Hugo L
Can eating yogurt really help you lose weight? Yes it can!
By following the Yoplait diet plan for only 14 days, you can expect to lose up to 5 pounds.
If that doesn’t sound like much, you need to understand that it’s both safer and easier than most other diets.
What is the Yoplait Diet?
Also known as the two-week tune up, the Yoplait diet was launched by the international yogurt brand Yoplait with the intention to help women lose weight (and to sell more yogurt of course). It is yet another two-week diet, but unlike the others, it is not as extreme.
The basic idea is to replace breakfast and lunch with a Yoplait Light yogurt, a fruit and a grain, for a period of two weeks. Dinner should be focused on lean proteins, and vegetables are allowed as healthy snacks. Daily 30-40 minute walks are also an integral part.
The exact diet plan looks like this:
| Breakfast & Lunch | Dinner | Snacks |
|---|---|---|
| - 1 Yoplait Light yogurt - 1 cup of grains - 1 fruit (or 3/4 cup of berries) - Water to drink | - 6 oz of lean proteins (chicken, pork or fish) - 2 cups of vegetables - 1 tablespoon of fat (e.g. salad dressing) - Water to drink | - 1 cup of raw non-starchy vegetables OR 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables - 3 servings of non-fat dairy (light yogurt or skim milk) - Water to drink |
In total, you are going to consume around 1200 calories. As women need 1600-2400 calories per day (depending on age and lifestyle), this creates a calorie deficit that forces the body to burn fat. The calorie deficit for men would be even greater as their bodies require more energy than female bodies.
Just as important as the foods you eat is exercise. You should walk for 30-40 minutes every day whilst on this diet. Cheating is not allowed! 🙂
As you can see from the table above, this diet is very strict and regimented (although quite easy to follow) and has very little room for flexibility. This is both a good and a bad thing.
It’s good because it’s easy to just look at the diet plan and do as it says. No thinking is required, which at least for me is a positive thing when my body is in starvation mode. If I had to come up with fancy and complex meals each and every day, I would simply give up.
It’s also a bad thing because you don’t develop any skills for understanding, planning and creating meals and diet plans of your own. You are not learning WHY it works, and that could limit your long-term success.
More about its pros and cons further down…
How Much Weight Can You Expect to Lose?
You can expect to lose 2-5 pounds during the two weeks of dieting. Although not a huge loss, it is a very good start. It’s also a safe start, because the foods you eat contain all the vitamins and minerals you need. In other words, no risk for malnutrition.
But what about those diets that claim to do miracles in very short periods of time? Well to be honest, extreme diets that make you drop double digits in a week or two should generally be avoided as they are not sustainable over time, and some of them are not even safe.
Generally speaking, the best and soundest way to approach dieting is to make small but steady progress over a longer period of time. Why torture yourself with extreme diets when you can lose just as much weight but in a safer and much easier way?
That’s why my recommendation would be to switch over to a well-balanced low-carb diet once you have done the Yoplait diet. So, first you get a great start by losing up to 5 pounds, and by mentally realizing that it’s actually possible to lose weight. Next, you move over to a tastier and more sustainable low-carb diet that leaves you feeling full after each meal. And yet you keep losing weight (as long as you keep taking the daily walks)!
What if you would like to stay on the Yoplait diet plan for more than 14 days? Well, it can be hard to follow it for more than two weeks as it’s easy to get bored or even frustrated by the repetitive meals, the caloric deficit, and by the low amount of solid foods. What you could do is to follow it for two weeks, then eat normal (but yet healthy) food for 1-2 weeks, and then switch back to the Yoplait diet for another go. Rinse and repeat until you have reached your goal weight.
Pros and Cons of the Yoplait Yogurt Diet
As with all diets, the Yoplait yogurt diet has both pros and cons.
Pros:
- It is safe, because it contains all the nutrients you need.
- It creates a moderate calorie deficit that makes you lose weight, but leaves you with sufficient energy to manage your daily routines.
- It’s easy to follow as the diet plan is simple and easy to understand, and because the foods can be purchased in every supermarket.
- Yoplait is a popular and trusted brand that offers lots of different flavors.
Cons:
- The yogurt is highly processed and contains aspartame, fructose corn syrup, and food dyes. Some believe these substances are unhealthy.
- The strict diet plan leaves no room for flexibility.
- Boring to eat yogurt several times a day.
Conclusion
The Yoplait diet plan is highly detailed which makes it easy to follow. It’s also safe because it contains all the macronutrients your body needs.
If you take the daily 30-40 minute walks and consume the foods exactly as laid out in the table above, you will lose somewhere between 2 and 5 pounds.
