The Military Diet: Lose 10 Pounds in Just 1 Week?
– Do you wanna lose up to
10 pounds, or 4.5 kilos, in a single week? That's the tag line of the Military Diet, which is one of the worlds
most popular diets right now. But does it actually
work, and is it something you should try? That's the topic of this video. (cheerful chiming) Apart from the fast weight
loss claim, this diet has become so popular
because it's completely free. There's no book to buy, or expensive health food, or supplement. Proponents claim it was
designed by nutritionists in the US military in
order to get soldiers into top shape quickly, however, the truth is, it's not affiliated with any military or
government institution. The military diet goes by
several other names as well, including the 3-day diet, the navy diet, and the army diet, even
the ice cream diet, and that will make sense in a moment. So how does it work exactly? It involves a strict three day meal plan followed by four days off, and this weekly cycle just
repeats again and again until you reach your goal weight.
So the first three days you follow a set meal plan for
breakfast lunch and dinner, the total calorie intake during this phase is roughly 1100 to 1400 calories per day, which is pretty low. As an example, this is
what the dinners look like. You can see the meals
don't exactly go together, and vanilla ice cream
is encouraged each day. For the remaining four days
of the week, you're encouraged to keep portion sizes small,
and keep calorie intake to less than 1500 per day,
but there's no set meal plan to follow and snacks are permitted. And then it said if you
repeat this whole cycle several times, you will
reach your goal weight. But will it actually work? There's no studies on the military diet, however the average person is
likely to lose a few pounds due to the week-long calorie restriction. If you consume fewer
calories than you expend, you lose fat, period.
But proponents of the diet also claim that the food combinations in the meal plan increase metabolism and burn fat, providing a sort of weight loss advantage. But there is no truth behind these claims. Coffee and green tea do contain
compounds that can slightly increase metabolism, specifically
caffeine and antioxidant called EGCG, but green tea is
not part of the military diet meal plan, and there are
certainly no known combinations of foods that are able
to increase metabolism in that same way. And if you look at the overall
foods included in the meal plan, it simply does not
seem like a fat burning diet. Foods high in protein boost metabolism more than other foods, yet many of the meals in the military diet are low in protein and
often high in carbs, which is a bad combination
for weight loss. For example, dinner on day two
is two hot dogs with no bun, half a cup of carrots and
half a cup of broccoli, half a banana, and half a
cup of vanilla ice cream. Now, it's just a very low protein meal, with some junk foods included.
The only reason it works
is because it's such small portions, and therefore
so low in calories overall. Additionally, during weight
loss, it's critical to increase protein intake in order to
preserve lean muscle mass. In other words, to make
sure your weight loss is a high percentage of body
fat rather than muscle loss, you need to eat a diet high in protein. Some people also claim
that the military diet has similar benefits to
intermittent fasting. Now although there is a high
degree of calorie restriction, there's no actual fasting
involved, so this claim is false. Can you really lose 10 pounds,
or 4.5 kilos, in a week? Theoretically, this rate
of weight loss is possible for a very overweight person who severely restricts calories
and does a lot of exercise.
However, most of that weight
loss will be due to loss of water and some muscle,
rather than just fat. Water weight drops rapidly as the body's carbohydrate stores decline, which happens when you heavily restrict calories. This looks good on the
scales, but that weight will be regained almost
overnight when you begin eating normally again. Otherwise, for the average
person, losing 10 pounds in a week is extremely,
extremely unrealistic. And that kind of leads
into the next point, is the military diet safe? In all honesty, following this
diet for like, a week or two, would be safe for the average
otherwise healthy person. However, if you were to follow this diet for months at a time, the strict limit on calories
could put you at risk of nutrient deficiencies, especially if you do not
regularly eat vegetables and other quality foods on your days off.
Additionally, eating hot dogs
and crackers and ice cream every week has the potential to cause metabolic issues down the road. Junk food should not be a
regular part of your diet. So there you have it, if you want to lose a few
pounds really quickly, the military diet can help, but you will regain it
back very fast as well. Quite frankly, it's not
sustainable long-term, and does promote some very
unhealthy eating behaviors that should just not be encouraged.
If you're serious about losing
weight and keeping it off, and actually improving your health, then there are much much
better weight loss methods than this one. Thanks for tuning in, if you enjoyed this
video or found it useful, be sure to leave us a thumbs up, and if you haven't
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catch all our new videos as they are released. (cheerful music).
