Understanding 3 Major Framework in Diet and Comparing 3 Diets

Diet and nutrition are terms often used interchangeably, but they refer to distinct concepts in the context of health and wellness. Both play important roles in maintaining overall well-being, yet understanding their differences can help individuals make informed choices about their lifestyle and eating habits.

What Is Diet?

Diet refers to the types of food and beverages that a person habitually consumes. It encompasses the specific eating patterns, choices, and routines that an individual or group follows. A diet might be influenced by personal preferences, cultural traditions, religious beliefs, health conditions, or goals such as weight loss.

• Examples of diets include vegetarian, vegan, carnivore, gluten-free, ketogenic, and many others.

• Diet describes what is eaten, how much is eaten, and when it is eaten.

What Is Nutrition?

Nutrition refers to the process by which living organisms obtain and utilize food substances to support life and health. It focuses on how the body uses nutrients—like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals—from food to perform vital functions such as growth, energy production, repair, and disease prevention.

• Nutrition is about the quality of nutrients and their impact on bodily functions.

• Good nutrition ensures the body gets what it needs for optimal health.

3 Main Framework in Diet

When you look at any diet, they all have 3 main frameworks.  Calorie restriction, dietary restrictions, and time restrictions. Depending on diet, you may be focusing on 1 or combination of 3.

First is calorie restriction which, refers to managing how many calories you will need to consume relative to your goal and your current condition.

Second is dietary restriction which, refers to regulating what food source to eliminate.  Majority of popular diets such as low-carb, low-fat, vegan, carnivore fall into this category where there is a restriction for what you can eat and what you should eliminate.

Third is time restriction which, refers to managing the time of feeding.  Intermittent fasting falls into this category.  Even eating 3 meals a day with specific fasting duration between each meal is also a time restriction.

5 Non-Negotiables in Any Diet

From personal trainer perspective, there are 5 non-negotiables in any diet:

1. Energy Balance - Energy balance is balancing how much energy you spend on daily basis and how much energy you consume through your diet.  Whether your goal is weight management or performance enhancement, if your energy balance is off, you may not lose weight or may not recover properly, and performance may suffer.  With 70% of U.S. population being overweight we can say that majority of the population are experiencing positive energy balance where the body must store extra energy in their body in a form of fat.  This energy may come from food or beverages such as sodas and alcohol.

2. Metabolic Health - Metabolic health refers to choice of food.  Let’s say you are on carnivore diet with proper caloric intake but only consuming burger patties from fast food restaurants or all calories are coming from alcohol or candies.  You may be able to have “normal” weight but your metabolic health, including hormonal balance and blood chemistry will not be at optimal.   

3. Sufficient Protein - Muscle loss is huge health concern today and condition called sarcopenia (death of muscles) are seen in not only in elder population but also in people in 30s.  We also know that quality of life declines as muscle loss progresses.  This is due to lack of physical activities but also low consumption of protein. Protein is needed for muscle protein synthesis.  1.6-2g of protein per kg of weight per day is non-negotiable for any diet, which is doable with combination of your diet and supplements.

4. Sufficient Micronutrients - Micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, are often overlooked since most populations are focusing more on macronutrients which include carbohydrates, fat, and protein.  However, without proper intake of micronutrients, optimal metabolic health may not be able to attain.  This is also can be managed by your diet and supplements.

5. Long Term Adherence - The “perfect” diet is useless if it cannot be followed in long term.  Diet should be planned according to the individual’s lifestyle and social environment.  Long-term adherence and social sustainability need to be met for the successful diet plan.

Comparing 3 Popular Diets

Ketogenic Diet

Unique about Ketogenic Diet is it is defined by a metabolic state rather than food choices.  In other words, major focus of Ketogenic Diet is to manage the diet to have the body produce more ketone bodies by metabolizing fat from both body and food.  To do so, restricting the carbohydrate to below 50g/day is suggested.

Ketogenic Diet has been reported to have positive benefits in weight loss, blood sugar control, reduced inflammation, improved energy and so on.

Ketogenic Diet should be done with whole food.  Lower quality food Ketogenic Diet tends to lead into issues such as lipid abnormalities such as high LDL.  Other issues can be protein in capped at around 140-150g/day, therefore, building muscles for some people may become a challenge. 

Carnivore Diet

Carnivore diet is animal-based diet which includes meat, fish, eggs, and animal fats.  It can become keto diet but that is not the main goal for this diet.  This diet can be done well or poorly, depending on the quality of the food.  If diet consists of hot dog or fast-food burger patties then it is technically a carnivore but very unhealthy.

People who follow this diet tend to be concerned about the toxicity of the plant.  Others are due to relief from chronic conditions such as autoimmune, inflammatory bowel, skin conditions and so forth.

Few of the strength about this diet is easy to attain protein requirements and it is highly satiating.  Therefore, calorie restriction is somewhat easy to attain.

Weakness of this diet can be elevation of LDL, which can be more than Ketogenic Diet and can be very costly since you will be looking for high quality sources.

Vegan Diet

Vegan diet is completely opposite of Carnivore diet.  Vegan diet consists of excluding all animal-derived food sources and ingredients such as meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, whey, honey and so on.

Those who follow Vegan diet usually have 3 beliefs, health-based, environmental and ethical.  Health-based belief is that consuming animal produces are harmful to the individual.  Environmental belief concerns the safety of our planet due to industrialized animal products.  Ethical belief is cruel to be consuming animal products.

Strength of correctly followed Vegan diet (whole food focused, no processed food) can be less calorie dense than animal food so easier for weight management.  Because of high fiber diet, colon heath and immune function can be improved.

Weakness is because of no animal-based food protein amount and quality is harder to attain, however, it can be managed by protein supplements.  Certain micronutrients, such as vitamin B12, iron, calcium, Omega 3, can also be deficient so will need to be supplemented.

Understanding Application

We all need to eat to have our body function so that we can accomplish the task. I've only shared 3 diet but there are other diet that can be implemented. All these diets are just a guide. Of course through studies we learned that they can help people with certain conditions including weight management, blood sugar management, colon health, high cholesterol, skin problem and so on. However, there is no such thing as perfect diet. What has been working for me may not work well for you. What has been working for me today may not be sufficient next year because my body is changing through training.

If possible, it is ideal to be flexible with your diet based on your needs. Certain restriction may be appropriate for the health and fitness goal you may currently have. But once you achieve that goal, the diet may need to change for further improvement.

Certain diet has deficiency in certain nutrients as mentioned earlier. If you will be on specific diet for long-term it is critical to understand the deficiencies and way to supplement so that you can improve your health and performance.

Kota Shimada