Can a Potato Diet Work? And how can you lose weight with the “fatty food” potato? We explain why the diet works – but you should still keep your hands off it.
Potato diet: how it works
There are different variants of potato diets – all forms of this diet have a few key features in common:
Potatoes are at the top of the menu: you should eat around 600 to 1000 grams every day.
You should also eat potatoes with every meal if possible. If you don’t have an appetite for potatoes in the early morning, you can eat fresh fruit or whole-grain oatmeal with low-fat yogurt.
The potato diet does not dictate how you have to eat the potatoes. So you can freely choose between potato dishes.
Some forms of the potato diet allow you to eat vegetables, lean meat, and steamed fish on the side.
It is particularly important that you drink enough water, herbal tea or fruit tea during the diet. You shouldn’t be drinking less than two liters of fluids a day.
Why do potatoes help you lose weight?
For a long time, the potato was considered fattening – that has now turned out to be a mistake. The following ingredients will help you lose weight:
Due to their extremely high water content of almost 80 percent, potatoes are very low in calories.
This type of vegetable contains a lot of carbohydrates and fiber, which ensure a long-lasting feeling of satiety.
Potatoes have a high protein content. This saturates and stimulates the metabolism and muscle building.
They also contain vitamin C, which also promotes fat burning.
Potatoes also have a large amount of potassium. The nutrient helps your body break down water retention and burn calories.
Does a potato diet make sense?
Potatoes are filling and contain a number of important ingredients. The strong feeling of satiety makes it easier for you to do without sweets after eating.
However, it is not advisable to follow the potato diet for more than a week. Deficiency symptoms can then appear due to the unbalanced diet, which you can only compensate for with additional foods such as meat, vegetables or fish.
You may be fooled by the dehydrating effect of the potato. Potatoes primarily break down water and not fat. Despite the large number of dishes that are possible with potatoes, even this mono-diet can become monotonous over time. This carries the risk of a possible yo-yo effect as soon as you fall back on your old eating habits. Therefore, it makes more sense in the long term if you pay attention to a balanced diet and enough exercise to maintain or lose weight.
