The 80/20 Diet Promises Weight LossWithout Being Restrictive Like Other Popular Diets

If youve ever wanted to lose some weight youve probably done some research about diets.
And when you did that, you probably discovered that there are A LOT of diet plans out there.
I know, because Ive been there. And the more I learned about each diet plan, the less excited I was about it. 🙁
Thats because most of those popular diets are pretty restrictive. Some of them even require you to basically cut out an entire food grouplike dairy, or carbs, or meat.
TRENDING: Science Reveals Easy, No-Workout Ways to Lose Weight While You Snooze!And while I know that usually works for losing weight since its so restrictive it really isnt my favorite idea! (Personally, Im not sure that a life without cheese is a life worth living.)
Thats where this one new diet comes in: the 80/20 Diet.
Its much less restrictive than other popular diets (like keto, or paleo, or South Beach, or vegan)
Yet it still promises impressive weight loss, that you might even be able to maintain over time.
So, what is this diet, and how does it work to help you lose weight?

What Is The 80/20 Diet?
The 80/20 Diet was developed by Australian nutritionist, chef, and personal trainer Teresa Cutter. She writes that this diet works by encouraging you to eat nutritiously 80% of the time and allowing yourself to indulge in less-healthy food for the remaining 20% of the time.
Your nutritious eatingwhich should take up 80% of your food intakeshould be made up of fresh fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, low-fat dairy, minimally processed foods, and plenty of water.
BRAND NEW: These Delicious Desserts Can Help You Burn Fat & Lose WeightDuring the remaining 20% of your meals, you can indulge yourself! This is perfect if you like me dont want to totally give up your favorite foods and treats.
However, theres something of a catch. If you totally let yourself go during that 20%, you probably wont lose much weight even if you were really good during the 80%.
To combat this issue, Cutter encourages indulging yourself within reason. Moderation is the key.
For example, feel free to grab a cheeseburger as one of your indulgences. However, you might want to skip the fries and supersize soda if you want to lose weight.
You may want to apply the 80/20 Diet rule to a single week. This is a very popular way to practice this diet.
In fact, this is why the 80/20 Diet is sometimes referred to as the Weekend Diet. The idea is that you eat healthy during the workweek, and then you indulge yourself on the weekend.
In the weekly method, you eat 80% healthy meals and 20% less healthy. Since three meals per day for one week totals 21 meals, you should eat 17 healthy meals (80%). The remaining four meals can be more indulgent.
As you can see, the weekend approach is therefore flawed since eating less healthy for two whole days would come out to six indulgent meals, rather than four.
Another way to practice the 80/20 Diet is by counting calories. For example, if your daily calorie goal is 1,800 calories you would eat an additional 360 calories (which is an extra 20%) two days per week.
While this might be a more concrete way to know that you are eating an extra 20% only twice a week, it requires the work of counting calories for EVERY MEAL, EVERY DAY.

Can You Lose Weight With The 80/20 Diet?
In theory, yes! The 80/20 Diet can be an effective way to lose weight.
The 80/20 Diet might be a good fit if you (like me) dont want to give up your favorite foods in the name of weight loss. With this diet, you can still eat your favorite foods, snacks, and treatsjust not every day.
TRENDING: Women Who Eat These 3 Cheeses Are Losing Pounds of Stubborn Belly Fat (Research Proven)Because the 80/20 Diet allows some room for indulgence, it may also be easier to maintain over a long period of time. Part of the problem with very restrictive diets is that they are difficult to maintain for more than a few weeks which is why people often gain weight back after stopping that diet.
With the 80/20 Diet, however, you are more likely to stay on the plan since it has no specific restrictions. And if you find the right balance of healthy and less healthy eating you could see some real changes in your weight!
As with all diets, however weight loss is NOT guaranteed.
With the 80/20 Diet, you need to make sure you arent overdoing the 20%. After all, if you totally binge and indulge all of your cravings you probably wont lose weight.
While no specific studies have been completed on the 80/20 Diet, research seems to support the idea that you can lose weight even if you have small, less healthy splurges as long as you maintain a healthy eating plan for a majority of the time.

How To Get Started On The 80/20 Diet
Fortunately, the 80/20 Diet is pretty easy to adopt!
Unlike some other diets, there are no special shopping lists no reason to purge your kitchen and home and no expensive health foods you have to purchase.
To get started, decide whether you want to apply the 80/20 rule to your meal number or to your calorie count. To start out, it might be easiest to simply practice healthy eating for 17 meals per week. In the remaining four meals, give yourself some freedom to indulge.
SPECIAL: These 3 Delicious Smoothie Recipes Are Specially Designed To Burn Off More Fat So You Lose More WeightIf you dont see results or if you think you might be overindulging during the 20%… you might want to try a 90/10 rule instead. This can help you lose weight with a healthy eating planwhile still enjoying some occasional splurges!
So in truth, the only thing you have to do to get ready for the 80/20 Diet is start doing it! Good luck!
One Surefire Way To Boost Your Weight Loss (Whether Or Not You Adopt The 80/20 Diet)
While the 80/20 diet is a great choice for a less restrictive diet
The trouble is that if you even slightly overdo it in your 20%…
And you eat just one too many cookies or a one too many slices of that delicious pizza
You could undo all of your hard work that you accomplished during your 80% healthy eating!
And then youre back to square one with no pounds gone and all of that weight still to lose.
Its just so hard to know exactly how much is TOO much indulgence in your 20%unless you want to do something crazy like weighing every meal (gotta be specific about how many grams youre eating!) or counting every calorie.
Fortunately, there IS a surefire way to lose more weight and burn more fat without worrying about counting every single stinking calorie that goes into your mouth.
Thats thanks to this one medical doctor who discovered this weird switch in a very specific part of the body that is naturally turned to off for most people
Yet when you turn it on… you naturally burn more fat finally melt off those stubborn pounds around your belly, hips, and thighs and gain more energy.