Military Diet: Is It Worth Following?

Sample Meal Plan Of Military Diet

For all three days, there are no restrictions on tea and coffee. But you could avoid^[2] adding milk or sugar to it.

You must drink plenty of water on all three days. If it is not comfortable in drinking plain water lemon can be infused.

But sweeteners should be avoided. You can have 3 meals without snacks for the first 3 days, and 3 meals and 2 snacks between the meals for the last 4 days.

Day 1 of Military Diet

On day 1 of the military diet, the calorie intake would be around 1,400 calories.

For breakfast, you can take a slice of bread toasted with 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and half a grapefruit if you wish, you can also take a cup of tea or coffee.

Lunch can consist of a slice of bread toast and half a cup of tuna and if you wish you can take a cup of coffee or tea.

For dinner, you can take 85 grams of meat, a cup of green tea, a half banana, a small apple, and one cup of vanilla ice cream.

Day 2 of Military Diet

On day 2 of the military diet, the calorie intake would be around 1,200 calories.

For breakfast, you can have a slice of toast, half a banana, a hard-boiled egg, and a cup of tea or coffee.

Lunch could consist of a cup of cottage cheese, a hard-boiled egg, 5 saltine crackers, and a cup of tea or coffee.

For dinner, take 2 hotdogs without a bun, half a banana, half a cup of carrots, half a cup of broccoli, and half a cup of vanilla ice cream.

Day 3 of Military Diet

On day 3 of the military diet, the calorie intake would be around 1,100 calories.

For breakfast, you can take a 1-ounce slice of cheddar cheese, a small apple, 5 saltine crackers, and a cup of coffee or tea.

For lunch, you can take a slice of toast, an egg, and a cup of coffee or tea.

Dinner can consist of half a banana, a cup of tuna, and 1 cup of vanilla ice cream.

Remaining 4 Days

After completing the restricted diet for 3 days, you can eat whatever you like for the remaining 4 days.

But you should remember that the calorie intake is under 1,500 calories. You could take balanced meals. Drink plenty of water every day as it may help in weight loss, as per this study^[3].

Food Swaps

The above-given list is just an example, you can change the items as per hour taste. If you are a vegetarian, you can go with almonds in place of tuna.

Also, almond butter or sunflower seed butter could be a replacement for peanut butter if you are allergic to it.

But keep in mind that the calorie count should not exceed the given limit in your diet plan.

Healthy Substitutions

• Instead of wheat toast, you can try a small portion of whole grains^[4] (like quinoa or brown rice) or something unprocessed and rich in carbohydrates like a baked sweet potato. Alternatively, you can also take a ¼ cup of yogurt mixed with a teaspoon^[5] of flax seeds.
• Instead of taking sugary items like ice cream, you could try something else. You can make sweet substitutions to ice cream with raw cocoa powder and vanilla extract by blending them with yogurt or frozen banana.
• If you are a vegetarian you can try hemp, brown rice, soaked beans, pea protein powder, nuts, seeds, tempeh, and whole grains like quinoa, farro, amaranth, or buckwheat instead of meat and dairy products.
• You can use goat milk yogurt to replace cow’s milk yogurt. Because goat milk is easy^[6] to digest especially when it is fermented.
• If you are allergic to dairy products, you can replace cheese with eggs, fish, meat, or soaked beans, to get proteins.
• You can replace tuna fish with pasture-raised eggs, pasture-raised turkey, or any other type of fish if you don’t like tuna.