In pursuit of a slim and beautiful body, you often have to sacrifice your own principles and give up your favorite foods or severely limit their quantity. Many people who are losing weight suffer from hunger all day long, trying to get rid of excess weight, which in 90% of cases leads to failure. Nutritionists have studied this point in detail and developed a series of tasty, healthy, safe and effective diets.
The porridge diet for weight loss is great for people who don’t get enough of vegetables alone, but want to lose a few kilograms without harm to their health. Cereals contain a huge amount of vitamins, improve intestinal motility, help get rid of digestive problems, normalizing metabolism. The benefits of cereals are difficult to overestimate; such a diet is not only effective, but also beneficial for the body. There are several types of permitted cereals; you need to choose the variety that you like best in order to make your meal a pleasure. You can combine different cereals, for example, eat oatmeal in the morning, buckwheat for lunch, and pearl barley for dinner. Most importantly, you need to prepare dietary dishes, adding only permitted products.
Content
- Diet features
- Advantages
- Flaws
- Strict version
- Lax menu option
- Diet recommendations
- How to eat after a diet?
- Reviews of those who have tried diet options
- Conclusion
- Expert opinion
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A diet based on porridge is one of the most delicious and nutritious: you don’t have to starve, severely limit yourself in the amount of food you eat, and junk food will lose its appeal. Such nutrition will be appreciated not only by lovers of this product, but also by the most fastidious people, because eating porridge is a limitation in the name of taking care of your health.
In this article we will tell you how to diversify your diet, lose extra pounds, and fill up with energy without risking your health.
Contraindications
The gentle version of the “6 cereals” diet is relatively safe for the body, so it has a minimum of contraindications. You should refuse this nutrition program in the following cases:
- Hypersensitivity to gluten, which is present in all cereals.
- Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (acute stage).
- Pathologies of the liver, kidneys, heart and blood vessels.
- Diseases with a chronic course.
This diet should be avoided by people who need to eat a balanced diet: pregnant or lactating women, teenagers, elderly people (60 years and older). The porridge diet is prohibited for people who are actively involved in sports or perform heavy physical work.
Diet features
Porridge will be the basis of your weekly meals - choose one or include a new one every day. What options? Various types of cereal diets are allowed: semolina, wheat, buckwheat, barley, oatmeal, corn, rice, pearl barley, barley or a mix of different types of cereals. Cereals tend to increase in size after cooking: from 100 grams of product you will get 200-300 grams of finished product (calorie content is calculated in a dry state). The estimated amount of food allows you not to feel hungry during the day, and in terms of calories it comes out to 300-400.
In strict versions, you cannot eat anything other than cereals, but in non-strict versions, fruits, vegetables or fermented milk products are added. Have you not watched your diet before, have a fast metabolism and want to lose a couple of kilos for the warm season? There is no need to do the strict version; the kilograms will go away by reducing your usual caloric intake. Eating a low-calorie diet (less than 1000 calories) slows down your metabolism and interferes with weight loss.
“For five days, the diet includes only rice and green tea, divided in equal parts into three meals. Or the buckwheat diet, which involves either a weekly diet of buckwheat, tea and water in the first option, or in the second – buckwheat, vegetables, fruits and kefir.”
Svetlana Titova
Both diet options are designed to be low in calories; it is not advisable to limit yourself in the amount of product.
Photos before and after the cereal diet
Video materials
Whatever dietary program option you are considering, be it a cereal diet or a Chinese diet, try at all costs to surround yourself with as much relevant information as possible. Having a sufficient amount of data at your disposal helps create the most effective menu, which, on the one hand, will bring the desired quick neutralization of extra pounds, and on the other hand, guarantees the normalization of health.
Next, we invite you to familiarize yourself with thematic videos regarding the cereal diet. In these materials, you will receive direct recommendations from experienced professionals and enthusiasts on how to properly organize your daily diet in order to achieve your goals.
Use only proven dietary nutrition programs and achieve an ideal figure in a short time. A diet based on porridge is an excellent opportunity for every person, having gotten rid of the feeling of hunger, to significantly reduce the amount of food consumed and stimulate the body to fat-burning processes. This program enjoys enormous attention from those losing weight, and this is not surprising, because in addition to its effectiveness, it demonstrates practicality, accessibility and safety. Develop your cereal program now and head to your local store for quality products that will allow you to stick to it responsibly.
Advantages
Let us note the main advantages of such nutrition. Most of those who have chosen this power system note these advantages in their reviews:
- Ability to lose 3-5 kg in a week;
- There is a choice of products, healthy, tasty;
- Nutritional value and lack of hunger;
- Availability of products;
- Saturation of the body with a complex of necessary substances;
- The high fiber content in porridges helps cleanse the body;
- Feeling good;
- Improved metabolism.
