The problem of excess weight has long plagued the minds of a huge number of people around the world. In some countries, it has received national status, so it is not at all surprising that today there is an impressive selection of weight loss diets for everyone's taste. Finding the one that is perfect for you is no easy task. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with such a method of achieving harmony as the petal diet - perhaps this method of removing the hated pounds will be the most effective in your case.
History and features of the weight loss system
The method discussed in our article is the brainchild of Swedish nutritionist Anna Johansson. It is also known by other names: "flower diet", "chamomile diet", "6 (7) petal diet". Such an original name for the author's nutritional system, aimed at burning fat deposits, is due to the fact that Anna presented her development in the form of a flower with seven petals. The number of the latter is equal to the number of days for which the unusual diet is designed. However, often people who use this weight loss technique in practice neglect to adhere to the seventh day diet.
The essence of the "6 petals" diet is that every day you can eat only a certain product. In this regard, each petal of an improvised flower - which, by the way, for the sake of practicality, it would be good to draw on a sheet of paper - should contain the name or image of the type of food indicatedfor consumption on a certain day. . It is very important to follow the order in which you consume the treats that the diet allows:
- on the first day you should satisfy your hunger only with fish (which is up to you);
- on the second day you can eat only vegetables;
- on the third day you can eat nothing but chicken fillet;
- the fourth day prescribes to eat only cereal porridge;
- food on the fifth diet day - natural fresh cheese;
- the sixth day is dedicated to eating a variety of fruits;
- on the seventh day you can drink only water (that's why many ignore it).
Anna Johansson did not specify the amount of each of the mentioned products allowed for consumption. This deficiency has been corrected by other nutritionists: they recommend no more than 500 g of chicken meat, fish and fresh cheese per day; up to 1. 5 kg of vegetables and ripe fruit, maximum 300 g of cereals.
The rules of the Swedish weight loss method
- Products included in the petal diet must not be mixed with each other. If this principle is violated, the process of reducing body weight will not be complete, and therefore it will be difficult to achieve decent results.
- You must eat 4-5 times a day. It is recommended to maintain equal time intervals between meals.
- Food must be chewed very thoroughly.
- Various culinary dishes can be prepared from one product.
- The preferred types of food are boiling, stewing, baking in the oven, steaming and grilling. It is strictly forbidden to eat fried food.
- Sweets and foods containing them should be completely excluded from the diet.
- Diet with petals allows you to replace the chicken fillet with turkey or toasted meat. In any case, it is necessary to remove the skin from the carcass.
- When choosing products for fish day, you should give preference to pink salmon, salmon, hake, cod, perch, trout and pike. It is allowed to diversify the fish menu with seafood (squid, shrimp, mussels) and seaweed, but their share in the diet on the first day of the diet should be minimal.
- A day with grains will be ideal if you eat buckwheat porridge, brown rice, corn and wheat semolina, as well as oatmeal. Side dishes made of white rice and semolina are strictly prohibited. In addition to cereal dishes, you can enjoy various flour products (not richly), but without fanaticism.
- Low-fat and low-fat cottage cheese is ideal for a diet with petals. This dish can be completed with a glass of natural yogurt without sugar with the addition of fruits and berries and 1% kefir. All other fermented milk products cannot be included in the diet of this weight loss method.
- For vegetables, it is better to eat various types of cabbage, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and various greens. One should give up the inclusion of corn, legumes, potatoes and eggplant in the diet with vegetables on the day of "6 Petals". Vegetable food can be eaten raw, baked, boiled, steamed, slow-cooked or stewed. It is not forbidden to prepare vegetable soups, drinking freshly squeezed vegetable juices is also welcome.
- It is allowed to eat absolutely any fruit, with the exception of especially carbohydrates, which are bananas, mangoes, melons, figs and grapes.
- If the diet with petals seems too monotonous to you on any given day, add some stewed mushrooms, a couple of soft-boiled chicken eggs (as an option - an omelette).
- It is allowed to wash food with herbal decoctions, flower and green tea and rosehip infusion. Drinking carbonated drinks (especially sweet ones), alcohol, coffee, and even plain black tea is out of the question.
