Subway Diet

Jennifer Cooper claims she lost over 100 pounds on the Subway diet.

Spurred on by Subway commercial-man Jared Fogle, Cooper embarked on a daily ritual of Subway after trying out the weight loss drug Meridia:

[…] Cooper was a Subway-only gal. Monday through Friday the 29-year-old’s lunches included a six-inch sandwich of roast beef, ham and turkey on wheat bread, plus baked potato chips or pretzels and a soda. Mayonnaise and cheese were the big no-nos, but there was no limit on vegetables.

Reading this story carefully shows that Subway didn’t really have too much to do with it.

Cooper was on a low-calorie very-low-fat diet – and it happens that a 6-inch Subway sandwich (minus the mayo and cheese) is quite low fat.

Kudos to Jennifer Cooper for keeping the weight off, and learning what sort of portions are appropriate for her!

What is the Subway Diet?

The “Subway diet” is the casual term used to describe Jared Fogle‘s significant weight loss eating Subway sandwiches, but Subway does not officially endorse the diet plan; citing liability issues.

Jared is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana and came to fame shortly after 1999 when a friend wrote about his weight loss in a local newspaper. Shortly after that Jared was put in touch with Subway’s advertising agency.

In 2000, Jared appeared in a Subway commercial and has been featured on and off ever since.

In 2010, he completed the New York City marathon as part of a promotion for Subway. He clocked in at 5 hours, 13 minutes, and 28 seconds. Jared finished 36,968 place out of 44,829 runners.

Jared’s Weight-Gain and Exit

In 2010, Jared admitted to gaining back weight, which was obscured by a heavy winter coat in one commercial, but he promptly jumped back on the Subway diet. Jared wanted to be slim for his upcoming wedding.

Subway recently cut all ties with Jared Fogle when he was arrested after an ongoing investigation into his involvement in producing and distributing prohibited material involving children as well as his inappropriate relationships with minors.

What is the Subway Diet?

There is no ‘official’ Subway diet. Most people refer to the diet that Jared Fogle used as he was losing weight. Much of it is hearsay and urban myth.

Here are two versions of the Subway Diet. The first meal plan is the most likely one.

Note that the sandwiches were served with no mayonnaise, and no cheese.

Subway Diet Version 1

Breakfast: Small bowl of cereal with skimmed milk. Black coffee with sweetener.
Lunch: Turkey Subway Sandwich. Diet Pepsi.
Dinner: Vegetarian Subway Sandwich. Water.
Snacks: Apple, orange, water.

Version 2

Breakfast: Coffee
Lunch: A 6 inch Turkey Sub + potato chips (baked)
Dinner: A 12 inch veggie Sub

Can you lose weight on a Fast Food Diet?

The answer is yes – provided good choices are made. Jared Fogle was simply following a low-calorie diet. However some fast food vendors offer little in the way of “healthy” choices.

Subway is certainly a good choice if choosing to eat takeaway food, but just make sure to choose your sub wisely, load up on the veggies, and take caution when choosing the dressings and condiments.

The Subway diet helps you practice portion control and this is a key factor of successful weight loss.

Jared the Subway Guy is available on Amazon.

 By Mizpah Matus B.Hlth.Sc(Hons)
    References:
  • Bove, A., Hebreo, J., Wylie-Rosett, J., & Isasi, C. R. (2006). Burger King and Subway Key Nutrients, Glycemic Index, and Glycemic Load of Nutritionally Promoted Items. The Diabetes Educator, 32(5), 675-690. link
  • Rogers, K. (2013). Subway CEO: As Long as Jared Sticks to His Diet, He is Good With Us. link
  • Rolls, B. J. (2003). The supersizing of America: portion size and the obesity epidemic. Nutrition Today, 38(2), 42-53. link
  • Rolls, B. J., Roe, L. S., & Meengs, J. S. (2006). Reductions in portion size and energy density of foods are additive and lead to sustained decreases in energy intake. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 83(1), 11-17. link

50 Comments or Reviews

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  1. Mark

    I hear advise of not eating cheese or steak.i eat steak and cheese a lot and I eat bacon alot…the last 20 years have brainwashed many people into thinking meat and eggs etc…..are bad for you..i also boil a dozen eggs a week and take them to work..i drink mostly water but I do enjoy my milk and orange juice.ive been eating subway for 2 months now,nothing else and I’ve lost 13 pounds and I eat bacon,cheese,I use the sweet onion sauce 90%of the time.im hooked..i feel better and my guts work better these days.

