3 Day Diet

The exact origins of this 3 day diet have never been confirmed and it has been reprinted in many guises over the years, however the most credible sources suggest that it was in fact created by The Greenlane Hospital in New Zealand and was used on overweight / obese patients to lose weight prior to surgery.

I have read some internet forums with people claiming to have worked for The Greenlane Hospital, confirming that this is the true source of the 3 day diet.

Many dieticians and nutrition experts dismiss this 3 day diet as a ‘fad’ or ‘crash’ diet, however countless number of people all over the world state that it works and it has existed as an ‘underground’ diet for decades with copies being sold or re-printed and passed from friend to friend.

Even today, an exact copy of this 3 day diet SELLS on the internet around the world.

If you do this 3 day diet successfully, but go back to poor eating habits, there is no doubt that you’re good work shall soon be undone.

The 3 day Diet is too be used as part of a continued conscious effect to be healthier and lose weight.

Dieting for 3 days shall not make you thin, healthy or happy, but when used in combination with lifestyle changes, I, like countless others, believe that it works very effectively.

I discovered this 3 day diet when reading the book ‘Diary of a Fat Man’ by Paul ‘Squeeze’ Jeffries, an inspirational man whose memory this site is dedicated too – thank you too Paul & his wife Caroline.

I am not a medical professional in any way shape or form, so you should not take any advice I give, you should instead seek a trusted medical professionals advice before embarking on any lifestyle or diet change.

Do not deviate from this 3 day diet, it shall not work! Simple! If you cannot bear to eat any of the foods listed, this 3 day diet is not for you! If you return to your previous eating habits (assuming you were not on a diet / healthy eating plan prior) you shall put the weight back on. Hope that is clear enough for you!

Day 1

Breakfast

• Black coffee
• 1/2 grapefruit
• 1 piece toast with 1 tablespoon peanut butter (natural peanut butter)

Lunch

• 1/2 cup tuna
• 1 piece toast
• Black coffee

Dinner

• 3 ounces any lean meat or chicken
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 apple
• 1 cup weightwatchers vanilla ice cream

Day 2

Breakfast

• Black coffee
• 1 boiled egg
• 1/2 banana
• 1 piece toast

Lunch

• 1 cup cottage cheese or tuna
• 8 regular saltine crackers or equivalent in your country e.g. snax or ritz

Dinner

• 2 beef frankurters
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1/2 cup carrots
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup weightwatchers vanilla ice cream

Day 3

Breakfast

• Black coffee
• 5 regular saltine crackers or equivalent in your country e.g. snax or ritz
• 1 ounce cheddar cheese
• 1 apple

Lunch

• Black coffee
• 1 boiled egg
• 1 piece toast

Dinner

• 1 cup tuna
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 cup cauliflower
• 1 cup melon
• 1/2 cup weightwatchers vanilla ice cream

When starting this 3 day diet plan, I estimated that I was 1 stone overweight (6.35 kilos or 14 pounds).

I had already lost nearly 3 stone (19 kilos or 42 pounds) over the course of an 18 month period through slowly introducing exercise in my lifestyle, slowly reducing junk food and in the past 4 months when most of my results occurred, cutting out bread, pasta, potatoes and reducing the amount of rice I ate.

In other words I followed a non-strict Low Carb, High Protein Diet. During this 4 month time I also increased the amount of exercise I was doing massively, the more weight I lost the fitter I felt which in turn allowed me to exercise more. I also massively reduced the amount of ‘junk’ I was eating and rarely drank alcohol.

Before I started the 3 day diet, I made sure that I had the full support of my wife who came shopping with me shopping for the necessary food types for the 3 day diet and I also told all of my friends that I was embarking on the 3 day diet so I knew that I had to complete it otherwise I would look like a failure!

Two of my friends actually volunteered to do the 3 day diet with me, but one dropped out in the afternoon of Day 2 and the other decided to do her own version of the 3 day diet by varying foods and as a result lost nothing, zip, nada, not a bean!

The 3 day Diet is one tough diet, but ultimately only 72 hours of your life, people all over the world in modern times and throughout history have survived with much less food over much longer periods.

If you do not have the will power to change the food you eat for 72 hours, you are not ready to lose weight and keep it off.

I am nearly certain that if you are reading this, you will already know that being overweight is very dangerous to your health and has deep psychological effects on a person.

When I was overweight I felt ashamed, embarrassed and unattractive to myself, let alone anyone else. I was unable to do much with my young son or as a family as I was so tired all the time and everything seemed an effort.

Having been ‘in shape’ before, I knew that I had to make some radical changes to my lifestyle and I knew that those changes had to come from within.

In my 20’s I was a fully qualified Personal Trainer and Weight Management Consultant. Changing career in my late 20’s found me sat at a desk for 12-14 hours a day, I got married, started a family and generally ‘forgot about myself’ – sound familiar?

I had tried countless times over the years to force myself back into exercise and diet but didn’t stick at anything, because I now know that deep down I was not ready to make those changes.

I had too many other priorities in my life that I thought were more important, but I now realise that good health & fitness should have been top of my priority list, not bottom. Being overweight and unfit can lead to an early grave and a life of never being truly happy.

Like a smoker, drinker or addict, you need to break old eating and exercise habits in order to lose weight, you need to realise that it is only you who controls your body and only you can make the change, but you need to be 100% ready to do it, start and don’t look back.

Don’t make excuses about your metabolism, your thyroid, don’t think that having surgery will be an easier option, don’t think about taking pills and potions, just shake yourself hard, and get on with it. Respect yourself and become a good role model for others.

