If there was a diet that claims it that can help you lose ten pounds in a single week, then that would sound pretty convenient. However, is it really safe or efficient for you to undergo this diet? Is it even worth the trouble to begin with?

Many people have said different things about the military diet, experts included. And the military has officially claimed to have no ties to the diet at all, so there’s that to consider as well. As for the efficacy of the diet itself, there are many opinions out there about it to consider, also. Well, for what it’s worth, what you can do is gather all the facts about the diet, weigh the pros and cons, and make the conclusion for yourself.

What is the military diet?

The military diet also called the 3-day diet, is a weight loss diet that can help you lose 10 pounds a week. This plan consists of a 3-day low-calorie meal plan and 4 days of healthily eating what you want, starting the cycle again the next week until you reach your target weight. The first three days of the cycle’s meal plan consists of breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no snacks between meals. The calorie intake during this phase is 1100-1400 calories.

Con 1:

• It is dangerous and bad for weight loss.
• There is a caution against using this diet because limiting your calories like this has a danger to it.
• The military diet can be considered a dangerous weight loss myth that, unfortunately, that some doctors actually believe and enforce onto their patients. It has zero connection to the military, and it has little credibility at all, to begin with.

Pro 1:

• It’s effective for weight loss.
• The meal plan is effective for weight loss since all you have to do is eat 800-1000 calories a day for three days on the meal plan and repeat after four days, doing so for one month to lose thirty pounds. Also, eating a lot less than 2000-2600 calories likely to make you lose weight fast.

Con 2:

• The Military diet is sometimes labeled as intermittent fasting, but it isn’t. Intermittent fasting is eating for 4 hours and fasting for 20 hours a day. The military diet is just restricting calories for three days and eating a normal amount of calories for the rest of the week.

Pro 2:

• The military diet has some similarities to intermittent fasting and calorie/carb-cycling diets. Intermittent fasting (IMF) is limiting your eating to four to six hours a day while fasting for the remainder of it. When you go on the military diet, you restrict your calories to 800-1000 calories for three days of the week then eat all you want the other days of the week. It’s similar because, in both scenarios, you restrict your eating habits in one way or another.

Con 3:

• Military diet includes eating ice cream (sugar)
• Sugar raises insulin.
• Being on a diet means reducing your reducing your insulin levels in order to lose weight.

Pro 3:

• Includes several vegetables and daily
• This meal plan includes vegetables daily like green beans, carrots, and broccoli. You will also be able to trade out these for other types of non- starchy veggies like leafy greens/lettuces like tomatoes, asparagus, spinach, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, peppers mushrooms, or another green vegetable. As for apples and bananas, you can also substitute them with two small figs, pineapples, berries, kiwis, papaya, melon, or apricots.

Con 4:

• It’s a short-term diet, and it’s not a long-term
• And even though the lack of calories lowers the insulin levels despite the sugar, it will only lower insulin for the first three days.
• It doesn’t change the target weight.
• The body will regain that weight after you finish the diet plan because the body needs calories in order for your metabolism and everything else to function properly.

Pro 4:

• The military diet plan is simple
• The military diet meal plan has foods that you are already accustomed to, so it’s not complex to invest in the ingredients nor to prepare the meals. The only requirement is eating a restricted diet for 3 days out of a week.

Con 5:

• There are no snacks in between.
• When you get hungry during the day, you can’t snack on anything in between meals. All you can have in between is black coffee and water. This is because the diet plan knows that snacks aren’t that important for your daily eating habits.

In conclusion, the military diet depends on how you view it and how you do it. If you decide to tough it out and find out if this diet works for you, it’s best if you let your doctor know and work on the military diet with him or her. That way, you can prevent any health complications by monitoring yourself throughout your journey. The military diet is filled with healthy fruits and veggies, but it’s also filled with ice cream, so, on the one hand, it’s healthy, but on the other hand, the ice cream probably raises the insulin too much.

However, keep in mind that it’s a short-term diet and the most you can lose is thirty pounds. If you need to lose more than 30 pounds and your BMI is more than 30, talk with your healthcare provider about your options. There is a multitude of options out there to help you lose weight, and a health care provider can help you narrow it down and provide more insight on those options in order to help you come to a decision. And even if all you need to lose is 10-30 pounds, there are other diets out there that you can talk with your healthcare provider about. And you can also plan your diet and exercise plan with your health care provider as well.