  2. Patricia M.

    I guess no cheese and no mayonnaise is the key to this working probably even though that is half the taste lol. Also there are other sauces as well that are packed with calories one should avoid.

  3. David

    I just got done eating a 12″ roast beef, omega bread, loaded veggie mustard black pepper Subway sandwich. Tea to drink…

    I am going back on my “subway diet” as I stopped eating it a while back and instead have consumed drive thru hamburgers galore. I went from 190 to 215…and decided this is not good.

    3 years ago I was 225 and wanted to lose weight. I love being behind a computer and watching TV. I am basically lazy when it comes to working out. I deciced back then to lose weight and did the same thing as Jared. I weened myself off fatty foods with mostly the roast beef 12″ and eating less over all per day. Then I restricted myself to a 6″ sub two times a day.

    In 3 months, no sodas, ZERO take out food except subaway and my only exercise was a 2 mile walk when I ran out of gas when I borrowed my friends old international SCout to move some stuff (gas gauge did not work) I went from 225 to 187.

    If you stick to this…dont starve yourself, but do cut proportions down, cut the calories and crap, imo refuse to eat sweets or sodas (stopping sodas ALONE will let you lose weight) you will lose weight.

    AND I have to say…if I eat like CArles Jr, McDonalds, Wendys from their crap menu I feel meh…when I eat the Subway (its the veggies man) I always feel light, energetic, confident (cause I KNOW for a fact I will lose weight) and overall I am in a better mood.

    Just be persistent and you can make this happen, no matter how much you weight.

    And, I dont really like to call this a diet, but simply a change in eating habits.

  4. Sara Maria

    I’ve tried so many diets out there. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on “healthy food” to make at home, tried Dr. Berstein, Weight Watchers… etc. None of them worked for me as I couldn’t stick to the tight restrictions. I am a sandwich kinda girl. I could eat them every day. I started eating subway on the first of this month (August 2010). I eat oatmeal for breakfast, strawberries for a snack and for lunch I have a 6 inch ham sub (cheap) loaded with veggies and plain white bread. I eat another 6 inch one after work for dinner. I don’t get the cravings for other foods like I did on the more restricted diets because I like my carbs and with subway I can have the best of both worlds. Low cal and enjoy carbs. I don’t drink pop and don’t eat the chips or cookies though. So far this month I have lost 14 lbs and that is only eating subway for 12 days now. Pretty good I’d say. I don’t excersize at all. I began weighing 240 lbs and am now 226. I’m very happy and NO I AM NOT sick of subway yet. Most of my weight is probably water weight but once I reach 220 lbs I will be adding in some walking and excersize. Hopefully I can continue to lose 🙂

    Good Luck to all!!!!!!!

  5. mr cool

    people who are doing this good luck 🙂

  6. I work at Subway

    Subway is a great way to diet, I work there. But not everything there is healthy.
    Here are ways to order a healthy sandwich!
    Choose one of the 9 grain wheat breads. Stay away from the meatball, bacon, and the steak! High in calories, Other than that u can pretty much order any of the meats. Next pass on the cheese, u really dont get that much cheese on the sandwich anyways, only 4 slices per footlong. Now the fun part, Have your way with the veggies! The more the merrier. your sauces are limited to the low calories ones, which are mustard, honey mustard, or sweet onion. Dont be fooled the “light mayo” is still loaded with calories. Next choose a yogurt or apple chips as a side, and for ur drink, unsweetened tea, water, or lemonade.

