The 3-Day Diet, also known as the Military Diet, is a popular fad diet that promises rapid weight loss by drastically reducing calorie intake for a short period. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the diet, examining its potential effectiveness, associated risks, and overall suitability.
What is the 3-Day Diet?
The 3-Day Diet claims that by drastically cutting calories for three days, you can drop 10 pounds in a week. It also encourages you to lower the amount of calories you eat for four more days after the initial three-day plan. Despite the name, it didn't come from the military. The name was inspired by the discipline and willpower you need to be in the military, implying that you need the same traits to complete this diet. The diet involves a very specific meal plan for three days, followed by four days of less restrictive, but still calorie-controlled eating.
How Does the 3-Day Diet Work?
This diet only allows 1,100 to 1,400 calories per day. The Military Diet spells out exactly what you should eat for three days and gives you visual indicators for measuring serving sizes depending on the food. The menu is made up of three breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. For instance, one lunch consists of one cup of cottage cheese, one hard-boiled egg, and five saltine crackers. For dinner, you can have one cup of tuna, half a banana, and one cup of vanilla ice cream. It doesn't allow you to snack in between meals. If you continue the diet, you'll eat no more than 1,500 calories for the next four days.
The diet's effectiveness hinges on the principle of calorie deficit. By consuming significantly fewer calories than the body expends, it forces the body to tap into its energy reserves, leading to weight loss.
Foods Allowed and Disallowed
Because the 3-Day Diet is very specific about approved foods, it's easy to know what's allowed and what isn't. There is a list of substitutions if you don’t like a certain food, and there's also a vegetarian and vegan version of the diet.
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Some common foods you can eat on the standard Military Diet include:
- Toast and saltine crackers
- Fruit such as grapefruit, bananas, and apples
- Proteins such as tuna, boiled eggs, peanut butter, and hot dogs
- Select vegetables, including broccoli, green beans, and carrots
- Dairy like ice cream, cottage cheese, and cheddar cheese
- Tea and coffee
- No-calorie seasonings such as salt, pepper, lemon juice, fresh garlic, and certain spices
- Low-calorie condiments such as mustard, hot sauce, and low-sodium soy sauce
The vegan and vegetarian version of the diet replace milk-based items with dairy-free options. It also includes meat alternatives like beans, tofu, hummus, and veggie hot dogs.
This diet largely focuses on what you can eat. Anything else shouldn't be included in your three-day plan. The guidelines do mention a few things that you should avoid for sure, such as:
- Cream and sugar in your coffee
- Sweeteners except stevia
- Garlic salt
- Alcohol
- Condiments such as mayo, ketchup, and store-bought salad dressings
Potential Benefits of the 3-Day Diet
Even though the diet is very short, it does have some pros other than weight loss. Its rules encourage a few helpful things:
- No added sugars and sweeteners that don't have nutritional value, except for stevia
- Cooking your own food instead of eating out
- An easy-to-follow meal plan
Risks and Drawbacks of the 3-Day Diet
The diet's main weaknesses come from the effects of drastically cutting calories. This can have short- and long-term consequences.
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You're not burning fat. Generally, the goal of weight loss is to lose fat, which takes time. When you lose weight on a three-day diet, you're likely just losing water weight. So, one con of the Military Diet is that you're not actually reaching the typical health goal of losing weight through fat loss.
It limits exercise. While the 3-Day Diet technically advises moderate exercise, such as walking, it also suggests cutting back if you feel dizzy or weak due to a lack of energy during the diet. Exercise is key to proper weight loss that targets fat instead of muscle mass. But the calorie limit of the Military Diet restricts how active you can be because your body simply cannot sustain the exercise.
It can disrupt normal body functions. Cutting back on nutrients can lead to constipation, exhaustion, low energy, hair loss, loss of bone strength and density, and a weakened immune system.
It can affect your mental health. Fad diets like this one that promise quick, short-term weight loss through extreme changes can take a toll on your body. It often leads to a cycle of yo-yo dieting, where you may start strong but "give in" to cravings later, breaking the diet rules. This can make you feel guilty before you restart. This can increase your chances of eating disorders and low quality of life and well-being.
Is the 3-Day Diet Suitable for Everyone?
There is a vegan and vegetarian version of the diet, as well as a substitution list if you prefer other foods than the original suggestions. The substitution list also includes gluten-free choices and serving sizes for the alternatives.
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This diet is only safe short-term. But if you struggle to set healthy eating habits already, you may want to avoid it. Studies show that dramatically cutting calories can encourage an unhealthy relationship with food as well as eating disorders.
Rapid weight-loss diets are also generally not suggested for:
- Children
- Teenagers
- Pregnant women
- Older adults
Expert Opinions on the 3-Day Diet
Dr. Melinda Ratini is a physician specializing in family medicine. She has expertise in treating obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, among other conditions. Here is her take on the 3-Day Diet:
You will likely lose weight on any diet if you eat less than 910 calories a day. But losing 10 pounds in three days is both unlikely and unhealthy. To lose just 1 pound of body fat, you need to reduce your daily calories by about 500 a day for a whole week. That's giving up 3,500 calories over the course of seven days. To lose 10 pounds in three days would mean decreasing your calorie intake by 35,000 calories in just three days! The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends a slow and steady weight loss of no more than 1/2 to 1 pound a week. Otherwise you are losing muscle and water, as well as weakening your bones. You also are much more likely to gain it all back.
The 3-Day Diet is low calorie, but it certainly is not low-fat, low-salt, or low cholesterol, so it is not a healthy option for most people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and high cholesterol. If you are overweight, weight loss is key to managing these conditions. But it should be a healthy and sustainable weight loss that includes healthy nutrition and exercise.
Alternative Approaches to Weight Loss
Given the potential risks and unsustainable nature of the 3-Day Diet, it is crucial to consider alternative approaches to weight loss that prioritize long-term health and well-being. Some effective strategies include:
- Balanced Diet: Focus on consuming whole, unprocessed foods, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains.
- Regular Exercise: Incorporate physical activity into your daily routine, aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.
- Mindful Eating: Pay attention to your body's hunger and fullness cues, and avoid emotional eating.
- Sustainable Lifestyle Changes: Make gradual, realistic changes to your eating habits and lifestyle that you can maintain over the long term.
- Professional Guidance: Consult with a registered dietitian or healthcare professional to develop a personalized weight loss plan.
The Importance of Biological Clock Alignment in Diet
Interestingly, research suggests that aligning our eating patterns with our biological clock may have significant benefits for weight management and overall health. A study compared a new "3M-diet," more in alignment with our biological clock, with a control group on the traditional 6M-diet. The group on the traditional 6M-diet did not lose weight and did not experience any improvement of sugar levels, requiring an increase in medication and insulin doses. According to the new research, our metabolism and biological clock are optimized for eating in the morning and for fasting during the evening and night, when we are supposed to be asleep.
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