English diet for 21 days

Among the many ways to lose weight, the English diet for 21 days occupies a special place. Changes in nutrition involve alternating vegetable and protein diets, which helps speed up metabolism and, accordingly, get rid of extra pounds. The calorie content of dishes is slightly limited, but not so much that there is a painful desire to eat. In most cases, the diet is followed comfortably, and only the first adaptive days are considered the most difficult.

In fact, the English 21-day diet is followed for 18 days, since three days are a detox for the body. According to nutritionists, during this period, you can get rid of about 7 to 10 extra kilograms, and this happens easily and without catastrophic consequences for the body. The average daily calorie intake is within 1000-1200 kcal.

Indications

The English diet for 21 days is suitable for those who have extra pounds and do not have chronic or acute diseases of the digestive system, kidneys and liver that require a special diet table. The diet is relatively balanced, which allows you to reduce subcutaneous fat without harming your metabolism.

The English diet is quite flexible, with the right approach it can be adjusted "for yourself". For this reason, such a diet is perfect for those who do not tolerate excessively strict restrictions, do not like to think through a meal plan on their own and prefer to stick to a pre-created diet. However, the English diet for 21 days is still not recommended for frequent and especially regular use: to normalize weight, it is enough to follow it 1-2 times a year.

In addition to weight loss, the English diet helps to get rid of a number of other problems. Thus, users note an improvement in the condition of the skin, a visible correction of body volumes. Many people have stabilized blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and their overall well-being has improved.

General information of the 21-day English diet

The English 21-day diet consists of several stages:

1. At the first stage, the body is unloaded, and this is where the main restrictions apply. The products used are low-calorie, consumed in minimal quantities, so a person may experience a feeling of hunger and weakness.
2. At the second stage, protein products are included, which can cause a feeling of satiety, but do not cover the body's needs for energy resources. As a result, hunger is practically not felt, but weakness may still be present. At this stage, it is important to drink enough water.
3. The third stage consists of a fruit and vegetable diet, the purpose of which is to add vitamins to the body and improve bowel function.

The general rules of the English diet for 21 days are:

• the first two days are fasting days, and then protein days and fruit and vegetable days alternate for two days;
• the last day should be adaptive and include a gradual transition to normal nutrition;
• You should drink 2-2.5 liters of regular drinking water every day;
• The first meal should take place approximately one hour after waking up, and the last one – no later than 7 p.m.

After 21 days, to strengthen the effect of the English diet, you should adhere to certain restrictions for at least another 10 days:

• do not serve large portions of food;
• drink a glass of kefir and/or a cup of cottage cheese daily;
• increase daily caloric intake gradually, no more than 50 kcal/day, until reaching the optimal level;
• carefully monitor the amount of salt and sugar you consume, under-salt your dishes if possible, and it is advisable to avoid sweets altogether;
• You can return to the diet no sooner than after six months.

Detailed menu for every day

The English diet for 21 days consists of fasting, vegetable and protein days, which alternate according to a certain principle, which allows you to gradually adjust the body to losing weight and relatively easily endure the entire dietary period. It is better if the entire diet for 21 days is planned in advance. This will help to prepare the necessary products in advance and think over the menu so that it is as comfortable as possible. The most difficult, according to users, are the first and second days of the English diet, since they are the most "hungry". However, you cannot neglect the fasting stage, since it prepares the body for subsequent changes in nutrition.

Let's try to imagine an approximate diet according to the English diet for 21 days.

