Grapefruit and the Mayo Diet

The Grapefruit Diet is a popular 12-day diet that has been around since the 1930s. Also known as the Hollywood Diet or the Mayo Diet, this diet promises fast weight loss (10-pounds) during the course of 12 days. Although weight loss is likely to occur on the Grapefruit Diet, it's almost always temporary. Most of the weight lost during the diet is attributed to water, not fat. Therefore, most dieters will gain back all the weight they lost as soon as they start eating regular foods again.

Diet Premise

A common misconception is that the Grapefruit Diet, because it's often called the Mayo Diet, is in someway associated with the famous Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic, however, does not promote or endorse the Grapefruit Diet. As of 2009, there is no mention of the Grapefruit Diet on the official Mayo Clinic website. In fact, the Mayo Clinic cautions against dieting and instead provides healthy tips and guidelines to help you lose weight naturally and keep it off. None of these tips mention grapefruit.

According to WedMD, "the premise of the Grapefruit Diet is based on an alleged 'magical' ingredient in grapefruits, that, when eaten with protein, theoretically triggers fat burning and causes weight loss." On the Grapefruit Diet you're allowed to have three meals and one snack every day. Each meal must include half of a grapefruit.

Diet Details

The Grapefruit Diet is strict. You're not allowed to omit any of the foods from the meal plan. Therefore, you may choose to avoid this diet if you don't eat meat because the protein gained from meat is a major part of the diet. The following is the basic meal plan for the Grapefruit Diet, as outlined on WebMD:

Breakfast: 1/2 grapefruit, two strips of bacon, two eggs and a cup of black coffee or tea with no sugar added.

Lunch: 1/2 grapefruit, salad with salad dressing, and an unlimited amount of meat.

Dinner: 1/2 grapefruit, green or red vegetables (no starchy ones), and an unlimited amount of meat or fish.

Finally, for a snack, drink 8 ounces of skim milk or tomato juice. Eight ounces of pure, unsweetened grapefruit juice may be substituted for the grapefruit. You must also drink 64 ounces of water every day.

Effectiveness

According to WebMD, grapefruit contains no "mysterious fat-burning properties." The weight loss you experience from the Grapefruit Diet comes from the number of calories you're eating. If you follow the meal plan suggested by the Grapefruit Diet, you're only consuming about 1,000 calories daily.

A study published in the February 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) says that reducing calories can help you achieve weight loss. Whether you follow this diet or not, drastically reducing your daily caloric intake is what helps you lose weight. Not grapefruits.