How true are its promises and how healthy is this diet?

Lately, a lot of people are opting for watermelon diet to lose weight. Like any other diet, watermelon diet also makes a lot of promises. But how true are its promises and how healthy is this diet?

What is watermelon diet?
This particular type of diet is suggested to those who are looking for instant weight loss. Also, people who want to get rid of excessive toxins and impurities in the body follow this diet. It should be noted that as you have to eat watermelons in excess under this diet, you have to be extra careful about the proportions.

The diet plan
This diet plan can be of two types, long-term plan and short-term plan. The long-term plan further has two stages. This is mainly a detoxifying strategy wherein with less calorie intake you also tend to lose weight. 

For long-term plan
In the first stage, just watermelon is consumed for three days. If you are a healthier person, you might not suffer from any health issue but for others, health issues may appear. If you experience any health condition, discontinue and see a doctor. The second stage goes for about 6 to 10 days, and you may include a little variety of other foods but for dinner, you have to eat more of watermelon. This is how it works:

For 1 to 3 days, just eat watermelon.

For next 6 to 10 days, you can have a bowl of oatmeal or a cheese slice with toast. Have 2-3 slices of watermelon as your midday snack. For lunch, you can have salad, boiled chicken breasts or fish. For dinner, eat watermelon.

For short-term plan
If you are following a short-term plan, which is for five days, you can have a slice of toast and watermelon in your breakfast. After a gap, have green tea or black coffee. For lunch, you can go for boiled chicken. Also, you can eat one slice of whole wheat bread and watermelon again. For dinner, eat two slices of watermelon, 100 grams of rice with green vegetable cooked in healthy oil or 100 grams of fish.

Note: There are a number of food variants that you can eat in watermelon diet. Before you opt for this diet, consult a health expert.

What the diet claims
This diet is mostly recommended for five days, which is a short-term diet plan. Apart from providing essential nutrients, this diet also claims quick and short-term weight loss. Watermelon consists of 92 percent water, 6 percent sugar and 2 grams of fibre. As you consume it, water content helps you curb your appetite and flushes out toxins. Also, the chewing and swallowing process gives you a filling effect. When you eat watermelon, the fibre content in it keeps you fuller for a longer duration.

The research
A study in the Journal of African Food and Chemistry states that watermelon diet is best for sore muscles. Though you should not heavily work out when following this diet but if you are exercising too, this diet will relieve muscle pain. Watermelon contains L-coralline, which human body converts into L-arginine. This is an essential amino acid which helps in improving blood circulation and relaxing body muscles. A study was done where seven men were given 500 ml of natural watermelon juice with citrulline powder an hour before their workout session. It was concluded that intestinal cells absorbed more of citrulline from watermelon juice than from the supplements.

Who must avoid this diet?
Avoid overdoing this diet as it may have a rebound effect. Pregnant women must not do this diet. People with liver problems, low immunity and children must avoid this diet. Remember, once you are done with this diet, you can again gain weight because you may fall back to older eating habits.

Precautions: Just because this diet is referred to as watermelon diet doesn't mean you have to eat watermelon only. You need to consume a balanced diet which should have protein, good fats and carbohydrates. You must ensure that foods you choose should have good nutritional value and be low in carbs.

Contact a health expert before following this diet.