English diet by days	Sample menu
Unloading	Every 3 hours – 200 ml of kefir or milk. Instead of dinner – one apple or carrot.
Unloading	Every 3 hours – 200 ml of kefir or milk. It is allowed to eat 1 whole grain cracker or bread during the day. Instead of dinner – one apple or carrot.
Protein day	Breakfast: a cup of green tea, 200 g of low-fat cottage cheese. Afternoon snack (3-4 hours after breakfast): 200 ml milk or kefir, 100 g nuts. Lunch (3-4 hours after afternoon snack): fish broth with a piece of fish, 100 g of pea puree with a whole grain crouton. Dinner (3-4 hours after lunch): 2 boiled eggs, 200 ml kefir, a spoonful of cottage cheese.
Protein day	Breakfast: cottage cheese casserole (100 g cottage cheese and 1 egg), cup of green tea. Afternoon snack: a glass of kefir, 100 g of nuts. Lunch: meat soup, a piece of boiled meat with bean puree. Dinner: a glass of kefir, steamed fish cutlet.
Vegetable	We have breakfast: two apples and a cup of chamomile tea. Lunch: vegetable soup, vinaigrette with whole grain croutons. Dinner: vegetable salad, cup of herbal tea.
Vegetable	Breakfast: 2 oranges, a cup of tea. Lunch: carrot and apple salad, beetroot soup, whole grain crouton. Dinner: vegetable casserole, tea.
Protein	Breakfast: a glass of kefir or milk, 200 g of cottage cheese. Afternoon snack: nuts, tea. Lunch: steamed omelette, a piece of boiled meat, a crouton. Dinner: cottage cheese casserole, tea.
Protein	Breakfast: a portion of oatmeal with milk, tea. Afternoon snack: cottage cheese. Lunch: bean soup, fish casserole, tea. Dinner: fish casserole, crouton.
Vegetable	Breakfast: semolina pudding, vegetable juice. Lunch: stewed vegetables, whole grain bread, carrot cutlets. Dinner: vegetable salad and carrot cutlets.
Vegetable	Breakfast: fruit smoothie, tea. Lunch: broccoli soup, cabbage schnitzel with stewed vegetables. Dinner: carrot and apple salad, zucchini spaghetti.
Protein	Breakfast: 4 quail eggs, bread, a glass of kefir. Afternoon snack: natural yogurt without additives. Lunch: pilaf with mushrooms, milk or kefir. Dinner: semolina and cottage cheese casserole, tea.
Protein	Breakfast: steamed cheesecakes, herbal infusion. Afternoon snack: a cup of milk, a rusk. Lunch: buckwheat soup with meat, a cup of yogurt. Dinner: a piece of meat, a glass of milk.
Vegetable	Breakfast: green banana, glass of vegetable juice. Lunch: vegetable and lentil stew, bread. Dinner: vegetable salad, chickpea cutlet.
Vegetable	We have breakfast: two peaches, tea. Lunch: ratatouille, whole grain bread, vegetable juice. Dinner: vegetable pate, crouton, herbal infusion.
Protein	Breakfast: steamed omelette, glass of tea. Afternoon snack: a cup of milk, a few nuts. Lunch: couscous with meat, kefir. Dinner: a piece of meat, low-fat yogurt without additives.
Protein	Breakfast: milk rice porridge, cup of tea. Afternoon snack: 100 g of cottage cheese with tea. Lunch: chicken soup, meat casserole, herbal infusion. Dinner: a piece of meat casserole, a glass of yogurt.
Vegetable	Breakfast: fruit salad, herbal infusion, rusk. Lunch: spinach and rice soup, salad, tea. Dinner: stewed vegetables, bread.
Vegetable	Breakfast: green smoothie, tea. Lunch: vegetable stew, carrot juice with a crouton. Dinner: stewed vegetables, apple, tea.
Protein	Breakfast: two poached eggs, a glass of kefir. Afternoon snack: nuts, herbal infusion. Lunch: fish fillet, buckwheat side dish, whole grain bread, tea. Dinner: cottage cheese soufflé, a glass of kefir or milk.
Protein day	Breakfast: 200 g of cottage cheese, a cup of milk. Afternoon snack: boiled egg, herbal infusion. Lunch: meat casserole, milkshake, tea. Dinner: rice with meat, kefir.
Unloading	Every 3 hours – a glass of kefir or milk. Instead of dinner – an apple or carrot.

A vegetable afternoon snack usually consists of eating a fruit or vegetable of your choice. In general, it is advisable to eat every 3-4 hours. In between, you should drink plenty of clean water.

Recipes

• Vegetable stew. Ingredients: 500 g white cabbage or cauliflower, one large carrot and onion, one bell pepper, two tomatoes, several cloves of garlic (according to your preference), 400 ml water, allspice, optionally ginger or herbs, cumin. Cut the vegetables, pour them into a saucepan with a thick bottom, add water and a little vegetable oil, simmer for 30 minutes under the lid. Add spices, stir and remove from heat. When serving, you can sprinkle with herbs.
• Grilled zucchini. Cut several young zucchini into circles, add a little vegetable oil, allspice, dry herbs, pour lemon juice and sprinkle with a small amount of corn flour. Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Bake in the oven in grill mode or with top heating with convection, at 180 ° C until done (a golden crust should appear). Serve with herbs.
• Pumpkin puree soup. Ingredients: 500 g pumpkin, onion, carrot, zucchini, spices. Cut the pumpkin into cubes, chop the onion, zucchini and carrot. Boil the pumpkin until done, simmer the remaining vegetables in a frying pan with vegetable oil and add to the pumpkin. Use a blender to turn into puree. Add your favorite spices, bring to a boil, remove from heat. Sprinkle with herbs when serving.
• Semolina and curd casserole. Ingredients: 500 g of cottage cheese, 3 eggs, 3 tbsp. semolina, 3 tbsp. kefir or milk, a little vanillin and/or cinnamon. Mix the ingredients well, leave for about 20-30 minutes, then place in a greased form. Bake in the oven at 170-180°C for 30-40 minutes.
• Broccoli casserole. Ingredients: one head of broccoli, two chicken eggs, 300 ml of milk, pepper and other spices to taste. First, prepare a container with very cold (ice) water. Cut off the broccoli florets, lower them into a pan of boiling water, after about 4 minutes transfer the florets into ice water (this is necessary to preserve the rich green color of the vegetable). In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and milk, as well as the spices. Place the broccoli on a greased baking sheet, pour in the milk and egg mixture. Bake in an oven preheated to 200 ° C for 15 minutes. Serve sprinkled with herbs.

