Is it possible to lose one stone in a week? Yes, however, not a stone worth of fat. A lot of it is water.
We review 2 popular diets that promise lightning-fast weight loss results.
Most people prefer a calorie deficit and some sort of physical activity or resistance training to lose weight. After a browse on the internet, we have found 2 diets that will help you lose weight without a high level of exercise. These two diets are the ‘Military Diet’ & the other is James Duncan’s diet plan.
A lot of the fad diets around have various risk factors such as long hunger periods. Here are our two diets that will leave you feeling full and kick start your diet and all of the health benefits it will gain from it.
SS Healthfoods does not endorse any of these diets listed below, we believe in slow & steady weight loss in a healthy manner. This way, you lose fat efficiently & would follow the advice listed by the NHS by consulting your GP/Doctor before any weight loss programme.
James Duncan Diet (Chemical Diet)
This diet is designed to reduce chemical imbalance whilst also restricting your calorie intake. There are a few rules surrounding this diet:
- No alcohol, only permitted drinks are black coffee, tea, lemon/grapefruit juice (without sugar).
- No milk, butter & fats and no eating between the stated meals.
- Stick to the diet, avoid anything that isn’t included in the diet, aka, eat what you can and go without what you can’t eat.
- Only follow this diet for one week in a three week period (one week on, two weeks off).
- Swapping lunch & tea is permitted, however only on the same days. No salt as it will increase water retention, pepper is ok.
Now, let’s have a look at this free meal plan that spans from Monday-Sunday.
| James Duncan Diet | Breakfast | Lunch | Tea |
| Monday | 1 slice of dry toast with either one grilled tomato or canned tomatoes. | Fresh fruit – you can have any amount of these, go nuts. | 2 hard-boiled eggs with salad and some grapefruit. |
| Tuesday | Grapefruit with one hard-boiled egg. | Grilled chicken with tomato and one slice of dry toast. | Grilled steak with some salad. |
| Wednesday | Grapefruit with one hard-boiled egg. | Fresh fruit – you can have any amount of these, go nuts. | 2 grilled Lamb Chops with some salad and a grapefruit. |
| Thursday | One slice of dry toast. | Fresh fruit – you can have any amount of these, go nuts. | 2 hard-boiled eggs with some salad & grapefruit. |
| Friday | One slice of dry toast. | Fresh fruit – you can have any amount of these, go nuts. | Fresh fish & some salad. |
| Saturday | One glass of grapefruit juice. | Fresh fruit – you can have any amount of these, go nuts. | Grilled chicken with some carrots & some grapefruit. |
| Sunday | Scrambled egg with either grilled or tinned tomatoes. | 2 poached eggs with spinach. | Grilled steak with some salad. |
James Duncan also gave us a few tips surrounding the diet. Grapefruit sourness is more bearable with pink grapefruits and grapefruit sweetens a lot more during its final ripening stages. Drinking water can help fill you up temporarily if you are feeling hungry.
This diet has drawn a lot of criticism, however, most of the weight you lose will be water weight. This means that if you drop to your ideal weight, then as soon as you begin to eat properly again, the weight will pile back on.
This diet is not a realistic long-term goal. If you’re looking for a long term and healthy goal – you should slightly reduce your calorie intake with physical activity.
Military Diet
The military diet is also another really popular diet for fast weight loss. According to Healthline, it can help you lose up to 4.5kg a week. Whilst the James Duncan Diet is one week on and two weeks off, the military diet is three days on and 4 days off.
The diet supposedly originates in the USA by nutritionists in the army who wanted to be able to get their soldiers in shape very quickly, however, there are no claims to back this up.
The diet is set into two phases:
THE FIRST 3-DAY PHASE
The second 4-day phase.
The first phase follows a set, strict low-calorie meal plan averages out at about 1,250 calories per day. NO SNACKS ALLOWED.
Total calorie intake during this phase is roughly 1,100–1,400 calories per day. If you want to compare that to how much you should be getting, use this calorie calculator to find out.
During the second phase, you should still aim for a calorie deficit to ensure you are not putting the weight back on, check out our health foods range and make sure your diet is spot on.
| Day One | Day Two | Day Three | ||
| Breakfast | One slice of toast with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, half a grapefruit and either a cup of tea or coffee if you’d like. | One slice of toast with a hard-boiled egg, half of a banana and either a tea or coffee if you want. | 1 oz slice of cheddar cheese with 5 saltine crackers. A small apple and either a cup of coffee or tea if you’d like. | |
| Lunch | A slice of toast. half a cup of tuna and either a tea or coffee if you’d like. | One hard-boiled egg with a cup of cottage cheese. Alongside this 5 saltine crackers and either a cup of coffee or tea | One slice of toast with one egg how you can cook however you like. A cup of tea or coffee if you’d like as well. | |
| Tea | 85g of meat with a cup of green beans, a small apple, half of a banana and one cup of vanilla ice cream. | Two hot dogs without the buns with half a cup of carrots and half a cup of broccoli. Alongside this, there is half a banana and half a cup of vanilla ice cream | A cup of tuna and a cup of vanilla ice cream with half a banana | |
| Total Kcal | 1,400 kcal | 1,200 kcal | 1,100 kcal |
You can drink as much tea/coffee as you’d like throughout this diet, as long as you don’t add milk/sugar/sweetener as it will add calories.
Dependant on your dietary requirements, you are allowed to swap some food around. If you have a peanut allergy, use almond butter instead and swap fish with almonds if you’re a vegetarian or vegan. Whilst you can swap foods, you need to make sure that the calories are the same.
WebMD has looked into this diet and has shown that it has been found to boost your metabolism and burn fat more effectively. It is also important to know that you are consuming at least 25% less of your daily recommended intake. Which means you could lose more weight if you weigh more.
A good tip for this diet is to use a food-tracking app in order to make sure you stay on track, see our articles on the best health and fitness apps.
Unlike the chemical diet, you won’t pile the weight back on when you’re finished as your body is using excess calories to burn the fat and you will not lose that much water weight.
