The Mayo Clinic Diet

The Mayo Clinic Diet - The claim: You will shed 6 to 10 pounds in two weeks and continue losing 1 to 2 pounds weekly until you’ve hit your goal weight.
The theory: You recalibrate your eating habits, breaking bad ones and replacing them with good ones with the help of the Mayo Clinic’s unique food pyramid.

You start with Part 1- Lose It!! You don’t count calories, and you can snack all you want on fruits and veggies. After two weeks, you begin part 2, learning how many calories you should eat to either lose or maintain weight and where those calories should come from.

In “Lose it!” you will add a healthy breakfast, lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, healthy fats and at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. You will ban eating while watching TV, sugar (except what’s found in fruit), snacking (except on fruits and veggies), consuming too much meat and full-fat dairy, and eating out (unless the food you order follows the rules). You will eat  natural or minimally processed food.

In “Live it!” you will use what you learned in the first phase but be allowed to occasionally break the rules. You will also calculate the number of calories you can eat while still losing a couple of pounds a week. Instead of counting the calories in every grain of (brown) rice you eat, you will focus on servings. On a 1,400-calorie plan, for example, you are allowed four or more servings each of fruits and veggies, five servings of carbs, four of protein/dairy and three of fats. What’s a serving? For fruit it’s the size of a tennis ball; for protein, no bigger than a deck of cards. Round out “Live it!” with regular physical activity and you’re set for life.

The diet is heavy on food that’s naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories, and the diet emphasizes fruits, veggies and whole grains. Recommended foods include healthy carbs (think fruit, legumes, vegetables, whole-wheat flour and wheat bran); fiber-rich foods such as nuts and beans; heart-healthy fish such as salmon, mackerel and tuna; and “good” fats, which include avocadoes, almonds, olives and walnuts. Foods to avoid include saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol and sodium.