3 Day Diet
From LoveToKnow Diet
The 3-Day Diet is an excellent example of the dangerous extremes to which people who are desperate to lose weight will go to achieve their goals. Also known as the "fax diet" or the "ice-cream diet," this is one of the worst possible fad diets: a calorie-restricted meal plan providing little nutrition and no sustainable weight loss.
What Is the Plan?
There are numerous variations of the actual menu plan, but all of them restrict daily calorie intake to about 1000 calories total. Following is a sample menu for one day.
- Breakfast: 5 saltines, 1 oz. low-fat cheese, 1 apple, coffee or tea with artificial sweetener
- Lunch: 1 boiled egg, 1 slice dry toast, coffee or tea with artificial sweetener
- Supper: 1 cup each water-packed tuna, carrots, cauliflower, and melon, 1/2 cup low-fat vanilla ice cream
Other rules include drinking at least 4 glasses of water or diet drink each day, and no fat may be consumed. According to the instructions, the diet should be followed for only 3 days, followed by at least four days of normal eating.
What Are the Claims?
The 3-Day Diet claims to help a person lose up to ten pounds in three days, with claims that some people have lost 40 pounds in one month.
How Does It Work?
According to one version, this regime works by taking advantage of the chemical breakdown of certain foods by the body. The truth is that the severe calorie restriction and the extremely low quantities of refined carbohydrate of the 3-Day Diet act to release retained water and to reduce muscle mass. Thus, you lose primarily water and muscle, but not fat.
Is the 3-Day Diet Safe?
The human body is amazingly resilient, and if one were able to follow the three day meal plan to the letter, the body could probably handle it without suffering too much harm -- once. But repeated or sustained use could cause serious harm as the body is plunged into and out of starvation rations, bouncing weight up and down like any other yo-yo diet, and straining the body's systems to run on far too little fuel. Even if this were not the case, losing ten pounds in a week, or 40 in a month, is no more healthy for the body than the severe calorie restriction and severe fluctuations in weight.
Safer Alternatives
If you want to lose weight safely, you must be prepared to be patient. It isn't safe to lose more than a pound a week, generally. Follow a plan recommended by your physician, or one of the many excellent and balanced weight loss plans like the Mediterranean guidelines or the Sonoma strategy. Include sufficient excercise to burn calories, and be sure to drink at least 64 ounces of water daily. It's no miracle, and it's not going to work in three days, but it is far safer and far better for you -- and it will deliver sustainable weight loss.
Related Diet Links
Comments
Hi Wigberto,
The current American Heart Association Diet is different from the one you describe. They may have updated it. You might contact them directly or try their new dieting guidelines.
-- Contributed by: Donna SundbladLooking for the diet plan American Heart Assc. has: three days on, one day off, no snacks in between meals and only coffee or water with meal. I used it before and it worked for me. How can i get a copy?
-- Contributed by: wigberto reyesThis page has been accessed 6,508 times. This page was last modified 02:38, 18 April 2007.
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