Mayo Diet - Eat Grapefruit, Lose Weight

It’s called the Mayo Clinic Diet, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the famed Minnesota Hospital. Still, this eating plan has been around for years and some people say it is called that way as the diet was supposedly developed for overweight heart patients who need to lose pounds before their surgery.

It is also known as The Grapefruit Diet, because the fruit is an integral part of many meals. The Mayo Diet is based around eating grapefruit, salads, and lean protein. It strictly restricts carbohydrates. You should follow the diet for 12 days and then take a 2 day break before beginning again.

A sample breakfast is two eggs, two slices of bacon, a cup of coffee and half of a grapefruit. Lunch might be salad with dressing, any kind of lean meat, and another serving of half a grapefruit. Dinner is fish, any kind of non-starchy vegetable and again half a grapefruit. Right before you go to bed, you can have 8 ounces of skim milk or tomato juice.

As you can see, grapefruit is a key food item on the Mayo diet. The theory is that the grapefruit is some magical dieting tool. This is nonsense. The reason the diet works is that it is very low calorie (about 1000 calories a day) and it eliminates almost all carbohydrates. The grapefruit helps by providing fiber - a component of any healthy diet.

Some of the principles of the Mayo diet include eating until you are full, but not beyond that point. You can have all the lean protein and fish you want, just don’t over eat.

You also should not skip meals or eliminate any of the foods on the diet - including the bacon and the salads. It is said that the exact combination of foods is what helps you lose body fat.

Limit your caffeine intake to one cup of coffee in the morning. Caffeine affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. So that single cup is your limit. Definitely no caffeine from soda.

And while the Mayo Diet espouses not skipping meals, you also must not eat between meals. No snacking. The combination of food suggested should be sufficient so that you will not be hungry between breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The diet completely eliminates sugar and starches. These are lipids that will eventually form body fat. Ironically, eating fat does not form body fat. Instead, it helps burn it. You can even fry food in butter and use generously on vegetables but still lose weight on this diet.

Do not eat desserts, bread, and white vegetables or sweet potatoes when on the Mayo Diet. It is alright to eat double or triple helpings of meat, salad, or vegetables, but NO CARBS. Eat until you are satisfied. This is supposed to be a very precise combination of food that affects changes in the body chemistry for maximum weight loss.

It is typical to lose up to 10 pounds in 12 days on the first round of the Mayo Diet. On subsequent rounds, you may lose less, but you should still take off some significant weight.