Health & Fitness >
Diet Programs
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs there such a thing as a 3-day diet?
Results so far:
| Yes | 34% | 90 votes | Total: 266 votes | |
| No | 66% | 176 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesThere is indeed a three day diet and it works! It is one of the newest diets to come out in our never ending quest to find the perfect means of losing weight and it is designed to make diet easier! You will lose weight because anytime you diet, you reduce your calorie intake, and you will therefore lose weight. The beauty of this new diet plan is that it also increases your chances of dieting success.
This new method of dieting is based on a system known as calorie shifting. Also referred to as cycling calories, it is a diet that bases its success on its ability to prevent the dreaded 'diet plateau' from occurring, therefore increasing the likelihood that a dieter will be successful in their weight loss plan.
Almost everyone is well aware of 'hitting the wall' or 'plateauing' when dieting. It occurs when your body figures out that it is losing weight, under the assumption that it could be starving your metabolism kicks into a protectionist stance, and does everything in its power to prevent the body from losing any more weight. Your metabolism slows down and your body starts making better use of the calories that it does intake. In other words, despite the fact that you continue to diet, you stop losing weight. Most dieters get very frustrated during this period and just give up!
For the three day diet you decide how many calories you would like to intake on your diet days and you begin your diet. Your regular food intake can be reduced by 500 to 1000 calories or you can choose a more drastic weight loss program and drop to a virtual fast during this diet period (existing on soup and juices for three days). You select the structure of your three day diet plan and once your three days are complete, then you go back to your regular food intake for a week, two weeks or till you once again decide that it is time to return to your three day diet regimen. You alternate your three day diet with regular food intake till you lose the degree of weight that you wish to. You choose the schedule that you would like to follow and the degree of dieting that you would like to do during your three day diet period. You have only to be careful not to overeat on the days that you return to your regular food intake levels.
The beauty of the three day diet is that it tricks the body into believing that everything is actually okay. Before your body has a chance to figure out that you are losing weight, you are back on a regular eating program, and have in essence avoided the dreaded diet plateau that would have occurred if you had continued on the diet. You maintain the weight that you have lost during that three day period, and when you decide that it is time once again to schedule another three day diet, you will add that weight loss to your previous one. Your body allows the weight loss to occur because it has been effectively tricked into believing that the weight loss is a natural one. It is done on such a gradual level that it is considered acceptable and no defense mechanisms go into play. You are then allowed to choose how much weight you want to lose, and you get to lose it without your body fighting your every attempt, losing weight is easier!
The three day diet plan does work! However, as with all alternative therapies, before beginning any diet speak to a trusted health professional to insure that you are well enough to participate in the weight loss program that you are considering.
Learn more about this author, Lady Mermaid.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
Sure, there are plenty of three day diets available to the eager, overweight Americans who are looking for a quick way to lose those excess pounds and then have the rest of the week to enjoy what they want. The question here is,do they work? NO! In case you couldn't tell, that is an emphatic no. And here is why.
I'm not being stereotypical here,but I feel that more women than men are attracted to these quick fixes because we are more prone to letting our weight control our self esteem. I know because I lived the first thirty years of my life as an obese American. It is especially hard when you're a teenage girl who is watching all your other classmates walking hand in hand down the hall with the handsome football star or the Prom King,wishing it was you,but knowing that unless your outer beauty is revealed through weight loss,it never will be.
Fast forward to young adulthood,the best time in a person's life,when you should be looking for Mr. Right. All of your friends are starting to settle down and you have a hard time being asked out on a date because nobody finds you attractive enough. These scenarios are not make believe and are not the minority. They are the majority and these are the people that these three day diets appeal to the most. They are desperate for quick results,so they buy the magazine with the large ad on the front page,promising an 8 pound weight loss in a week. Inside they find the three day diet. And here is how it works.
It cuts you down to a mere 1200 calories a day for three days,and then when you go back to eating your normal caloric intake for the next four days,your metabolism is "tricked" so to speak,therefore resulting in faster weight loss. It is called metabolic cycling. The real "trick" here,is being able to stick to the 1200 calorie diet plan for three days. If you're already obese,chances are you're eating unhealthy foods that puts your intake well into the 1800's or more. So to eat a slice of whole grain toast and an apple for breakfast or one cup of tuna and a hard boiled egg for lunch,even if it's just for three days,is kind of unrealistic. Not only that,but by the time the fourth day comes around,you're going to feel so deprived that you will be at high risk for over indulgence. That blows what you have just done for the past three days out the window. Metabolic cycling works only if you eat sensibly the remainder of the week.
I have personally tried every single quick fix to losing weight that there is from the time I was 16 years old. This has included the Atkins diet,Deal-a Meal,diet pills prescribed by my doctor,and over the counter diet pills. Nothing,and I mean absolutely nothing,worked while I was in desperation mode. That is why these three day diets DO NOT WORK! You have to be mentally AND physically ready to make the necessary life changes before you can lose weight and keep it off. You have to KNOW that you are WORTH it,no matter what the scale might say. DO NOT be fooled by quick answers to a problem that didn't occur overnight. If you change your eating habits,even if it by the process of exchanging one bad habit for one good each week,I promise you that the weight WILL come off. And it will happen before you realize it. This is the only true way to change your body's composition.
Learn more about this author, Mary Bubbins.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
