7 Day Diet

The Seven Day Diet is a fad that continues to circulate despite being very unbalanced.

This diet is a simple 7 day plan that emphasizes a different food group each day while eliminating others completely.

The origin of this diet is unknown and despite its questionable safety people do report losing weight on the 7 day diet.

This diet is classified as a fad diet because its strange restrictions, popularity, and short term results.

AVOID. This diet should not be considered as a viable option for weight loss. It is unbalanced and very low in calories.

7 Day Diet Meal Plan

Monday Calories: Varies	Eat as much fruit (and juices) as you wish of any fruits, except bananas.
Tuesday Calories: Varies	Eat all of the vegetables (and vegetable soup) that you wish.
Wednesday Calories: Varies	A combination of Monday & Tuesday (i.e. fruit – except bananas, juices, vegetables, vegetable soups).
Thursday Calories: 1254	Eat 5 bananas and drink 5 glasses of whole milk. Some versions say 8 bananas and 4 glass of milk.
Friday Calories: Varies	Eat 4 steaks of meat (3 ounces each – beef/chicken/fish) with unlimited green vegetables.
Saturday Calories: Varies	Eat 4 steaks of meat (3 ounces each – beef/chicken/fish) with unlimited green vegetables.
Sunday Calories: Varies	Eat 4 steaks of meat (3 ounces each – beef/chicken/fish) with unlimited green vegetables.

Exercise Could Be Dangerous

Exercise isn’t included in the 7 day diet and it could be dangerous to perform a lot of physical activity on the potentially low calorie days of the plan, especially for people with blood sugar regulation issues.

Calorie Vagueness

One of the most troubling parts of this plan is the vagueness of the calorie amounts for each day.

Only on Thursday can we nail down a calorie total. The other days are a bit sketchy at best.

For instance, on Monday dieters are told to eat nothing but fruit or drink fruit juice.  A person could eat 5 small apples and arrive at only 260 calories for the whole day or a person could consume 3 oranges, 3 apples, and 6 8oz glasses of grape juice and arrive at 1325 calories for Monday.

7 Day just leaves too much room for guess work and potentially too little calories.

Nutrient Deficiencies

Despite the calorie problems, this plan is also deficient in essential nutrients most days and could have harmful amounts of saturated fat on certain days as well.

For example, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the diet plan would lead to deficiencies in protein, fat, calcium, and iron.  On Thursday through Sunday the 7 day diet could be high in saturated fat and cholesterol. Thursday would yield 25 grams of saturated fat and 96mg of cholesterol. *

Someone eating 4 beef sirloin steaks would be getting 20 grams of saturated fat and 256mg of cholesterol.*

*Source: Nutritiondata.com

Other Dangers

Fad diets like The 7 Day Diet one often lead to a cycle of yoyo dieting. This cycle of gaining weight and losing weight is hard on the body and can eventually wreck a person’s metabolism.

A diet plan that is not to restrictive, well balanced nutritionally, teaches portion control, and addresses emotional reasons for overeating is always best in the long run.

The 7 day diet is not such a plan and will most likely not deliver long term weight loss results or health.