My Review of the Taco Bell Diet Also Known as the Drive-Thru Diet

It's a shiny new year and time for thoughts of dieting to dance in our heads. It seems like nearly everyone wants to lose weight and get into shape and wasn't that one of your 2010 New Year's Resolutions, too? I know I've been planning to lose weight for several years now and I like to look at and review new diets that come out so I can find one that will melt the pounds off my body without me having to make changes in my lifestyle. Unfortunately, I've discovered that such a diet doesn't exist but I like to look at and review the new diets anyway.

One new diet I've seen advertised on television recently is the Taco Bell Diet also known as the Drive-Thru Diet. Taco Bell has a new spokeswoman named Christine who has lost 54 pounds and the ads are implying that she lost the weight because she ate at Taco Bell from their Fresco menu. You can read Christine's story here and make your own judgment of that particular claim.

Since I think any diet based on fast food sounds great, I thought I would research the Taco Bell Diet in more detail. The first thing I did was to visit one of my local Taco Bell restaurants and order from their Fresco menu. The Taco Bell Fresco menu has seven items available; Crunchy Taco; Soft Taco with Beef; Burrito Supreme with Chicken; Burrito Supreme with Steak; Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco; Grilled Steak Soft Taco and Bean Burrito. The Fresco menu advertises these seven items as having less than 9 grams of fat each.

I like Taco Bell's crunchy tacos so I ordered a couple of crunchy taco Frescos instead of my usual crunchy tacos. I found the crunchy taco Frescos to be delicious. The taco Fresco has the same basic ingredients as Taco Bell's regular taco; corn tortilla shell, beef hamburger and lettuce but with salsa added. I didn't know at the time what the difference was between a regular crunchy taco and a crunchy taco Fresco so at first I thought the only difference was the salsa on top. I thought maybe the addition of a little tomato and a lot of cilantro would help to melt the pounds from my body. Later I learned the Fresco menu items have the cheese removed and the salsa added instead.

On one of several research trips to Taco Bell, my adult daughter joined me and she ordered from the Fresco menu too. She ordered a crunchy taco Fresco and a Fresco bean burrito. Like me, my daughter enjoyed the taco Fresco. When it came to the Fresco bean burrito though, it was not as tasty as their regular bean burrito. My daughter gave me a taste of her Fresco bean burrito and I didn't like the flavor of the salsa mixed in with the beans and no cheese. I like burritos and I make them at home frequently but I like them with cheese so I definitely won't be ordering a Fresco bean burrito again.

After trying a few items from the Taco Bell Fresco menu, my next step was to visit the TacoBell.com website and also DriveThruDiet.com and study the information found there. I found that items on the Taco Bell Fresco menu DID indeed have fewer calories and grams of fat than Taco Bell's regular menu items. For example, one crunchy taco Fresco has 150 calories and 7 grams of fat as compared to one regular crunchy taco which has 170 calories and 10 grams of fat. The Fresco bean burrito has 340 calories and 8 grams of fat as compared to one regular bean burrito which has 370 calories and 10 grams of fat. Unfortunately, this lower calorie and fat count is because the cheese has been removed from the Fresco menu items and for my taste, at the expense of the flavor of the bean burrito.

To give you an idea of how Taco Bell tacos and burritos compare to other fast food tacos and burritos, I've listed Del Taco, Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco tacos and burritos with their calorie and fat counts.

• Del Taco, Taco has 160 calories and 10 grams of fat.

• Del Taco, Bean & Cheese Red Burrito 270 calories and 8 grams of fat.

• Jack In The Box Taco has 170 calories and 10 grams of fat.

• El Pollo Loco Taco Al Carbon (chicken, small tortillas) has 150 calories and 6 grams of fat.

• El Pollo Loco Beans, Rice & Cheese burrito has 440 calories and 14 grams of fat.

After studying the nutritional information of the Taco Bell Fresco menu items, I closely read through Taco Bell's spokeswoman, Christine's story and noticed several disclaimers listed. In the first sentence, Christine says that the "...Taco Bell Diet/Drive Thru Diet menu is not a weight-loss program. It's about making different choices." Christine further says "I reduced my daily calorie and fat intake by 500 calories to 1250 calories a day, and, after two years, I ended up losing 54 pounds! These results aren't typical, but for me they were fantastic!"

I think Christine's weight loss is fantastic too and I congratulate her because I know first hand how hard it is to lose weight. But, if Christine was eating 1250 calories each day for two years straight, she would have lost weight no matter what she ate. It is my opinion that Christine's daily calories of 1250 were too low for a healthy weight loss plan and could possibly cause her to have health problems. You can read about the health problems that accompany a starvation diet at EveryDayHealth.com here. The Taco Bell website doesn't list a diet or eating plan for Christine so we never really know what she ate for those two years when she wasn't having food off the Taco Bell Fresco menu. We also don't know if Christine included exercise in her diet either.

Ifound recommended caloric guidelines that are loosely based on the USDA Food Pyramid by the National Academy of Sciences and they list the following calorie categories:

• 1,600 calories - Many sedentary women and some older adults.

• 2,200 calories - Children, teenage girls, active women and many sedentary men. (Women who are pregnant may need around 500 calories more per day and an additional 300 calories for breast-feeding.)

• 2,800 calories - Teenage boys, active men and very active women.

You can check out these calorie category guidelines and more information on the different food group breakdowns at their website here.

I don't recommend the Taco Bell Diet/Drive Thru Diet as an actual diet or weight loss plan because it is not a true diet or weight loss plan. You don't get that particular information as clearly from the Taco Bell television commercials though as you do the message that you can lose weight just like their spokeswoman; Christine did by eating off the Taco Bell Fresco menu. It is in the fine print where you see Taco Bell say their Fresco menu items are not low calorie foods (on their website) here. And it's in Christine's statement itself that says the Drive Thru Diet is not a weight-loss program. In my opinion, the entire tone of the Taco Bell commercials is misleading and preys upon those of us who want an easy and pleasant way to lose weight. There isn't enough evidence listed to prove that Christine really did lose weight by eating Taco Bell Fresco menu items.

I like the food at Taco Bell and it's one of the fast food places that I eat at frequently and if I could lose weight eating their tacos, then I should have already lost 50 pounds too. I think the best, and definitely the safest thing to do is talk to your doctor and find out how many calories you should be eating each day. Once you know how many calories it is safe for you to have each day, and still lose weight, then you can add Taco Bell tacos or burritos as food choices occasionally.

I would also like to add that before going on any weight loss program; always consult your doctor first. Dieting without the proper knowledge can be dangerous to your health.

Sources:

Drive-Thru Diet

EveryDayHealth.com: Eating Too Few Calories Stalls Metabolism

Food Pyramids: What Should You Really Eat?

TacoBell.com