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Diet on fruit: what fruit can be eaten, effectiveness
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
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Most nutrition experts believe that any express diet, including the fruit diet, is not as effective for weight loss as it is often presented by people who are far from dietetics.
The promised fruit diets of 10 kg in a week are typical misinformation, as are the claims about the “stunning” results of other quick weight loss methods.
Maintaining a healthy body weight is an essential part of health, and in order for excess weight loss to be permanent, changes in diet must also be permanent.
General information fruit diet
It is clear that the essence of the diet is to eat only fruits for a limited time. It should be borne in mind that the longest options are a 10-day fruit diet or a 14-day fruit diet, and the easiest ones are for 3 days or a week.
However, in a week you can lose not 10 kg, but about 3.5-4 kg, although this is also a good result! But for how long?
The diet is said to be beneficial because the body is saturated with vitamins and does not receive extra calories. Indeed, the fruit diet for weight loss is low-calorie. And even simply replacing baked goods and sweets with fresh fruit will be extremely useful in the fight to gain a slim figure.
Besides, you don’t need any fruit diet recipes: just take fresh fruits and eat them!
Fruit diet for 3, 7, 10 days
A short-term fruit diet for 3 days involves eating one kilogram of apples on the first day, three grapefruits and several pears on the second day, and 500 grams of each fruit or a kilogram of strawberries on the third day. Since you can drink green tea and water, this is a fruit-drinking diet.
There can also be a three-day diet on fruit juices, which activate the overall metabolism and thus help burn calories. The best for weight loss are apple-carrot juice (carrots are, of course, a root vegetable, but they increase the secretion of bile, which helps burn fat and remove toxins from the body), as well as freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Pomegranate contains antioxidants, polyphenols and conjugated linolenic acid, which suppress appetite and stimulate metabolism. You can alternate pomegranate juice with orange or grapefruit, although juices are not as useful for weight loss as whole fruits (since fiber is lost).
If you have problems with the digestive system, primarily with insufficient intestinal motility, a fruit juice diet is not recommended.
Read also – Freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juices for weight loss
There is no limit to the amount of fruit consumed during the day, a 7-day fruit diet, as well as a 10-day fruit diet: eat when you feel hungry and as much as you want. The minimum daily diet is four apples, or the same number of oranges, or one watermelon, or a couple of pomegranates. It is imperative to drink water - up to 1.5-2 liters per day.
But the 14-day fruit diet should be mixed, since eating only fruits for two weeks is considered unsafe for health.
It is recommended to have a fruit fasting day once a week on a diet designed to reduce the overall caloric content of the diet for a long period. As a rule, the indications for prescribing such diets are obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Milk and fruit diet
Mixed - milk and fruit diet - is essentially fruit + milk 1-2.5% fat. There is information that such a diet can reduce daily calorie intake to 1000 and thus lose almost a kilogram in a week.
The advantages of this diet are that milk protein prevents muscle tissue loss, and calcium strengthens bones.
However, experts emphasize that milk and fruit do not meet all nutritional needs, so this diet should not be followed for longer than a week (to prevent nutrient deficiencies, fatigue, dizziness and other potentially negative side effects).
Fruit and Yogurt Diet
The fruit-yogurt diet is designed for no longer than 3-7 days, consisting of low-fat natural yogurt without sugar and fruits with a low glycemic index. The main secret of this fast diet is the digestive properties of yogurt, rich in protein, dairy cultures with probiotics and calcium.
The menu is very simple: yogurt + fruits (separately or together) – for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus green or chamomile tea and water, which you can drink without restrictions during the day.
If you replace yogurt with low-fat kefir, you will have a kefir-fruit diet.
Cottage cheese and fruit diet
According to dietary rules, the cottage cheese and fruit diet is one of the many options for a three-day diet with a daily calorie limit of 670-700 kcal.
The amount of fruit is not limited, but you can eat no more than 500 g of cottage cheese per day. It is possible to lose a couple of kilograms during this time, but they will most likely return after returning to your usual diet.
Oatmeal and Fruit Diet
Rich in protein and soluble fiber, oats or rolled oats are a favorite among weight loss foods, which is why the oatmeal and fruit diet is especially popular.
