Create Your Own Gimmick Diet!
February 17th, 2009
It seems that ever since the Atkins Diet showed up on everybody’s radar there have been several other “gimmick” diets rearing their ugly heads. Diets such as “The Chicken Wing Diet” have promised to help people shed unwanted pounds.
It might be true, but why stop at chicken wings. For my experiment I used the following guidelines for a man and woman:
Man: 30 years old 5 feet 11 inches 200 pounds
Woman: 30 years old 5 feet 4 inches 150 pounds
At these numbers and with very little daily activity or exercise, a man will burn about 2269 calories per day and a woman will burn about 1664 calories per day.
With these numbers in mind and the fact that a person has to burn about 3500 calories to lose 1 pound, I came up with a couple of gimmick diets that might amaze you.
The Burger King Whopper Diet (for men)
1 Burger King Whopper (no cheese) - 670 calories, 40 grams of fat, 48 grams of carbs
Eat a Whopper for breakfast, lunch and supper for a grand total of 2010 calories.
You will then lose 1 pound of weight roughly every 13.5 days without any effort at all.
The Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich Diet (for women)
1 Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich - 440 calories, 25 grams of fat, 48 grams of carbs
Eat a Chicken Club Sandwich for breakfast, lunch and supper for a grand total of 1320 calories.
You will then lose 1 pound of weight roughly every 10.5 days without any effort at all.
You might see a pattern emerging, I’m picking foods that fall within a specific guideline that on the cover indicate a positive result but in reality we all know better (remember the documentary Super Size Me).
Each diet may meet the proper calorie goals you have set for yourself, but in reality you are taking in almost 3 times the daily fat recommendation for an average person and for people trying to lose weight you are taking in almost 3 times the daily carb recommendation.
Speaking of carbs, let’s look at the Atkins Diet.
One of my favorite snacks used to be Pepperettes, I have since banned this from my refrigerator.
The Schneider’s European Style Pepperette Diet
1 Schneider’s European Style Pepperette – 130 calories, 9 grams of fat, 3 grams of carbs
It has been said that to be successful in the Atkins Diet, a person should aim for 20 – 60 grams of carbs per day which works out to 20 pepperettes exactly on the high end. While I’m meeting one criteria, I am absolutely destroying others to the tune of 2600 calories and 180 grams of fat. In other words, the 30 year old man listed above would be gaining 1 pound every 10.5 days and taking in over 3 times the daily fat recommendation.
I’m sure by now that everyone is thinking there must be a point to this blog, especially since I am destroying every gimmick diet that I can think up. Well there is a reason and that is for everyone to make sure that they are utilizing a diet that has balance. Eventually, everything will always come down to calories but fat and carbs to name only a few are very important factors as well.
Somebody doing the Atkins Diet might be looking at the Schneider’s Pepperettes and thinking, “only 3 grams of carbs per stick! That’s perfect!”. They aren’t looking at the whole picture though.
Everyone needs to be careful about what they are putting into their bodies and make sure you educate yourself on some of the other nutritional information that is provided on food labels.
Most gimmick diets are overloading you on one item because it is a shortcut and this is why people are often unsuccessful in losing and then keeping off the weight.
The most important thing to remember is that too much of anything is NOT good for you.
Categories: Health and Diet
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting