Milk Diet For Weight Loss – Does It Work?
Hello All!!
Here is another weight loss diet on planet weight loss!!! This time it is a shocker- Milk diet for weight loss. I faintly remember having read somewhere that drinking milk won’t make you fat, instead it will keep you slim. But I never knew that a diet existed that made one thrive totally on milk!! Can the milk diet help in weight loss? Let us find out.
Let me begin by giving background details. The milk diet came to the fore by a famous bodybuilder Bernarr Macfadden who released his book called “The Miracle of Milk” in the year 1923. Now, that is a long while ago! In the book he mentioned that a diet of milk can cure a person of many ailments. Though he did not have weight loss as his main aim, he said that a milk diet can have a weight loss effect. If you happen to follow the Macfadden’s milk diet religiously there could be just an opposite effect.
About the milk diet
Macfadden had self-created this milk diet and it was not meant for healthy people. According to him, consuming only whole milk for an indefinite time cures several ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, insomnia, migraines, anemia, appendicitis, dandruff, rheumatism, arthritis, impotence and many more.
He writes that when the full milk diet is followed there is a rapid increase in weight of people who are underweight. However, he adds that one can lose upto 3 pounds a week by drinking 2.3 litre to 3.7 litre of milk a day. To resolve health troubles he urges that a person should consume 5.6 to 6.6 litres. For women 4.7 litres of milk is enough.
How is this diet followed?
Macfadden laid emphasis on drinking whole milk that has 4% butterfat. According to him one should go on a milk diet in spring or early summer because at that time cows feed on new grass, giving their milk more ‘curative value’. (I wonder if it holds good in this century!!) He says that men can comfortably drink 250 ml of whole milk after every half an hour.
Exercise
In his book he has suggested moderate exercise for those who are on the diet for ‘upbuilding’. For those who are sick, exercise is not advised except for slight movement.
Calories in this diet
If you stick to what Macfadden’s milk diet version and drink 4.7 to 6.6 litres of milk with 3.25% butterfat, you would be consuming anything between 3000 to 4200 calories a day!!! Consuming 2.3 to 3.7 litres of milk for the purpose of weight loss can give you 1490 to2400 calories per day. The number of calories needed vary from person to person. According to the USDA, It depends on the body size, age, gender and level of activity.
Saturated fat content
In his book Macfadden writes that –
“There is no finer, richer fat in all the world than the butter fat suspended in infinitesimally small globules in the milk,”
According to Macfadden, milk cures heart disease but the truth is that the opposite is likely to happen. The American heart association points out that saturated fat is the basic cause of high cholesterol and heart disease. The milk diet has 80 t0 223 g of total fat of which 26 to 127 g is saturated fat. The American heart association says that total fat intake should be between 25 to 35 % of the total calories and saturated fat should not be more than 7% of the total calories.
Other Options of weight loss
It does not seem to be a very convincing diet. If your goal is weight loss then there are more efficient ways than the milk diet. You need to create a calorie deficit or simply put, less input and more output of calories (ie burning of calories). Milk does not contain certain essential nutrients like fibre and it is high in fats. Restricting your diet only to milk can take a toll on your health. A healthy diet is one that has a lot of variety, so that one gets all the necessary nutrients. If you want to lose weight then you should go in for a healthy diet and not for a restrictive diet.
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