The 3 day diet is one of those trendy little diets that seems to be popular today. If you follow the 3 day diet correctly, you can supposedly lose upwards to 10 pounds in just three days. That seems like a lot of weight to lose in such a short period of time, is it healthy or even possible?

While its certainly possible to lose 10 pounds or even more in just three days, it’s probably not healthy, and generally not recommended by health professionals. The 3 day diet is invariably frowned on by nutritionists as being an overall a fad diet that is not very effective in producing sustainable weight lose. Sure you can lose 10 pounds in three days, but the chances are you’ll put it right back on again when you finish.

The 3 day diet isn’t really anything scientific or overly complicated. It’s basically just your typical calorie restricted diet. Most formulas for it involve three meals a day consisiting of very limited portions of low fat, low sugar foods. Some examples of a few of the meals recommended in the 3 day diet include half a grapefruit and one slice of toast for breakfast; a half a cup of tuna (no mayo) and a slice of toast for lunch; and a three ounce portion of chicken, two cups of vegetables and one cup of ice cream for dinner.

Like many diets, the 3 day diet recommends drinking 4+ glasses of water daily, and allows you to add any low calorie seasonings to your food, such as Worchester sauce, spices, mustards, vinegars, salt and pepper, soy sauce or ketchup. It also allows for drinking tea, coffee, or diet soda, so long as there is no sugar added.

So does this kind of 3 day diet plan work? Chances are you will in fact lose some weight if you stick to it. However, going from eating normal or oversized portions to eating the kinds of meals recommended in the three day diet is going to through your body’s metabolism for a loop. Essentially, you’ll be on starvation mode, and the moment you resume regular food consumption you’ll promptly start gaining wait again.

The recommendation to drink plenty of water is really the only thing the 3 day diet does right. Everyone should drink at least 4 glasses of water a day, whether dieting or not, and ideally should drink even more.

Overall, the 3 day diet is not the best diet plan. If you are otherwise healthy and just want to lose a few pounds for a reunion, wedding, or some other event coming up on the weekend, the 3 day diet may help, but in terms of an effective sustainable weight lose program its not going to help much in the long run.