Monday, February 2, 2009

The 3 Day Diet Is It Right For You

By Cathy Maree

The 3 Day Diet dates back to 1985 and today can be found all over the Internet and on book store shelves. The three day diet and its variants promise quick weight loss, a cleansing of the system, lower cholesterol and increased energy all through a specific metabolic reaction that no version of the diet has ever explained.

The diet is to be followed for only 3 days, with an off period of generally 5 days in between diet times. All the versions of this diet share in common difficult steps that must be followed and foods that must be eaten in order for the diet to work. What better way to blame the dieter when it doesn't work than you botched the formula.

Breakfast on the very first day comes with a cup of coffee (no sugar), one half a grapefruit, and a slice of toast with one tablespoon peanut butter. For lunch, you are allowed a can of tuna, a slice of toast, and black coffee. For dinner it's 3ozs of lean meat or chicken, one cup of green beans, one cup of carrots, one apple, and one cup of regular vanilla ice cream.

The next two days of the 3 day diet are pretty similar in meal quantity, though the specifics change, for example Day 2 recommends two beef franks for dinner in place of 3ozs of lean meat. Supposedly it's viable to lose as much as 10lbs in only three days.

Hogwash is the answer. The issue is what is a specific reaction to that claim? As stated the metabolic reaction has never been examined much less proven. Any weight loss would be mostly water loss due to a lack of carbohydrates in the body which help the body to hold the water that we all need. At the end of the day this can lead to dehydration which is not desirable for our bodies to function correctly.

Because of binge eating after such starvation and because most of the weight lost is from water, the weight will rapidly return after the three days. Deprive the body of water in three day cycles enough times and a person could develop kidney damage, dehydration, or a host of other dangerous conditions.

If something sounds too good to be true it is. The 3 day diet sounds too good to be true. - 15343

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