Scarsdale Diet Plan

The diet requires slimmers to make up their food in the following way; protein 43%, fat 22.5% and 34.5% carbs. The diet lasts for between 7 and 14 days at a time and is followed up with the Scarsdale diet keep trim programme.

How Many Calories?

The number of calories that dieters can consume in a day is 1000. The Scarsdale diet keep trim programme allows for more calories but also contains a large number of banned foods. The diet uses a lot of artificial sweeteners and herbal appetite suppressants.

What's Allowed?

The Scarsdale diet is a very strict regime that allows fruits, vegetables and lean animal fats with absolutely no snacking allowed. The diet sees large initial weight loss although this is mostly water and any success on this plan is down to the low calorie intake. The claim from this programme is that the slimmer can lose one pound per day. Exercise is not recommended though (especially for the over 40s) largely because of the low calorie intake.

The diet is a very simple plan to follow and no costly food or equipment is necessary. Those choosing this eating plan should experience very fast weight loss. Best of all, perhaps, is that there is no limit on the size of the portions.

Is It Quite Strict?

Yes, this is a very strict diet programme which can even be dangerous due to the risks involved with the regular ingestion of appetite suppressants and the insufficiency of many minerals and vitamins. Any weight lost is mostly water and, as a result, weight is often quickly regained. Without encouraging regular exercise, the plan does not promote a great way to obtain sustainable weight loss so therefore cannot be used as a long term solution to maintaining target weight levels.

Our Opinion

A huge seller in the 70s and 80s it is still popular today. A low carb forerunner to Atkins.Our main 'worry' is that the low calorie content will leave many people struggling to keep going - which brings the temptation of snacking or completely dumping the plan.