The 3-Day Diet is a fad diet intended to cause the loss of 10 pounds within three days. Its proponents suggest that the specific amounts and combinations of food in the 3-Day Diet will burn fat instead of causing the dieter to lose water or muscle weight. Medical professionals strongly advise against the 3-Day Diet and consider it unhealthy.
Description
The 3-Day Diet consists of exactly three meals each day and doesn't allow snacking. This diet provides 1,000 to 1,300 calories per day, although it's generally very high in fat. The small number of calories in the 3-Day Diet may cause a slight weight loss, but dieters will typically regain this weight after they stop following the diet.
Names
The 3-Day Diet has many names based on legitimate medical organizations, all of which deny authorship of this diet. These include the American Heart Association (AHA), the Birmingham Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic. This diet also has many common names such as the 3-Day Army Diet, the 3-Day Navy Diet and the Hot Dog Diet.
Early Form
The specific origin of the 3-Day Diet is unclear, although it's currently posted on many blogs and forums on the Internet. An early form of the diet was called the University of Oregon Medical School Diet and has been circulating the Pacific Northwest since 1975.
Modern Form
The current form of this diet has been known as the Cleveland Clinic Diet since at least 1985. The Cleveland Clinic specifically states that it doesn't endorse this diet. There are no known published versions of the 3-Day Diet currently in print.
Hospitals
The 3-Day Diet frequently becomes associated with the cardiology department of various medical centers and hospitals. Internet postings for this diet routinely claim that a particular cardiology department uses the diet to help cardiology patients lose weight before an operation. In addition, some medical centers publish diet books for patients with specific disorders. Some postings for the 3-Day Diet may then claim that this diet appears in one of these books.
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