From: No, really...the truth about mono diets?

Some info about Mono Diets :

Mono dieting is eating one speciffic food and water for at least one day and nothing else.

When our body gets nutrients from a single source it tends not to digest the food properly, so calories and nutrients are not absorbed because of the lack of enzyms in your stomach.
That has as a result extreme weight loss, simillar or even better than the weight loss that is achieved by fasting. There is no calorie count in mono diets.

Mono Diets can be done with healthy food like fruit or eggs, or with unhealthy and fatty food like chocolate or peanutbutter. It just has to be a single type of food and only water. For example if you are doing a chocolate mono diet, you are allowed big amounts of chocolate, but the chocolate must not contain any solid parts such as waffle, crisps fruit pieces, raisins, marzipan or nuts. The food may only contain a single or a few ingredients and it should have the same consistency and texture, with no odd or distingushable parts and pieces in it.

A Mono diet usually lasts from 1 to 3 days and can't be done for more than 7 days in a row with the same food, so that the method does not become ineffective and you do not plateu. The best is to have 2-3 mono diet days per week with the rest being restricting days (below 800cals) and mayde 1 fast day per week. The mono diets should never be done streight after a fast. There should be a restricting day or two between the fast and the mono diet.

Mono diets are not healthy and your body might lack nutrients, but they are an extremily easy way to lose weight fast, without having to count calories or worryong about eating fatty food or ever feeling hungry.

Also other people and your familly usually stop being suspicious of possible eating disorders if they see you eating big amounts of fattening food.

Typically during a Mono Diet :

• Only water is allowed and no other liquids, no coffee, no tea, no zero calorie soda or coke and no chewing gums, no vitamin supplements and no pain killers.
• It is prefered to stop eating after 7pm.
• Any medication including laxatives must be taken on an empty stomach and you should eat nothing for two hours after taking it. (a good idea is to take your medication before going to sleep)
• Drinking a lot of water is important in this types of dieting so make sure that you drink at least 1,5lt of water per day.

For very high BMI there is no quantity limit, for the rest BMI there is a gram per day limit that is personal and different for each person according tou their BMI. This limit is set because each ones body can not proccess endless amounts of food. To prevent stomach expanding and food weight gaining we set that gram limit (it is usually a lot of food if you are not low BMI). You can find your personal gram limit below.


THE AMOUNT SOMEBODY SHOULD EAT PER DAY:

• The actual amount that somebody is supposed to eat per day while on a mono diet really depends on the food that he chooses to do a mono with.
• Creamy foods need less time to digest, while chewy foods need more. It also depends on the BMI.
• For people with very high BMI (30+) there is no limit.
• For people with high BMI (25-29) it is usually between 600-700gr per day.
• For people with normal BMI (21-24) it is 450-550gr.
• For people that are on the lower side of normal BMI (18-20) it is 400-450.
• For low (17) and very low (16-) BMI it could be 200-350, or up to 200gr or less, depending on the person.
• For fruit and veggie monos, there is no actual limit. The person can eat more if he/she still feels hungry. Though, overeating might cause the person's stomach to expand, and it might also cause "food weight" that might ruin the actual mono diet results if the person does not take laxatives.
• Liquid food mono diets have a different amount count and the amount limit is higher than the solid or creamy food amount limit.

AFTER THE MONO DIET -WHAT TO EAT IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN THE WEIGHT

• After a mono diet you should restrict to your usual calorie restricting limit (should be below 800cals per day) with easy to digest foods that take a little time for your body to digest.
• Prefer soft fruit, yoghurt, pudding, juices and soups.
• Avoid meat, cheese, chewy cuttle fish and pluses.

MONO DIETS AFTER A FAST

I don't recommend mono dieting streight after a fast. This might cause your body holding on the calories.

• Restrict for 1-2 days if your fast was up to 4 days long.
• If your fast was 6-10 days long restrict for half the number of days you fasted for before starting a mono diet in order to stay safe and have maximum results.
• If your fast was longer than 10 days restrict for 1/3 of the number of days that you bave been fasting for.