What is the best diet for weight loss?

Flexitarianism is the best way to lose weight

Question: What is the best diet for weight loss?
Position1 of 6›: Eliminating animal products is the best way to lose weight
Argument‹3 of 3: Flexitarianism is the best way to lose weight

A primarily plant-based diet cutting out meat where you can help to sustainably lose weight. Animal products are consumed in moderation which contributes to weight loss in a way that other diets do not.

The argument

The Flexitarian Diet is a semi-vegetarian style of eating that encourages less meat and more plant-based foods. There are no specific rules or suggestions, making it an appealing option for people who are looking to cut back on animal products without committing to eliminating them. While this is more of a lifestyle change rather than a strict diet, it is possible to measure weight loss effects, so the absence of rules does not put it beyond assessment. The acts of cutting out meat when possible, eating fewer animal products, and focusing on healthy carbohydrates and proteins are proven ways to lose weight, assuming the dieter is exercising regularly. The argument is careful about what is doing the work here, because the substitution matters as much as the reduction. Decreasing meat consumption while continuing to eat refined foods with lots of added sugar and salt will not lead to the same benefits — a diet is not improved simply by removing something from it, but by what replaces it. So long as a flexitarian limits high-calorie processed foods, it can be expected that lifestyle changes will result in weight loss. The claim to be the best approach rests on sustainability rather than on speed. This lifestyle change is easy and simple for people who want to become healthier or lose weight but not put in tons of effort, and a pattern of eating that asks little is one a person is likely to keep. A stricter regime may achieve more while it is followed, but the flexitarian approach is offered as the one most people can actually maintain.

Premises

[P1]The flexitarian diet cuts back on meat and emphasises plant-based foods and healthy carbohydrates and proteins, which are proven to aid weight loss when paired with regular exercise. [P2] Because it has no strict rules and is an easy lifestyle change, flexitarianism is sustainable for people unwilling to follow a rigid diet. [C] So long as high-calorie processed foods are limited, flexitarianism is the best way to lose weight.

Counter-arguments

Because this diet is so lax, it is difficult to keep up with. Flexitarianism has no set rules and recommendations for people so it can be easy for them to slip back into their old eating habits, or barely see any weight loss results. It is difficult for a person to see true health improvements or weight loss while trying this diet.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise concedes the mechanism away, since the weight loss it describes is conditioned on regular exercise and on limiting high-calorie processed foods — which is to say on an energy deficit that any of the competing diets in this debate could also produce, leaving nothing specific to reducing animal products. [Rejecting P2] Having no rules is presented as an advantage for adherence, but it is equally the reason there is nothing definite to adhere to; and a diet defined only as eating somewhat less meat cannot be compared with the alternatives, still less shown to be the best of them.