Benefits

Nutritionists warn: you should not resort to the first diet you come across in order to lose weight, since it is difficult to immediately determine whether the new diet will help the body or harm it. It is necessary to understand that a dietary diet is a kind of treatment course that requires certain approaches. For example, you cannot radically change the menu, since this can cause the opposite effect from the "rebellious body". In addition, you cannot blindly follow all the principles of the dietary table, especially if you have an allergy to any foods or metabolic disorders. The best solution is to visit a nutritionist and consult with him before changing your diet.

Like any dietary course for weight loss, the English diet for 21 days has its advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages:

• The diet is not very rich, and for those who like to eat tasty and a lot, there is a risk of weakness, irritability, and a deterioration in mood.
• The diet involves eating according to a set schedule. Therefore, people who are used to eating just "when they want", without a specific schedule, as well as those who are not punctual, may experience some discomfort.
• After 21 days, you cannot immediately return to your usual eating habits: the exit from restrictions should be as gradual as possible.

Advantages:

• Those who are losing weight tolerate the English diet for 21 days relatively well, and the feeling of hunger rarely visits them.
• The diet does not include any special expensive and hard-to-find products or complex dishes: everything is simple and without additional costs.
• Physical activity is desirable, but not mandatory. That is why the English diet for 21 days is often chosen by fans of "passive weight loss".

What can and what can not?

What can you eat?

• Fruits:
  • citrus fruits (lemons, oranges, etc.);
  • kiwi;
  • grenades;
  • apples;
  • green bananas;
  • pineapple;
  • apricot, peach.
• Vegetables:
  • cucumbers, tomatoes;
  • root and stalk celery;
  • pumpkin;
  • beet;
  • parsnips, carrots, fennel;
  • bell pepper;
  • zucchini, eggplant, zucchini;
  • onion, garlic;
  • white cabbage and Chinese cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, spinach, sorrel, dill, parsley.
• Legumes:
  • beans, peas;
  • chickpeas, mung beans, lentils, soybeans.
• Cereals:
  • brown rice;
  • oatmeal;
  • buckwheat, semolina;
  • barley, wheat groats, bulgur, couscous, amaranth.
• Dairy products with a fat content of no more than 2.5%.
• Nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts).
• Quail and chicken eggs, lean meat and fish.
• Berries (any).
• Whole grain bread croutons, dietary crispbreads.
• Spices such as ground black pepper, dry ginger, thyme, basil, bay leaf, cinnamon.
• Green tea, freshly squeezed vegetable juice, herbal infusions, still pure water.

What shouldn't you eat?

• Dried fruits (any).
• Ripe bananas, grapes, melon.
• Potato.
• Salt and sugar.
• Butter, cream, sour cream.
• Seeds.
• Lard, sausages, offal, fatty meats and fish, fried meat and fish.
• Any baked goods, pasta, any flour products (dumplings, vareniki, etc.).
• Sweets, cookies, cakes, jellies, jams and confitures, any desserts, including ice cream.
• Canned vegetables and fruits, pickles and marinades.
• Stewed meat, canned meat and fish.
• Fast food, mayonnaise and any sauces.
• Carbonated drinks, packaged juices, fruit juices, compotes, alcohol, coffee and strong black tea.

Contraindications

Nutritionists have identified several categories of people for whom the 21-day English diet is contraindicated:

• Children. A child's body requires complete, high-quality food, rich in essential vitamins, microelements, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Any restrictions in nutrition can negatively affect physical development, the state of the nervous and immune systems.
• Women during pregnancy. Expectant mothers often start to panic, anticipating future weight gain. However, some increase in body weight during pregnancy is a natural state, a norm. After the birth of the child, against the background of lactation, the weight usually returns to its previous indicators. If you limit yourself in food, as well as generally reduce the caloric content of the diet, this can negatively affect both the condition and development of the baby, and the course of pregnancy.
• Women in the lactation period. If a woman is breastfeeding, then it is better not to even think about the English diet for 21 days: the baby should fully receive all the necessary nutrients from mother's milk. What should a mother do if she wants to quickly return her weight to normal? Fitness, aerobics, yoga, and Pilates are not prohibited and will be beneficial.

