The Grapefruit diet is a fad diet; not a healthy long term diet plan. This diet plan is intended to last for twelve days at a time. It will help you lose weight, but it is not a healthy weight loss program.



The grapefruit diet goes back to the early days of Hollywood. It has changed over the years, but it is still not a good program. The grapefruit diet was made for quick weight loss. It became popular for people who need lose weight for an approaching special occasion, like the Academy Awards. The Grapefruit diet can be compared to the also unhealthy Cabbage Soup diet.

A much better Hollywood fast weight loss diet is the 5 Factor diet made by a celebrity trainer for celebrities that need to get in shape fast without getting hungry and weak. Another of my favorites is the Body for Life 12-week diet and exercise program; you build the body up not break it down. Body for Life is not from Hollywood but it is much better than the Grapefruit diet or the Cabbage Soup diet.

The grapefruit diet program is followed for twelve days with a two week break between cycles. Since the diet is a quick fix trend diet, performing it regularly is not prudent. Quick weight loss for an event is one thing, but becoming a regular grapefruit dieter a bad idea.

The way it works is grapefruit is eaten with each meal to replace the starch in the meal. There aren't many carbohydrates with this plan. You can eat eggs and bacon for breakfast as long as you do not eat toast and do eat grapefruit. Like most rapid weight loss plans the pounds you lose is mostly a loss of water rather than fat. Vegetables are eaten because they are low in carbohydrates and calories. Corn, lima beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are substituted for green leafy vegetables. Salads and lean meat can be added for lunch and dinner.

Grapefruits are a great food. They are high in vitamin C and potassium, a good source of folate, iron, calcium, and other minerals. They are high in fiber, low in calories, and they contain bioflavonoids and other phytochemicals that are recognized to protect against cancer and heart disease. Pink and red grapefruits are high in beta carotene.

Grapefruits do have properties that affect the body's metabolism. The grapefruit can actually help you speed up your metabolism so you burn more calories. Grapefruit is a low glycemic index food that stabilizes the blood sugar, this can help you control your appetite.

Not enough calories are consumed on this diet. When calorie consumption falls below 1,000 it is hard for the body to work properly. This is too few calories for your cells to function properly. You should never intake below 1200 calories and in most cases should stay above 1500 calories. If your body thinks it is in the starvation mode, it will hold on to those fat stores and extra weight can be harder to get rid of. Twelve days may be too long for this plan. Without enough calories, it becomes hard to concentrate. Tiredness and dizziness can become a problem.

I say let the grapefruit diet go the way of most other fad diets, let it fade away. If special events come up often, look for a weight loss plan that offers permanent weight loss like the Body for Life program or any of the other diet programs that are much better for you.

Have a grapefruit with your green tea and a healthy breakfast and then go for a walk around the block. This will do more for you long term than doing the grapefruit or cabbage soup diet or other fad diet every time you need quick weight loss for your high school reunion or Academy Awards.

Grapefruit can have a number of interactions with drugs, often increasing their effective potency. Grapefruits contain the phytochemicals naringin, bergamottin and dihydroxybergamottin, which inhibit the protein isoform CYP3A4 predominately in the liver. It is because of the inhibition of the isoform CYP3A4 enzyme that grapefruit increases the effects of a variety of drugs. There have been deaths due to overdosing on medication as a result of this. Apple and orange juices have also been implicated in interfering with etoposide, a chemotherapy drug, some beta blocker drugs used to treat high blood pressure, and cyclosporine, taken by transplant patients to prevent rejection of their new organs. The point is, if you are on medication you must talk to your Doctor before you start the Grapefruit diet. It may be best for you to stay away from this diet altogether.