3 Day Diet
One popular internet fad diet is called the “3-day diet“. The temporary nature of this diet lulls people into believing that it can’t really hurt them in such a short time, and this may be true, as far as general health goes. However, because this is essentially a “very low calorie diet“, it is almost guaranteed to add pounds to your butt and inches to your waistline. Before beginning this or any other low-calorie diet, you’d better go buy yourself a bigger pair of jeans.
Most website that discuss this diet give a list of foods that are allowed, and when you add up all the calories from the three different meals, it only comes to about 978 calories. This reduction in calories will put you into starvation mode almost immediately.
You’ll know your body is starving because you’ll feel cold, no matter how many sweaters you pile on. You will be lethargic, and won’t want to get out and do anything, even if you’ve planned it weeks in advance. You’ll probably dream about food, and pictures of food will dance in front of your eyes even when you’re awake. These are common symptoms of starvation, and most people who go on reduced-calorie diets will suffer from at least one of those symptoms.
Since the 3-day diet goes far beyond most prescription diets, and is close to what obesity experts consider a very low calorie diet (VLCD), the symptoms may be even more severe.
In fact, you’ll experience exactly the same symptoms if you just stop eating altogether and go on a fast, although most healthy people who go on medically-supervised water fasts get over these symptoms in two or three days, and then start feeling better.
If you stay on a starvation diet like the 3-day diet, however, the symptoms will just keep getting worse. You could even go into clinical depression, a common risk of low-calorie diets. (Both fasts and VLCDs should never be started without your doctor’s approval.)
The 3-day diet consists of grapefruit, toast, a small amount of peanut butter, very small portions of tuna and chicken, and some veggies and an apple for dinner. Oddly enough, the diet then calls for a cup of vanilla ice cream for dessert. The diet is very low in protein, and fairly high, percentage-wise, in refined carbohydrates. Fats come from the peanut butter and the ice cream.
Refined carbohydrates add fat to the body, and add little or no nutrition. By reducing the calories to starvation level but adding sugar and bread to the diet, this almost guarantees that you’ll have food cravings. This happens because you’ll get an insulin spike when you eat the carbs, and the extra insulin will sweep your bloodstream clear of glucose, or blood sugar. Most of it will end up in your fat cells, and won’t be available for other cells to use for fuel. That means you get even hungrier. And hungry people obsess about food.
When you obsess about food because your body is starving, you can only hold out against ‘cheating’ for a short amount of time. Even if you manage to stick with this diet for the full three days, it will be almost impossible to avoid bing eating as soon as the diet is over. This is a natural consequence of low-calorie diets, and is even worse with very-low-calorie diets like this one. Research studies done back in 1917 proved that the average dieter will end up 5 to 8 pounds heavier than they started within a week or two of ending the diet.
So, in this author’s opinion, the 3-day diet just isn’t a good idea, because it will make you miserable for three days, and it won’t work for permanent weight loss. If you really want to gain a few extra pounds, there are more enjoyable (and safer) ways to go about it. Since you really want to lose weight instead of gain it, find a wholesome, natural plan for slower, long-term weight loss, instead.
Filed Under Fad Diet |
Tagged With 3 day diet, dieting, Fad Diet, very low calorie diet
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