Thinner, slimmer, more slender – that’s the goal shared by a great many women who feel they’re carrying a few extra pounds. Between indulgence and deprivation, it’s not easy to choose, which is why crash diets are so incredibly popular. The Natman diet is one such example, with its magic formula of “losing 4 kilos in 4 days,” but what’s the real story?
Basic principle of the Natman diet
To lose weight, you need to force your body to draw the calories it needs to produce energy from its fat reserves. The Natman diet recommends eliminating carbohydrates and fats for four days. A typical meal includes a source of protein (primarily meat) and unlimited fruits and vegetables. The program maintains the three-meal-a-day system and does not include any snacks to help manage hunger. Substituting one food for another is strictly forbidden.
An enticing promise… but do you really lose weight?
The program’s speed and relatively low cost (depending on the quality of the fruits, vegetables, and meat consumed) are two points likely to appeal to people who are overweight or obsessed with their body image. What are the health impacts of this diet?
- There is little chance of developing nutritional deficiencies over such a short period of time.
- If necessary, we can turn to food integrators.
- This short duration makes the Natman diet a less dangerous low-calorie diet than others.
Can we really believe the touted benefits of this miracle diet? Health professionals remind us that the human body does everything it can to avoid tapping into its fat reserves. Therefore, the weight loss shown on the scale a few days after starting a diet only represents a loss of water and muscle tissue! This is why weight regain is so rapid—the infamous yo-yo effect—once the diet is over (for more details on this, consult the INSERM website ) .
Aware of this, the Natman program explicitly states that once the 4 days are over, you shouldn’t go back to eating as before. On the contrary, you should use this time to establish a series of good eating habits that will lead to further weight loss.
Other weaknesses could undoubtedly be pointed out (a breakfast that is too light, the large quantities of meat included, which exclude vegetarians from the program, the abrupt elimination of dairy products, the deprivation of fruit and fructose, etc.). This is why the official website insists that this diet should not be followed for more than 4 days.
What is the perspective on this program?
What if the Natman diet should not be considered a true “diet” but something else entirely?
A “detox program”?
The brevity of the Natman program makes it more akin to a “detox cleanse” than a traditional “diet.” It remains to be seen whether such a high consumption of meat protein (which naturally deposits toxins in the body) truly allows the body to purify itself.
A “soft fast”?
The Natman diet could also be considered a kind of “soft fast.” However, it must be acknowledged that its high meat content makes it too substantial to be considered a true religious fast, and similarly, its ultimate goal (to have a more attractive figure) makes it incompatible with spiritual asceticism.
A series of eating habits linked to a specific profession?
The Natman diet is nicknamed the “flight attendant diet” for good reason. Since it’s best to board a plane without an upset stomach, flight attendants are said to eat very lightly during their four-day layovers. The initial goal was therefore not weight loss at all: before nutritionists took an interest, it was simply a precaution specific to a particular profession.
A look at the drawbacks of this diet
- Very restrictive
- Difficult to follow
- A short-term vision
- Weight loss not targeted at fat
If you think that losing 4 kg quickly could give you the motivation to make a fundamental change to your eating habits, you can try the Natman diet. However, be careful to consider it simply as a “trigger” to change your eating habits and not as a miracle solution to be repeated once a month.
