A good nutrition plan can help you achieve goals like building muscle, increasing physical performance, or burning fat.
But not all diet programs are right for everyone, according to Angie Asche, RD, CSSDexpert nutritionist from Centera fitness and nutrition app created by actor Chris Hemsworth.
Diets with arbitrary or overly strict rules can stall your progress, Asche told Insider.
Asche says there are four classic red flags that can generally tell you whether a diet is worth your time, money, and energy. Here’s how to spot them:
If you have to buy special products, a diet can be a waste of money
One of the first signs that a diet might be more of a fad than a reality is if it involves a costly investment in proper meal kits or other items.
You shouldn’t have to buy 80% or more of your food from a specific brand or company for a good diet, Asche said.
Healthy eating should focus on a variety of whole foods you can get at any grocery store or farmers market like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and protein sources like lean meat, fish, eggs, and legumes, dieticians generally recommend.
Avoidance of appropriate dietary products also includes herbs, pills, or powders intended to stimulate
weightloss
— research suggests that the vast majority of Weight loss supplements don’t work..
And supplements that have fat-burning or muscle-building benefits, like caffeine, creatineand protein shakes can be helpful but, as the name suggests, they should supplement a healthy diet, don’t substitute it, according to Asche.
“We have to tackle food first,” he said.
Beware of one-size-fits-all meal plans
Another common pitfall of popular diet programs is if they use the same menu for everyone, regardless of each individual’s unique goals, preferences, or circumstances.
“If you just walk in and they give you a meal plan, it’s not helpful,” Asche said.
Ideally, a dietitian or other qualified nutrition expert should review your current routine and offer advice on how to adjust it over time.
“I’d like to learn about what you’re doing right now to see where we can make improvements, little by little,” he said.
Eliminating certain foods or food groups can be harmful
It’s a bad sign if your diet requires you to eliminate or severely restrict any food or food category, including carbohydrates, sweets, or comfort foods.
You don’t need to cut anything out of a successful diet, but you should focus on balancing the foods you enjoy with nutrient-rich options, Asche said.
Banning foods could even make you have more cravings and less likely to stick to your diet. research suggests.
Strict rules about a diet are unnecessary and often harmful.
You don’t need to follow a diet precisely 100% of the time to be successful, and good diets allow for flexibility while keeping you mostly consistent with healthy habits.
For example, gastronomic magazines or calorie tracking Apps can be a useful tool for evaluating your eating habits, but they can become stressful or disruptive if taken to the extreme, according to Asche.
“It can be cool or it can be horrible and obsessive. You don’t need to use it to track every strawberry you put in your mouth,” he said.
As a result, you may want to steer clear of programs that make you feel guilty if you don’t meticulously record every bite of food, or have similarly inflexible rules that you can’t realistically uphold in your everyday life.
