17 Day Diet

by Vikas Yadav Blogger

Featured on Oprah and through many other major media outlets, the 17 Day Diet comes in 3 cycles that are meant to last a grand total of 17 days with a 4th cycle named the “maintenance cycle.” I’ve never personally liked the idea of 5 day, 17 day, 30 day, or 90 day diets. That means it’s temporary, and then you will rebound and gain all of the weight back.

But a maintenance cycle, which is an increasingly popular concept, undermines that idea. Still, you have to wonder how much you can actually lose in 17 days. Everybody wants a fast solution. But generally speaking, it’s just not realistic. But let’s take a look at these cycles.

The 17 Day Diet Cycles

Cycle 1: Accelerate: I’ve heard of extreme dieting like the HCG diet, which requires that you cut yourself down to 500 calories. Most people need a minimum of about 1000 calories to 1200 calories a day, and the first cycle strips you down to just that. The 17 Day Diet obviously encourages you to stick to healthy foods at this point, and it promises that you can lose about 10-15 pounds in this cycle. Keep in mind, it’s mostly water weight.

But this cycle supposedly “cleanses, hydrates, removes unhealthy carbs, improves unhealthy eating habits, and stimulates fat metabolism.”

Cycle 2: Activate: The second cycle is slightly altered, allowing you to eat more calories to “activate” your metabolism and keep your body guessing. It’s not completely unfounded. P90X uses the same concept of “confusion”. P90X just calls it “muscle confusion.” This cycle supposedly helps you to lose 5-6 pounds.

Cycle 3: Achieve: This is the slowest of the first 3 cycles, helping you to lose about 2-3 pounds per week. Achieve makes you eat healthier foods rather than focusing on calorie counting.

Cycle 4: Arrive This is considered to be the maintenance phase. During arrive, you supposedly diet during the week and splurge on the weekend, giving you cheat days. Not a bad idea. A lot of the most successful diets allow you a cheat meal or cheat day depending on the one to keep you from messing up and to keep your metabolism going.

This is a book that encourages you to eat a lot of lean protein, tons of vegetables, green tea, and plenty of water. It’s a low carb diet that hides under a big fat book! The only difference between 17 Day Diet and your average low carb diet is that 17 Day Diet adds in calorie control.

And don’t get me wrong, all of this is healthy. There’s nothing wrong with focusing on lean proteins and vegetables. But the 17 Day Diet is a hell of a lot like just about every other major diet I’ve seen for the past 10 or 15 years!