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Diet 8 for obesity
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

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Diet 8 for obesity is prescribed to those who, due to an unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle, have acquired excess fat reserves, and at the same time, clearly extra pounds.
Today, the main food culprits of obesity are considered to be easily digestible carbohydrates, or rather, their excess intake into the body - more than 300-400 g per day. Carbohydrates that are unnecessary for intermediate metabolism and energy production are converted into fat cells (triglycerides), which increases the amount of fatty tissue in the body.
To burn accumulated fat reserves more intensively, you need to spend energy, that is, move more. And in order not to replenish them during meals, a special diet 8 for obesity has been developed.
The essence of the diet
Obesity is recognized as a metabolic disease (according to the International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 – code E66). According to statistics from the World Health Organization, up to 3.4 million adults die from it worldwide every year… One of the therapeutic methods of combating this pathology is the treatment of obesity with diet 8.
Today, so many different diets for weight loss have been invented that the question - what diet for obesity? - is often lost in the vast mass of "proven" methods for getting rid of excess weight and "body shaping". After all, in the case of obesity, the point is not to achieve slimness, but to cure the disease.
So what does the dietary classic offer – dietary table No. 8 according to M. Pevzner? This diet is prescribed in case of lipid metabolism disorder, and its key principle is to reduce the caloric content (energy value) of food to 1700-1800 kcal per day. The caloric content of the diet is reduced by increasing the consumption of food that contains more vegetable fiber, limiting the consumption of animal fats, bread, flour products, sugar and all kinds of sweets. The volume of liquid drunk per day (pure water) is limited to 1.2-1.5 liters, and the amount of table salt should not exceed 5-7 grams.
In addition, obesity treatment with diet 8 requires more frequent meals - up to six times a day, while you need to have dinner no later than 18-19 hours, that is, several hours before bedtime. It is recommended to have a fasting day (meat, apple or kefir) once a week. However, many new generation nutritionists question the benefits of such a fasting day.
According to the daily composition of the main components, diet 8 for obesity looks like this: proteins - 100 g (half of animal origin), fats - 80 g (50% vegetable), carbohydrates - 150-200 g. As methods of cooking dishes, boiling, stewing and baking are preferable, but fried food should be reduced to a minimum, only as light sautéing in the process of preparing first courses. Meat is recommended boiled, stewed or baked.
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Diet menu 8 for obesity
Breakfast is a mandatory meal for any therapeutic diet. The menu of diet 8 for obesity recommends boiled beef (or chicken) in the morning with a salad of fresh white cabbage with carrots and apples or with boiled beets seasoned with olive oil. Buckwheat porridge with cottage cheese, a slice of low-fat cheese and 2-3 pieces of biscuit cookies for coffee with milk are also suitable.
A little later you can have a snack of unsweetened fruit, drink a glass of juice. Lunch can consist of vegetable soup, borscht or okroshka, boiled or baked fish with a vegetable side dish and a glass of compote.
A piece of boiled beef with stewed cabbage, vegetable ragout or salad is a wonderful dinner. And an hour before bed it is useful to drink a glass of kefir.
Diet 8 recipes for obesity
If you want to lose weight, the recipes for diet 8 for obesity will help you diversify your diet. Replace the word "diet" with the phrase "proper nutrition", and the entire process of losing weight will no longer cause negative emotions.
So here's a recipe for a layered beef and vegetable stew.
To prepare it you will need: 400 g lean beef, 1 onion, 1 medium-sized carrot, 1 small zucchini, 150-200 g green beans, 350-400 g fresh white cabbage, 60-70 g tomato paste.
Wash and clean all the vegetables, process and wash the meat. Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the bottom of a thick-bottomed saucepan, put onion cut into half rings and meat cut into small pieces. Then layer carrots cut into thin rings, green beans, cabbage (checkered) and zucchini (rings). Add some salt and pour in tomato paste, previously diluted in 1-1.5 glasses of water. Cover the saucepan with a lid. Cooking time of layered ragout (on low heat) is 40-45 minutes.
And this recipe for vegetable stew is even simpler. Take all the seasonal vegetables (except cucumbers), cut into small cubes and place in a saucepan or cauldron with 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. As soon as the vegetables are as close as possible to the beginning of the frying phase, pour water into the cauldron, or better yet, weak meat or chicken broth. Mix everything, cover with a lid and stew until the vegetables become semi-soft. After 10 minutes of "infusion", the stew can be used not only as a side dish, but also as a "self-sufficient" second course - tasty and low-calorie.
The presence or absence of obesity can be accurately determined by the so-called Body Mass Index (BMI). This index is calculated as follows: a person's weight (in kilograms) must be divided by the square of their height. A person's weight is considered normal when the BMI is 20-30 units. Anything higher is obesity.
Obesity leads to the development of such diseases as diabetes mellitus type II (in 44% of all cases), ischemic heart disease (23% of cases), arterial hypertension, osteoarthritis (degenerative changes in the joints of the lower extremities). And this is not a complete list of the consequences of excess body weight. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of extra pounds. This is the goal of diet 8 for obesity.
What can you eat if you are obese?
The fight against obesity is based not only on reducing carbohydrate consumption, but also on increasing the consumption of healthy vegetable fats – unheated sunflower, olive or corn oils (which contain unsaturated fatty acids).
What you can eat if you are obese includes:
- rye bread, whole grain bread, whole grain bread or bread with bran (no more than 150 g per day);
- lean beef, veal, rabbit, chicken, turkey;
- fish (flounder, icefish, navaga, pollock, blue whiting, cod, hake) and seafood (squid, shrimp, etc.);
- buckwheat, pearl barley, barley cereals (in the form of crumbly porridges with a maximum daily portion of 200 g);
- milk and dairy products with a low percentage of fat (sour cream – as a dressing for dishes);
- eggs - one piece per day;
- mushrooms (except dried porcini mushrooms);
- vegetables (except potatoes) and greens;
- fruits (except bananas);
- berries (except grapes);
- black and green tea, coffee with milk, unsweetened fruit and berry juices.
There should be as few dishes based on cereals, legumes (except green beans) and various pasta products in the diet as possible, and if they are consumed, bread should be avoided on this day. Portions of first courses, compared to standard ones, should be reduced by almost half.
What should you not eat if you are obese?
The list of things you shouldn't eat if you're obese includes:
- fatty meat, poultry, fish and rich broths made from them;
- animal fats (pork, beef, etc.);
- white bread and baked goods, cookies, waffles and confectionery;
- sausages, hot dogs, smoked meats;
- canned goods and semi-finished products;
- rice, semolina, pasta and legumes;
- fatty dairy products, including ice cream;
- fatty sauces (primarily mayonnaise) and hot seasonings (mustard, horseradish, garlic);
- sugar, candy, chocolate, jam, honey, sweet juices;
- raisins, figs, dates;
- carbonated and alcoholic drinks.
To avoid increasing your appetite, you should limit the amount of pickles and marinades in your menu.