The chemical breakdown diet is an eating plan that is said to help a person lose several pounds in just three days. It requires the dieter to lower his calorie intake drastically. Like other types of fad diets, its low calorie requirement may be unhealthy.
While the name may indicate that the chemical content of foods are the focus of the chemical breakdown diet, this is a misconception. This diet doesn’t require the dieter to eat foods with a particular chemical content or combine foods in specific ways in order to enjoy weight loss. Instead, this diet focuses on drastically lowering a person’s calorie intake, which causes weight loss. A person using this diet may lose several pounds, but the weight loss is unlikely to be permanent. Since most of the weight loss a person can expect on this diet is from water weight, he'll probably regain it once he starts eating normally once more.
Sometimes this diet is referred to as the three-day diet, the Greenlane diet, or the 3-day tuna diet. It involves extreme calorie restriction for a three-day period, followed by an immediate return to normal but healthy eating once the three days are over. The list of acceptable beverages while on this diet include water, black tea, black coffee, and diet soda.
There are many variations of meal plans for the chemical breakdown diet. In one variation, a person only consumes crackers, a piece of fruit, and his chosen beverage for breakfast; he may also eat one slice of cheese in some variations. Lunch might include a whole boiled egg, one piece of toast without butter, a piece of fruit, and his chosen beverage. At dinnertime, a dieter may eat a cup of tuna, vegetables, fruit, and a small amount of vanilla ice cream. He may also drink one of the liquids on the acceptable beverage list at dinnertime.
Some people assert that they’ve been able to lose five to 10 pounds (2.26 to 4.53 kilograms) in a three-day period while on this diet. The diet delivers less than 1,000 calories daily, with most people eating just 750 calories each day, depending on their food choices. Doctors and health experts tend to frown on diets like this because they deliver too few calories to support optimal body function. An individual who is considering any variation of the chemical breakdown diet should ask his doctor's advice before beginning it.
