The 17 Day Diet

The 17 Day Diet: A Doctor’s Plan Designed for Rapid Results

The 17 Day Diet, engineered by Dr. Mike Moreno, is the “I want to lose weight now!” diet.  It incorporates many of the same techniques that other trendy diets endorse.  But, don’t let the slick marketing fool you…it definitely works.

Perhaps the most popular diet in 2011, The 17 Day Diet boasts a whopping 10-20 pounds weight loss in the first 17 days, with 5-10% reduction in total body fat.  So, if you need to shed pounds fast, in a way that’s safe, effective, and lasting this is the book for you!  The primary theme is to avoid boredom for the dieter, and each cycle meant to confuse your metabolism.

Background

The 17 Day Diet is a weight loss plan available in a book from Dr. Mike Moreno, a family medicine practitioner in San Diego, CA. His book comes from a weight loss plan he prescribed to his overweight patients, namely as a way to manage the holidays.   “Dr. Mike”, as he is known to his patients, is a graduate of the University of California at Irvine and Hahnemann Medical School (now Drexel University). Following his residency at Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, California, Dr. Mike moved to San Diego, where he now practices family medicine and sits on the board of the San Diego Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

In 2008, Dr. Mike launched “Walk with Your Doc,” which he participates in every Tuesday and Thursday morning before his workday begins. The program began when Dr. Mike offered to walk with a patient to motivate her to exercise and has since grown into a thriving community.

In November 2010, The 17 Day Diet debuted on an episode of Dr. Phil with a raving endorsement from the doctor. The self-published book was an overnight success.  His next edition, published by Simon & Schuster, helped push The 17 Day Diet to sales of more than one million copies by the end of 2011.  During 2011, Moreno and his publishers also produced the 17 Day Diet Workbook.

How it works

If diets that promote the same approach day in and day out bore you, The 17 Day Diet may be for you.  “Everyone wants fast results and the calorie confusion of this plan burns fat, achieves weight loss results, and helps dieters avoid boredom,” says Moreno.

The 17 Day Diet relies on a style of weight loss known as metabolic confusion, which means you’re changing up what you’re doing on a regular basis to keep your body from settling in to a routine.

Like many popular diet programs, 17 Day Diet is cyclical, using four phases, or cycles, to progress people from start to goal. The diet does not only last 17 days – that is the length of time for each of the four cycles.

The first phase, like many other diet plans, is a cleansing phase in “Cycle 1”.  This is the most difficult phase, where the dieter will lose the most weight.  Dieters clean up their diets, getting rid of fast foods, sweets, refined grains, and more in cycle one. This phase is designed to ‘improve digestive health, help clear sugar from blood to boost fat-burning and discourage fat storage,” Moreno says.

• Cycle 1, called “Accelerate”, is a very lean diet of approximately 1,200 calories per day. Weight loss expectations are from 10-20 pounds during this phase.
• Cycle 2 “Activate”, causes “calorie confusion” by increasing and decreasing calorie intake.  Also will stimulate fat burning and meant to prevent plateaus.
• Cycle 3 “Achieve”, has a liberalized meal plan that reintroduces healthy foods in proper portions along with one alcoholic drink per day.  Weight loss slows down.
• Cycle 4: “Arrive”, is considered the maintenance phase.

If you make it to cycle four and have not yet reached your goal, then it is advised that you jump back to another cycle and continue your efforts, on schedule. Cycle four is considered the maintenance phase, and is reserved for those who’ve reached goal by following the guidance outlined in the first three cycles.

The fitness aspect is minimal, especially at the start with only 17 minutes of exercise per day proposed. However, followers are encouraged to do more as they are physically able and comfortable to expand their fitness regimen.

What You Can Eat

The 17 Day Diet promotes a diet of clean eating, less sugar, processed foods, fried foods, and other unhealthy foods.  . The 17 Day Diet book outlines detailed meal plans for each day of each cycle, so all you have to do is shop and prepare the foods allowed.  Here are some examples of what’s allowed during each phase.

Cycle 1: Accelerate

Cycle 1 allows an unlimited amount of non-starchy vegetables and lean protein (including 2 eggs per day, if you have normal cholesterol level), along with limited amounts of fruits, probiotics (such as yogurt), and a little bit of “friendly” fat, such as olive oil or flaxseed oil.  During this cycle you’ll have an estimated 1,200 calories per day, or the minimum recommended calorie level.

• Breakfast: Plain low-fat yogurt with fresh berries, green tea
• Lunch: Green salad with a variety of vegetables like tomato and cucumber with homemade vinaigrette, green tea
• Dinner: Grilled salmon, choice of raw or steamed vegetables, green tea
• Snacks: Sugar-free fruit-flavored yogurt, choice of one fruit

Cycle 2: Activate

Cycle 2 is the same as cycle one except it reduces the fat to one serving and adds two servings of healthy carbs, with calorie intake of about 1,500 daily.  Healthy starches such as brown rice, corn, squash, and sweet potatoes are added.  During this phase, you alternate lower-calorie days with higher-calorie days.

