The BEST Diet for YOU in 2024: It’s NOT What You Think
I have been working with elite athletes for more than 40 years. The majority of the physical fitness part of programming doesn’t change that much whether you want to become a world champion in a specific sport or be able to pick up your great grandkids. However, the nutrition side is quite different.
One of the most common responses to, “What’s the best diet for me?” is—the one you will follow. I know that may sound like a copout, but it’s true.
Previously, I discussed tips for setting New Year’s resolutions. For as long as I can remember, the top five resolutions for the majority of people haven’t changed. According to a recent post on Forbes.com, the top five New Year’s resolutions for 2024 are:
- Improve fitness (48%)
- Improve finances (38%)
- Improve mental health (36%)
- Lose weight (34%)
- Improve diet (32%)
In my book, Real Questions Unreal Results, I talk about how to improve all these, but as this is a health and fitness column, I want to focus on the non-financial resolutions.
If you ‘improve [your] diet’ you will likely ‘lose weight,’ ‘improve [your] mental health,’ and ‘improve [your] fitness.’ It sounds like a win-win-win-win situation, huh? But how do you improve your diet?
First of all, although I am certified sports and exercise nutritionist, I am not a registered dietician and therefore cannot provide specific diets.
Before you decide what ‘diet’ is best for you to follow, please keep in mind that a ‘diet’ is not an eating program solely to lose weight. According to Britannica.com, diet is “the kind and amount of food that a person eats for a certain reason (such as to improve health or to lose weight).” Therefore, EVERYONE is on a diet—even if you’re fasting—ALL the time!
Not everyone wants a diet to lose weight. I am sure there are many junior and senior high school athletes out there who, just like me 45 years ago, want to add some (lean) bodyweight. From 1979 to 1982 I continued to refine my diet and training going from 120 pounds to 150 pounds; I also competed in my first deadlift competition in 1982 and lifted 455 pounds at a little less than 150 pounds with less body fat than when I graduated from high school in 1979!
So, what is the best diet for you? Yes, it’s one that you will follow, but the one key question to ask is, ‘What is my goal(s)?’ As I mentioned, I cannot prescribe an exact diet for anyone, but here are the three types of diets I follow (depending on my personal goals):
- Body composition
- Optimal performance
- (Brain) Health and longevity
As I prepare for a competition, I am extremely concerned about my body composition (total bodyweight, body fat, lean mass, and water weight). For most people, they are concerned with total body weight and possibly their BMI (body mass index). For athletes competing in specific weight classes, like myself, the goal is to always ‘make weight.’ I also think people need to focus on optimizing their body composition, more than just losing weight, as well as the duration (maintenance).
Optimal performance isn’t restricted to athletic competitions. If I’m preparing to write or study all day, I need to fuel my body AND mind accordingly. If I’m preparing to practice archery or if I’m driving or flying all day, that requires a certain diet as well.
A few years ago, I completed a certification for ‘senior fitness leader.’ The course also included a certification as a ‘brain health trainer.’ I have always been interested in cognitive science and how to optimize mental performance, but the course really opened my eyes to recent developments in dementia and other age-related illnesses (mental and physical).
Undoubtedly, the most eye-opening moment came when I learned that dementia and other age-related mental diseases aren’t restricted to the elderly. My research revealed how early-onset dementia or Alzheimer’s can occur to people in their 40s. However, even more astonishing is that a person’s lifestyle 20-30 years prior can have a tremendous impact on whether they develop dementia!
Think about that for a minute…also, there are more than 55M cases of dementia worldwide and 10M new cases each year! That’s one new case every three seconds…or, about 70 new cases just while you read this article!
In future articles I will delve more into the world of diets and how they impact your mental and physical health.
