Does The Hospital Three Day Diet Work?

If you are looking to lose excess weight, you may be tempted to try the hospital three day diet. It has become popular as it can result in the loss of ten pounds in three days. It allegedly got its name from a hospital using it on cardiac patients who needed to lose weight before they had surgery.

With this eating plan, you have to follow very specific rules and cannot swop different foods. You should also drink plenty of water. Some people have said that you can replace the water with diet soda but personally I think this defeats the object of the exercise. Diet drinks contain hidden calories and ingredients that are not good for a healthy body so are best avoided. Not only that but carbonated liquids have been linked to cellulite.

You have a set menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The idea is that you follow the plan for three days, and then eat normally and if you wish to slim down further, you start the regime again. Most of the weight you lose happens as the daily calorie intake is capped at circa 1000.

This is the first problem as the World Health Organization recommends that you eat at least 1200 but preferably between 1400 and 1500 a day unless you are under medical supervision. Ideally you shouldn’t diet below your own basal metabolic rate. This is the rate at which your body burns energy when you aren’t doing anything. For most people this is around the 1500 calorie level. Your body may decide that you are being starved and thus reduce your metabolism rate making it harder to shift those pounds.

The WHO also suggest that you shouldn’t lose more than 1-2lbs per week. Obviously the hospital three day diet is aimed at losing 10 pounds or more so you can see why people in the medical profession are concerned about the popularity of this plan.

There are other drawbacks with this regime. For a start, you should like tuna as it is one of the main foods. You can also eat grapefruit, some cheese, crackers and eggs. Unusually bread is not forbidden as it is on similar plans.

You are very likely to feel hungry and miserable so I wouldn’t start until you are away from work. Your family may want you to be away from them too if the starvation makes you miserable! To be honest, there are better ways to achieve a slimmer toned you.

Eating less food is a great start but do it gradually and your body and mind are less likely to notice. Eat regular small meals to increase your metabolism rate. Drink some green tea and grapefruit juice as both contain fat busting enzymes to help speed up the process. Taking more exercise will increase the amount of energy you consume helping the pounds to fall off.

Fad diets like the hospital three day diet are best avoided. Most of the weight you lose will be regained as you haven’t retrained your body into accepting a new healthy eating regime.