We’ve seen numerous fad diets that target consuming one particular meals — the cookie food regimen, the cabbage soup food regimen, the grapefruit food regimen. All of them declare that can assist you lose a major quantity of weight in a short time, and the cucumber food regimen is not any totally different.
The cucumber food regimen is a quick-fix weight-loss food regimen that’s mentioned to assist folks shed kilos rapidly by consuming — you guessed it — an entire lot of cucumbers. However does it work?
Listed here are the foundations, the advantages, and the downsides of the cucumber food regimen.
What Is the Cucumber Weight loss program?
Cucumbers are naturally low in energy — an entire cucumber has simply 45 energy — so it’s no shock they’d find yourself on the middle of a fad food regimen.
Whereas there are totally different variations of the cucumber food regimen, there’s one frequent thread: You eat plenty of cucumbers. We’re speaking cucumber shakes, salads, sticks, and slices.
What Are the Guidelines of the Cucumber Weight loss program?
The precise guidelines of the cucumber food regimen can fluctuate relying on which supply you reference. Whereas there’s a guide aptly titled The Cucumber Weight loss program: The Energy of Acutely aware Consuming, yow will discover a number of variations of the food regimen on-line.
The principle guideline of the food regimen is that this: Eat cucumbers if you’re hungry, together with a handful of different “permitted” meals. As a result of cucumbers are so low in energy, the thought is that you just’ll probably create a calorie deficit by noshing on principally cucumbers.
What Meals Can You Eat on the Cucumber Weight loss program?
Evidently, you may eat cucumbers. Most diets haven’t any limitation on the way you eat them and the way a lot you eat, though some stricter variations of the food regimen do restrict the quantity of cucumber you may have.
A number of different meals are usually included, together with:
- lean proteins like fish, hen, and eggs
- Greek yogurt
- cottage cheese
- olive oil
- brown rice
- low-calorie greens like spinach, celery, and tomatoes
There’s additionally one 10- to 14-day protocol that includes consuming as a lot cucumber salad as you need, together with:
- two boiled eggs or 150 grams of tuna with out oil or 150 grams of hen breast
- two massive boiled potatoes or three slices of whole-grain bread
- 500 grams of natural fruit
What Meals Can’t You Eat on the Cucumber Weight loss program?
One advantage of the cucumber food regimen: Other than whole-grain bread, which is permitted on some variations of the food regimen, the food regimen cuts out most processed meals together with chips, baked items, and sweetened drinks.
However when you have been to observe the protocol talked about above, you’d additionally omit plenty of wholesome fare — like fruits and any non-approved veggies.
Can I Lose Weight With the Cucumber Weight loss program?
Sure, however it would almost certainly be momentary.
You’ll be able to shed pounds on any model of the cucumber food regimen, as a result of there merely aren’t that many non-cucumber meals you’re allowed to eat — and which means you’ll probably slash your day by day calorie consumption.
By filling up on principally cucumber at each meal, which has a excessive water content material, it might be powerful to eat sufficient of the opposite permitted meals.
“You’re placing a lot bulk into your digestive system that you just’re not going to have plenty of room for the rest,” says Andrea N. Giancoli, MPH, RD.
However the cucumber food regimen isn’t designed to be adopted for greater than two weeks — so it’s not a sustainable food regimen for long-term weight reduction. Any weight you lose on the cucumber food regimen will probably be gained again when you return to consuming usually.
And there are many different, more healthy methods to eat cleaner with out chopping out so many meals teams.
The Downsides of the Cucumber Weight loss program
You don’t want us to inform you that cucumbers are low in energy and may be part of a wholesome, balanced food regimen.
“There’s no hurt in consuming cucumbers with each meal, so long as it’s a average quantity,” Giancoli says.
However there are a couple of downsides to creating cucumbers your major meals supply. Right here’s why it’s best to suppose twice earlier than following the cucumber food regimen:
1. It’s low in vitamins.
Should you eat principally cucumbers, you’ll miss out on plenty of vital micro and macronutrients. In comparison with different vegetables and fruit, Giancoli says, “Cucumbers aren’t precisely swimming in nutritional vitamins and minerals.”
2. You gained’t get the variability you want.
Consuming a wide range of meals helps make sure you’re getting all of the vitamins you want.
“We’re purported to be consuming all kinds of meals — a range that provides us a steadiness of macronutrients, fiber, nutritional vitamins, and minerals and all types of different issues that our our bodies want,” Giancoli says.
3. It could gradual your metabolism.
Extreme calorie restriction can really get in the way in which of your weight-loss objectives.
On the cucumber food regimen, Giancoli says, “It’s going to be very arduous to succeed in your calorie wants — and when you go under your basal metabolic fee with energy, you’re not giving your physique the energy it wants simply to remain alive at relaxation.”
Meaning your metabolism will probably decelerate to preserve power.
What’s extra, you most likely gained’t have the power to hit the gymnasium, and figuring out often goes hand in hand with wholesome weight reduction you may keep.
4. You’ll probably acquire the load again.
As is the case with loads of different very low-calorie fad diets, you’re most likely going to place any misplaced weight proper again on.
With extended calorie restriction, the human physique can go into hunger mode: “Your physique’s like, ‘You’re not giving me what I want; I have to do one thing about that and use much less power and burn fewer energy,’” Giancoli says.
When you go off a restrictive food regimen, analysis exhibits that physique weight usually returns to and even exceeds what it was initially.
The Ultimate Verdict
So does the cucumber food regimen work? Within the brief time period, perhaps — but it surely’s not the healthiest method to weight reduction, and it’s undoubtedly not sensible or sustainable.
However you may nonetheless get pleasure from cucumbers as a part of your wholesome consuming plan — like in a crudités platter or a Greek salad.
