We all know that the key to long-term weight loss is a healthy and well-balanced diet, aerobic exercise, and good eating habits. But there may be times when you really want to shed pounds ASAP, even if it means that you gain them back. You can find many different diet recipes to lose weight fast. Following are three of the most well known ones, diets that have remained popular for many years. You decide whether any of the three is a good diet for meeting your weight loss goals.
Cabbage Soup Diet
The cabbage soup diet is intended as a seven-day diet for quick weight loss. You should not follow it for more than seven days. You can use it as a stand-alone diet for quickly shedding pounds or as a jumpstart for a longer and slower diet. People have reported feeling lightheaded or weak and having difficulty concentrating while on the cabbage soup diet.
When you are on the cabbage soup diet you eat specific foods on each of the seven days, including lots and lots of soup. The soup is bland, but you can make it more interesting by adding different spices. You also drink at least four glasses of water per day and take a daily multivitamin.
Day One: Eat as much fruit as you want, except bananas, and all the soup you can. Drink unsweetened tea, water, or cranberry juice.
Day Two: Eat all the fresh raw or cooked vegetables that you want. Leafy green vegetables are better choices than corn, peas, and dry beans. Have as much soup as you want. Have a big baked potato with butter with your dinnertime soup. No fruit on this day.
Day Three: Have all the soup, fruit, and vegetables you want, but no potato.
Day Four: Eat up to eight bananas and as many glasses of skim milk and bowls of soup as you want.
Day Five: Eat ten to twenty ounces of beef and up to six fresh tomatoes. Eat soup one or more times. Drink at least eight glasses of water. You can substitute baked fish or chicken for the beef on this day or the next, but not on both days.
Day Six: Have as much beef and green leafy vegetables as you would like. Eat soup at least once.
Day Seven: Finish up your week with as much brown rice, unsweetened fruit juice, and green leafy vegetables as you can eat. Have soup at least once.
Lemonade Diet
Also called the Master Cleanse, the lemonade diet is a modified juice fast with no food. The lemonade is made from lemon juice, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and water. A minimum of ten days is recommended, although people do stay on it for much longer. Proponents of this diet claim it detoxifies the body and removes excess fat. Others have voiced concern that the very low calorie diet does not provide enough nutrition and that weight loss is only temporary.
After easing into the diet the daily routine includes a morning and evening laxative and six to twelve glasses of lemonade during the day. Dieters drink liberal amounts of pure water throughout the day.
Here is a recipe for one glass of lemonade. (People who follow the lemonade diet typically make up a large batch daily.) Combine 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons real maple syrup, and 1/10 tsp cayenne pepper powder (more if you can stand it) with 8 ounces of water.
Grapefruit Diet
The grapefruit diet emphasizes grapefruit and protein. Advocates claim the combination of grapefruit and protein enhances fat burning, which in turn causes weight loss. Critics say the weight loss is from excess water weight, which will come back once dieters stop the program. They do concede, however, that the high fiber and low calories of this diet may reduce insulin levels, helping dieters feel full so they eat less.
The grapefruit diet is usually followed for twelve days; dieters may opt for another twelve days after they take two days off the diet.
Each meal includes half a grapefruit (preferably pink) or four to eight ounces of unsweetened grapefruit juice. Following are standard diet recipes to lose weight fast on the grapefruit diet:
- Breakfast of two eggs, two slices of bacon, and grapefruit or grapefruit juice.
- Lunch of salad with dressing, as much meat of any kind as you want, and grapefruit or grapefruit juice.
- Dinner of red or green vegetables or green salad, as much meat or fish as you want, and grapefruit or grapefruit juice. For the salad and vegetable dish choose from red onions, green onions, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and cabbage. Do not eat white onions, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, or celery.
- Bedtime snack of eight ounces of skim milk or tomato juice.
Because it is the specific combination of foods that creates the weight loss, it’s important not to eliminate any foods from this diet plan. You can eat as much as you want of the foods listed above. In fact, you can stuff yourself with them.
Don’t eat bread or desserts. Cut caffeine back to one cup with each meal. Don’t eat (or drink coffee) between meals. The grapefruit diet is not intended to eliminate fats, so feel free to cook foods in butter and put butter on your vegetables.
Quick vs. Long Term Weight Loss
The above diet recipes to lose weight fast are three quick weight loss diets that have been around for a long time and have many devoted followers. They are reasonable ways to lose weight in a hurry. Be aware, however, that they make no claims to helping you keep weight off over the long term. That requires a different approach to dieting.