The Grapefruit Diet
One of the popular fad diets in Hollywood was the grapefruit diet. It dates back to the 1930s, and many Hollywood stars of the time swore by it. Then in the 70′s it became a piece of fax junk, sent from machine to machine, commonly known as xerox lore. The Mayo Clinic, which is often credited as the diet’s creator, claims to have nothing to do with the unhealthy diet.
The grapefruit diet is essentially like the Atkins diet with the addition of a grapefruit before each meal. The diet only allows three meals each day, with no snacking in between meals. The diet made astounding claims – lose a pound each day for 10 days. It is also commonly claimed that a dieter might not lose any weight on the first four days but then 5 pounds would magically drop off on the fifth day. The claim that grapefruit contains enzymes that burn fat has never been proven.
Researchers showed that the diet may work in a 2004 study. Participants in the study lost 3.6 pounds on average in a 12 week span, eating one half grapefruit before each meal. People drinking the same serving size of grapefruit juice lost slightly less weight. Some people lost as much as 10 pounds in the 12 week study. It was believed that eating grapefruit resulted in decreased insulin levels, which in turn resulted in less stored fat. But the weight loss may have also been due to increased levels of exercise.
The grapefruit diet works like this:
- Eight 8 ounce glasses of water each day, this is a must.
- Stop eating when full.
- Eat everything listed for each meal, do not skip foods, they are specifically formulated to help burn fat.
- The catalyst t the whole process is grapefruit, so don’t cut it.
- One cup of coffee can be consumed at each meal.
- Don’t eat except at meal time.
- Eat butter if you want.
- Do not eat desserts, breads, white vegetables, or sweet potatoes.
- Eat any amount of meat, salad and vegetables to make you full.
- Eat until full in order to maximize weight loss.
- Follow the diet for 12 days, skip two days, then start again.
- Eat one half grapefruit, or drink 18 ounce glass of grapefruit, with each meal.
The grapefruit diet may be for you.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 3:01 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.