Oat fibre absorbs water, swells and is digested in the stomach for quite a long time, so a bowl of oatmeal in the morning (100 g gives about 390 kcal) plus an apple or a glass of orange juice will fill you up until lunch, and at lunch – until dinner.
Another secret of this diet is the proteins in oats (17-19 g per 100 g), which play a key role in maintaining stable blood sugar levels and preventing insulin spikes that can lead to fat accumulation.
And finally, the diuretic properties of oats play a role, helping to remove excess fluid from the body.
Buckwheat and fruit diet
The beneficial effect of buckwheat (providing just over 330 kcal per 100 g of cereal) is explained by its rich biochemical composition, including protein, essential amino acids (in particular, lysine, which reduces the level of triglycerides in the blood), antioxidants, vitamins, microelements, and fiber. Buckwheat does not contain any gluten, so it is easily digested.
For 3-5-7 days you should eat buckwheat porridge (without oil) twice a day and the fruits and berries already mentioned earlier.
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Egg and fruit diet
Experts say the egg and fruit diet has some similarities to the Atkins diet, which replaces most meat with eggs and fruit and eliminates fat entirely.
The menu, consisting mainly of hard-boiled eggs and grapefruit (or other fruits), provides from 800 to 1200 kcal per day; the duration of this diet is no more than 12 days.
Menu for breakfast and lunch: 1/2 grapefruit or orange and 2 boiled eggs; for dinner: a whole grapefruit, orange or two apples.
Protein-vegetable fruit diet
A diet high in protein and fruit – the protein-vegetable-fruit diet – can help you lose weight quickly.
Protein has a thermic effect, meaning it takes a lot of energy to digest, so it increases your metabolic rate, increases fat burning, and maintains muscle tissue. Fruits contain fat-burning polyphenol antioxidants.
It is recommended to eat 5-6 times a day in small portions. which contain no more than 30 g of protein (a piece of chicken, turkey, lean fish, an egg or cottage cheese), fresh fruits and vegetables (except potatoes and legumes). This diet is suitable for almost everyone and can be followed for quite a long time.
What can and what can not?
What can you eat on a fruit diet? American nutritionists say that the best fruits to eat when trying to lose weight are citrus fruits, especially grapefruit; domestic ones recommend eating apples and pears. Both give good advice, because all these fruits have a low glycemic index, meaning that their carbohydrates slowly enter the bloodstream and do not disrupt glucose metabolism in the body.
In addition, these fruits contain a large amount of fiber, which helps improve digestion. For example, pectin, which apples and pears contain, is converted in the intestines into a mucous substance that stimulates intestinal peristalsis; potassium and phosphorus help cleanse the kidneys, and iron increases the level of hemoglobin in the blood.
Nutrition experts have also paid attention to peaches, which are 89% water and rich in fiber, which helps reduce hunger.
Also on the list of “fat-burning” berries are watermelon (30 calories per 100 g), blueberries (rich in antioxidants) and strawberries (the consumption of which increases the production of adiponectin and leptin – hormones that burn fat).
What can't you eat on a fruit diet? Anything that isn't fruit, especially fresh fruit: dried, cured, canned fruit is not suitable for this diet. Bananas are also not suitable due to their relatively high caloric content (89-95 kcal per 100 g) and high starch content (20.7%).
There are also options for mixed diets (for example, milk and fruit, etc.), which, as reviews show, are easier to stick to and you can “hold out” longer.
Possible risks
Why is the fruit diet not designed for 1 month? Experts note that satisfying hunger with fruits for 10-14 days may not cause any consequences, since the body has reserves of some nutrients, but if you eat like this for longer than this period, possible health complications will be associated with a lack of essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6), which can cause skin rashes, negatively affect vision and brain function.
Other risks associated with the diet include:
- loss of muscle tissue instead of fat;
- gastrointestinal problems due to difficulties digesting fructose and polyols (sugar alcohols);
- slow metabolism caused by low calorie food;
- increased blood glucose levels, as there are fruits that increase blood sugar;
- reduction of calcium content in the body (due to the lack of fats that ensure its absorption).
In addition, very often, exiting a fruit diet ends with the return of lost weight, that is, this diet can be counterproductive.
Useful information in the material - How to lose weight correctly
So, nutritionists' reviews boil down to the fact that when choosing a diet for weight loss, you should evaluate its safety and the possibility of achieving stable weight loss.