Protein diet “minus 5-7 kg per week” - 3 menu options, pros and cons

Principles of the “minus 5-7 kg per week” diet

To get rid of extra pounds using a protein diet, you must adhere to the following rules:

The menu should contain mainly protein products. Their mass fraction will be at least 60%.
You should include in your diet not only plant proteins, but also proteins of animal origin. They should be present in dishes in equal proportions.
Proteins must be “pure”. This means that any semi-finished products, sausages, sausages and other processed meat dishes are prohibited.
During the diet, you should eat fresh vegetables, which will help remove toxic breakdown products of protein foods from the body.
You need to sit down at the table at least 4 times a day. It's even better if you can make time for a couple of extra snacks.
3 hours before bedtime you need to give up any food.
Those products that are included in the list of prohibited foods should be completely excluded from the menu. Failure to comply with this rule is unacceptable.
You need to drink at least 2 liters of water per day.
Priority is given to cooking methods such as boiling and stewing. You can also steam it, but it’s better to avoid fried foods. As a last resort, you can bake food.
If the diet is supplemented with physical activity, the weight loss process will go much faster. Allowed to visit the gym, do fitness, jogging, aerobics, and walking. Strength will be restored quickly after exercise, which is possible by consuming large amounts of protein. If you ignore physical activity, protein will accumulate in the body, which can cause disturbances in the functioning of the kidneys, their soreness and swelling.
If you are not allergic, you can include kiwi and grapefruit in the menu. These products have an antioxidant effect. Their regular consumption will also saturate the body with vitamins and microelements.
Taking complexes containing vitamins and minerals is a mandatory condition that must be observed during a protein diet. After all, the body will not be able to obtain them from foods in sufficient quantities.

Basic principles of a protein diet for weight loss

When a person eats a lot of carbohydrate-containing foods, he feeds the body with simple “fuel”, and all buns, cakes, pizzas and much more, for the most part, contain simple fats and carbohydrates.
The body, recognizing food, uses carbohydrates in order to maintain a person’s strength, in other words, it spends it on energy production, but it (the body) puts the remaining fats in bins, as if for a “rainy day.” A person has plenty of places where fat could be hidden, for example, the stomach or sides. But don’t despair, the body can be outsmarted. It is enough to eliminate carbohydrates from consumption and feed the body only proteins; it will immediately begin to look for a way out of the current situation and will have to burn its own fats to obtain energy. Physical activity will also help you lose weight. A protein diet is a great way to tone up and strengthen muscles (you need a lot of protein for this), and exercise will help you burn excess fat faster.

Permitted and prohibited products

Products that can be included in the menu:

Fermented milk drinks and cottage cheese. It is important that the percentage of fat in them is minimal.
Turkey meat and chicken meat. It is necessary to remove the skin from it.
Low-fat fish.
Champignon.
Shrimp, mussels, scallops, squid.
Hard cheeses, tofu. The daily norm is 30 g.
Egg.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, beans in pods, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, peppers. In addition to the fact that these vegetables can be consumed in their pure form, they can be used to make juice.
Cashews and almonds, but no more than 4-6 nuts per day.
Apples, but not sweet ones, grapefruits, kiwi.
Fruit juice based on berries, water, coffee, tea.

There are also products that need to be excluded from the menu, including:

Sugar and all sweets in which it is present.
Bread and other flour products.
Butter.
Alcohol.
Vegetables that contain a lot of starch, such as corn and potatoes.
Fat meat.
Fatty dairy products.
All confectionery products.
Fruits containing a lot of sugar: bananas, pineapples, grapes, apricots, peaches, plums, pears.
Preserved products.
Semi-finished products.

Calculating your metabolism

When a person completely refuses foods containing carbohydrates and switches to a protein menu, this can provoke ketosis (poisoning of the body with ketone bodies resulting from the breakdown of proteins). Therefore, complex carbohydrates must be present in the diet. Daily caloric intake is calculated based on the body weight of the person losing weight.

