If you have a health goal of losing weight, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. When you are at the beginning of a weight loss journey, it can feel like you have a ways to go and that it will take forever to reach your goal weight. This can lead to the mindset of wanting to lose as many pounds a week as possible, even if it means adopting some unusual habits.
The desire to lose a lot of weight super fast is what prompted the transgenic diet in popularity in the 1980s. According to a website dedicated to eating plan, the GM diet is centered around the idea of burning more calories than you eat. But it’s not that simple. To reach this goal, the eating plan requires some unusual practices, such as eating only fruit one day and then only vegetables the next. This extreme way of eating is rumored to lead to losing up to 17 pounds per week.
Intrigued? Find out what registered dietitians think of the GM diet and if it’s really an effective way to lose weight.
Related: Do you want to lose weight? Here are 16 really doable ways to do it quickly and safely.
What is the GM diet?
According to a website dedicated to the GM diet, this eating plan was developed in 1987 by General Motors as a way for employees to lose weight. However, this is not proof that General Motors employees have actually tried this eating plan. The diet follows a seven-day schedule, with different rules about what someone can eat (and not eat) each day. But the theme of each day is that calorie intake is kept very low with the intention of leading to rapid and substantial weight loss.
On the first day of the GM diet, followers can only eat fruit (except bananas, which are not allowed). On the second day only vegetables and olive oil are allowed. Once you hit day three, you can eat fruits and vegetables (again, except bananas). On the fourth day, dieters are advised to eat eight small bananas and four glasses of milk. For the fifth day, the menu consists of brown rice, tomatoes, and chicken or fish (or tofu or cottage cheese, if you are a vegetarian). These foods are also allowed once more on the sixth day, with the inclusion of vegetables. Finally, on day seven, all of these foods are allowed with the addition of lots of fruit juice. Every day, it is recommended to drink plenty of water.
It is important to know that there are no scientific studies to support the GM diet and it does not appear to have been developed by a doctor or dietitian.
Related: Looking to lose weight? Get Started With These Foods And Drinks Backed By Experts And Science
What registered dietitians think of the GM diet
“The GM diet is the definition of a crash diet,” says David Gaviria, MPH, RD, LDN, registered dietitian and doctoral student in the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Department of Nutrition. As a dietitian, she says she doesn’t understand any of the rules, such as not being allowed to eat bananas for the first three days of the meal plan and then being advised to eat eight on the fourth day.
(swipe to continue reading)
registered dietitian Jess Cording, RDN, the author of The Little Book of Game Changers, says flatly that the GM diet is neither safe nor sustainable. “People say you can lose 17 pounds a week, but losing more than two pounds a week is not recommended,” she says. Gaviria agrees, saying that even if people lose weight quickly on the GM diet, they are likely to gain it back. “The diet is very low in sodium and you drink a lot of water, so the weight you lose will be mostly water weight,” she says. Gaviria adds that consuming such a small number of calories also puts the body into starvation mode. “This means that when you go back to eating normally, your body will hold on to those calories because it thinks you’re starving, which will ultimately make it harder to lose weight,” she says.
Dr. Dara Ford, PhD, RDN, a registered dietitian and professor of health studies at American University, says there are claims surrounding the GM diet that simply don’t make sense from a scientific standpoint. “Part of the language surrounding the GM diet is that it helps the body eliminate toxins. If you have a liver and kidneys, your body is already doing it,” he says. In general, Dr. Ford says that any diet plan that is super-restrictive in calories or focuses on eliminating toxins is showing big red flags.
In addition to being ineffective for long-term weight loss, all three dietitians say that following the GM diet is downright dangerous. “Fiber is wonderful, and most people don’t eat enough of it, but the high-fiber foods on the GM diet don’t contain all the nutrients the body needs,” says Dr. Ford. She stresses that it’s important to get the right amount of protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients, which you can’t do while following this eating plan. She adds that someone on the GM diet can also experience a lot of GI upset because the fiber isn’t balanced with other nutrients and it’s more fiber than they may be used to consuming at one time. In addition to having some intestinal problems, Gaviria says that anyone on the GM diet is bound to feel hungry, fatigued, and probably irritable as well.
Related: This delicious and filling 7-day meal plan will supercharge your weight loss efforts
It’s clear that the GM diet is not recommended for weight loss, so what do dietitians recommend instead? “Focus on eating foods that support your body, full of nutrients the body needs to function,” says Cording. Luckily, she says there’s no shortage of nutrient-dense foods to choose from, and eating a wide variety makes mealtime more enjoyable—much more than just being able to eat, say, brown rice, tomatoes, and chicken.
In addition to focusing on nutrient-dense foods, Cording says to minimize those that are nutrient-poor, such as foods and drinks that are full of sugar or overly processed. She says this doesn’t mean you have to avoid them entirely, but nutrient-dense foods should be the focus.
Cording says the GM diet is especially harmful to people who are physically active, pregnant or lactating, or anyone with diabetes. Although these people are at higher risk of negative health consequences, this is an eating plan that no one should follow.
When it comes to losing weight in a healthy way, slow and steady is the way to go. Not only is it more sustainable, but it’s also much more enjoyable.
Next, Find out 12 Trainers’ Favorite Weight Loss Exercises.
Sources
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()
{n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}
;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
(function(){
fbq(‘init’, ‘117034125839707’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
var contentId = ‘ci02b0e89c700025f0’;
if (contentId !== ”) {
fbq(‘track’, ‘ViewContent’, {content_ids: [contentId], content_type: ‘product’});
}
})(); .
