How to lose weight on

the Scarsdale Diet

Learning how to lose weight on the Scarsdale diet is easy as it is simple to follow and achieves results fast.

This is exactly how high-protein diets work which accounts for its instant weight loss appeal.

This is high-protein, low carbohydrate and fat diet. It encourages fast weight loss on the basis that, unlike fat and carbohydrate, which are stored as fat, protein is used up as a metabolic fuel, inducing ketosis

(see Atkins diet).

The diet consists of two separate stages: an initial, very rigid and fixed regime aimed at promoting a two-week very fast weight loss, followed by a two-week Keep Trim Program, when weight loss is minimal or stops altogether.

The logic of this diet is supported by a rather tenuous theory that, since a protein molecule is large and chemically complex, the body has to use an extra energy to digest it.

This means that you may burn about 275 cal/1155 kJ more per day then on a same diet of the same calorific kilojoule intake based on fats and carbohydrates.

The so-called dynamics of protein mean that if you stick to meet, fish, eggs, low-fat cheese and salad, you should rapidly burn up and "melt away" excess body fat.

If, as on the Atkins diet, you are not eating enough carbohydrates and fat supply your body with sufficient calories, then your system first draws on stored body tissue to act as fuel.

It is little wonder, therefore, that you can lose an average of one pound (450 g) per day, or, twenty to forty pounds (9 to 18 kg) in two weeks.

But if this seems impressive, remember that this instant and fast weight loss is due, very large array, to the reduction of water content inside and outside the body cells. This is an essential part of the body's adaptation process in response to restricted calorie/kilojoule intake.

It is well to bear in mind that when weight loss is fast, it is not that stores which are being used up as a primary source of energy but rather glycogen and lean tissue, including muscle.

Low carbohydrate diets

Compared to many earlier, low carbohydrate diets, the Scarsdale is relatively well balanced, allowing you to eat fruit, vegetables, small quantities of low-calorie/kilojoule bread and dairy produce.

However, lack of carbohydrate may frequently be the cause of tiredness, dizziness, irritability and similar conditions generally associated with low blood sugar levels. It does not contain enough carbohydrate to make it a safe and reasonable eating plan for more than a fortnight.

The rigid "if it's Tuesday, it must be fish" format is one of the main, if monotonous, features of the Scarsdale diet.

But it is also one of it's attractions as it makes it is easy to lose weight on the rigid regime. Perversely, this is what makes the diet work for the majority of people who try it.

There is no room for mealtime manoeuvring, and you are supposed to follow daily menus down to the last lettuce leaf. By making up your mind for you, the agony of indecision is taken out of planning meals.

However, more ambiguous is exactly how much you should eat at every meal. One of the attractions, as well as the drawbacks, of the Scarsdale diet is its avoidance of calorie/kilojoule counted, with the apparent license to over eat.

After all, "plenty of lean meat" has different interpretations for different people, no matter how often the instructions tell you not to gorge yourself. It is also a fact that any surplus protein that your body doesn't use up this energy is stored as fat.

However, there is little doubt that the Scarsdale is one of the most pleasant and uncomplicated two-week diets to follow if you want learn how to lose weight quickly without suffering hunger pangs or becoming unsociable.

Maintaining that loss is another matter, since the moment you adjust the diet to include a wider range of foods you will incur a greater appetite, stop losing fluid and begin storing fat once again.

The diet works best for people following an alternate two-week strict regime, two-week trim regime for about eight weeks. Once you have reached your desired weight you will have to follow the keep trim program for evermore. Keeping weight off is far more difficult than losing it on this program, so it is really only effective during the strict two-week phase, which could prove dangerous if you remain on it for longer. An ideal diet, therefore, for anyone about eight to ten pounds/3 to 5 kg overweight.