Fad Diets: The Three Day Diet

by Lisa P | More from this Blogger

19 Sep 2007 05:58 AM

Please understand that although I don't recommend these fad diets, I do know that they exist. I'd like to address a few of them and explain exactly why they can be dangerous (and why they seem to work). The first I'd like to address is one that I'm all too familiar with, The Three Day Diet.

When I was a teen, I used this fad diet extensively. In fact, it is one of the many reasons why my metabolism got so out of whack and that I eventually managed to weigh over 260 pounds.

The Three Day Diet instructions are simple. You drink 4 glasses of water per day and can add any of the following seasonings/flavorings to your food: herbs, salt, pepper, lemon, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mustard and ketchup. The promise with this diet is that you'll lose ten pounds in three days.

On Day #1 you eat the following:

Breakfast: One cup of black coffee, 1/2 grapefruit, one slice of toast with one tablespoon peanut butter.

Lunch: 1/2 Cup of tuna, 1 sice of dry toast, one cup of black coffee

Dinner: 3 Oz lean meat, one cup each of green beans, carrots, vanilla ice cream, and one apple

On Day #2 you eat the following:

Breakfast: One cup of black coffee, one egg, 1/2 banana, one slice of dry toast

Lunch: One cup of cottage cheese or tuna and eight regular saltine crackers

Dinner: Two hot dogs, one cup of broccoli, ½ cup of carrots, 1/2 banana, ½ cup vanilla ice cream

On Day #3 you eat the following:

Breakfast: Coffee, 5 saltines, one oz cheddar cheese, one apple

Lunch: One boiled egg, one slice of dry toast, black coffee

Dinner: One cup each of tuna, carrots, cauliflower, melon, and 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

The problem with this diet is that it requires you to consume a very low number of total calories in a single day. It is, effectively a starvation diet. If you spend too much time on starvation diets (diets that require you to consume less than 1200 calories per day), your metabolism will adjust and slow down as part of a lifesaving measure and your body will consume it's stores of protein (muscle) and fat in order to get enough calories to survive. Unfortunately, the fat stores are not the first to go.

The good things about this diet are:

1. It uses grapefruit which has been proven to be a fat fighter and

2. It allows you a little ice cream which has an excellent psychological effect in that it makes a dieter feel as though they aren't being as deprived as they would feel without it.

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Learn more about Lisa P

Lisa used to be a freelance writer and Community Manager for Families.com, but she has finally made the jump to novelist.

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