The metabolic rate is calculated individually. This will allow you to select the optimal amounts of food that a person should consume throughout the day. To the resulting figure you will need to add no more than 300 kcal if a person leads a sedentary lifestyle. When he experiences physical activity of one intensity or another, he will need to add 400-800 kcal to the resulting figure.

To calculate your metabolism, you must adhere to the following algorithm:

Your body weight in kilograms must be divided by 0.454.
The resulting figure is multiplied by 0.409.
The result obtained is again multiplied by 24. This is the last step. The final number reflects the individual rate of volume of substances.

There is a simpler formula for calculating metabolism, which looks like this:

Women need to multiply their weight in kilograms by 0.9 and by 24.
Men need to multiply their weight by 1.0 and by 24.

It should be noted that the result obtained will be an average.

The third formula by which you can determine your metabolism is as follows:

For women: 655 + (9.6*body weight) + (1.8*height in centimeters) – (4.7*age).
For men: 66 + (13.7*weight) + (5*height in centimeters) – (6.8*age).

It is called the Harris-Benedict formula.

Interesting recipes

Cream soup with egg

Products that will be required for its preparation:

Chicken breast – 400 g.
Spinach – 400 g.
Boiled eggs – 2 pcs.
Milk – 150 ml
Spices, salt, parsley.

The chicken needs to be cooked until cooked, adding black peppercorns, Provençal herbs and bay leaves to the broth during cooking. The meat is cooled and cut into cubes. Do not pour out the broth, add spinach to it and cook until the vegetable becomes soft. Chopped boiled eggs and broth with spinach are ground in a blender, after which milk is added to the pan and mixed thoroughly. The soup is ready, it is served to the table, putting 1/2 egg in a cup.

Fish soup

To prepare it you will need the following products:

White fish without bones – 400 g.
Red onion – 1 pc.
Cauliflower – 0.4 kg.
Lemon juice, pepper, salt.
You can add yogurt to the soup.

Chop the cauliflower, fish and onion, put it in a saucepan, add water and put it on the fire, bring it to readiness. Before serving, add lemon juice, yogurt, salt and pepper to the soup.

Protein salad

To prepare the dish you will need the following food set:

Chicken egg – 3 pcs.
Chicken breast – 1 pc.
Fresh cucumber – 1 pc.
Peking cabbage – 0.4 kg.
Salt, mustard, yogurt.

The boiled chicken breast and eggs are cut into cubes, the cabbage is crushed and torn by hand, the cucumber is cut into slices. For the dressing you will need to mix yogurt (100 ml), a tablespoon of mustard, and salt to taste. All components are combined and lemon juice is added.

Cottage cheese omelette

Products for its preparation:

Curd beans – 100 g.
Protein – 3 pcs.
Green onions - 3 stalks.
Dill and salt.

The whites must be separated from the yolks and beaten until foamy. Cottage cheese is mixed with dill and salt is added to it. Carefully combine the cottage cheese with the protein, pour the resulting mass into a baking dish, sprinkle with green onions on top. The dish is put into the oven and brought to readiness.

Cottage cheese cheesecake

To prepare it you will need the following food set:

Cottage cheese with 0% fat content – 200 g.
Lemon juice – 50 g.
Corn starch - 2 tablespoons.
Apple.
The yolk of two eggs.
Whites of 5 eggs.

Peel the apple, remove the seeds, and grind in a blender. Then starch, lemon juice, cottage cheese and yolks are added to the apple, and the resulting mass is mixed using a blender. Beat the whites separately and combine with the curd cream. The mixture is poured into a mold that needs to be moistened with water. Bake in the oven for half an hour at 180 °C.

Spinach pate

To prepare it you will need the following products:

Spinach in puree form – 100 g.
One egg.
Sour cream – 20 g.

The egg needs to be boiled and finely chopped, mixed with sour cream and spinach. The resulting mass is placed in a salad bowl and served.

Menu for 10 days

For 10 days you need to eat right, without deviating from the proposed menu. It is designed to facilitate the body’s adaptation process when switching to food that is unusual for it and to reduce stress levels.