- During the entire diet, be sure to drink plenty of clean table water or mineral water, without gas. The optimal amount of liquid taken by a person who is losing weight during the day is 1. 5-2 liters.
- The maximum duration of the power system is seven days.
- Repeated use of the services of the weight loss method should take place no later than one month after the end of the Swedish weight loss system.
Warning: in no case do not practice the "6 Petals" diet immediately after you are sick, because it is a great burden for a weakened organism.
Diet with petals: pros and cons
The advantages of the Swedish weight loss method include:
- high performance - allows you to lose weight in a short time;
- ease and speed of cooking;
- availability of food products prescribed by the petal diet;
- lack of hunger;
- sufficient amount of protein and fiber in the diet;
- high-quality cleansing of the body from waste and toxins;
- removing prisons;
- normalization of the digestive process;
- no need to count daily calories and eat according to a strict schedule;
- variety of diet, if we consider it in general - in this regard, each product prescribed by the diet does not have time to become boring to a person who is losing weight;
- low-calorie diet on days with carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and cereals).
The main advantage of the 6-petal diet is the absence of harm to health with reasonable and proper practice of the nutritional system.
We cannot ignore the disadvantages of weight loss programs. This:
- the need for additional intake of multivitamins;
- the appearance of general weakness, constant fatigue and, as a result, a decrease in performance due to the low energy value of the products included in the diet of cereals, fruits and vegetables;
- quick return of lost kilograms in case of non-compliance with the petal diet;
- quite impressive price share of products prescribed by the method;
- many contraindications (diabetes mellitus, kidney and liver pathologies, gastric and duodenal ulcers, cardiovascular diseases, hormonal imbalance, pregnancy and breastfeeding in women; children, adolescents and old age).
Sample menu for the 6-petal diet
Fish day diet with petals
First option:
- Morning meal - 200 g of steamed salmon.
- Second breakfast - a glass of unsweetened green tea.
- In the middle of the day, eat a cup of fish soup.
- Have dinner with 2-3 pieces of cooked salmon fillet.
Another option:
- For breakfast, eat a little boiled polenta (about 150 g).
- As part of lunch, they consume a cup of berry broth, prepared without added sugar.
- They have lunch with 200 ml of hake fillet fish broth.
- Dinner consists of 250 g of pink salmon, baked in the oven.
Ideally, you should stick to portion sizes so that the total amount of fish consumed per day does not exceed 500g.
Day of vegetables on the 6-petal diet
First option:
- Breakfast is carrot and cabbage salad (fresh vegetables are used) sprinkled with lemon juice.
- Boiled green beans are used as a snack.
- For lunch, they eat boiled vegetables, i. e. grated carrot and cauliflower (about 330 g).
- In the evening, they eat a salad whose ingredients are rocket leaves, fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers.
Another option:
- Morning meal - chopped vegetables (200 g) and an unlimited amount of chopped greens.
- Second breakfast - boiled grated beets with a couple of cloves of chopped garlic.
- Lunch is a serving of broccoli soup.
- For an afternoon snack, eat 1 fresh cucumber.
- The last meal is zucchini stewed in vegetable oil with carrots and onions.
Diet with petals on chicken day
First option:
- In the morning, eat cooked chicken breast (150 g), whose mild taste can be improved by using your favorite spices.
- After a few hours, they are tasted with chicken baked in the oven (no more than 100 g).
- Lunch is a cup of chicken broth with chopped herbs.
- In the evening, eat grilled chicken fillet without skin (200 g).
Another option:
- In the morning, they gain strength by eating two chicken cutlets.
- As part of lunch, drink a cup of green or herbal tea.
- At lunch, they eat soup cooked in chicken broth with pieces of chicken meat, but without vegetables.
- At the end of the day, they enjoy roast chicken.
Cereal day diet with 6 petals
- Breakfast - oatmeal, boiled in water (150 g).
- Second breakfast - brown rice cooked in a slow cooker (same amount).
