The “3 Day Diet” goes back to 1985 and today can be found all over the Internet and on book store shelves. The three day diet and its variants boast quick weight loss, a cleansing of the system, lower cholesterol and increased energy all through a “specific metabolic reaction” that no version of the diet has ever proven

. The diet is to be followed for only 3 days, with an off period of about 5 days in between diet times. All the versions of this diet share in common specific steps that must be followed and foods that must be eaten in order for the diet to work.

What better way to blame the dieter when it doesn’t work than “you botched the formula.”

First day breakfast includes coffee (no sugar), one half a grapefruit, and a piece of toast with 1 Tbsp peanut butter. Lunch is a can of tuna, a piece of toast, and black coffee. For dinner it’s 3 ounces of chicken or lean meat, a cup of green beans, one cup of carrots, one apple, and one cup of regular vanilla ice cream. The other two days of the diet are relatively similar in meal quantity, though the specifics change, for example Day 2 recommends two beef franks for dinner in place of three ounces of lean meat. The diet crows that weight loss of 10 pounds is achievable over the 3 days that the diet lasts.

Hogwash is the answer. The question is what is a specific reaction to that claim? As stated the metabolic reaction has never been examined much less proven. Any weight loss would be mostly water loss due to a lack of carbs which help the body retain water. That could lead to dehydration.

Because of binge eating after such starvation and because most of the weight lost is from water, the weight will quickly return after the three days.

Furthermore, such water loss could result in some serious medical issues. But hey, then you’d lose some real weight in the hospital.

If something sounds too good to be true it is. The 3 day diet sounds too good to be true.