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The Fast Food Diet

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1The Fast Food Diet Empty The Fast Food Diet 24th March 2010, 8:05 pm

ClareRoma

ClareRoma
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The Fast Food Diet
It seems counter-intuitive, but proponents of the Fast Food Diet claim that you can lose weight by solely eating fast food. Does this diet really deliver easy weight loss — and at what price?

Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH Print Email The Fast Food Diet, a book by Stephen Sinatra, MD, is based on the premise that it’s not realistic to expect people to completely give up fast food, especially if they eat it regularly. It proposes that people get the facts about fast-food restaurant items to make healthier choices.

The Fast Food Diet: How Does It Work?

Dr. Sinatra suggests that one reason many other diets fail is because they are too restrictive. He believes that his Fast Food Diet philosophy follows what he calls the 80/20 rule: It’s okay to splurge 20 percent of the time as long as you eat a healthy diet 80 percent of the time.

The Fast Food Diet is also designed to fit into someone’s lifestyle, rather than require drastic changes. The subtitle is “Lose Weight and Feel Great Even if You’re Too Busy to Eat Right,” meaning that you don’t have to make a whole lot of changes or effort to lose weight, but rather just small adjustments to food habits you already have. The Fast Food Diet lists the healthiest options at fast-food restaurants, nixing fried foods, trans fats, and sodas.

The Fast Food Diet: A Sample Diet Day

The following example of three meals and two snacks adds up to 1,577 calories and 69 grams of fat, including water or no-calorie drinks:

Breakfast
Hardee's Frisco Breakfast Sandwich

Snack
Supermarket almonds

Lunch
Burger King Original Whopper Jr. with a garden salad

Snack
McDonald's Fruit ’n Yogurt parfait

Dinner
Churches Chicken fried chicken breast, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes

The Fast Food Diet: Pros

One advantage of the Fast Food Diet is its ease. “You don’t have to do your own prep,” says dietitian Leslie Bonci, RD, director of sports nutrition at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “The portion size is pre-determined.”

Another benefit: It does help you choose lower-fat, lower-calorie choices. “If you frequent these restaurants, you can choose the best items on the menu,” says Amy Lanou, PhD, nutritionist and assistant professor of health and wellness at the University of North Carolina in Ashville.

The Fast Food Diet: Cons

One of the biggest challenges is the temptation dieters face. You’re ordering a baked potato, hold the sour cream, while your favorite foods are being deep-fried right under your nose. Says Lanou, “If you are used to eating a 3,000-calorie meal at a fast-food restaurant and are suddenly trying to eat less, you’re still there smelling the smell. It can be hard to stick with.”

There’s also the issue of the limited amount of fruits and vegetables. “Most people don’t go into a fast food restaurant and order the salad,” says Bonci. “And how much lettuce and tomato can you put on a burger?”

When there are fruits and vegetables on the menu, they are usually skimpy and nutritionally lacking. “The produce is not dark green. There is no arugula, no broccoli,” says Bonci. “The fruit may be on a yogurt parfait, and you can count the number of berries on one hand.” Whole-grain bread and brown rice are unheard-of, except for the occasional offering at a restaurant like Subway.

The overall choices are limited, too. “A lot of times, it’s a burger or chicken,” says Bonci. “Fish choices are slim to none, and it’s pretty much fried. You don’t usually see salmon.”

The Fast Food Diet: Short-Term and Long-Term Effects

In the short term, says Bonci, you can lose some weight on the Fast Food Diet: “Because the Fast Food Diet has meat, you can experience [feeling full]. There’s a mouth feel, an aroma. Someone on a diet who eats just a salad will want to eat again in five minutes, but with the Fast Food Diet, a person is more likely to stay satisfied longer with a small burger and is less likely to eat again soon.”

In the long run, however, one problem is that the foods are not nutritious. “Even when we’re talking about the best choices, these tend to be [made with] poor-quality ingredients,” says Lanou. “There is no kale or sweet potatoes, and the foods are still too high in sodium and saturated fats. There is still too much meat, dairy, and highly processed grains.”

Also, a dieter is apt to get sick of the limited choices on the Fast Food Diet. “The repertoire is really small, and is likely to get really boring after a while,” says Bonci. “Like other diets that initially sound good, such as the ice cream diet, you need to read the fine print. It’s a small amount of food. It’s a small burger. And when the person behind the counter is asking if you want to super-size it or if you want the combo meal, that’s the challenge because the choices are there.”

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