Fruit Diet Advice and Summary

Quick fix diets, fad diets, and pop diets are the sorts of diets that never quite disappear from the public eye. Almost everybody wants to lose weight, and hearing these stories of how someone has lost ten pounds in just a couple of days turns many heads. However, not every diet works in the way that it was intended. They can cause additional damage that outweighs the benefits of losing weight, or they can provide only a temporary fix that is quickly undone once one drops the diet. In the very worst diets, nothing at all happens in terms of weight loss.

I honestly feel that eating right and exercise are really the only long term diet plans that work. However, sometimes a person needs a jump start and motivation, either to break through what dieters call a plateau (when weight loss ceases to happen, sometimes for an extended period of time, even though you're doing everything "right") or to get started on a long term plan towards weight loss.

One of those quick start diets that became popular over the last few years is the fruit diet, or the fruit flush diet. The premise is simple. People on the fruit diet eat nothing but fruit for a few days. Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? However, as dieters joining in on a week long journey to health with an anchorwoman on WBAL a couple of years ago discovered, following the fruit diet isn't necessarily as easy as it sounds. For one, fruit is the only food or drink allowed. Caffeine addicts beware! That means, in particular, no coffee or soft drinks. However, most people who took part in the experimental journey found that weight loss did, indeed, happen. In addition, as with many cleansing or detoxification diets designed to jumpstart one on the journey to health, people found that, at least over the short term, the fruit diet helped them to make better choices regarding food even after the diet was over.

One short term side effect of this diet can include bowel issues, particularly for those unused to lots of fruit in their diet. No other side effects seem to be present from using this diet over only a couple of days. Anyone planning to use this as part of a New Year's resolution may find getting fruit in season to be particularly difficult, but possible if one limits oneself to winter fruits or lives in a tropical area. Long term side effects would be extreme, so this diet is not considered useful over the long term.

Overall, this is a helpful diet to cleanse one's system and get started on the path to wellness, but is no substitute for healthy eating and exercise over the long term. Dieters can hope to lose as many as 8-10 pounds over only a couple of days, so consulting with one's physician would be a good idea before starting on this or any weight loss plan.