- After 2 hours, satisfy your hunger with buckwheat scalded with boiling water (no more than 200 g).
- Drink a glass of rosehip infusion for afternoon tea.
- Dinner is a portion of cooked quinoa with dry herbs.
Diet with petals: a day for cottage cheese
We offer two menu options to choose from:
The first option
- Have breakfast with cheesecakes baked in the oven (150 g). It is better to eat them without cream.
- As part of the second breakfast, enjoy the taste of Greek yogurt without any additives (½ cup).
- The next meal is low-fat cottage cheese (200 g) and a glass of 1% kefir.
- During dinner, drink 250 ml of fermented baked milk.
Another option
- In the morning, eat low-fat cottage cheese (150 g) with a pinch of ground cinnamon.
- For lunch, they also drink low-fat milk (one glass is enough).
- For lunch, they enjoy several cheeses without filling and chocolate glaze.
- The evening meal consists of a mixture of natural cottage cheese and unsweetened yogurt.
Fruit day child with 6 petals
It is worth noting that in addition to ripe fruits, it also includes the use of any berries that do not have a particularly sweet taste.
There are also two sample menu options:
The first option
- Morning - orange and pear salad with strawberries and 1 tsp. med
- During the second breakfast, eat 1 large green apple.
- Lunch consists of a portion of apple and peach salad and a few kiwi fruits.
- For an afternoon snack, eat 1 orange or drink 200 ml of fresh orange juice.
- In the evening, recharge your batteries by drinking a fruit and berry smoothie and a cup of herbal tea.
Another option
- Get rid of the feeling of hunger at the beginning of the day thanks to the puree of two grated apples and five apricots.
- A few tangerines serve as a snack.
- The lunch meal is a combination of two apples baked in the oven with cinnamon and fresh pineapple (200 g).
- At the end of the day, they only allow themselves to taste ½ grapefruit and a handful of plums.
On the seventh day, the diet is followed by those who prefer the "7-petal" slimming system to the six-petal slimming method. During the day, you must drink plenty of fluids, and all food is prohibited. To maintain optimal water balance in the body, you can absorb not only ordinary and mineral still water, butand fruit juice and compote from dried berries and fruit without added sugar, fruit and berry infusions, green, herbal and hibiscus tea.
Diet with petals: a smart solution
The more responsible the attitude towards this event, the greater the probability of stabilization of the result obtained with the weight loss technique. Here you need to focus on several points:
- During the first two to three days after the end of the nutritional system, the diet should include the foods prescribed by the diet.
- Then you need to gradually dilute the menu with other foods, adhering to the principle of introducing 1-2 new treats per day.
- The energy value of the food consumed must also increase very slowly. In general, the daily calorie content of the menu should remain relatively low for several weeks. At the end of this period, this figure must be increased to 1600-1800 kcal.
- Sweets, fatty and fried foods, smoked and spicy foods can be included 14 days after the end of the petal diet. However, they should be consumed occasionally and in small quantities, then it will not affect body weight in any way.
- They exercise moderately every day, preferring gymnastics, aerobics, walking and swimming.
Diet with petals: results and reviews
The author of the petal slimming method guarantees that those who lose weight will lose 2. 5 to 5 extra kg in 1 cycle (6 or 7 days). Thus, in 3-4 cycles of nutrition, practiced with interruptions, you can actually get rid of 8-12 kg of unnecessary calories.
Those who decided to try this nutrition system themselves confirm the truth of these statements. Most people like that the petal diet is not rigid, satisfying, gives quick results and does not take much time to prepare. But many do not like the monotony and imbalance of the diet, and even more side effects in the form of upset stool and the presence of a hungry day (when choosing the "7 petals" variation).
Reviews of nutritionists about this weight loss program are also different. Some experts approve of such a short-term way of solving the problem of excess weight, arguing that it simply does not have time to negatively affect a person's health. Others warn of numerous contraindications of the petal diet and possible negative consequences of the weight loss method for the body.
Taking all this into account, we recommend using this system only after consulting a doctor. That way you can avoid wasting time and health problems.