    Hope this helps

    Your Courteous Subway Employee

  7. jw_mem

    I am about to try the subway diet. I weigh 400 pounds and have never been the one to eat a lot… just the wrong types of loaded foods. So, I am going to stick to the turkey, or turkey and ham and try to eat one footlong per day. I had them cut it up into four sections this morning. I ate one section for breakfast. I will eat another for lunch. Another for snack. Another for Dinner. I drink lots of water (2-3 gallons) daily anyway, so hunger isnt really the issue. I’ll just up my water intake inbetween sections. Hope it works… giving it my all.

  8. jelo

    Not to be a spelling nazi or anything but ‘loose’ means ‘not tight’…I think ‘lose’ is the word most of y’all are looking for!

  9. (=^.^=)

    I used to work at a subway, and wasn’t even TRYING to diet, but I was seriously losing weight by just eating there. Had all my meals there. =)(I mostly just ate the tuna and turkey sandwiches though. Occasionally the others, never ate the cold cut, it’s just 3 types of bologna, and that scared me off. *shrug*)
    One tip I have is to lay off the extra dressings and oils, the mayo they use is light (even though it really doesn’t taste like it), but even then you might want to go easy on it, or not at all. Also…add extra veggies. 😀 They don’t charge you for the extra veggies, only extra meat. So pile them on! haha. Good luck

  10. marnisha white

    subway has been a great help for me i have lost alot of weight on this diet. it has really helped me with my personal lifestyle. i have lost 40 pounds on the die. thanks jared.

  11. Brandon

    i have been doing the subway diet for 2 weeks now and have lost 10 pounds so far. I simply eat a 6 inch turkey or veggie sandwich for lunch with light mayo and provolone cheese on a wheat roll. then for dinner i eat a foot long veggie with light mayo and provolone cheese on a wheat roll. i run for 30 min a day and only drink water or polar seltzer water, if i get hungry i eat an apple. The diet seem to be working so far for me, simply because it is such a huge change compared to my old ways of eating and lack of exercise. i will continue with this diet and i plan on losing another 40 or 50 pounds. Its simple, eat less calories and fatty foods combined with daily exercise and you will lose weight

  12. mika

    how long does it take to loose 40 pounds? please answer if u know..

  13. john

    subway is awsome =)

  14. Jessica

    AS a Subway Employee, I’d like to help you all out and give you some information on the low calorie subs.
    First of all, to follow Jared’s plan, you can only eat Wheat or 9-Grain bread, and you can’t have any cheese.
    The types of subs you can have are: turkey, ham, roast beef, roasted chicken, buffalo chicken, veggie, subway club (turkey, ham, beef), or turkey & ham. You can have as many veggie toppings on your sub as you would like, but the sauces are limited. The low calorie sauces are Sweet Onion, Honey Mustard and Mustard. Everything else is high in calories. You can use salt and pepper, but I recommend avoiding salt as it is unhealthy for you.
    I hope this has helped you all.

  15. gerardo

    i am 18 years old & a senior in high school & i was doing a no carb no surgar diet with an hour of tea-bo every night & lost 16 pounds in 2 weeks…..im now wanting to do the subway diet and wanna know what sandwichs are best & what toppings i can put on them……and will the chipotle sauce be an option…thnx

  16. Chris

    To Charlie: YOU IDIOT! If your working out you need Sodium and salt. They are 2 different things. Sodium is an element on the periodic table, and Salt is Sodium Chloride (2 elements.) Phil Lambert Says “healthy 19- to 50-year-old adults should consume 1,500 milligrams of sodium and 2,300 milligrams of chloride each day

  17. jace

    it works

  18. SmartGuy

    You can technically lose weight with any fast food, Subway is just the best choice because it has healthier food than those grease traps serving deepfried sugar, salt, and cheap meat *cough cough McDonalds*. If it’s true that if you work at a fast food resteraunt and get sick of the food, then I’m never working at subway.

  19. a school student

    i am doing a school project on diets, this is for everyone, i need to know how long it took you to loose weight, how, much weight you lost, how often you bought subway and if it didn’t work then tell me that to 🙂 thank you so much, have a great day!