First meal	Snack	Second main meal	Snack	Third main meal
1	2 breads, 2 boiled eggs, tea.	Green apple.	Puree soup with spinach (200 ml), steamed tuna (150 g), 2 breads, protein shake.	100 g cottage cheese with dill.	200 g of salad of squid, shrimp and other seafood.
2	100 g cottage cheese with parsley and dill, bread, coffee.	Orange.	Soup with salmon and milk (200 ml), 150 g of porcini mushrooms with vegetables baked in the oven, protein cocktail.	100 g hard cheese.	Vegetable salad with protein sauce dressing (200 g).
3	Chicken breast boiled with basil and dill (100 g), coffee.	Grapefruit.	Oriental soup with egg and red fish (200 ml), beans stewed with chicken fillet (150 g), protein shake.	100 ml kefir.	Salad with cottage cheese, 200 g.
4	100 g of cottage cheese beans with parsley and green onions, bread, tea.	Two tangerines.	Meatball soup (200 ml), baked zucchini (150 g), protein shake.	Cauliflower puree (100 g).	Boiled turkey fillet with protein sauce (200 g).
5	2 breads, 2 boiled eggs, tea.	Pineapple, but not more than 100 g.	Bran soup (200 ml), boiled beef (150 g), protein shake.	Cottage cheese with dill grains (100 g).	Pike perch in the oven (200 g).
6	Drinking yoghurt (200 ml), two loaves of bread, tea.	Two kiwis.	Puree soup with yolk (200 ml), omelette with steamed tomatoes (150 g), protein cocktail.	Cottage cheese without sugar (100 g).	Stuffed squid (200 g).
7	Boiled egg white (3 pcs), coffee.	Green apple.	Protein okroshka (200 g), cottage cheese omelette (150 g) in the oven, protein shake.	Ryazhenka (100 ml).	Stewed chicken with vegetables.
8	Steamed omelette with dill (150 g), bread, coffee.	Orange.	Egg noodle soup (200 ml), buckwheat with chicken hearts and gizzards, cooked in a pot (150 g), protein cocktail.	Yogurt (100 ml).	Protein salad (200 g).
9	150 g cottage cheese with parsley and green onions.	Grapefruit.	Chicken soup with asparagus (200 ml), chicken puff pastry (150 g), protein shake.	Kefir, 100 ml	Cottage cheese casserole, 200 g.
10	Two loaves of bread, two eggs, coffee.	Pineapple, 100 g.	Vegetable soup with chicken meat (200 ml), boiled beef (50 g), protein cocktail.	Ryazhenka, 100 g.	Steamed tuna (200 g).

Pros and cons of the “minus 5-7 kg per week” diet

Pros of a protein diet:

For a long period of time, a person will not feel hungry, since protein foods are very satiating.
Excess weight goes away very quickly; in 2 weeks you can lose about 10 kg.
The menu is quite varied.
The result is stable, the extra pounds will not return after a few days.

Disadvantages of a protein diet:

While losing weight, you will have to give up eating the usual fatty and fried foods, sweets and baked goods.
The body will not be able to obtain a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals from the proposed food set.

Scientists have proven that if you refuse physical activity during a protein diet, this will negatively affect the condition of the body. If you adhere to this method of losing weight for a long time, this threatens the formation of kidney stones, edema and other health problems.

What can you drink during a protein diet for weight loss?

During the diet, you can drink tea or coffee without sugar, herbal infusions, and both regular and mineral water. Any fruit juices and sweet drinks are excluded from the protein diet menu for weight loss. When on a protein diet, you can sometimes drink vegetable juices - tomato juice or celery and apple juice. The main thing is that the juice contains a low amount of carbohydrates.

The diet completely excludes any alcoholic drinks to reduce the load on the liver, stomach and kidneys. In addition, alcohol blocks the enzyme pepsin, which breaks down animal protein in the stomach, and if you consume protein foods and alcohol together, you will not only not lose weight, but will most likely “earn” indigestion.