Tuna Diet

People who are desperately seeking ways for losing 10-15 pounds in a short span of time are often seen to fall for crazy, fad diets like the tuna diet. The tuna diet plan has been floating around the Internet for several years now, which has been touting to get rid of those nasty, disdainful flabs in just 3 days. It's still unclear who actually started this tuna diet. Some bodybuilders are seen to use this diet plan to prepare before competitions. However, is there any truth in this tuna diet for weight loss? Does it work? Moreover, is it safe? Let's have a look at all these questions.

Tuna Diet Plan

This tuna diet for weight loss is actually a starvation diet plan that entails eating a low calorie diet for 3 days. From the name itself we can guess that this diet involves tuna as the major diet food. It's a loss calorie weight loss system and is not some magical weight regime, in fact, one happens to lose overall weight in three days because of the low calorie intake. People on this 3 day diet plan are expected to consume a tuna diet menu for 3 days and have regular food on the other 4 days, after which they are to take this diet again and the cycle continues.

Tuna Diet Menu

With the major part of the menu being tuna, which is a high protein food and contains 26 gram protein per 100 gram tuna. The other items on the menu are fruits, toasts, vegetables, cheese, black coffee, ample water and ice-cream for dessert. A same tuna diet menu for 3 days would be as follows:

Breakfast

• Black coffee
• 1/3 Grapefruit or 1 banana
• Slice of toast with peanut butter

Lunch

• ½ cup tuna or cottage cheese
• One slice toast
• Water, diet soda or black coffee

Dinner

• 1 cup green beans/1 cup cauliflower
• 1 cup carrots (grated)
• 1 apple/1 cup watermelon
• Water, diet soda or black coffee
• 2 oz lean meat/ 2 hotdogs / 2 beef franks
• ½ cup sugar free vanilla ice-cream

As we see tuna does not predominate the diet completely, meat is also included in the diet. Moreover, the diet permits use of pepper, salt, mustard, lemon, vinegar, tomato sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and all kinds of herbs as well for adding flavor to the food.

Glitches in the Tuna Diet Plan

Lack of Nutrition
People on tuna diets are asked to take vitamin supplements, for the simple reason that there is not much of nutrition that one receives from the tuna diet. To fill in the gap vitamin supplements are necessary. This will affect the body negatively in the long run. Moreover, the calorie intake via this diet is less than 1,000 calories in a day, which is far lower than the amount of calories required to support the normal body function.

Weakness and Fatigue
During the first day of the diet course, one will feel extremely weak. The weakness one encounters may be of the kind, one has never experienced before. The body seems to be sucked out of all its strength. However, the body soon get adjusted and bounces back in the second and third day. But, people going to work cannot afford such energy dips. Weekends are recommended for such diets, however, sometimes weekends are even more hectic than regular weekdays, with the number of tasks that have to be completed before the next week commences.

No Permanent Weight Loss
The tuna diet weight loss system is a starvation diet system as it involves severe calorie restriction. The tuna diet results in only water loss, which one will resume once one begins to eat normally again. To make things worse, the diet plan provides the body with only about 1000 calories every day, which lowers metabolism, thus, on normal eating later on the person regains weight even faster. The diet affects body metabolism and spearheads later weight gain masked in current weight loss.

A tuna diet sure helps lose weight due the low calorie intake during the three days under the diet plan, however, overeating during the rest four days will blow the whole purpose away. It is advised not to fall for such crash diets. The best way to lose weight is to eat a healthy balanced diet and maintain a regular exercise regime. All the best!