by David Chaproniere

Created on: December 24, 2007

Tap "3 day diet" and "three day diet" into Google, and you will find a combined total of 818,900 links to this fad. It stands to reason, therefore, that there certainly is such a thing as the 3-day diet on that basis alone.

Yet like pretty much all popular diets, it is merely a fad, a quick way to lose some weight - most of it water - through substantially fewer calories than the recommended daily allowance. It is, like pretty much all popular diets, a "yo-yo" diet, one that regardless of the time period during which one follows the diet and the amount of weight lost, will almost certainly see the pounds pile back on once the target weight is reached.

No doubt many people struggling with their weight will be interested in such a diet, but one has to question exactly what does it promise? That a once 320-pound woman will look fantastic in a swimsuit after just three days? That a once 384-pound guy will find himself desired by slim, beautiful women (or men, if that's his thing)? Utterly unrealistic, of course. So who is this diet aimed at?

Apart from those with a few extra pounds who need to fit into that little black dress for the office Christmas party, or the Speedos that have been tucked away in the bottom drawer since last summer and need resurrecting for a Caribbean cruise, the 3-day diet serves no real purpose whatsoever. One can only ponder on the unhealthy alternatives, which in all likelihood some fool somewhere has tried: to binge for a few days, and to 3-day diet for a few days; or to undertake successive 3-day diets, with the occasional "bad" day of MacDonald's or KFC family bucket for one allowed. However you look at this, it is not a good diet.

Not so many years ago, a UK newspaper was interested to know how Queen Elizabeth II remained remarkably slim despite the banquets she attended. The response it received from Buckingham Palace was so sensible and logical as to illustrate just how much we in the wealthy west have lost a commonsense approach to food: the day after a banquet, the Queen eats less than usual. In other words, having consumed more calories than is healthy on one day, she consumes fewer calories the following day to redress the imbalance caused.

Such a simple method, isn't it? No fad diets, no starving oneself for three days or three months, just a sensible balancing of calories consumed over time.

I am overweight - not massively, but enough for my doctor on my last medical examination to be concerned. I've tried the fad diets, and they've all failed. Or, more to the point, I've failed, because it is my poor eating pattern, and the (larger) number of calories I consume in comparison with the (lack of) exercise I take, that causes me to be overweight. A sustained balanced diet and more exercise will solve that. I know that to be true, and I know that is the only way to be properly healthy.

Fad diets, including the 3-day diet, certainly exist. But whether they should be given the time of day is quite another matter entirely.

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