Created by Harley Pasternak, a celebrity personal trainer, the Body Reset Diet is a 15-day program that promises to "boost your metabolism, lose fat, and shed a few pounds."
The diet is designed to "reset" your body and give you weight loss goals a boost. Pasternak tries to provide solutions through his diet to figure out why other diets fail.
Diet "rules" include:
- Eat five times a day to speed up your metabolism.
- Follow specific nutritional criteria for each meal.
- Create each meal around the same ingredient categories.
- Prepare each meal in five minutes.
The body recovery diet lasts 15 days, which is divided into three phases, lasting five days each.
Phase one
During phase one (days one through five), shakes are consumed three times a day along with two snacks. Meals are structured to be high-volume, so you still feel like you're eating a lot of food when, in fact, the calorie count is closer to 1,200 per day.
Workouts like CrossFit are discouraged during phase one. Instead, you should aim to walk 10,000 steps each day.
Phase two
During phase two (days six through 10), you continue to eat five times a day. The only big change is that you reduce the number of shakes from three to two per day, and add a solid meal instead. Therefore, your meals include two shakes, one healthy and whole meal, and two snacks in between meals each day.
Rigorous exercise is still discouraged, but in addition to your daily steps, a 5-minute resistance training program is added, which will be completed three times per week.
Phase three
During this phase (days 11-15), you continue the pattern by reducing the number of shakes again. Now you'll enjoy one shake a day, along with two meals and two snacks.
Exercise increases again. The goal continues to be taking 10,000 steps a day, and doing 5-minute routines that increase to five times a week.
What can be eaten in the diet?
Food allowed
- Whole grains
- Fiber-rich fruit (berries, apples, kiwis, oranges)
- Vegetables
- Nuts and seeds
- Fat-free dairy
- Egg whites
- Fish, lean meat, and poultry
Foods to avoid
- Alcohol
- Sugary drinks
- Fried food
- Candy
- High fat meats
- Highly processed sandwiches (chips, most cookies, etc.)
- Refined grains
Can you lose weight on the Body Reset diet?
Yes. Although it may encourage less exercise than you're used to, it's likely that the amount of calories you consume also drops dramatically (about 1,200 to 1,300 a day).
Also, 10,000 steps a day may not seem like much of your only exercise, but it may be harder to accomplish than you might think if you're used to sitting most of the day at work.
Pros and cons of this diet
There are some advantages of the body recovery diet.
The advantages
1. Promote smoothies versus juices . Smoothies are a major component of the diet. It is an advantage that the diet encourages smoothies instead of juices, which is the direction that many diets take to lose weight. By whisking, fiber is kept in the equation, which promotes satiety, supporting overall weight loss goals, according to a November 2015 article published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2. Does not require specific diet packaged foods. Some weight loss plans promote or require their own food products or meal delivery services to be successful with dieting (and these are often quite expensive). The Body Reset diet is based on the everyday foods you can find at your local supermarket.
3. Encourage eating five meals a day , with a focus on fiber and protein. The diet encourages eating every two hours, in addition to consuming a large amount of protein and fiber, which helps you feel satisfied.
The dangers
These are some of the possible disadvantages of following the Body Reset diet.
1. Very regimented and restricted . The diet is highly regulated and specific as to what and how much you can eat when and on what day. It doesn't leave much room for flexibility.
2. It is time consuming . Because the diet is so strict, you must plan and buy each meal exactly as prescribed. This can take a long time both mentally and physically.
3. Eating smoothies two or three times a day can become monotonous.
4. It is not sustainable . Eating so few calories in such a regulated way is not sustainable for most people (read: 99.9 percent of humans). The diet is only meant to be a 15-day reset, so it was never a long-term solution, but there is little merit in eating a certain way for two weeks to go back to eating like before.
5. It is not appropriate for everyone . If you have a history of eating disorders, are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should avoid this diet. In addition, you should consult your doctor before trying the Body Reset diet if you have blood glucose control problems or any chronic disease.
So should you try it?
We are not fans of short-term, quick-fix diet plans. They tend to get you back to where you started, with maybe a few extra pounds (restricting it tends to binge) and maybe even some embarrassment and disappointment in yourself.
Instead, it incorporates some of the positive principles of the diet, such as eating more whole foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, lean proteins, while limiting highly processed foods, alcohol, sweets and sugary drinks. There's nothing wrong with adding one of the smoothie recipes to the daily menu rotation, either, but there's no need to consume three a day.