Surround yourself with supportive people, consult a medical professional before making any changes (I did) and surround yourself with lots of motivational tools – books, DVD’s, television programmes, magazines about leading a healthy lifestyle.

Your obsession with diet and exercise shall drive everyone mad and you shall become a diet and exercise bore – but the end result shall be worth it! Hopefully your become a 3 day diet preacher like me!

Make sure you have a structured eating plan / healthier diet to follow after this 3 day diet; otherwise you shall lose any results quickly. For me, cutting out bread, pasta and potatoes, limiting rice and increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables I ate really worked, as well as eliminating crisps and chocolate. Simple I know, but highly effective. Like a lot of you reading this I’m sure, I didn’t realise that my eating habits were that bad, it is only when you break them, and then analyse them, does it dawn on you just how bad they actually were!

I have a ‘Fat Photo’ it showed me returning from work one day standing by new Mercedes, Designer Suit, Designer Watch, I thought I looked good at the time, but that photo is the opitamy of my life at the time, chasing success, working too long hours and not caring about myself.

I blew it up and printed it out – put a copy on my office wall with the words ‘Go training, don’t eat junk food!’ on it. I also put a copy on the inside of the ‘treat’ cupboard at home, the place where we keep the junk food, so every time I felt the urge to eat crisps and chocolate, that photo faced me and I closed the cupboard door – you would not believe how many times that photo saved me from unnecessary worthless calories!

Looking at what I had to eat, I thought that this must be the hardest day and embarked the diet with an open mind and good sense of humour. All my food was in the fridge ready and prepared.

I did not deviate once from exactly what was written on the 3 day diet plan and what I wrote in my food diary, matched the diet completely.

In order to keep me full and to minimise any fluid loss through the 3 day diet plan, I drank 3.5 – 4 litres of water every day, this kept me well hydrated.

Drinking large amounts of water can be dangerous (this is commonly called water intoxication) and again you should not take my advice but the advice a suitably qualified medical professional.

I also maintained my normal exercise programme this day which focussed on fat burning exercises.

I found myself thinking about food more and looking forward to the next meal as soon as I had eaten one and went to bed hungrier than normal! 3 days suddenly felt like an eternity – seriously!

I was wrong about day one being the hardest, this day felt no easier and by the afternoon I my ability to concentrate had diminished greatly, however will power and determination to lose weight kept me going.

I didn’t get much at work done on day two! I spoke to some friends in passing at the gym and struggled to get sentences out!

I got news that my friend had stopped the diet on this day which could have given me an excuse to stop, but I didn’t, I wanted the weight loss results too much.

I drank 3.5 litres of water this day and also maintained my normal exercise programme which focussed on fat burning exercises.

Again I went to bed hungry, lightheaded and feeling really glad that I only had another day to go!

I would say that this is the hardest day, as temptation to give in is great! I would guess that most people fail on this day – do not be one of these people!

The final stretch!

I actually found this day probably the easiest, the light headiness and inability to concentrate had gone; physically I looked ‘tighter’ and could feel that weight loss had occurred. I looked good.

Again I drank 3 litres of water this day and maintained my normal exercise programme which focussed on fat burning exercises.

By the final meal of the 3 day diet, I was feeling a great sense of achievement and was very much looking forward to the weigh in tomorrow morning.

I had lost exactly 4lbs (1.82 kilos)!!!!! I was delighted with this weight loss (although secretly hoping for more!).

I decided that the 3 day diet was ‘worth it’ although had no intentions of repeating it in the near future!

I felt less energetic than normal and slightly jaded if the truth be known.

I returned to my normal low carb, high protein diet and by mid day after eating a large fruit salad – I felt on top of the world again!

I decided that I would keep off the scales for another 3 days to allow my body to replace any fluid lost and regain balance following the diet.

Weighing myself after 3 days of ‘normal eating’ I felt would give a true indication of fat loss, not fluid loss.

3 days later I had put on 1 lb (0.45 kilos) , which I concluded meant that the diet had made me lose exactly 3lb of fat in 3 days and 1lb of fluid, I was very pleased with that.

Out of curiosity, I decided to weigh myself 1 week after finishing the diet and too my amazement had lost another 2 lb (0.9 kilos), bringing total weight loss in 10 days to 5lbs (2.27kg), pretty damn good I’d say!

I never went above this weight again.

I found this 3 day diet very tough indeed, but I thoroughly believe that it worked for me and that it can work for others who want to lose weight.

I had never restricted food purposely this much before in my life, nor eaten the food combinations which truthfully were not that appealing.

Although 4lbs – 5lbs (1.82kg -2.27 kg) does not seem a lot in the grand scale of things, I was only 1 stone overweight therefore this represented a massive amount. I wish I had discovered this 3 day diet earlier in my weight loss quest!

I appreciated my meals more following this diet and it even made me re-examine my portion sizes.

I would imagine from my own research, the more overweight you are, the more fat you can lose on this 3 day diet up to a maximum of 10lbs (4.55 kg) according to reports.

I would repeat the 3 day diet again if I felt it necessary, some suggest you can do the diet ’3 days on 4 days off’ cycle, personally I would find this too difficult, two to six times a year for the die hards I would say would be enough!

I would suggest that this 3 day diet is too be used only for the following circumstances:

• A kick start for a new weight loss plan, which should be followed up with a healthy balanced diet suitable for your weight loss goals.
• A way of breaking old eating habits to allow you post diet to re-assess your eating habits and form better diet choices.
• A way of breaking through a plateau when your weight loss has flat lined.
• A way of losing weight rapidly for a special event or occasion.
• A motivational boost and strength of character test for those on a weight loss plan.

Again I am not a suitably qualified medical professional; please do not take my advice!