  20. subway_employeeeeeee

    i work at subway, this is a no brainer, eat less calories, do more, you lose weight, yet people still come in everyday and tell me about their diet yet they order the most calorie loaded sandwiches we have, cookies, and coke and wonder why they dont lose weight…not everything at subway is healthy

    drink water, light lemonade, or the fuse unsweeted tea, the green tea is loaded with sugar and fake “antioxidents”, dont get cheese, and go light on the sauce, the baked bags of chips have 1/3 less chips in them than the normal bag of classic lays, go figure less calories, get apples instead of chips and cookies all together,get wheat bread as the cheese breads add on close to 100 calories per footlong..really its just cheese sprinked on the top not some magic bread only subway can make, and for the love of coke, diet coke is not healthy..limit yourself people before you turn into a puddle of aspartame 🙂

    with that said, eat your veggies!!

  21. philpy69

    okay so this diet does work and I can do it not worrying about money. I work in subway. try getting a job there free subs. it works.

  22. sp24383

    My subway diet is:
    Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs with 2 pieces of wheat bread.
    Lunch: Seafood Sensation salad with baked chips and a bottled coke.
    Dinner: half a veggie delight with everything cept pickles, baked lays and a bottled coke.

    Overall it is about 1620 calories. I’ve lost 35 lbs in about 4 months following this diet. This is without diet soda. I have gone from 195 to 160 lbs, and I am hovering at about 158 right now. My goal is 155 with some muscle. I go to the gym 2-3 times a week and do high intensity cardio for 30 minutes. Costs a ton of money, but the only diet I can seem to stick with. To those doubters out there, it does work. It is simply a low calorie diet. If you swapped out the soda for diet, you’d be down to like 1100 calories lol.

  23. Lisa

    met jared today in okinawa japan, got a pic, shook his hand and saw those dreadful pants of his! They are huge!!! subway is great. check out my pic with him at the okinawa marine website…

  24. Alexandros Martinez

    How long can you stay on the Subway Diet if you wish to lose 90 lbs.

  25. Kevin

    Why not just make the sandwich into a salad. You would get a rid of a lot of carbs, and add greens. I eat subway every day.

  26. diva

    I have done this diet (last year); lost 26 lbs. in 3 months. My version was: Breakfast – a cup of dry cereal (I don’t drink milk); 1 yogurt; 1 whole grapefruit or 1 apple. Lunch – 6″ or 12″ Vegi Sub or Turkey Sub (had light mayo and sprinkled with vinegar – helps w/water retention); 1 apple. Dinner – Vegi Sub or Steak or Broiled/Grilled Chicken & Salad or cooked Spinach or other Green Vegetable, Rice; 1 apple. Walked about 1-2 miles/day. For a snack usually had low sodium popcorn. Worked for me, but you have to work at it too.

  27. Just ME

    I am doing this on my own with just sliced turkey- i eat a turkey sandwhich for breakfast and luncha nd a regular meal for dinner. I drink only water or flavored water like snapple antioxidant ZERO soda and ONLY baked chips when i want a snack. I also dont hesitate to eat IF my tummy growels AT ALL. Im not working out AT ALL just moving as i need to move around. Hopefully I will loose enough so I CAN start excersizing as I am quite large. God Bless

  28. BLAH

    i absolutely love subway, but surely this is just a way of you buying subway, and thinking your gonna loose weight, and subway get loads of money? They should of just given us sandwiche recipes, its ridiculous that subway is involved. And another thing, how would you get to go to subway twice a day, when a lot of people are at work or live far away from one? Its ridiculous.

  29. brittany berry

    im sixteen and im playing volleyball for my school and we eat subway like crazy its great and keeps us in shape not like mc.donalds and makes us sick before games.thankss jared your my hero:D

  30. Webed 5000000

    I tried the veggie sub with “the works”
    It made me spew

  31. Eddie - Scotland

    Should have probably said there – the reason this works is because you are eating less calories than you are using as energy therefore you lose weight. Its not because subway is magic. However subways make it easier IMO to eat less calories each day.