Flaws
We have mentioned the advantages of the cereal diet, but it is also worth pointing out its disadvantages. Whether these are serious reasons to refuse a diet is up to you to decide. However, these disadvantages do not stop the vast majority.
- The first days you feel unwell, the body adapts;
- Strength and energy will most likely only be enough for everyday activities, sports will have to be postponed;
- It’s difficult to unlearn eating incorrectly in a week; there’s a high chance of relapse;
- It is not recommended to go on a diet for more than a week in a row, the body will begin to feel a lack of useful elements;
- Critically low calorie content;
- There is a high risk of breakdown and gaining even more kilograms.
There are several basic diet options for weight loss. A sample menu and diet provides for a week. We will consider a strict option and a non-strict one. Each option has its own characteristics.
Cooking recipes
There are several ways to make a dish that is healthy for getting rid of extra pounds. The easiest way is to buy a ready-made semi-finished product, which is flax seed powder left after pressing the oil. All that remains is to pour boiling water over the mixture and leave for a few minutes until ready.
This option for preparing porridge is the simplest, but it is not recommended. Flax powder loses a significant part of its beneficial properties already during industrial processing, and then it is immediately poured with boiling water, which also does not add any benefits. It is better to spend more time, but prepare a high-quality and tasty dish that will saturate you with all the necessary substances.
The preferred method of preparation involves grinding the seeds yourself, and this should be done immediately before preparing the porridge, since they quickly oxidize and lose their beneficial properties. The cooking recipe is as follows:
- In the evening, rinse 200 g of flax seeds in cold water.
- Pour cooled boiled water over the seeds so that it covers them completely and is 2-3 cm higher. Leave the container at room temperature, covering it with a lid.
- Beat the seeds with a blender or mixer, adding 50 ml of vegetable oil if desired.
- You can optionally add pieces of fruit, berries, nuts or herbs to the finished product.
Strict version
Version 1. During the week, the diet consists of porridge, one meal is up to 250 grams of porridge. There should be at least 3 meals. It is important to drink enough water. You are allowed to drink tea. Most often, the cereal is poured overnight and infused, rather than boiled directly in water.
Version 2. One type of cereal for every day/for the whole week.
A subtype of this diet is the “Geisha Diet”. For five days, the diet includes only rice and green tea, divided in equal parts into three meals. Or the buckwheat diet, which involves either a weekly diet of buckwheat, tea and water in the first option, or in the second - of buckwheat, vegetables, fruits and kefir.
The following is a sample menu for every day of the week, but it is not static and can be modified to suit your needs, desires and capabilities.
Lax menu option
Monday.
- Rice porridge with milk
- Apple
- Buckwheat porridge and vegetable salad
- Kefir
Tuesday.
- Oatmeal
- Fruit smoothie
- Wheat porridge with boiled chicken
- Kefir
Wednesday.
- Barley porridge
- Dried fruits
- Corn porridge
- Kefir
Thursday.
- Wheat porridge
- Apple
- Chicken bouillon
- Kefir
Friday.
- Rice porrige
- Orange
- Buckwheat
- Kefir
Saturday.
- Barley porridge
- Apple
- Vegetable salad
- Kefir
Sunday.
- Rice porrige
- Avocado bread
- Buckwheat
- Kefir
Which one to choose: the pros and cons of buckwheat, rice, rolled oats and other porridges
Each cereal has its own characteristics. Even diabetics can eat oatmeal. Hercules porridge is good because it perfectly cleanses the gastrointestinal tract, but can lead to constipation. Buckwheat is rich in fiber, which means it will also quickly clear the body of all “blockages” and also drives away excess water.
Rice porridge is a great idea for those who want to achieve results faster and improve their stomach function.
Important! Each porridge has its own energy potential. The success of losing weight will also depend on the caloric content of foods.
This table shows the energy value of each cereal in kilocalories.
Groats | Raw | Boiled in water |
Buckwheat | 310 | 130 |
Oatmeal | 300 | 90 |
Pearl barley | 320 | 110 |
Manna | 330 | 80 |
Corn | 340 | 80 |
Millet | 350 | 90 |
Rice | 350 | 80 |
Wheat | 320 | 90 |
Barley | 330 | 80 |
Diet recommendations
There are also recommendations that will help diversify the menu and get the best result without breaking its rules.
- Take care of the right psychological attitude;
- Before starting the diet, calculate your usual caloric intake and reduce it by 10-20% to maintain the diet;
- Did you break down and start again, did it happen in a circle? Finish it, forget about it and pick up another one - you should be comfortable;
- On a non-strict diet, fruits are allowed, with the exception of bananas and grapes;
- Vegetables are allowed, with the exception of potatoes;
- Dairy products are allowed, but not sugar-containing ones;
- During the diet, it is important to exclude everything that contains sugar and salt, is sour, spicy or fatty;
- It is necessary to follow the cooking rules - boil or steam;
- It is advisable to combine the diet with taking a vitamin complex;
- It is necessary to make a way out of it, which is twice as long as the diet.