In addition to the categories of people mentioned above, it is necessary to take into account other contraindications to following the English diet for 21 days:

• diseases of the digestive system (both acute and chronic);
• pathologies of the genitourinary system;
• oncological diseases;
• recent surgery;
• diabetes mellitus;
• infectious diseases accompanied by elevated body temperature and signs of intoxication;
• hypertension, hypotension;
• anemia.

If you have any doubts about any contraindication, it is better to consult a specialist in advance.

Possible risks

The English 21-day diet is one of a huge number of diets based on the principles of alternating protein and fruit-and-vegetable days. Today, there are dozens and even hundreds of such diets. Since the changes in nutrition are short-term - only three weeks - then a positive result can really be found by those people whose weight is slightly higher than the recommended indicators. But obesity is already a chronic disease, and the use of such short-term dietary courses initially cannot be effective enough. It is important to understand this in order not to harm your own health. Therefore, if you intend to get rid of a large number of extra pounds, you should visit a competent nutritionist, undergo an examination, jointly analyze your eating behavior, select a list of optimal products and create an individual diet.

As practice shows, the English 21-day diet, like many similar strategies, "works" only the first time. Therefore, any adequate specialist will never recommend certain dietary variations, but will prescribe a complete weight loss program, which involves a small calorie deficit against the background of a properly balanced diet and reasonable physical activity.

Protein alternating days are especially popular among women, but almost no one thinks about their possible adverse effects on the body. The essence of such days is a sharp reduction in the carbohydrate component, to less than 20%. The advantage is that the predominance of proteins leads to the absence of a feeling of hunger in those losing weight. In addition, a gradual fat breakdown begins: with a carbohydrate deficiency, the body has to draw energy from another source - fats. As a result, weight predictably decreases. However, there is another side to this condition. Against the background of a sharp carbohydrate deficiency, weakness appears, mood worsens. The content of ketone bodies in the bloodstream increases - products of fat breakdown, which shift the acid-base balance of the body to the acidic side. As a result, ketoacidosis develops, which gradually leads to a breakdown of the organ adaptation systems. First of all, the kidneys suffer.

Fruit and vegetable days also pose some risk for people who have any diseases of the digestive system - and, in particular, the pancreas. After such a diet of raw plant products, most patients experience an exacerbation of pancreatitis.

Complications

The vast majority of diets that involve any obvious restrictions are not able to really get rid of the problem of excess weight. Most often, the lost kilograms gradually return, the risk of health problems such as depression, gallstone disease, depressive disorders, and metabolic disorders increases.

Unfortunately, short-term diet courses do not provide the main thing: they do not accustom people to proper nutrition, do not provide the body with a sufficient amount of all the necessary substances. The lost kilograms are mainly excess fluid and muscle mass. During the period of restrictions, energy costs decrease, metabolism slows down, and the return to the usual diet is accompanied by slower metabolic processes. This entails a repeated gain of lost weight, and even its increase.

Regular protein days often provoke increased stone formation in the gallbladder: as a result of bile thickening, sediment is formed, and then stones. With insufficient fluid intake, the risk of kidney stones also increases.

The predominance of high-protein foods in the diet leads to an increase in cholesterol levels. Its excess activates processes that negatively affect the work and functional state of the cardiovascular system. Scientists have proven that long-term carbohydrate-free nutrition increases the risk of premature death from cardiovascular pathologies by about 30%.

Nutritionists insist: if there is a need to lose weight, then the English diet for 21 days can be considered only as a one-time approach. In the future, you should completely review your diet, put your diet in order, making it as complete and balanced as possible, without overeating and starvation. Only correct and healthy eating habits along with an active lifestyle will help you to part with excess fat deposits forever and correctly correct your figure for many years.

Results

In order for the weight loss effect after the English diet for 21 days to be really noticeable, it is necessary to fully comply with all the conditions of the new diet. Thus, the beginning of the dietary course - namely, the first and second day - should be very limited and hungry. This will make it easier to endure all the following days.

Protein alternations are especially effective in terms of weight loss: they successfully reduce the level of fat, forcing the body to take energy from its own reserves. Optimal products that contribute to this: lean meat or fish, eggs, hard cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt.

Fruit and vegetable days allow you to saturate your body with essential vitamins and minerals, and also help your intestines function, stimulating their cleansing.

Strict dietary restrictions are not recommended for anyone, since a radical and abrupt change in diet is a considerable stress for the body, which negatively affects both health and general well-being and mood. In this aspect, the English diet for 21 days clearly wins: it does not involve too strict restrictions, it can be called relatively balanced, and the positive results in the form of lost kilograms will really please: users note a weight loss of an average of 6-10 kg over the entire dietary course.

Despite the fact that the English 21-day diet provides fairly good weight loss, long-term results will only be achieved with a radical change in lifestyle.