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Is there such a thing as a 3-day diet?
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| Yes | 37% | 196 votes | Total: 524 votes | |
| No | 63% | 328 votes |
Yes
by Kate Johns
Created on: March 24, 2008
Yes, there is such a thing as a three- day diet. While we're at it, there's a two-day diet, a one-day diet, or any amount of time- desired diet. Depending on how long a person is willing to take to lose weight is how long the diet will last. But what people are wondering is can a person lose the amount of weight they want in just three days?
Setting realistic goals and sticking to them will help a person lose the amount of weight they want to shed. Just about everyone can lose several pounds in just three days. The first couple of pounds everyone loses are water weight. Water weight is very easy to lose and can be done by eating much less than the usual daily amount and by drinking a lot of water.
People could probably lose five pounds in just three days by nearly starving themselves, drinking a lot of lemon water, or tea and exercising like crazy. One can always follow the routines of models of smoking cigarettes, not eating much, drinking water, and by using enemas. This is not a routine I would recommend to anyone, because people must eat to be healthy and using enemas for long periods of time creates dependence on them.
By losing weight in just a couple of days, usually its water weight that comes off first. Many women retain water, due to their monthly cycles, so it is normal for women to gain several pounds every month, and then lose those couple of pounds. So, technically, yes women can lose weight in just three days. Many times, there's about ten pounds of water weight to lose.
Men seem to lose weight faster than women. In medical studies done in the past, it has been found that women have more fat than men. Women have more fat to use when we have babies, to protect the baby in the uterus and to use the fat to make milk for the new arrival. Men, however have less fat, at least that's what they say, and lose weight faster than women. With little or no effort some men can lose a lot of weight in just one week, while women seem to struggle more.
While dieting the first few pounds are the easiest to lose. While the first ten pounds just melt off, the last ten will be the hardest to lose. Water weight comes off first, and is relatively easy to get rid of. A person can sweat water out of their bodies, if they want to go that route. But the last several pounds are the most difficult, because that is the fat that doesn't want to leave. That means a person must work out a lot more, and do more demanding workouts to lose those last few pounds.
A really good diet, that will help keep the weight off for a long time, is one that has to be planned and configured to a person's lifestyle, so that it will work. When a person wants to lose weight fast for that last minute date, or for an upcoming event, just drink a lot of water, eat less, and sweat it out. This way, one can lose a couple of pounds of water weight and get a slimmer stomach faster than traditional dieting methods.
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No
by Catherine Boudreau
Created on: May 20, 2010
The 3 day diet is a diet that proposes eating a specific meal plan consisting of 3 meals a day for 3 days. Foods range from eggs, bananas, ice cream, crackers, cheese, carrots, apples and other foods. Some minor substitutions are allowed but in general you must eat exactly what is on the list and in quantities mentioned for the diet to work. Many dieters report weight lost from a few pounds to 12 pounds or more after 3 days.
The average 175 pound individual with a sedentary lifestyle will burn around 2500 to 2750 calories daily. These calories are used to move around, digestion, body regulation, eating, driving to work, sleep and all other minimal daily activities. A person exercising will burn more calories daily than what is mentioned above. The scientific community agrees that 3500 calories amount to 1 pound. So to lose one pound of fat your body must burn 3500 calories. Most diets revolve around calorie counting, they estimate your daily calorie expenditure and subtract calories consumed to produce a deficit value for a given day. Every time a deficit of 3500 calories is achieved a pound of weight is lost.
Let’s go back to the 3 Day diet debate, let’s assume that an individual is fairly inactive and in the 3 days burns a total of 7500 calories and ate a total of 4000 calories. This would produce a deficit of 3500 which amounts to only 1 pound of weight loss. If the individual weighs more or is active the deficit will be greater. The question is how does a person lose 3 or even 12 pounds?
The answer is simple, the weight loss is not fat but actually water. Carbohydrates constitute the majority of calories in a typical diet and are used as the primary fuel source for energy metabolism. A low carbohydrate diet promotes water loss because the metabolism of consumed carbohydrates and the ones store in the body produce water. The initial weight loss on low carbohydrate diets such as the 3 day diet comes from loss of water and lean muscle tissue. Not many people realise this but 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilogram and 1 kilogram is 2.2 pounds. It is very easy for a person to be tricked into thinking that they lost a lot a weight in a few days but in fact they lost mainly water weight.
The 3 day diet does indeed make you lose weight if you weight yourself on scale before and after your diet you will see a difference. What you need to distinguish is between loss of water weight, loss of lean muscle mass and fat loss. You will be losing primarily water, then lean muscle and then fat. This is probably not the ideal solution for weight loss and you will gain the majority of the weight back once you start eating carbohydrates again. It is important to consult a doctor or a nutritionist before starting any extreme diet plan.
Learn more about this author, Catherine Boudreau.
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