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English diet for 21 days: detailed menu for each day
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025

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Some consider the English diet to be strict, others - gentle. The advantages include the availability of products and easy tolerance by the body. The English diet is also considered gentle because it offers a variety of options and products, and also contains all the nutritional components (proteins, carbohydrates, fats) and vitamins in the diet. This is an easier way to improve your health than mono-diets, in which you have to eat boring monotonous products.
Detailed menu
Long, but the most effective – this is how the English diet for 21 days is briefly characterized. It promises weight loss from 8 to 12, and even 18 kg, and the system helps both to lose weight and reliably consolidate the effect.
The essence is in the alternation of days. The 21-day English diet is 2 unloading and 19 diet menus, which alternate two by two days. The three-week scheme must be written down by days, so as not to make a mistake and not eat something forbidden.
Those who have tried the diet consider the two hardest days to be the milk fasting days, when they drink milk three times. Breakfast and afternoon snack are supplemented with one toast. A portion of tomato juice makes up the dietary dinner, that is, it completes the first day. This is where the preparation ends.
The main period menu is somewhat monotonous, the scheme is as follows:
- 3–4, 7–8, 11–12, 15–16, 19–20 days – protein;
- Days 5–6, 9–10, 13–14, 17–18 – vegetable.
Protein menu for 4 times:
- Toast with honey and tea.
- Broth, a piece of meat, vegetables.
- Milk, toast (or tea).
- Egg and kefir or 150 g of homemade cheese, tea.
Plant-based menu for 4 meals:
- 2 fruits, coffee or tea.
- Broth, toast, salad without dressing.
- Fruit (except those mentioned above).
- Salad, fruit, tea.
The mostly skinny English hardly need diets. They manage to keep fit thanks to traditional cuisine, practical and healthy at the same time. Probably, the English diet was called by foreigners who wanted to imitate the slender British.
The standard program lasts 3 weeks. First there are two so-called fasting days, then protein and fruit-vegetable days in turn. The menu for each day is described in detail for all types of diets.
The hungry start with milk and bread. At 3 p.m. - the same. At 12 and 6 p.m. drink only milk. Before going to bed - a portion of tomato smoothie. You can choose another time, but after 7 p.m. you can't eat at all.
On protein days, start your morning with coffee with milk. Canapes with butter and honey will go well with it.
At 12 o’clock – broth, 150 g of fish or meat, bread, 2 spoons of peas.
At 3 p.m. drink milk or tea with honey, at 7 p.m. – 2 eggs, 50 g of cheese, kefir, bread.
The plant-based diet is designed for 4 meals a day and consists of the following products:
- For breakfast – 2 oranges or apples, bread.
- 12 noon – soup without potatoes, salad or stew, bread.
- 15 hours – a serving of kefir or milk.
- 7 p.m. – green salad, 1 teaspoon honey, tea, bread.
As an exception, pasta or unpeeled potatoes are allowed. The last day is spent on milk.
Exit from the diet
Many of the products of this diet are interchangeable; it is only important that they contain the necessary components and do not exceed the permissible caloric content. With a low caloric content of the diet, the body spends energy from fat reserves for all needs, reducing their mass. And over time, it gets used to a certain diet and regimen, which gives the person losing weight a chance to make healthy eating a daily norm.
- The rule of diets is that the fuller a person is, the faster he or she loses kilograms. The problem is to keep them from coming back.
A competent way out of the diet will help prevent such trouble. The task of the person losing weight is not to rush to pounce on everything excluded during the diet, but to introduce familiar food gradually, in doses. And in the following days, do not get carried away with flour, fatty, smoked foods, useless drinks and sweets.
The exit recommendations are as follows:
- Eat fractionally, dividing your entire diet into 5–6 meals.
- Chew slowly, concentrating on the process.
- Avoid eating heavy foods after lunch.
- Do not overload your stomach after 6 pm.
- Drink plenty of quality water every day.
- Occasionally indulge your weaknesses (cream cake, meat delicacies), then cleanse your body with vegetables and green tea.
Some nutritionists are sure that with such a regime the body does not experience stress and that it is possible to eat in English for longer than 21 days. But this depends only on the individual characteristics of the person.
Protein day
Despite the difficulties of compliance, the English diet has an undeniable advantage: during this period the body has time to get used to eating in a new way, it is rebuilt, and this helps to maintain the desired weight in the future. What is the significance of protein days in the diet?
In addition to the building function, proteins participate in the breakdown of nutritional components and the removal of toxins. They do not accumulate, so they must be regularly supplied from outside.
The first protein days serve to replenish protein reserves that have decreased during fasting days. Coffee with milk, eggs, cheese, milk or kefir are allowed. The following days are aimed at cleansing the gastrointestinal tract and enriching with fiber.
Days 3 and 4, 7 and 8, 11 and 12, 15 and 16, 19 and 20 become protein days. Alternation scheme: after 2 fasting days, there are two protein days, then they alternate with plant days. Sample menu for a protein day:
- tea with honey and a slice of bread;
- fish or meat, fish soup or broth with bread;
- nuts or milk;
- nuts, 200 g kefir or 50 g soft cheese.
It is advisable to maintain equal intervals between meals. The last meal should be no later than 7 p.m. If for some reason you do not have time, you will have to skip dinner and replace it with a glass of tomato juice.
English kefir diet
The English kefir diet lasts 12 days. It is intended for people with a strong will. And although knowledgeable people say that the British are not particularly fond of fermented milk products, the diet we are talking about is usually called the English kefir diet.
This fermented milk product was not chosen by chance: it relieves the intestines, normalizes digestion, and dulls hunger. Thanks to these properties, kefir lovers, if they follow the rules, are able to lose up to 9 kg in 12 days.
- The first three days of the kefir diet are spent on low-fat kefir or unsweetened yogurt: the daily portion is one and a half liters.
- From the 4th to the 10th day, kefir is abandoned; per day, drink 0.5 liters of unsalted tomato juice, preferably fresh, and 1.5 kg of apples - fresh or baked.
- Day 5 is apple day, on the next day both apples and juice are allowed again.
- Day 7 is kefir, the next day is apple and tomato.
- 8th – apples and juice, 9th – yogurt or kefir, 10th day – apples plus tomato juice.
- The last few days have been exclusively fermented milk, that is, we drink kefir or yogurt.
This diet is not for everyone, because you feel hungry and don't want so many apples, but people who have gone through it are happy. As a result, weight decreases, well-being, performance and mood improve. The method helps to maintain healthy eating in the future.
Recipes for the English Diet
The various menus offered by one or another version of the English diet differ in the list of products. This is because the main thing is not the name, but the content - that is, what the specific product is the source of.
Protein recipes for the English diet:
- Fish in a fur coat
Lightly salt and pepper 0.5 kg of fish fillet, spread with Dijon mustard (“fur coat”), bake in a preheated oven in foil or a special form.
- Chopped cutlets
Cut the breast into small cubes, beat in the egg, chopped garlic, salt, and spices. Form the cutlets directly on the foil and bake for about 20 minutes.
Recipes for vegetable days:
- Orange Soup
2 carrots, about 400 g of pumpkin, cut, boil in boiling water. Drain most of it, leaving a little liquid, grind everything together with a blender. Put on the fire, add salt and spices, bring to a boil. Serve with pumpkin seeds.
- Zucchini with cheese
Wash the zucchini and cut it lengthwise to make “boats”. Grease with oil, salt, sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven.