Healthy Diet Options for Men: By Age, Health and Goals

Did you know that your biological sex plays a role in weight loss? Differences in body composition, metabolism and even sociocultural gender factors influence everything from your food preferences and eating habits to how much weight men lose compared to women.¹ To make choosing a diet even more complicated, there's also your age to consider as nutritional needs and health concerns change throughout your life.

To help you choose the right diet plan or weight loss program, we've rounded up the best diets for men at every age — whether you're looking to lose weight, gain muscle, improve your health or all of the above.

Diet for Overall Health: Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet isn't a specific diet, though you can find many books and websites dedicated to meal plans on this way of living that's based on the traditional eating habits of people in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

This style of eating fits into the healthy dietary patterns recommended by major health authorities, including the American Heart Association² and the World Health Organization (WHO).³ Year after year, it continues to top the best diet lists.³

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet can help prevent stroke by reducing risk factors, including obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. This way of eating, which is traditionally rich in virgin olive oil, may even help remove excess cholesterol from arteries and keep blood vessels open.²

A Mediterranean diet is one that:²

• Emphasizes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and beans
• Includes fish, poultry and low- or no-fat dairy products
• Includes nuts and non-tropical oils, primarily olive oil
• Limits sugary beverages, highly processed foods, saturated fats, refined carbohydrates and fatty meats

Mediterranean diet pros and cons

Diet for Weight Loss: Intermittent Fasting

Experts have long considered the best diet for weight loss to be a calorie-restricted diet. While counting calories and exercising is pretty much a surefire way to lose weight, a 2020 review of 27 studies showed intermittent fasting to be just as effective as a calorie-restricted diet. Participants lost between 0.8% and 13% of their body weight with no adverse effects reported.⁴

Intermittent fasting is less about what to eat and more about when you eat. By eating during a specific time period, you end up consuming fewer calories without having to track or count. It works because after hours without food, your body exhausts its sugar stores and begins burning fat.

There are a few different approaches to intermittent fasting, with one of the more popular options being the 16/8 method.⁵ To do this, you would:

• Eat only during an eight-hour period and fast for 16 hours — for example, eating only between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day.

• Consume only calorie-free beverages during your 16 fasting hours, such as water, tea and black coffee.

Intermittent fasting pros and cons

Commercial Weight Loss Program: WW (Formerly Weight Watchers)

If you feel like you need some extra support when it comes to your weight loss goals, WW (formerly Weight Watchers) may be the solution. A 2022 clinical trial found that people who used the WW program lost more than twice the weight of people who tried to lose weight on their own. The participants had access to the program's app, coaching and workshops and other tools. The findings suggest that not having to self-monitor may lead to clinically significant weight loss.⁶

The WW plan is based on points. Here's how it works:⁶

• Food and drinks have assigned point values per portion, with more than 200 foods that are zero points.
• You're given a daily personal points budget to stay within.
• Zero points foods don't count toward your points budget.
• The plan includes access to the app to easily track your points, water consumption, activity and more.
• Depending on the plan version you choose, you can also access in-person and/or online community support and one-on-one expert coaching to help you stay on track.

You have different monthly plans to choose from, ranging from $15 to $23 per month. The longer you sign up for, the more savings you can take advantage of. They also run regular promotions for additional savings.⁷

WW (formerly Weight Watchers) pros and cons

Diet for Muscle Gain: Plant-Based

Gone are the days of digging into a huge steak or chugging egg whites to get the protein needed for bulking up. You can get all the calories, macros and protein you need from a plant-based diet while also reaping the proven benefits of eating less meat.⁸

A plant-based diet is not a specific diet plan or program, nor is it vegetarian or vegan. It's a lifestyle that emphasizes eating primarily plant-based foods and limiting or eliminating animal products from your diet as you choose. Some people cut out all animal products; some choose to include only eggs and dairy, while others cut out red meat but still eat fish and poultry.

If you're looking to build muscle and lose fat on a plant-based diet, you'd still aim for the recommended amount of protein you would with a regular diet, which is 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound that you want to achieve.⁸

Protein powders are one way to get more protein on a plant-based diet. You can also choose protein-rich foods, such as:⁹

• Beans, lentils, chickpeas and peas
• Nuts and nut butters
• Seeds
• Quinoa
• Tofu

Working with a trainer and/or nutritionist may be worth considering if you'd like extra guidance on eating to gain muscle and how to meet your nutritional needs with less or no meat.

Plant-based diet pros and cons

Diet for Heart Health: DASH Diet

DASH is short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The diet was designed to help treat and prevent high blood pressure, which puts you at risk of heart disease and stroke — the two leading causes of death in the United States.¹⁰

It lowers blood pressure by reducing the amount of sodium, added sugars and saturated fats, and including foods rich in potassium, magnesium and calcium, which help control blood pressure. The diet also helps lower cholesterol — another major risk factor for heart disease and stroke — and has been shown to help manage type 2 diabetes, improve celiac and liver disease and reduce the risk of colorectal and other cancers. It can also help with weight management.¹¹

Along with lowering your daily serving of sodium, the DASH diet promotes eating low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, lean meats, low-fat dairy and non-starchy carbohydrates, such as whole grains, beans and legumes.¹¹

DASH diet pros and cons

Diet for Men in Their 20s, 30s and 40s: Whole Foods Diet

A whole foods diet isn't a specific diet plan per se. It's a way of eating that focuses on foods that are as close to their natural state as possible, as well as avoiding overly processed foods, which often remove nutrients and add in high amounts of sugar and salt.¹²

Eating mostly whole foods or minimally processed foods is a flexible way to get healthy and set yourself up for long-term good health. This way of eating is in keeping with the recommendations for young adults, which involves choosing to consume foods and drinks high in nutrients and limited in sugars and sodium.¹³

It's also less restrictive than keeping to a specific diet plan, which can make it easier to follow through this stage of life when most are busy with school, work and activities, or are starting or raising a family.

Here's what to eat on a whole foods diet:¹²

• Fruits and vegetables, including canned and frozen without additives like sugar
• Whole grains, such as brown rice and oats
• Milk and minimally processed dairy, like yogurt and regular cheese
• Beans, seeds and nuts
• Meat, seafood and poultry

Some tips that can help you follow a whole foods diet:¹²

• Read labels and avoid products with a lot of ingredients that aren't easily recognizable.
• Avoid foods that are high in sugar, sodium and saturated fats.
• If you're eating out, avoid fast food.
• When grocery shopping, start on the outside aisles, which is where most whole foods are located.

Whole foods diet pros and cons

Diet for Men Over 50: MIND Diet

The Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND diet, is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet.¹⁴ While a healthy diet is important throughout all stages of life, the risk of chronic disease increases with age. The MIND diet targets the health of the aging brain and has been shown to protect against cognitive decline and dementia better than each of the two diets independently. It also offers the benefits of the Mediterranean and DASH diets when it comes to heart health and a lower risk of diabetes and certain cancers.¹⁵

The MIND diet involves eating the suggested number of servings deemed healthy and unhealthy. While the focus of the diet is keeping the brain and body healthy, the emphasis on eating more greens and lean meats can result in some weight loss, especially if you're careful with portion size.¹⁵

Healthy foods include:¹⁵

• Leafy greens
• Whole grains
• Vegetables (other than leafy greens)
• Berries
• Nuts
• Beans
• Fish and poultry
• Olive oil

Unhealthy foods include:¹⁵

• Sweets and pastries
• Fried foods
• Cheese
• Butter or margarine
• Red meat

MIND diet pros and cons

Before Starting a Diet

It's important to speak with your doctor before making a drastic change to your diet. While these diets are highly reviewed and considered safe and effective for most men, they may not be right for you if you're on medication or have an existing medical condition.

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Author Bio

Adrienne Santos-Longhurst is a writer who has been covering health and lifestyle for almost two decades. Her work has appeared in Healthline, Insider, Medical News Today, and more.