Army diet known as military diet is a restrictive intermittent fasting eating plan that may cause promotion of short-term weight loss. But this diet plan is difficult and potentially unsafe to maintain.
The military diet, also known as “the three-day diet”, is actually a short-term diet plan that claims to help you in loosing up to 10 pounds (lbs) or 4.5 kilograms in seven days.Despite the name of diet, this diet is not only associated with the military.
The army diet plan involves a 3-day, calorie-restricted meal plan which is followed by four days off. The person who wants to do this diet, can then repeat the cycle for up to one month, or until when he will reach his weight loss goal.
Anyhow, no research supports the claimed benefits of this diet and severe calorie restrictions may pose health problems if this diet is followed for a long period of time.
I’ll keep you engaged by reading this article ,to learn more about the army diet, a sample 3-day meal plan, and the potential benefits and risks.
How Does The Army Diet Work?
The 3-day army diet is basically split into two phases ,if followed by 7 days.
During the first phase of 3 days, the total calorie intake is roughly about eleven hundred to fourteen hundred calories per day. This makes it a low calorie diet, elaborated as a dietary pattern that provides about 800–1,200 calories.
The four days that are left ,out of the seven days, the army diet basically affects people to follow a diet that contains almost 1,500-calories.
It’s important to note that this type of calorie restriction actually falls below the daily calorie intakes of 2,200–2,400 for males and 1,600–1,800 for females that is recommended by health specialists, if followed strictly.
Before following any kind of drastic calorie restrictions, it’s essential to discuss with healthcare professionists. Consuming calories below the desired number, may lead to a greater range of symptoms and other health conditions.
The Army Diet Meal Plan
The army diet provides a designed meal plan for three meals including breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the first three days, without having any kind of snacks between meals.
Here’s a brief review of what a week on this diet actually looks like
The 3-Day Meal Plan
The 3-day meal plan on the army diet basically consists of sixteen meals that have to be divided as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The recommended quantity of these sixteen foods decreases everyday. The total calorie intake begins at 1,400 calories on the very first day and falls to 1,100 calories on the third day.
The diet allows you to drink water, herbal teas, and caffeinated coffee or tea two times a day with no sugar or sweeteners.
The Remaining Four Days
There are no restrictions for the 4 days of the diet that are left, aside from following a healthy eating plan.
However, a 1,500-calorie menu is designed for those who can speed up their weight loss even better. For instance, snacks are permitted during these days of dieting, but the patient is instructed to limit his portion sizes.
Keep it in your mind that if you eat almost 1,500 calories in a day ,it is still a calorie restriction that may not fit everybody’s needs. It is not a lie, if you lead an active lifestyle, which translates into increased energy expenditure and higher need of calories.
Additional Permitted And Forbidden Foods
The army diet permits the substitutions during the 3-day phase, if the portions match the calorie count. These substitutions can be:
- gluten free
- lactose free
- vegetarian
- vegan
- allergy free
The army diet emphasizes on not only substituting the grapefruits for oranges , but instead, it advises to replace the grapefruit with a glass of water having half teaspoon of baking soda. This is done to help alkalinize your body and reduce body fat.
However, research predicts that no doubt ,some foods may help in increasing your body’s acid quantity, but your kidneys can eliminate the excess acid through urine. That’s why your dietary choices have less effect on acidity or alkalinity levels of your body.
What’s more?
Animal-based protein foods ,for instance, the ones that are allowed in the diet are the type of foods that may tend to increase your body’s acidic load, but make this recommendation a bit contradictory.
Furthermore, there’s no any trusted evidence supporting the use of baking soda to reduce fat from your body.
What Does The Research Say About The Military Diet?
There are currently no trusted evidence on the army diet.
Although a calorie deficit is most probably required to achieve weight loss goals but, the army diet doesn’t even look on other factors that could affect your weight loss, such as
- lifestyle hobbies
- underlying health conditions
- taking certain medicines
- genetic issues
- sleeping routine
The research, which was done in the year 2018, predicts that a calorie deficit of about 500–600 calories is a sustainable way to lose half kg (1.1 lbs) in seven days. For adults, about 1,500–1,800 daily calories for men and 1,200–1,500 for women,may cause health conditions in addition to losing weight.
These general and moderate calorie restrictions are opposite to the army diet’s with heavy restrictions.
In addition to this, a research done in 2017 found that moderate and consistent calorie restriction is just as beneficial and effective for weight loss as intermittent extreme energy restrictions, just take an example of having 3 days on and 4 days off. This explains the fact that you shouldn’t starve yourself if you want to lose weight.
Lately, proponents of the army diet claim that the food combinations in the meal plan may help in increasing your metabolism and burning fat. However, there’s no evidence to support all these kinds of claims.
Caffeine may be the one component of the army diet that could help the person in promoting body weight and fat loss.
Risks Of The 3-Day Diet
The main weaknesses of the diet come from the effects of cutting calories without noting any drastic effects. This can have short and long-term effects mentally or physically.
You’re not just burning fat, but generally, the goal of losing weight is to lose fat, which mostly requires time.
When you lose weight following a three-day diet, most probably you’re just losing water weight. As a result, one con of the Military Diet is that you’re not actually reaching the typical health goal of losing weight through fat loss, throughout this journey.
Who Shouldn’t Try The 3-Day Diet
This diet is only safe if followed for a short period of time. But if you manage to set healthy eating habits before this, you may want to avoid it. Studies show that being calorie deficit can encourage an unhealthy relationship with food as well as eating disorders.
Crash weight-loss diet plans are also generally not suggested for:
- Children
- Teenagers
- Pregnant women
Summary
The army diet is a quick-fix plan that restricts calorie intake for just three days and then permits the person for “normal” eating for four. Some people even go back to those off-days too, with a hope that maybe this activity can help in speeding up results.
No doubt, this diet can help you to lose a few pounds quickly, but it’s not something your body or mind will be thankful for, in the long run.
The main concern is, the diet isn’t balanced. It squeezes in every kind of processed meats, salty snacks, and sweet foods while leaving out plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables your body actually wants to have.
That means you might see the scale move at first, but as soon as you go back to regular eating, your weight suddenly creeps right back. Even worse, restricting calories for a long period of time can drain your energy ,will leave you feeling deprived, and make the whole process very concerned.
Real, lasting weight loss doesn’t come from crash diets, it basically comes from small, steady changes.
