Introduction
The Body Reset Diet is a supposedly quick, healthy, weight-loss-promoting eating plan that combines diet and exercise, offering a few pros. It emphasizes smoothies and small meals to boost metabolism and promises to jumpstart weight loss. However, the restrictive nature of the diet and limited food choices can lead to nutrient deficiencies over time. But why is it still unsustainable in the short or long term?
What Is the Body Reset Diet?
The Body Reset Diet is aimed at promoting quick weight loss due to its allowance for low initial calorie adjustments in dietary element consumption. Additionally, incorporating an exercise regimen that you find more suitable to implement regularly can mean that, in the short term, you may notice some progressive changes on your weight scales. The proponents of this diet essentially advocate that eating more and exercising less can still result in weight loss depending on your body composition or metabolism.
So, is the rationale of this diet or its results supported by scientific testimony or evidence? Unfortunately, the answer is a big no, according to nutrition experts, because it has no scientific proof or evidence to back up these unrealistic expectations of short-term weight loss.
The foundation of the diet is quite simplistic, where individuals following it are encouraged to consume more low-fat foods, low-calorie nuts, seeds, avocados, lean proteins, dairy-based milk that is of low-fat or reduced-fat versions, some fruit-based smoothies,, and foods prepared from high-fiber carb veggies.
What Are the Recommended Food Groups in a Body Reset Diet?
Here are the recommended select food groups in the Body Reset Diet:
1. The main feature of the Body Reset Diet is its dependence on specific smoothies, called Body Reset smoothies, which are meant for consumption in three categories: white (breakfast), red (lunch), or green (dinner) smoothies.
2. White smoothies for breakfast usually include apples, pears, spices, yogurt, peaches, bananas, almonds, milk, and more.
3. Red smoothies include fresh or frozen berries, oranges, protein powders, and ground flaxseeds.
4. Green smoothies include Greek yogurt, lime juice, microgreens, spinach, kale, arugula, romaine lettuce, pears, grapes, Greek yogurt, and avocados.
Foods that can be consumed in the Body Reset Diet:
- Apples.
- Pears.
- Non-dairy milk products.
- Nuts and seeds.
- Almonds.
- Walnuts.
- Flaxseeds.
- Whole grains.
- Peaches.
- Milk and yogurt.
- Nonfat milk.
- Whole-grain crackers.
- Whole wheat tortillas.
- Whole grain bread.
- Popcorn.
- Lean protein.
- Meats.
- Fish.
- Steak.
- Chicken.
- Shrimp.
- Egg whites.
Foods to omit from the diet:
- Fatty foods.
- Fried foods.
- Low-fiber fruits and vegetables.
- Bananas.
- Melons.
- Potatoes.
- Refined grains.
- White bread.
- White rice.
- Egg yolks.
- Bacon.
- Sweetened coffee.
- Sweetened drinks.
- Sausages.
- Chips.
- Crackers prepared from non-whole grains.
- Sugary foods and beverages.
- Soda.
- Candy.
These listed foods cannot be consumed in this diet plan.
What Are the Eating Plan and Phases of the Body Reset Diet?
The Body Reset Diet advocates that individuals follow a specific health-centered meal plan focused on choosing only select nutritional food groups. This approach can potentially prevent both hunger cravings and the desire for binge eating, while also helping track your calorie count and create a healthy calorie deficit ensuring that you are not otherwise tempted to choose calorie-rich foods that can promote weight gain. When you start with this diet and its protocols, divided into three main phases step-by-step with the foods listed below to be consumed exclusively, the last two phases are focused on consuming the "S meals. The "S" symbol in this diet represents different types of salads, soups, sandwiches, stir-fries, and scrambles that cannot be included in Phase 1, or the initial phase, of the diet.
The diet also incorporates an exercise program or regimen that is to be followed in tune with the Body Reset Diet specifically, and in perspective to the phase of the diet you are in. In the first phase, you will need to walk a minimum of around 10,000 steps in a single day. The second phase usually incorporates at least three days per week of resistance training as an addition to your 10,000-step walking routine. The third phase further adds five days per week of resistance training alongside the daily 10,000 steps of walking.
What Are the Pros and Major Dietary Drawbacks of a Body Reset Diet?
Once you settle into the routine of consuming such foods, coupled with an exercise regimen that you can implement on a daily basis, the Body Reset plan attempts to eventually kickstart your weight loss journey.
The pros of this diet are that it definitely encourages low-fat, high-protein foods and selects proteinaceous options from specific food groups, allowing for the possibility of losing weight in a healthy way. However, one of the primary drawbacks of this diet is its restrictive nature, where you limit yourself from consuming essential dietary fiber, proteins, macronutrients, micronutrients, vitamins, and complex carbs that are obtained from a diverse range of natural food sources. It is only natural that individuals following even a short-term weight loss trend that restricts their intake to select food groups would end up depriving themselves of essential nutrients necessary for sustaining overall metabolic rate and organ-based immunity.
Nutrition experts, hence, do not recommend the implementation of even a short-term, advocated, or propagated weight loss trend or diet that restricts the intake of important food groups yielding carbohydrates, fiber, proteins, and vitamins. The second drawback of this diet is that all the recommended smoothies, as a general component of the diet, lack the essential gut health-promoting fiber obtained from consuming fresh or frozen whole fruits and vegetables. When you start consuming smoothies or juicing (even though it is a healthy plan) or rely solely on the liquid component of fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, you end up missing out or depriving yourself of the increased richness of natural fiber provided by whole foods themselves.
Conclusion
The Body Reset Diet is essentially an unscientific and unrealistic weight loss trend specifically targeted at individuals who may be trying multiple ways to lose weight without any actual signs of progress in their weight loss journey. When you mentally restrict yourself from consuming certain types of foods, your body cannot adapt to the compensatory changes created by reducing the total intake of nutrients. This is not a healthy form of calorie deficit achieved through nutrient consumption in balanced proportions or through meal planning (as seen in other balanced, healthy weight loss diet plans). Furthermore, calorie needs and daily energy expenditure vary from individual to individual, making it unlikely to be a sustainable weight loss plan that works for everyone. An additional drawback is the restriction on whole grains, which provide essential heart-healthy fiber, as the diet only allows limited grain foods.
