How To Lose Weight Fast With The Cucumber Diet
If you are looking for a diet that promotes quick weight loss, try the cucumber diet. You’ll end up losing up to 15 pounds in 7-14 days.
The cucumber diet has a simple plan: it restricts your calorie intake so you can lose weight as fast as possible. It’s a short term weight loss solution, very restrictive, and lacks most of the essential nutrients.
As you can imagine, it’s not the safest method to get slimmer, but it’s an effective and quick one.
The cucumber diet is simple; it has just a few rules you need to follow. But since it’s so restrictive, it can be hard for some of us to follow it. So carefully read on to see if it’s a good fit for you.
You will replace most of your current foods with cucumber. And even the rest of the vegetables and fruits allowed should be kept to a minimum.
Because this diet lacks variety (and nutrients at the same time), you are not recommended to follow it for more than 14 days.
Cucumbers are low in protein, which is one of the nutrients you need to maintain the health of your joints, muscles, and skin. So you must add to your diet some sort of protein-rich foods.
The cucumber diet contains mainly cucumbers, along with a few high-protein foods like chicken, fish, eggs, and nuts.
The Rules Of The Cucumber Diet
There are no ordinary rules for this diet. The main thing you need to do is to eat cucumbers at most meals. Every time you feel hungry, eat a cucumber or two.
There is a simple theory behind this: since cucumbers are very low in calories, you can eat as many cucumbers as you like and you’ll still be in a calorie deficit.
Because cucumbers are low in calories (300 grams contain only 45 calories), this diet recommends you to pair your cucumbers with some protein-rich foods.
You can add to your diet some nuts, lean meat, cottage cheese, eggs. You are even allowed to add some carbs to your meals, such as potatoes, brown rice or toast.
This way your meals will be a bit more nutritious and you’ll satiate your hunger.
Foods You Can Eat On The Cucumber Diet
Here is a list of foods that you are allowed to consume during the cucumber diet:
1. Proteins
You can add some protein to your diet by incorporating some eggs, chicken, Greek yogurt, nuts, lean beef, cheddar cheese, and cottage cheese. You can find more protein-rich foods in this article.
2. Vegetables
There are a few vegetables that you can consume on this diet, besides cucumbers. You can eat spinach, celery, tomatoes, and any other vegetables (but in small quantities).
3. Carbs
Your carbs on this diet will consist of whole-wheat bread, potatoes, and brown rice. If you what to make your diet even more restrictive, you can limit the number of carbs you are consuming.
4. Fats
No diet will allow deep-frying and the cucumber diet is no exception. You can, however, consume olive oil. You can add it to salads, or use it to bake veggies and lean meat.
5. Drinks
Try to stick to low-calorie beverages such as tea and water. You can enjoy coffee too, just make sure you don’t add any cream or sugar to it.
Foods To Avoid On The Cucumber Diet
While this diet does not really require you to avoid certain foods, it encourages you to replace most of your foods with cucumber.
This is a list with your basic restrictions when it comes to the cucumber diet:
1. Foods High In Sugar
If you what to stick to this diet, you should limit your sweets such as desserts like cookies and cakes, candies, and sodas that are high in sugar.
2. Fruits
You are still allowed to consume fruits as long as it does not comes in the form of a smoothie or as part of a small meal.
If you still want to drink a smoothie, use cucumbers as the main ingredient and add your favorite fruits for taste. Avoid juices and smoothies that contain only fruits.
3. Oils
You need to prepare your foods in a low-calorie cooking method and avoid deep frying. Stick to roasting your protein so you will avoid adding to much oil to your meals.
Basically, you don’t really need to avoid certain foods, but high-sugar and high-calorie foods are typically avoided when following a weight loss diet.
These are the key elements of the cucumber diet. You have to keep in mind that this is a very restrictive diet, low in fat and protein, and sustainable in the long run. Do not follow this diet for more than 14 days.
A typical day on the cucumber diet will provide you with about 800 calories. This can include six cucumbers, two eggs, a serving of fish or chicken, one cup of cottage cheese, and a few vegetables.
You have to keep in mind that some versions of this diet can be even more restrictive. But extreme calorie restriction can leave you with a slower metabolism over time.
Having to restrict a lot of nutritious foods is not healthy, nor enjoyable. Consuming healthy whole foods is what your body and your skin needs.
If you still want to give this diet a try and lose weight fast, below are a few sample menus that can ease your meal prep.
Sample Menu For The Cucumber Diet
Here is a three-day menu to see how the cucumber diet looks like:
Day 1
- Breakfast: 2 eggs, a side of cucumbers, and some herbs;
- Snack: 2 cucumbers;
- Lunch: a cucumber salad with Greek yogurt and some lemon juice;
- Snack: 2 cucumbers;
- Dinner: roasted chicken with a side of brown rice and cucumbers.
Day 2
- Breakfast: a cucumber smoothie, where you bend a cucumber with a green apple and spinach;
- Snack: a handful of almonds and one cucumber;
- Lunch: a few slices of cheese, one cucumber, and one grapefruit;
- Snack: a cup of green tea and some slices of cucumber;
- Dinner: cottage cheese and one cucumber.
Day 3
- Breakfast: cucumber, cheese, and whole-grain toast;
- Snack: 2 cucumbers;
- Lunch: cucumber salad with olive oil and tomatoes;
- Snack: one green apple;
- Dinner: roasted potatoes, seared salmon, and cucumbers.
If you want to follow this cucumber diet to enjoy a fast weight loss, stick to it for at least one week. You need to know that once you resume your usual habbits you can easily gain back the lost weight.
This is not a diet that any nutritionist will recommend to you. It is extremely restrictive, it’s lacking nutrients, and it’s unsustainable.
If you are looking for a more sustainable diet and a long-term weight loss it is better for you if you try a nutrient-dense diet. A balanced diet will allow you to eat a variety of foods and you will avoid severe calorie restrictions.
Anyway, some might find the cucumber diet useful (especially those who like cucumber). So if you’re serious about it, make sure not to exaggerate and resume normal eating after 1-2 weeks.