The year 2017 belong to keto. People were scouring the internet, wanting to know more about the diet that lets you eat all the fats in the world. The curiosity was sustained even in 2018, as keto became one of the most-searched diets in 2018. But apart from keto, certain other diets also piqued the internet’s curiosity. Veeramachaneni diet, Noom diet and Optavia diet also figured in 2018’s most-googled lists.

Veeramachaneni Diet

In the last 12 months, Veeramachaneni diet or VRK diet was among the most-googled, with searches peaking in July 2018. The diet is the brainchild of Veeramachaneni Ramakrishna Rao, an accountant and a self-styled dietician who has no background in nutrition or dietetics. According to Food Advice Online, Veeramachaneni’s own experience with diabetes led to the creation of the diet. What is Ketogenic Diet? 5 FAQs Answered By An Expert.

The diet is carried out in two phases – the liquid phase and the solid phase. In the liquid phase, you consume 70-100 gm of fat a day with 4 litres of water and multivitamin tablets.

In the solid phase, you start with warm lemon water, eggs for breakfast, curry for lunch, soup for dinner and a vegetable salad as a snack. Foods like white rice, whole wheat, sugar, white bread and fruit are completely avoided.

Despite similarities to keto, Ramakrishna tells India Today that he’s never heard of the diet before. Strangely, he also abbreviates his special diet as K.E.T.O.

Carnivore Diet

Carnivore diet or the caveman diet is the antithesis of veganism. As the name suggests, the mainstay of the diet is meat. You eat all kinds of meat products like chicken, beef, lamb, pork and fish, along with fresh fruits and vegetables. The idea is to eat like how the carnivores or the primitive men did. Can Swapping Vegan Diet For The Carnivore Diet Help You Lose Weight And Improve Your Sex Life?

And as you’ve rightly guessed, there’s no room for sugar, refined flour, grains, legumes and dairy in the carnivore diet because cavemen didn’t eat those. The diet was introduced and popularised by surgeon Shawn Baker who eats a pound of steak and no plant-based food every day.

Vertical Diet

Another one of this year’s most-googled diets is the vertical diet, founded by Stan Efferding American IFBB professional bodybuilder and a powerlifter. According to the diet’s founder, the vertical diet is a “performance-based nutritional framework” which is based on highly bioavailable micronutrients and easily-digestible macronutrients made to suit the body’s requirements.

It’s called the vertical diet because the diet works like the inverted letter T. The bottom of the vertical is made of micronutrients, which should be consumed in moderation and the vertical part of the T, which is the majority of the diet, should be made of rice and meat.

If you are looking to lose weight on the vertical diet, it’s time you looked elsewhere. It’s made especially for athletes, who want to gain more bulk and muscle, not for those who want to get lean. The diet aims to improve digestion and bioavailability of food, and often involves a lot of carbs.

OMAD Diet

OMAD is an acronym that stands for One Meal A Day. No prize for guessing how many meals you need to eat on OMAD. The diet is based on intermittent fasting to cause weight loss and boost physical performance. The intermittent fasting schedule aims for a 23:1 fasting ratio, where you eat all the required calories for the day in one meal, in an hour. During the rest of the day, you fast.

If you feel hunger pangs during the middle of the day, you can indulge in low-calorie beverages like green tea or black coffee. The benefits of the diet are like those of intermittent fasting.

Pegan Diet

If you want to reap the benefits of the paleo diet but have vegan ethics, then pegan is the diet for you. First introduced by Dr Mark Hyman in 2015, the pegan is a high protein, plant-based diet, which combines the best of both the diets.

To eat a pegan diet, you need to keep away from sugar and eat mostly vegetables, like the cavemen did. Dr Hyman does recommend staying away from fruits and GMO foods and increasing the consumption of healthy fats like virgin coconut oil or coconut butter. What’s The Difference Between Vegetarianism and Veganism?

Gundry Diet

The Gundry diet of the Gundry Diet Strategy is founded by Dr Stephen Gundry. It’s based on the subversion of our normal dietary practices. According to gundrymd.com, the “first pillar” of the Gundry diet comprises good fats and approved oils like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, walnut oil, sesame oil, coconut oil, avocados, etc. Gundry diet also recommends fresh produce like cruciferous vegetables and leafy greens, nuts, coconut flour and almond flour. Among grains, the diet favours eating sorghum and millet. It also recommends eating resistant starches like plantains.

No refined starches, sugars and sweeteners (honey, agave, maple syrup or aspartame), legumes, soy, dairy or oilseeds are allowed in the Gundry. You can enjoy a glass of wine once or twice a week though.

Dubrow Diet

The Dubrow diet is described as "a diet where you can eat the foods you like to eat. And you also get to cheat on this diet. It's not like those other diets. Keto diet is the best example," by the co-founder Terry Dubrow to The Feast. If this isn’t a promise, we don’t know what is. But what’s the catch?

Dubrow diet is also known as interval eating or eating in three phases that allow rapid weight loss. Which means, you cannot eat at all times but at certain times of the day.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 12, 2018 04:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).