The potato diet promises quick weight loss without starvation, as we are allowed to eat a lot of potatoes. But is that healthy? And how does it work?
How does the potato diet work?
There are different variants of the potato diet. What they have in common is that we mainly eat low-fat potatoes during the diet. Depending on the variant, we eat around 600 to 1000 grams of potatoes a day, plus around 100 grams of low-fat quark or three eggs each day. The combination means that the body can absorb and use protein particularly well, which means that you stay full longer.
In its original form, this diet includes potatoes with every meal. But if you have absolutely no appetite for the miracle tuber in the morning, you can have breakfast with a serving of wholegrain oatmeal with a little skimmed yoghurt and fresh fruit or two slices of wholegrain bread with cottage cheese. A slightly less strict variant also allows fresh vegetables, lean meat or steamed fish as a side dish – which makes the diet no longer seem so monotonous. Since the potato diet is still a mono diet, it should not be carried out for longer than a week.
How should I prepare the potatoes?
How we prepare the potatoes is up to us – traditionally cooked or as baked potatoes or potato wedges. And: There is a lot to drink during the potato diet – At least 2.5 to 3 liters of still water or herbal and fruit tea are ideal. Since the diet is mainly dehydrating, the first pounds fall quickly. However, there is also a major disadvantage of the potato diet here: It primarily flushes out water and does not affect the fat reserves. In addition, like all other mono-diets, it also carries a high risk of the yo-yo effect if you eat as before after the diet.
Why do potatoes help us lose weight?
It used to be thought that potatoes were real fattening foods – a mistake, as we know today. These delicious bulbs have these advantages when losing weight:
- Potatoes belong to the group of alkaline foods and are therefore often used in alkaline fasting. The potassium makes them valuable for our acid-base balance. It also helps with drainage.
- Potatoes are full of fiber and valuable carbohydrates. This together ensures a long feeling of satiety and the risk of food cravings is low.
- Our blood sugar level drops very slowly when we eat potatoes, which has a positive effect on our fat burning and also helps us lose weight.
- Vitamin C is just as good for our fat metabolism. And potatoes actually contain a lot of it: a full 20 milligrams of vitamin C are contained in 100 grams of potatoes.
- The tubers are wonderful sources of protein – this is important for our muscle building and stimulates our metabolism.
- Because they consist of almost 80 percent water, potatoes are very low in calories.
The potato diet in everyday life
The good thing about the potato diet: It's easy to prepare and integrate into everyday life. The potato portions are cooked quickly and packed even faster for the office. When choosing the potatoes during the potato diet, it is best to use the waxy potatoes.
What are the benefits of the potato diet?
The potato diet can be worthwhile for the following reasons:
- Potatoes are generally healthy.
- Weight is lost quickly.
- Since vegetables and steamed fish are allowed in the not too strict variant, the diet is not quite as monotonous.
Health: What are the disadvantages of the potato diet?
Of course, the diet also has disadvantages. These include:
- In its simplest form, the potato diet is one of the so-called mono diets, so you eat very one-sided. There is a risk of nutrient deficiency: in combination with eggs and quark, we are supplied with protein, potassium and carbohydrates during the potato diet, but we are completely lacking other important nutrients such as iron.
- You break down primarily water and not fat.
- The risk of the yo-yo effect after the end of the diet is high.
In addition, the composition of the diet deviates from the recommendations of the German Nutrition Society (DGE): Among other things, this advises that the daily diet should consist of 30 percent fat and 55 percent carbohydrates. With the (strict) potato diet, we usually only consume two to three percent fat and between 80 and 85 percent carbohydrates.
Due to the many disadvantages, we cannot recommend the potato diet, if you want to lose weight sustainably and healthily. Instead of relying on only short-term diets, it is better to change your diet in the long term and incorporate more exercise into everyday life.
Reading tips: You can find even more weight loss tips here. We also explain the Glyx diet and the DASH diet and reveal whether you can use them to lose weight.
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Hajeck-Lang, B .: Handbuch Diets, Urban and Fischer Verlag, 1st edition 2011
German Nutrition Society: The potato – a valuable food