How To Lose Weight Fast In A Week At Military Diet - Currently, The military diet is one of the most popular diets in the world. It is claimed can help you to lose weight quickly, up to ten pounds (4.5 kg) in just one week.
Military Diet is free. No books, expensive foods or supplements that you need to buy. But does this diet actually work and is it something you should try to do that?
This article will explains everything you need to know about the military diet.
What is the military diet?
The military diet or often called the 3-day diet is a weight loss diet that can help you lose weight up to 10 pounds just in a week.
The military diet plan needs a 3-day meal plan and 4 days off, the weekly cycle is repeated again and again until your goal weight are reached.
Proponents of the diet believed and claim that it was designed by nutritionists in the US military in order to get soldiers into best shape quickly.
However, the truth is that the military diet isn't affiliated with any military or government institution.
The military diet also called by several other names as well, that is called the ice cream diet, the navy diet, and even the army diet.
How Does the Military Diet Work?
Actually, The military diet is split into 2 phases over a 7-day period.
For the first three days, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you must follow a set low-calorie meal plan. You don't snacking between meals.
In this phase, total calorie intake needed during is roughly 1,100–1,400 calories per day.
Although this is much lower than the average adult’s intake, but you can check your own calorie requirements using calorie calculator here.
For the last remaining 4 days of the week, you are encouraged to continue to keep your calorie intake low and eat healthy.
Proponents of the military diet claim that you can repeat the military diet several times until your goal weight are reached.
The Meal Plan
This is the three day meal plan on The military diet:
Day 1
The meal plan for day 1 it amount to 1400 calories.
Breakfast:
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
A slice of toast with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.
Half a grapefruit.
Lunch:
Half a cup of tuna.
A slice of toast.
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
Dinner:
Half a banana.
A 3-oz (85 grams) serving of meat with a cup of green beans.
One cup vanilla ice cream.
A small apple.
Day 2
The meals for day 2 amounting to around 1,200 calories.
Breakfast:
Half a banana.
A slice of toast.
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
One hard-boiled egg.
Lunch:
A cup of cottage cheese.
One hard-boiled egg.
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
5 saltine crackers.
Dinner:
Half a banana.
Two hot dogs, with no bun.
Half a cup of vanilla ice cream.
Half a cup of carrots and half a cup of broccoli.
Day 3
The plan for day 3, it amounts to around 1,100 calories.
Breakfast:
A small apple.
A 1-ounce slice of cheddar cheese.
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
5 saltine crackers.
Lunch:
One egg, cooked however you like.
A slice of toast.
A cup of coffee or tea (optional).
Dinner:
Half a banana.
A cup of tuna.
1 cup of vanilla ice cream.
As long as you don’t add any calories from sugar or cream, feel free to drink as much coffee or tea as you want. Don't forget drink plenty of water too.
The Last Remaining 4 Days
However, the last remainder of the week also involves dieting.
There are no food group restrictions and snacks are permitted. However, you are encouraged to keep total calorie intake under 1,500 per day and limit portion sizes.
You can find a list of websites and apps to track your calorie intake in this web:
1. MyFinessPal
2. Lose It
3. FatSecret
4. Cron-o-meter
5. SparkPeople
For the remaining 4 days of the diet, there are no other rules.
Additional Foods Permitted
During the 3-day phase, substitutions are allowed for those with dietary restrictions with the provision of portions should contain the same number of calories.
For example, you can swap peanut butter for almond butter, if you have a peanut allergy. If you are vegetarian, you can also swap 1 cup of tuna for some almonds.
The important one is that the calories remain the same. You need to be counting calories, if you change the meal plan in any way.
Drinking hot lemon water, it is highly encouraged by proponents of the military diet, but not recommend artificially sweetened beverages. However, there's no scientific reason why this would be a great idea.
Is the Military Diet Based on Scientific Research?
There have been no studies on the military diet until this article is published. However, everyone is very likely to lose weight a few pounds due to the week-long calorie restriction.
You lose fat, If fewer calories enter your fat tissue than leave it.
In the meal plan, proponents of the military diet claim that it has a certain weight loss advantage due to the food combinations. These combinations are said to burn fat and increase your metabolism, but behind these claims, there is no truth.
Green tea and coffee do contain compounds that can slightly increase metabolism.
In the meal plan, it simply doesn’t seem like a fat-burning diet, If you look at the overall foods.
Foods high protein boost metabolism more than other. But, in the military diet most of the meals are low in protein and high in carbs, which is very a bad combination for weight loss.
Some people claim this diet has similar health benefits to intermittent fasting. However, in this military diet there is no fasting involved, so this is false.
Is the Military Diet Safe? and Sustainable?
The military diet is possibly safe for the average person because it is too short to do lasting harm.
However, if you are going to do this diet for months at a time, you risk of nutrient deficiencies because the strict limit on calories.
It can happen to you if you do not regularly eat vegetables and other quality foods on your days off.
Additionally, eating crackers, ice cream, and hot dogs every week has the potential to cause metabolic issues.
In terms of sustainability, this the military diet is fairly easy to do. It only requires willpower for a short amount of time and doesn’t rely on long-term habit changes.
That being said, because it doesn’t help you change your habits, it probably won’t help you keep the weight off for very long.
Are You Really If You Can Lose 10 Pounds In a Week?
This diet became popular in the world because it claims you can lose 10 pounds (4.5 kg) in a week. Theoretically, who severely restrict calories, this rate of weight loss is possible for overweight people.
However, most of the weight loss was not due to loss fat, but water. Which happens when you restrict carbs and calories, water weight drops rapidly as the body’s glycogen stores decline.
Maybe this looks good on the scales, but when you begin eating normally again, that weight will be regained.
It Can Work Temporarily, But Not For a Long Time
The military diet can help you if you want to lose a few pounds quickly. This is simply not a good diet for lasting weight loss because you are likely to regain the weight back very fast too.
There are many weight loss methods that are much better than the military diet if you’re serious about losing weight and keeping it off.
More: How To Increase Your Metabolism For Diet