The Whole30 diet is a strict 30-day elimination diet that many people turn to for weight loss or help with digestive concerns. It is advertised as a total lifestyle change, rather than a simple diet. This article explains everything you need to know about the Whole30 diet.
What is the Whole30 Diet?
The Whole30 diet is a month-long eating program that aims to help you lose weight, improve your relationship with food, and achieve better long-term health. It was developed in 2009 by Melissa Urban and Dallas Hartwig, two certified sports nutritionists, who promoted it as a way to reset your metabolism and reshape your relationship with food. The couple began to blog about a 30-day dietary experiment.
The program focuses on the idea that certain foods - like sugar, grains, legumes, alcohol, and dairy - may negatively affect your health and fitness. Eliminating these foods from your diet is supposed to help your body recover from these negative effects and promote long-term health. Many people follow this diet in hopes of losing weight. Some may use the program to identify food intolerances or achieve some of its proposed health benefits.
The Principles of Whole30
The idea behind the Whole30 program is simple: For 30 days, you completely cut out foods that may harm your health. After the initial 30 days, you slowly reintroduce some foods while monitoring the effects they have on your body.
This is a pretty intensive elimination diet, so it has a strict set of rules. It also provides you with a list of allowed foods, as well as a list of off-limit foods. During the month-long elimination period, no cheating is allowed. It’s recommended that you start the challenge over if you get off track.
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The founders claim that strict adherence to the diet allows your body to reset in isolation from certain foods that may cause inflammation, gut disruptions, or hormone imbalances. Unlike many other diets, there is no need to track calories, measure portions, or count points. Also, weighing yourself is strictly reserved for days 1 and 30 of the program.
Foods to Eat and Avoid
Following the Whole30 diet involves eating as much as you’d like from the approved list of foods while avoiding certain foods for 1 month.
Allowed Foods
Foods allowed on the Whole30 diet mostly consist of minimally processed foods, including:
- Meat, eggs, and poultry: beef, veal, pork, horse, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, etc.
- Fish and seafood: fish, anchovies, shrimp, calamari, scallops, crab, lobster, etc.
- Fruits: fresh and dried fruits
- Vegetables: all vegetables
- Nuts and seeds: all nuts and seeds, nut milk, nut butter, and nut flour (except peanuts because they are legumes)
- Some fats: olive oil, coconut oil, ghee, avocado oil, tallow, lard, duck fat
The Whole30 diet encourages the use of fresh, minimally processed foods.
Foods to Avoid
During the 30-day diet, you must eliminate certain foods from your diet. These include:
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- Sugar and artificial sweeteners: raw sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave syrup, artificial sweeteners, and all products containing these
- Alcohol: all types of beer, wines, liqueurs, and spirits
- Grains: all grains, including wheat, corn, oats, and rice
- Pulses and legumes: peas, lentils, beans, peanuts (green beans, sugar snap peas, and snow peas are exceptions)
- Soy: all soy, including tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all products made from soy, such as miso and soy sauce
- Dairy: cow, goat, and sheep’s milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and other products made from dairy
- Processed additives: carrageenan, MSG, or sulfites
In addition, the diet recommends that you avoid re-creating your favorite baked goods, snacks, or treats - even with Whole30-approved ingredients. So, foods such as cauliflower pizza crust and paleo pancakes must be avoided. There’s also no such thing as a cheat meal on this program. Instead, you’re encouraged to adhere strictly to the guidelines all the time. If you do slip up, the diet’s founders strongly encourage that you begin the whole program again from day 1.
The Whole30 diet eliminates sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, dairy, and processed foods for 30 days.
Additional Rules
The Whole30 diet encourages some additional rules that are not related to diet. For instance, smoking is forbidden for the duration of the diet. You’re also not allowed to step on the scale on any days other than day 1 and day 30 or partake in any form of body measurements.
The justification behind these additional rules is that the Whole30 program is about more than just weight loss. Following these rules is promoted as a way to change your mindset and promote long-term health.
Potential Benefits
Following the Whole30 diet perfectly for 30 days is said to have many health benefits, according to supporters. These include:
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- fat loss
- higher energy levels
- better sleep
- reduced food cravings
- improved athletic performance
The diet’s founders promise that the Whole30 program will change both the way you think about food and your taste. Proponents of the diet further claim that it can alter the emotional relationship you have with food and your body.
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that no scientific studies back them up.
The Reintroduction Phase
Once you’ve successfully completed the Whole30 program, it’s time to focus on step two - the reintroduction phase. In this phase, you slowly reintroduce certain foods into your diet. You evaluate how they make you feel in regard to your metabolism, digestive tract, immune system, and relationship with food.
The suggested way to reintroduce off-limit foods is to add back only one food group at a time. For instance, dairy can be reintroduced on day 1 after completing the Whole30 program. You are then encouraged to return to the Whole30 diet and avoid milk on days 2 through 4, while paying attention to any potential symptoms. If all goes well, you can reintroduce a different food group on day 5, then repeat the process.
Reintroducing only one food group at a time while keeping the rest of the diet the same is promoted as a way to better identify which foods cause negative symptoms, such as bloating, skin breakouts, or achy joints. Once all food groups have been individually tested, you can add the ones your body tolerated well back into your regular diet.
Naturally, individuals are not required to reintroduce all foods. In fact, you’re strongly encouraged to avoid reintroducing foods that you do not miss.
Potential Concerns
Eliminating a large food group is questionable and not considered a healthy dietary practice, such as in the Whole30 diet where all grains are restricted. To compensate for eliminated grains, followers of the diet eat more protein which may cause stress to the kidneys due to their role in protein metabolism. This diet is not advised for those who are at high risk of kidney disease.
Dairy, grains, and legumes are high in calcium, vitamin D, B vitamins, zinc, iron, magnesium, and fiber and without consumption, there may be a risk for nutrient deficiencies.
The restrictive nature of the Whole30 diet may make it difficult to meet daily nutrient recommendations or sustain the diet in the long term. A calorie deficit is needed for weight loss. Because of its restrictive nature, the Whole30 diet will likely help create this calorie deficit. However, unless the food choices you make on this diet become a habit, the weight loss you experience may not be sustainable in the long term.
As for the supposed benefits, there are no scientific studies available to support the claims. There’s also no strong reason to restrict dairy, grains, or legumes (1). Nevertheless, it is true that some people may unknowingly have food intolerances that cause digestive symptoms, which the diet’s reintroduction phase can help identify.
Eating Out on the Whole30 Diet
You can eat the Whole30 Way anywhere! Even at your favorite drive-thru on the go! Here are some "best" options to help stay on plan:
- Burger King:
- Lunch: Whopper: Order Single Patty with Extra Veggies. Add a side of Applesauce (No bread, mayo, or ketchup)
- Dinner: Repeat Above
- McDonald's:
- Lunch: Market Salad: Order with Chicken (No cheese, granola, almonds, or dressing)
- Dinner: Grilled Chicken Sandwich: Order with Extra Lettuce & Tomato (No Bread)
- Subway:
- Lunch: Salad Bowl: Select from any of the choices (No guacamole)
- Dinner: Build Your Own Salad: Choose your own meat and load with veggies!
- Dunkin':
- Lunch: Egg & Cheese Sandwich: Order three (3) eggs only (No Cheese or Bread)
- Dinner: Repeat Above
- Starbucks:
- Lunch: Egg McMuffin: Order (3) Eggs Only