition. I will give it to you. Sometimes tracking the calories feels tedious, but that's why if you get a good calorie tracking app like the one I built, you can click the link in the description of this video to check out the calorie counting app that I built. It also has workouts and coaching involved. Go check it out. Then it makes counting calories a hell of a lot easier. And for adherence, it's very clear. You hit your calorie goal for the day and you win that day. That's it. And you'll also know that you are within your calorie deficit to confirm you will lose fat. Unlike fasting or keto or carnivore, where those diets are very clear, But they're not clear for a calorie deficit. Calorie counting will ensure you're in that deficit, and it's very easy to keep track of because as long as you're tracking your calories, you'll know how much you're intaking and you'll know if you're in that deficit or not. Now, I will give you— there is a minor learning curve to tracking calories, weighing your food, understanding what food labels look like. But this is the beauty of educating yourself, because we believe in our coaching program When you're educated on something, you will not only follow it better because you actually understand why you're doing it, but then also you will maintain those results better because you actually know what's going on versus just blindly following keto or carnivore or fasting. When you educate yourself about food, it's easier to make progress and maintain that progress. And this is why calorie counting is in the A tier, but there's actually something else that I'm gonna put in the S tier. Along with calorie tracking, you can also track your macronutrients, and your macronutrients are your protein, carbs, and fats. And for me, this takes the S tier for a couple of reasons. For the first box of checking a calorie deficit, we already talked about why it's going to do that, but But also when you start tracking your macronutrients, protein for example, you can make sure you're eating enough protein to fuel fat loss, eating enough protein to fuel muscle growth, eating enough protein to make you feel more full. Or maybe you're eating enough carbohydrates to fuel your workout performance. You're eating enough dietary fat to have a healthy hormonal profile and good brain health. So you can make that calorie deficit almost ramped up on steroids. So to speak, and then for the sustainability of it, it's super flexible because again, you can eat the foods that you enjoy, and as long as you're within your calorie goal and within your macronutrient goals, then eat the foods that you like. This is what we call if it fits your macros, and if you are following a diet where you like the foods that you eat and you're able to be flexible, you're much more likely going to adhere to that diet long term, which is the final box that we're checking here because it's. Clear and easy to set the calorie and macro goals and then stick to those calorie and macro goals. So calorie and macro tracking gets an S tier, but there's actually one final diet that's going to get an S tier plus, and that is going to be calorie and protein tracking. And here's why I recommend tracking your calories and your protein. This is exactly what we do with our online coaching clients, and as you can see They all make tremendous progress. The reason that macro tracking, tracking all of your protein, carbs, and fats doesn't go in the S-tier plus is because, number one, studies have shown as long as you hit your calorie goal and as long as you hit your protein goal, your carbs and your fats can be variable and you can still make the same amount of fat loss Progress. So if that means somebody likes having a higher carbohydrate diet, awesome, have a higher carbohydrate diet as long as you hit your calories and your protein. Or if somebody likes having a higher fat diet, perfect, have a higher fat diet as long as you have your calorie and your protein hit. Because remember, if you're hitting your calories and your protein, you are only going to have but so much room to wiggle within that. So your carbs and fats are going to fall into place. And some of the feedback that we have gotten from our clients is that sometimes tracking calories, protein, carbs, and fats can almost feel like playing Tetris and you're having to hit all 4 of these goals. And it can be overwhelming at times for some people. But if you just focus on calories and you just focus on protein, you have 2 goals That are the most important goals. And this way you get the best of every world. You're hitting your calorie deficit, you're hitting your protein, you're working in foods that you enjoy. You don't have to over-restrict yourself from carbs or fats or cut out all of your sugar. Calorie and protein tracking truly is the S-tier plus, and I'm telling you, it's the exact thing that we do with our online coaching clients to get them the best results. So now that you know the S-tier-plus diet, let me just confirm the F-tier-to-hell diet. And in fact, I'm not going to pick a specific one because the F-tier-to-hell diet is any diet that you're not going to be able to stay consistent with over the long run. Trust me, it's not worth it to lose weight very quickly just to gain it all back. It's going to be incredibly exhausting for you, and although you might see some short-term progress, You and I both know it's not going to last. So please, if you're looking to lose fat, take a sustainable approach where you can enjoy foods that you like in moderation, have flexibility, still see great progress. And I promise that is doable primarily through the calorie and protein tracking diet. And that's the ranking. Again, if you need to know what your calorie and protein goals should be, there will be a free calorie deficit calculator in the description of this video. Or if you'd like a coach on my team to help you through your journey and take out all of the guesswork, click the link in the description of the video. There will be a link for our coaching below. And now that you know that calories and protein are the most important, watch this video here to learn everything you need to know about tracking calories and protein.