How to eat after a diet?
When dieting on cereals, the body experiences stress, so you cannot immediately switch to your usual diet. Firstly, you will begin to work out restrictions and eat a lot, and secondly, the body needs to get used to increasing the amount of food. Sitting for a week and relaxing, returning to your old diet is unacceptable, otherwise the weight will return with “friends”. Therefore, you need to approach the exit wisely.
To get out, you need to gradually introduce new foods into your diet. For example, you sat on buckwheat or a mix of cereals for a week. On the first day of release, add one fruit or vegetable for breakfast, on the fourth day you add a fruit to breakfast and vegetables to lunch, on the tenth day you can gradually introduce meat products. Obviously, these will not be the portions you are used to, but even after the restrictions, you will physically not be able to take the usual portions.
“On the first day of release, add one fruit or vegetable to breakfast, on the fourth day you add a fruit to breakfast and vegetables to lunch, on the tenth day you can gradually introduce meat products.”
Svetlana Titova
Another option: you completed the diet and started to go out, but your appetite increased and there was a risk of relapse. It’s better to stop and think about the reasons: do you want something sweet? Of bread? Salty? Fat? Choose some analogue and allow yourself liberties, with one condition - try not to overeat and not promise yourself: “I’ll eat today, and I’ll continue tomorrow.”
Reviews of those who have tried diet options
Alina Makarova: If you can’t pull yourself together for a long time, this diet will be an excellent option for losing weight. I like porridge - tasty, healthy, nutritious. On the third day, it’s already difficult to squeeze in porridge for breakfast; it seems that the porridge is too heavy, and the portion is gigantic. I can’t say for sure based on the results, but I managed to fit into my old jeans.
Irina Serpukhova: The porridge diet is the best for me. The most difficult thing is to endure the exit, and the first week flies by quickly and efficiently, especially when adding fruits and vegetables to the cereal. On the scales minus 4 kg per week, and minus 2 more at the exit. Without much pain, I think this is a cool result.
Natalya Popova: The first days are quite difficult to hold on to, it seems that something is missing and you want everything at once. Approach it wisely - the result will be cool. You need good willpower and motivation, at one time I had enough of them and I don’t regret that I went on a diet to lose weight.
Anna Gavrilova: Once upon a time I tried to stay on the buckwheat diet, I was angry and nervous. Then I found this diet and it finally dawned on me that in the strict version it is permissible to eat different cereals and not choke on buckwheat alone. I used the non-strict option as a way out. Visually she was noticeably deflated, although she was not fat.
Diana Rubina: It’s difficult to switch to a diet suddenly, so I counted calories for two weeks before starting and tried to eat up to 1300. I had enough energy, my mood was high, it felt as if you had been cleansed of all the nastiness and were fueled with good energy. I recommend a porridge diet, but you need to be willing to perceive it as an adventure, and not as hard labor in the name of slender legs and weight loss.
The essence of a fasting day on porridge
To permanently add cereals to the list of dietary products, you need to find out the essence of why extra pounds accumulate and how you can get rid of them during a fasting day.
Carbohydrates
They are divided into two types: fast (sugar, fruits, bread, sweets) and slow (cereals, vegetables). The first ones are instantly and completely absorbed. Glucose levels rapidly rise, and the hormone insulin is released, which “transfers” it into the cells. The person experiences hunger again, and excess intracellular glucose is converted into fat.
Slow carbohydrates consist of polysaccharides. What are their benefits for weight loss:
- they take a long time to break down, a lot of energy is spent on this process;
- give a lasting feeling of satiety (due to fiber and a constant level of glucose in the blood without sudden fluctuations);
- have a beneficial effect on microflora;
- neutralize decay processes;
- removes waste and toxins.
Nutritionists believe that proper nutrition should consist of half slow carbohydrates.
Calorie content
Porridges are foods with medium calorie content. Most contain from 80 to 300 kcal per 100 g. To lose weight, the total energy value of the daily diet should be no more than 1000 kcal. Therefore, on a fasting day you can eat an average of 700 g of porridge.
Glycemic index
Shows the rate of carbohydrate breakdown. The smaller it is, the slower the process goes. As a result, glucose in the blood increases gradually and almost all of it is spent on the needs of cells (especially the brain). At the same time, a person does not experience hunger or mood swings.
Cereals are foods with a low glycemic index, which is comparable to cottage cheese and vegetables. Many fruits that are traditionally used for weight loss have a higher GI.
Vitamins and minerals
Not directly related to weight loss. But for regular fasting days, it is important to choose products with a sufficient amount of nutrients. Otherwise, health problems are guaranteed. Porridges are rich in vitamins A, E, B, PP, calcium, potassium, magnesium and many other minerals.