What Is The 3 Day Diet?

What is the 3 Day diet? The 3-day diet is also called the military diet and it is considered a rapid weight loss diet that promises you to lose up to 10 pounds in 3 days. The diet plan is a restricted low-calorie diet/meal plan for 3 days. And then gives you 4 days off from eating in a restricted way.

What is the 3 Day diet? Photo credit: iStock- YelenaYemchuck

The calorie in this diet is between 800 and 1000 calories a day which includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no snacks in between meals. 800 to 1000 calories a day is exceedingly below the recommended daily caloric intake for adults with regards to the US Dietary Guidelines.

The recommended daily intake for men in terms of calories minimally is 2,200 to 2,400 calories daily. And for women it is 1600 to 1800 calories per day.

An example of a breakfast meal on the 3-day military diet is:

Breakfast Food:

• Peanut Butter
• Banana
• Toast
• Hard boiled egg

Lunch Food:

• Toast
• Canned/cup of Tuna, hard boiled egg, and saltine crackers

Dinner Food:

• Apple
• Broccoli
• Canned Tuna

The remaining 4 days that you are not on the 3-day diet you can eat in a normal way. The 3-day diet is a rapid weight loss diet that will help you lose weight quickly, but I would say most of the weight you lose will be water weight. And this is because severe calorie restrictions typically lead to a decline in the body’s glycogen stores. Once you start eating food normally you gain the weight back.

 And the 3-day diet because you are not eating much food is more of a fasting diet more than anything. So, this type of diet is not sustainable at all.  There are no research studies that validate the 3-day military diet. But to achieve weight loss you need to be in caloric deficit. And being on the 3-day diet will put you in an extreme caloric deficit. And this is what you don’t want.

The problem with this 3-day diet is you are not getting enough quality nutrients and you are not consuming enough daily calories. Because the calories are so low it will slow your metabolism making it difficult for you to lose weight.

According to the CDC a healthy weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week. So, losing 8 to 10 pounds in 3 days is not healthy at all and not advisable. The purpose of losing weight is to lose it and keep it off for good. If you lose more than 1 to 2 pounds per week then it is more than likely that it will be muscle loss and not fat.

“The problem with this 3-day diet is you are not getting enough quality nutrients and you are not consuming enough daily calories.” Celebrity Fitness & Nutrition Expert Obi Obadike

The Bottom Line is the 3-day military diet is not a healthy diet because it is extremely low in calories, and it is extremely deficient nutrient wise. It is not the best long term weight loss approach.

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References

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