The questions that are probably running around in your head are, “Will I really lose six pounds in two weeks if I follow the Special K Diet plan? Does the Special K Diet really work?” The quick answer to these questions seems to be “Maybe.”
The Special K Diet, like many other crash or fad-diets, simply works based on the principle of “calorie reduction”. By substituting Special K cereal with skim milk for your morning bagel with cream cheese and your sandwich for lunch, you’ll naturally decrease you calories for the day and lose fat and weight.
Nevertheless, you will lose up to 2-3 pounds per week with the Special K Diet, as it is simple to follow this low calorie diet. But you could accomplish the exact same thing by eating a bowl of oatmeal with fruit or egg whites for breakfast and a salad with grilled chicken breast for lunch.
Does the Special K Diet Plan Work?
For example, let’s say you followed the Special K diet advice and had: • 1 bowl of Special K cereal with skim milk for breakfast (180 calories) • 1 bowl of Special K cereal with skim milk for lunch (180 calories) • 1 Special K snack bar in the afternoon (100 calories) a 500 calorie dinner: • 1 Special K snack bar in the evening (100 calories) • Vegetables and fresh fruit in between meals (200-500 calories)
That would put you at around 1500 calories for the day — which is about where an average person would need to end their day to lose 1 lbs. of fat a week. So that would mean that the Special K Diet actually works.
Does the Special K Diet Truly Work?
The problem is that this isn’t very much food volume wise, because there is almost no fiber in any of the Special K products, which make up more than 50 percent of your food for the day. And because the Special K products are so highly processed, you’ll likely end up feeling hungry most of the day. Not to mention that the lack of variety will make this diet get very boring, very quickly. This makes it less likely that you’ll stick to the eating plan.
You could also easily hit this 1500 calorie goal with more nutritionally-dense, better tasting and healthier food and never have to touch a Special K product.
So it’s not really about the Special K cereal at all. Instead, it’s about substituting less calorie-dense foods for your meals. By all means, use the diet as a kick start for two weeks (which is all you are meant to do), but don’t carry it on much longer than this.
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