  32. Eddie - Scotland UK

    Hi, I had never heard of Jared until today but in January 2008 i decided i would start having a subway every lunch time to try and lose weight.

    This was pretty much my daily diet –

    Breakfast – 2 slices of buttered wholemeal toast with a two egg omellete (or two boiled eggs)

    Lunch – 6 inch or footlong sub from 6 grams of fat or less menu including ranch sauce (no cheese) + white chocolate chip cookie + diet coke

    Dinner – Healthy dinner (varies) including chicken fajitas, pasta bolegnaise etc (some healthier than others!)

    Snacks – crisps (potato chips), fruit etc.

    Anyway long story short – I went from 12 1/2 Stone to 10 1/2 stone in 6 months without exercising and lost 5 inches of my waist.

    I now find it relatively easy to stay at that weight by eating subways reguarly for lunch but i can now allow myself some luxuries at the weekend etc and have some “bad” foods etc.

    Hope this serves as some motivation to people trying to loose weight. I was not obese or anything but was unhappy with my appearance and waistline. Subway made it easy to achieve results. (and no i dont work for subway lol )

  33. charles

    subway sandwhiches are EXTREMELY high in salt. which is very bad for your heart. Even the veggie sandwhich has 500mg of salt.
    Most of there sandwhiches have over 1300mg of sodium!

    Thats not very healthy.

  34. cindy d

    I have heard that these sandwiches are the turkey, roast beef and their other leaner calories sandwiches they offer. You can top with as many of the vegies you like – as they offer alot of health benefits and very little calories and help to fill you up quick. Additionally no cheese and no toppings – ie mayo, salad dressings, oil/vinegar etc. You can add pepper and similar seasonings but limit or omit the salt. It sounds to me like a salad on bread without any dressing. Add in all the calories burned off and the increase in motabolism by walking daily versus being seditary at that high weight – he did loose it quickly the first couple of years. He continues to eat there (I am sure free due to his contract with them)and maintains his walking/exercise regimin and watches what he eats. He was on a show years ago talking about these things – what he ate and how he ate and lost the weight. He also contacted them to tell him about it – they didn’t find him. Smart man! I love the fact that he saw he needed a change and did it himself instead of following some of the very unhealthy diets on here.

  35. scott pearson

    doing a report on subway diet and would like to try and find out some answers to some ? i have what isnt allowd when on this diet and what is allowed on this diet. my email is demondad24@yahoo.com thank you.

  36. Anon

    Lets not forget that part of his routine was to walk to subway to get his meal. 🙂 And he was a very large man. It is easier to lose weight when you go from doing nothing/eating everything to earting hardly anything/to actually walking to your food.

  37. Kari

    The thought of someone actually doing this diet is hilarious, but I guess if it works for you…all the more power to ya.

  38. Bruce

    Everyone is different. Cannot say how long it will take you to lose 20 – 25 lbs. It depends how big you are, your metabolism, how well you stick to the diet and what you do for exercise.

  39. Anonymous

    obviously like any other diet you can’t just eat better and expect to lose it fast.. you have to excercise and the subway diet just helps you eat better. my ex boyfriend lost 30 pounds in like 3 months. so it depends on how strict you stay on it and how often you excercise.

  40. beca

    how long does it take to loose 25 pounds? please answer! lol

  41. Anonymous

    Wish I Could Do This But My Mother Wont Let Me. It Sucks

  42. Anonymous

    I lost 158 pounds on this diet. but it cost is high tho

  43. Anonymous

    this diet does not work

  44. Taylor

    I LOVE SUBWAY. But the subs are high in salt and you’d have to stick to this diet for a looooong time to get good results. Thats why i go for detox.

  45. melina

    does anyone know exacly how long it would take to lose about 20 pounds on the subway diet?

  46. cherry

    fruits are good and food is great…!@!!!!<3.33333.3333

  47. Cherry

    This really works! Thanks Alot!

  48. thegirl

    I work at subway an i love it to death…. jared is hot

  49. kelli

    love subway i could live off ti and jared rules

  50. dogiesrule

    subway Eat Fresh…lol…Jared Rocks