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 specific 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 first day begins with coffee (no sugar), one half a grapefruit, and a piece of toast with 1 Tbsp peanut butter. For lunch, you are allowed a can of tuna, a piece of toast, and black coffee. Dinner consists of 3 ounces of chicken or lean meat, a cup of green beans, one cup of carrots, one apple, and one cup of regular vanilla ice cream. The other two days of the diet are relatively similar in meal quantity, though the specifics change, for example Day 2 recommends two beef franks for dinner in place of three ounces of lean meat. The diet claims that weight loss of 10 pounds is achievable over the 3 days that the diet lasts.

Baloney! How’s that for specific? And no baloney is not on the diet. There is no evidence for the so-called “specific metabolic reaction.” The only reason this 3 day diet would work to help a person lose weight is because of the lack of calories in the diet. In fact, because the diet is so low in carbohydrates a person could lose ten pound in three days. Of course most of that would be water weight because carbohydrates encourage the body to retain water. By the way, losing that much weight from not retaining water is dangerous as the body needs water to survive.

Once the three days from the three day diet are over the weight will return, primarily because it’s mostly water. But also because any weight lost from the lack of calories will be regained when the starving diet victim returns to normal, or in this case heavier than normal, eating. Deprive the body of water over three day cycles enough times and a person could develop kidney damage, dehydration, or a host of other dangerous conditions.

The three day diet is best treated as a no day diet. In other words, don’t do it. I prefer a dieting plan which focuses on significantly better weight loss, such as the Accelerated Fat Burning Program, which works quickly and easily and doesn’t require you to shell out a small fortune in branded foods… Want to know more? Click here for more information…