17 Day Diet

17 Day Diet is a new diet brought to you by a popular “Dr. Mike” who was featured on Dr. Phil, Oprah, and through many other major media outlets.

Yes, we’re all capable of common sense, and we know somewhere in the back of our heads what we need to do to lose weight. But now, we need a doctor to tell us how. Every diet seems to be made by a “doctor”, especially the low carb ones like the 17 Day Diet. Maybe it makes us feel safer.

The official 17 Day Diet website has a video that raves about how easy and effective the 17 Day Diet is. After all, the book is filled with recipes and food that tastes great and makes dieting simple! Obviously, taste is subjective. What’s not is the way that 17 Day Diet compares to other low carb diets. The best way to evaluate this is to consider the problems many have faced in the past when using a low carb diet and what, if anything, 17 Day Diet does to combat this.

Water Weight Loss

We looked into this, because obviously if you lose weight too fast, most of it is bound to be water weight. In the first week or two, low carb advocates say that your body is simply releasing water it doesn’t actually need.

But if that were true, diuretics would be the most amazing thing to hit the market…..ever. Losing water weight is temporary, which is why people gain weight back so fast with low carb diets, and 17 Day Diet is the average low carb diet in this aspect.

Exercise & Fatigue

There are some critics that say that a low carb diet can cause fatigue, headaches, and other side effects that may make it harder to exercise. Generally, this fatigue only lasts for 2 weeks at the most, usually only 2-5 days.

But it’s still inconvenient. If you talk to the makers of low carb diets, you would be told that this is your body detoxing itself. But most would have to admit that a little sugar would help.

The 17 Day Diet phase 1 includes up to 2 servings of fruits at breakfast. But no fruits are allowed after 2. So this one is debatable. 2 servings in the morning may help. But for some, it may not be enough to prevent the fatigue.

Fruits & Vegetables

This is a complaint mostly associated with the Atkins Diet. New low carb diets encourage dieters to eat tons of low carb vegetables. Fruits are typically off limits. But the rumor is that Dr. Atkins died of a heart attack….and with all of the criticism from the medical community, it could be true. 17 Day Diet is more balanced than the old school low carb diets, again allowing you to have 2 servings of fruits in the morning and as many vegetables as you want.

Vitamin Deficiencies

A lot of low carb diets are not balanced. And even though low carb diets have changed, some dieters still choose to eat more meat without other foods that have all of the essential vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Every meal in the 17 Day Diet book focuses on the importance of fruits and vegetables. So at the very least, I can say that 17 Day Diet is trying.

Conclusion

The biggest problem with old low carb diets is that old low carb diets are unbalanced. It happens. But most low carb diets have come a long way since then. If 17 Day Diet came out right after the Atkins diet, I would say this diet is amazing, and if you need help, go here. But the 17 Day Diet got a late start, and there are a lot of other low carb diets that beat it to the punch. So yes, I still like it. It’s just not as original as you might hope.