The grapefruit diet includes a very protein-friendly meal plan focusing largely on the consumption of grapefruit at every meal in some form. This diet is used typically for rapid weight loss. It is designed to be a 12-day method that usually includes less than 1,000 calories, which is not optimal for one’s health.
The guidelines of the diet are rather loose, as food is allowed to be prepared with spices, dressings, or even butter.

Food can’t be too hot or too cold however, and preparation must be done in anything but aluminum. The user is also advised to keep high protein and high starch meals apart by at least four hours. It’s a difficult diet to follow without question, but some people tend to swear by it.

Meal Times

There are a few examples that are listed to make this diet make a little more sense, those include:
*Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, 2 slices of bread, ½ grapefruit or 8 ounces of grapefruit juice
*Lunch: salad w/ dressing, any meat in any quantity, ½ grapefruit or 8 ounces of grapefruit juice
*Dinner: meat prepared in desired way, salad or green vegetables, coffee or tea, ½ grapefruit or 8 ounces of grapefruit juice.
*Snack: 8 ounces of skim milk

So as you can see the grapefruit diet calls for, you guessed it, grapefruit in one form or another with each meal, save for bed. The inclusion of citrus into your diet so close to bedtime would be less than ideal as the acid would have all night to work into your teeth and damage the enamel, not to mention that ingesting citric acid at night can be a mild contributor to heartburn.

The Upside

This diet does promise quick results, nearly 10 pounds in 12 days. This is largely due to the fact that there are fat-burning enzymes that can be found in grapefruit. Another part of the promise is that it will help to burn this weight off without starvation, which is a bit hard to fathom when consuming only 1,000 calories or less per day. That little tidbit leads us right into the pros and cons of this particular diet.

Pros and Cons

Now any diet that promises weight loss in so little time is obviously going to be highly
sought after by many people. How else can you possibly lose so much weight in so little time?
The alternatives are usually less than favorable and the fallout from those methods is often
disastrous to your health. This diet can in fact do what it says, but not without a few decidedly
unpleasant downsides. So let’s look at those.

Pros

* It gets results. Losing weight is encouraging and can help people feel better and look better. It can also be a serious kick start to losing more weight.
* Adding grapefruit to your diet is a healthy, low-calorie method for weight loss and a boost to your immune system.

Cons
* The claims of fat loss due to the enzymes found in grapefruit are not backed by any solid research. This diet is low-calorie and low-carb, which could cause temporary weight loss all on its own. Losing 10 pounds in 12 days could just as well mean you are losing water and muscle weight along with the fat.
* Grapefruit can interfere with some medications that are necessary to keep people healthy, such as Lipitor, blood pressure medication, Allegra, anti-anxiety drugs, and even heart medications.

So what is all this saying? Grapefruits aren’t necessarily bad for your diet. In fact they can be a very good source of Vitamin C and even help you to keep from ingesting too many calories during meals. For some they are an acquired taste, and for others they’re absolutely delicious. They are not a vital part of a person’s diet, but they can help in ways that the diet can’t quite live up to the hype. The belief that this diet can do any good is slightly erroneous considering that it is given more credit than it is due. People will believe what they want to, but in truth, this diet is just another way for people to justify trying to eat healthy and lose weight.

There are a lot of ways to lose weight, eat healthier, and be happy with who you are. The grapefruit diet is one way to feel better, but in itself is not a viable way to lose weight or stay healthy.