The Tuna Diet
|It is believed that, by following the 3-day diet plan that includes tuna, you will be able to lose 12 pounds. The question is whether those 12 pounds come from pure fat or simply unlocked water deposits. The diet is not different from all other low calorie diets but in regard to the main diet food it includes – the tuna fish.
As the name implies, you have to follow this diet for 3 days in a row, and then take a four to five days break before resuming the diet. During this time, you are advised to eat balanced meals, low in saturated fat.
The foods allowed during this diet, besides the tuna fish, are salty crackers, ice-cream, toast, fruit, black coffee and cheese. You must also drink plenty of water. Looking at this list, the contradiction in this diet becomes obvious. Having black coffee for breakfast, followed by ice-cream at another meal, defeats the purpose of reducing sugar at any meal of the day.
Moreover, the diet cannot possibly be sustainable, as satisfying your cravings for sugar and cheese (one of the foods avoided by all diets, except for cottage cheese) won’t help you resist your cravings once the diet has ended.
Of course, the pounds you’ve lost are very likely to redeposit as soon as you finish dieting. This is one of the major risks of short-term dieting, regardless of the diet menu involved. Any short-term diet must be followed by a long-term, balanced eating plan, so you can keep the pounds off and lose weight even further, in a slower, but healthier pace. The tuna diet aims to boost your weight loss, but cannot help you fix the excess fat problem by itself.
Unfortunately, most dieters go back to their previous life style once they end the tuna diet and, inevitably, they accumulate fat again. Not only does this phenomenon follow a low calorie diet, but all other weight loss approaches, such as the bypass surgery or using “miracle” weight loss products.
The 3-day plan
Day 1:
- Morning: serve unsweetened black tea or coffee, or only water. Drink all the juice of a grapefruit or eat one third of the fruit with a slice of toast and 1 tblsp peanut butter.
- Midday: consume only 1 slice of toast, with half a cup tuna. Drink water, black coffee or tea without sugar nor sweeteners.
- Evening: one cup green beans + 1 cup carrots (grated), 2 to 3 ounce of chicken or fish, 1 fresh apple and the usual water, tea or coffee.
Day 2:
- Morning: eat 1 slice of toast with 1 egg, 1 banana and unsweetened coffee, tea or just plain water.
- Midday: like yesterday: 1 cup of tuna (or 1 cup of cottage cheese if you wish), 5 salted crackers and drink the aforementioned unsweetened drinks.
- Evening: 2 hot dogs or 2 frankfurter sausages. 1 cup of grated cabbage or broccoli. 1/2 cup of carrots (grated) and 1/2 cup vanilla icecream without natural sugar.
Day 3:
- Breakfast: drinks as usual, add to that 5 salted crackers, 1 ounce cheddar cheese for some extra vitamins and minerals: eat 1 apple.
- Lunch is extremely little: 1 slice of toast and 1 hard boiled egg, lots of unsweetened drinks.
- Dinner: the cup of tuna will be served now, together with an equal amount of cauliflower, carrots, and melon. Finish it off with 1/2 cup vanilla icecream without sugar and drink the usual
Because of the lack of nutrients diversity in this diet, it is recommended that you stick to the 3 day dietary plan and don’t prolong it. You can take a 4-5-day break and then resume, providing that it helped you lose weight in the first course.