Why The Grapefruit Diet Works

You've probably read a lot about the Grapefruit Diet. First known as the Hollywood diet, it knew many variations across time, but all of them had in common the fact that you had to eat 1/2 grapefruit at each meal, three times a day, for either 12 or 18 days.

Grapefruits were believed to have fat-burning properties, due to an enzyme which was activated in the body, in case of regular consumption of the fruit over a longer period of time. Although there hasn't been a scientific proof for this fact, there are many testimonials coming from people who claim that the grapefruit diet works.

What is then the mystery which makes it function, if it is not that secret enzyme? Well, one of this diet's particularities was that you were not allowed to eat more than 3 meals per day, with nothing in between, no snacks, no cookies, nothing. Besides, all the variants of this fad diet offer the body an average of 800 calories daily. This is a very low amount, taking into consideration that the basal metabolic rate for women aged 30, with a weight of 120 pounds averages a bit over 1000 calories. Les than this will result in losing weight, because the body would take the supplement of energy needed from the stored body fat.

Lopgic says that in this case, even without any special workourts or any other physical activities, the grapefruit diet gives results. Not because of the grapefruit, but who cares, since it works?

Grapefruit Diet Overview

Grapefruit Diet Origins

The Grapefruit Diet is a short term weight loss diet which has been known since the 1930s. Originally known as the Hollywood diet, the Grapefruit diet was wrongly attributed to the Mayo Clinic, whose doctors, in reality consider it dis-balanced and dangerous for health. So, if you hear about the Mayo Clinic Grapefruit diet, please be aware that there's no connection between those two, other than the name. Another popular reference is Atkins Grapefruit Diet, called like this because it was based on the Atkins diet principles with a twist (the addition of grapefruit in each meal).

Despite its huge popularity amongst people seeking for fast weight loss plans, schemes or diets, the person who invented the Grapefruit diet is still unknown to this day.

Grapefruit Diet Principle

The main principle of the Grapefruit diet is based on the fact that gapefruits contain a protein or an enzyme which helps burn the body fat, thus leading to a healthy, long-lasting weight loss.
In reality, the existence of this fat-burning substance has never been proven by hard evidences. However, due to the high popularity of this 12 days diet, the doctors did some studies on the relationship between grapefruit consumption and weight loss.

For instance, in the year 2004, a study done by Dr. Ken Fujioka at the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic, was concluded with the following results: the group of subjects who ate half a grapefruit with each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds over 12 weeks. Another group, who drank a glass of grapefruit juice with each meal lost 3.3 pounds on average, over 12 weeks. I haven't found more detailed figures, but it seems that many participants in this grapefruit diet study lost more than 10 pounds during the 3 months period of dieting.

The Grapefruit Diet Plan

Originally, the Grapefruit diet was known under a few selling lines such as "grapefruit diet plan lose 10 pounds in 10 days" or "grapefruit diet plan lose 5 pounds in 5 days", and the main by line meant to enhance the motivation of fat people willing to lose weight with this diet was "there might not be any weight loss the first 4 days, but on the 5th day, 5 pounds would be gone".

The main rules of the grapefruit diat were:

1. To eat one half of grapefruit after each meal
2. To eat only three meals a day
3. To refrain from eating snacks between the main meals

This regime is supposed to be respected for either 12 days or 18 days (I've encountered both indications on various fitness and nutrition sources, so I feel like quoting both variants of the diet plan).

Be it that you choose the 12day grapefruit diet or the 18 days grapefruit diet plan, or you simply opt for a grapefruit diet menu, never forget to ask the advice of your physician or of your nutritionist, because he is the only one who knows your body, your diseases, your predispositions, so he is the person entitled to prescribe you a rapid weight loss diet, to set up a daily diet plan tailored especially for your needs, and to indicate whether or not you'd benefit from following for a while the grapefruit diet.