What is the Military Diet? – How does it work, Summary, and More

Military Diet Definition

The military diet is a modern, fad diet that claims it will help you lose weight fast. But it works? Is it safe? Learn all about that, as well as a shopping list of the Military Diet ingredients.

What is the military diet? How does it work?

The military diet is a craze diet that it says can help you lose up to 10 pounds in a week. The way it works is simple. For three days, you eat far fewer calories than you burn. After that, you take four days off, and the cycle repeats until you reach your weight loss goal.

The military diet also involves a strict meal plan during the three days of calorie restriction. For example, the first day involves

• Two slices of toast
• Two tablespoons of peanut butter
• 1/2 a grapefruit
• 1/2 a cup of tuna
• One small apple
• 1/2 a banana
• 3 ounces meat
• 1 cup of green beans
• 1 cup of vanilla ice cream
• You are also allowed to have coffee and tea.

The second and third days are also on a strict meal plan, but you could swap out other similar, low-calorie foods to achieve the same results.

Is the military diet sustainable?

• The military diet is probably safe for the average person because it is too short to do lasting damage.
• However, if you were on this diet for months, the strict calorie limit could put you at risk for nutritional deficiencies.
• It is specially true if you don’t regularly eat vegetables and other quality foods on your days off.
• Moreover, eating hot dogs, crackers, and ice cream each week has the potential to cause metabolic problems. Junk food must not be a regular part of your diet.
• In rapports of sustainability, this diet is pretty easy to do. It does not depend on long-term habit changes and only requires willpower for a short period.

Is the military diet safe? It is healthy or unhealthy?

• In our opinion, the military diet is probably unhealthy and unsafe to treat for several reasons:
• Rapid weight loss can cause unexpected health problems, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions. For this reason, the Mayo Clinic recommends a maximum weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
• A UCLA study shows that rapid weight loss from fad diets generally doesn’t work. Making permanent changes to your lifestyle is much more effective.
• That said, it is possible to implement the Military Diet without health complications if:
• You are younger and in good health outside of wanting to lose weight.
• Ten pounds is a smaller percentage of your total weight. For example, losing 10 pounds is more challenging and more significant at 180 pounds than at 300 pounds.

Military diet menu and shopping list

If you’re still interested in trying the Military Diet, here is a shopping list and meal plan for the Military Diet. Coffee or tea can also optionally be counted with any breakfast or lunch.

For days 4-7, you are allowed to eat anything, but it is recommended to continue to limit your total number of calories.

Day 1 Breakfast

• 1 slice of toast with 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 1/2 a grapefruit

1 Lunch

• 1 slice of toast
• 1/2 a cup of tuna

Day 1 Dinner

• 3-oz (85 grams) serving of meat
• 1 cup of green beans
• One small apple
• 1/2 a banana
• 1 cup of vanilla ice cream

Day 2 Breakfast

• 1 slice of toast
• 1 boiled egg
• 1/2 a banana

2 Lunch

• 1 boiled egg
• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 5 crackers

Day 2 Dinner

• Two hot dogs without bun
• 1/2 a cup of carrots
• 1/2 a cup of broccoli
• 1/2 a banana
• 1/2 a cup of vanilla ice cream

Day 3 Breakfast

• A 1-ounce slice of cheddar cheese
• Five crackers
• One small apple

 3 Lunch

• 1 slice of toast
• 1 egg

Day 3 Dinner

• 1 cup of tuna
• 1/2 a banana

Summary

• It is likely to lose 10 pounds in a week. However, most of this will be the water weight, which is recovering when you begin to eat normally.
• It can work, but not for long.
• If you hunger to lose a few pounds speedily, then the military diet can help.
• But you, too, will likely regain the weight quickly. It is simply not a good diet for long-lasting weight loss.
• If you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, then many weight loss methods are far better than the military diet.