In my quest for a smaller jean size, I recently tried The Scarsdale Diet. It was designed by a real doctor, so it seemed like a good healthy option. I wish I had talked to someone who actually tried this diet before committing to it. The following is the review of The Scarsdale Diet by one of its followers:
The Scarsdale Diet is a one to two week diet program consisting of meals made up of 43% protein, 22.5% fat, and 34.5% carbohydrates. Typical results for someone who strictly follows the plan are ten to twenty pounds of weight loss.
Followers of this program follow a very rigid diet for two weeks, which leads to a less strict diet plan for the next week or two. The last less rigid plan is known as the “Keep Trim” program.
The Good: As mentioned above, you can lose ten to twenty pounds in just a couple of weeks. These results are amazing. You can enjoy a wide variety of lean meats because the program is based primarily on protein intake. You can dress your meat with lemon, vinegar, mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and herbs. You can eat almost any vegetable except the heavy starches: corn, peas, potatoes, and lots of beans. If you are a meat lover and an expert on the grill, you might enjoy this diet.
While drinking plenty of water is recommended, you can also stick to your diet soda as the Scarsdale Diet allows the use of artificial sweeteners.
The exercise is over! You can sit back and relax while you lose weight with this plan. The Scarsdale diet plan goes so far as to say that exercise is not recommended for people over the age of forty who do not already have a planned exercise routine.
The Bad: While you can lose ten to twenty pounds in just a couple of weeks, you may not actually be losing FAT. Most of the weight lost in this time period will be water weight (which will come back as soon as you start eating normally). Another form of weight loss is lean muscle mass. Losing muscle is doubly bad because your muscle helps you burn fat. You lose muscle, you lose the ability to burn as much fat.
If you’re not an avowed carnivore, you’re not going to like the Scarsdale Diet meal plan. If you enjoy a baked potato (or really any form of baked good you can get at a bakery), you’re going to be denying yourself a lot. Salads are great and tasty, but how tasty are they with just vinegar or lemon as a dressing? If you are a vegetarian, you will not get enough protein on this diet, as your main source of protein, i.e. beans, is strictly limited.
Fun things like pasta and pizza are strictly off limits, as are chips, brownies, bagels, and croissants. What kind of life are you living if you can’t enjoy its simple pleasures?
Drinking water is going to be your only healthy option with this plan. Although soft drinks with artificial sweeteners are allowed, not many people say they are “healthy.”
You don’t have to exercise, which may sound like a huge plus for an entire population of couch potatoes. The bad news is that with extreme calorie restriction (only 800 to 1,000 calories are allowed per day), you probably won’t have the energy to get off the couch in the first place.
final verdict:
If you have a high school reunion coming up and you just need to put on your old jeans for a day or two, then you might want to try the Scarsdale Diet. If you’re a carnivore who eats meat like it’s going out of style, you might enjoy this diet. If you eat a wide variety of foods on a regular basis and don’t want to restrict yourself too much, you’ll find yourself too limited by the Scarsdale Diet.
Either way, you will ultimately regain some of the weight lost during this program as soon as you return to your normal eating schedule. It’s worth it? It depends on you. Now you can make your own informed decision.
If you want to maintain weight and lose weight quickly, the Hoodia Diet is recommended in conjunction with the Scarsdale Diet. Hoodia is a plant that grows deep in the African desert and is well known for its antioxidant properties as well as its ability to increase metabolic rate, causing your body to burn calories faster. The best part of the Hoodia diet is that you can try it and it makes your body burn calories by changing your internal chemistry in a natural and healthy way. You can learn more about the Hoodia Diet Plan [http://www.hoodiadietplan.org] on your website.