A while back, I gave the banana diet a try… Why? Because it brought the promise of many pounds lost so easily, while all I’d have to do is just eat as many bananas as I wanted…

Bananas

By the way, this is the crazy version of the diet in which you eat only bananas. Not the diet that advises you to eat a banana before every meal, or the breakfast version in which you eat this fruit just for breakfast. I’ve heard of many people trying to eat only bananas and claim to have great success. So I tried it myself to see if there’s any through to it, or how dangerous such a diet can get.

The idea was appealing because I love bananas…  If I could eat as many as I wanted, all the better! I knew it wouldn’t work because bananas are mostly carbs. And how could consuming so much sugar help lose weight? But I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and try anyway.

Bananas

So this is how it went…

First morning went ok… Bananas for breakfast is reasonable. I was in the mood for something salty, but I could live with it. In two hours I was already hungry, these fruit don’t seem to stay in your stomach for long so I munched on bananas all day long, almost every hour. Energy wise I was fine. I must have consumed about 2000 calories (which logically, makes it impossible to lose weight) but my stomach kept screaming. Somehow, I managed to fall asleep that night, but not for long. I woke up every few hours to go to the bathroom. I was losing liquids fast…

In the morning, I got up kinda pale and feeling a bit faint. I had lost a little over two pounds. I had lost two pounds of fluids that is… I tried to make up for the dehydration by drinking lots of water, but it didn’t seem to help much.

I tried to stick to the diet though… And it was horrible! You know I have discipline, and no great urges to eat something in particular, but I could barely control myself. I was sure I could go for week eating just bananas, but there I was, wishing I’d never see another banana again. I ate a banana and a half that day. I couldn’t take any more… It would have been much easier if my dad hadn’t cooked that day. The smell was driving me crazy.

To get through it faster, I cut the day short and went to bed early. Before that, I weight myself and I had lost another pound and a half since morning, bringing the total to about 4 pounds.  I feel asleep fast.

A few hours after, I woke up in the middle of the night with no will power to see this through. I had just realized how stupid it actually was! I made my way towards the kitchen and happily ate some leftovers of what my dad had cooked.

The next day, after returning to eating normally and feeling good I weight myself to see the damage. The scale indicated 5 pounds more than the previous night, which meant 1 extra pound from my starting point.

My conclusion is that the diet was a waste of time. All it did was temporarily dehydrate me which appears on the scale as weight loss. It made me feel sick and it drove me crazy. After it, I returned to my starting point, with one pound extra…

Definitely not worth it! Dangerous? Yes! Just take a look at some of the symptoms of dehydration. Or just think of the poor nutrition that follows any diet that’s not diversified.