Information about the 3MD weight loss program
In recent years, the so-called 3MD diet is gaining popularity. This diet is also known as a 90-day split diet. It is based on two 90-day diet periods. The main advantages of this diet should be; clear, easy-to-follow rules and proven results (weight loss in the 40-55 pound range). Other results that the 3MD diet promises include decreased sensitivity to weather and positive changes in metabolism.
Although many people find it easy to believe these claims, there is really no detailed explanation in medical or physical terms of how this diet should work. Also, after finishing this 3MD diet, the weight gains are coming back. Switching from the 3MD diet to our previous nutrition patterns causes people to gain weight again. The success of the 3MD diet is based on the following assumptions:
– We are all subject to a daily nutrition cycle (does not explain what that is).
– We need the right combination of foods – following exact rules defined for each day (protein day, carbohydrate day, starch day, fruit day) and every 29 days there is a so-called “water day” or fasting day.
Following those two assumptions, one should lose weight no matter how many calories one eats daily. The menus prescribed by the inventors of the 3MD diet are quite strict “2 oranges”, “3 pieces of cake”, “smaller chicken”, “dinner is half of lunch”, … but without mentioning what kind of cake, how big a piece should be, what parts of the chicken, how “carb-rich” the lunch, nothing about the caloric value of foods one should eat.
Many additional rules accompany this diet. In fact, there are some healthy tips among them: how olive oil should be used, salt restriction, advice to see a doctor. Exercise, which is the cornerstone of every serious diet in the world, only deserved an obscure mention, not even close to what one should do to truly lose weight. This sad fact makes the 3MD diet even more popular among overweight people. Those people get stuck in a dead end of repetitive weight gains after completing this diet. In addition, this diet does not offer any explanation on the principles of its effectiveness.
Why is it so important to separate foods according to specific days and separate nutrients?
How exactly will this make us lose fat?
The daily separation cycle according to 3MD consists of a strict diet from 8:00 p.m. to noon the next day. Within this period it is only allowed to eat fruit and drink water. This makes no sense. Those 16 hours represent 2/3 of the whole day. And one should not starve his body for 16 hours each day. Every body that undergoes such a daily fasting period becomes more sensitive to the energy buildup of every bite we take. The messages that our body reports to our brains are to reduce energy consumption and take advantage of the lack of energy by draining the energy stored in the muscles. We force our body to start dissolving our muscle mass. That is not good news.
Muscles, when in motion, are the body’s main energy (fat) burner. So we are actually weakening the only “tool” that can help us get rid of fat.
3MD gives no explanation as to why we should eat carbohydrates one day and protein the other. The problem is that “fruit” day and “starch” day are also “carb” days. The sugar in fruits and the complex sugar in starch are just two different kinds of the same thing: carbohydrates. Even if we can somehow understand fruit day (healthy sugar), it’s hard to make sense of the separation of “starch” day and “carb” day (complex and refined sugars). And there is a rule that you can have whole wheat bread with chicken, which contradicts all sane weight loss programs (proteins (chicken) should not be mixed with carbohydrates (bread)).
The 3MD diet works in the short term. But weight loss is a consequence of the water that our body loses with this diet. 3MD is extremely popular as it does not prohibit eating calorie bombs like chocolate. The other short-term positive effect of this diet is that it somewhat regulates daily eating habits. People are disciplined by force. That makes it much easier to go back to old eating patterns as soon as the 90 days are up.