• Breakfast: Scrambled egg whites, half grapefruit or in-season fruit, green tea
• Lunch: Baby spinach salad with tomatoes and feta and homemade vinaigrette, green tea
• Dinner: Grilled turkey patties, side salad, green tea
• Snacks: Fresh berries, plain low-fat yogurt

Cycle 3: Achieve

Cycle 3 allows for the addition of more healthy food choices to help you achieve good lifetime eating habits. Food lists are expanded to include more healthy fruits, proteins, fats, and starches and added option for one serving of alcohol and 100-calorie snacks.

• Breakfast: High-fiber cereal with skim milk, fresh berries, green tea
• Lunch: Whole-wheat pita with lettuce, tomato, feta cheese, Italian dressing; baby carrots; green tea
• Dinner: Barbecued boneless chicken breast, steamed vegetables like asparagus or broccoli, green tea
• Snacks: choice of one fruit, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Cycle 4: Arrive

Goal: Maintain goal weight

During the week, follow the guidance from cycle 1, 2, or 3.  On weekends, you have freedom to enjoy just about anything you like.

Moreno allows 1-2 favorite meals, and 1-2 alcoholic drinks daily on the weekends, but cautions dieters not to binge; he calls it strategic cheating. “If you only splurge a little, it will keep your weight in check and make it easier to get back on track on Monday,” Moreno says.

He suggests weighing in weekly and when the needle goes up five pounds, return to cycle 2 until you get your weight back to normal.

The 17 Day Diet Meal Plan from Bistro MD

If you’re short on time or not yet comfortable with your skills in the kitchen, the 17 Day Diet Meal Plan is available from Bistro MD, a leader in the meal delivery space. Each meal follows your progress through each cycle, each day to help keep you in line with the 17 Day Diet guidelines.

EXERCISE

The 17 Day Diet includes only limited recommendations for exercise.  But, it does include information regarding the importance of exercise.  For beginners it recommends 17 minutes of exercise each day.  And, while that may not seem too vigorous it is certainly not wise to exercise more than this during Cycle one, due to the strict guidelines for calorie intake.

Exercise can be as simple as walking; you can follow along with the 17-minute workout DVD that is sold on the book’s website.

As you progress through the program, become stronger and more able-bodied (for those with no prior history of exercise), the advice is still loose but encourages you to double or triple the amount of time you spend working out each day. Guidance is given to do activities that you love, with walking always being a go-to sport.

• Cycle 1: 17 minutes of exercise per day
• Cycle 2: 17 minutes of exercise per day
• Cycle 3: 40-60 minutes of aerobic exercise most days
• Cycle 4: Same as Cycle 3, but try to do an hour on the weekends.

Pros

• Lose weight fast
• Created by a medical doctor who specializes in weight loss
• Promotes clean eating, and provides guidelines to do so
• Long-term sustainability
• Provides a clear meal plans
• Diabetic-friendly
• Diet is flexible to suit unique needs; vegetarian-friendly
• Low cost (one-time book purchase)
• Recipes available on the Food on the Table Meal Planning App

Cons

• Weight loss goals for first phase is very aggressive
• Does not offer alternative plan for dieters who exercise vigorously
• Limited recipes in book
• No support system

Recommendations

Although the evidence is lacking for Moreno’s weight loss theory of “metabolic adjustment” to burn fat, the principles of the diet are safe and sustainable.

Like many other well-known weight loss programs available, The 17 Day Diet includes phases of dieting that help the dieter understand better and follow the program easily.  Alternating between cycle one, and cycle two, will help to prevent boredom and stick to the plan.  Phase one, similar to other diet “phases” is almost unnecessarily lean on calories and carb’s to show instant progress…which helps market the diet.  It makes the dieter think it’s a raging success, when in fact reducing your calorie intake to 1,200 per day will typically make you lose weight – no matter what you eat.  However, there is a method to the cycle process and meal plans are healthy and well thought out. So, if your goal is to quickly lose weight, safely, and in a way that can be sustained in the long-term, The 17 Day Diet is definitely worth a try.

One of the best things about this weight loss program is its design to not only help you lose weight, but set you up for sustainable weight maintenance.  It will also help dieters understand the importance of healthy, long-term, clean eating, which can never be a bad thing.

Best thing about The 17 Day Diet is – it’s easy to try.  Buying the book is easy, affordable, and there are no on-going fees, or recurring charges.   So, you have very little to lose.

Available 17 Day Diet books:

The 17 Day Diet Cookbook: 80 All New Recipes for Healthy Weight Loss

 

The 17 Day Diet Workbook: Your Guide to Healthy Weight Loss with Rapid Results