The importance of a diet can’t be emphasized enough for a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle can be attained by maintaining a balanced diet and keeping in mind all the essential nutrients required by the body. But when it comes to weight loss there are several diets out there. Some focus on reducing appetite, while others restrict calories, carbs, or fat. Since all of them claim to be effective, it can be hard to know which ones are worth trying. One such diet is the military diet also known as the three-day diet. It is a short-term, rapid weight loss diet that claims to help you lose up to four and half kg in a week. The diet involves a three-day, calorie-restricted meal plan followed by four days off.
Followers of the diet are told to repeat the weekly cycle for up to one month, or until they reach their desired weight. While the diet may lead to rapid, short-term weight loss, it’s highly restrictive, and the results are unlikely to sustain for the long term. Nevertheless, the diet followers are free to eat anything they want during the off days, the diet encourages people to follow a less restricted but set meal plan. The three-day military diet is divided into two phases which is to be followed for seven days. For the remaining four days of the week, the military diet simply encourages people to follow a well-balanced diet. The diet provides a set meal plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the first three days, without snacks between meals.
Here is the three-day meal plan for military diet:
Day 1
Breakfast - 1/2 cup grapes, 1 toast slice, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, and tea or coffee without sugar.
Lunch - 1/2 cup fish, 1 slice of toast, coffee or tea
Dinner - 2 slices of meat, 1 cup green beans, 1/2 banana, 1 small apple and 1 cup vanilla ice cream
Day 2
Breakfast - 1 egg, 1 toast slice, 1/2 banana
Lunch - 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 boiled egg, 5 saltine crackers,
Dinner - 2 hot dogs, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup carrot, 1/2 banana and 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
Day 3
Breakfast – 5 soda crackers, 1 slice cheddar cheese, a small apple
Lunch - One boiled egg, 1 toast slice
Dinner - 1 cup fish, 1/2 banana, 1 cup vanilla ice cream
The military diet is a bit similar to intermittent fasting regimen. It is a calorie-restricted weight loss diet that claims to promote significant weight loss in just one week. But it also involves risk. The biggest short-term risks associated with the Military Diet are binge-eating because of over-restriction and constipation. If you are following this diet, then experts say that only twenty minutes of walking is enough for you, you will not need to exercise. There is currently no evidence available about its effectiveness but according to theories any extremely restrictive diet can help in weight loss. There have also been claims made by people where they agree that the military diet has worked for them.