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Slim While You Sleep
Slim While You Sleep
It sounds almost too good to be true but this revolutionary diet devised
by a leading U.S. doctor really CAN shift the pounds overnight
By LOUISE ATKINSON
PUBLISHED: 22:28 GMT, 24 March 2013 | UPDATED: 22:29 GMT, 24 March 2013
All diets promise you’ll lose weight if you stick at them for long enough. But most require huge sacrifices and a
monumental amount of iron will to do so.
Now an exciting new diet from the U.S. promises you can shed more than half a stone in just one week while
still enjoying potatoes, pasta and even a daily glass of wine.
The Overnight Diet is the brainchild of Dr Caroline Apovian, who has helped thousands of people to reach their
ideal size in her role as a director of nutrition and weight management at the Boston Medical Centre — one of
the U.S.’s top hospitals.
Too good to be true? The Overnight Diet is different to other fad diets because it has been specifically
designed to maintain lean muscle while eradicating flab and even allows room for lean carbs
She says her patients typically lose up to 9lb in the first week (and every week thereafter) on the plan without
experiencing hunger or cravings — and two of those pounds are lost while you sleep on one of the plan’s
fasting days.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Wrong. Dr Apovian has spent the past 25 years fine-tuning her eating plan
and testing it out on clients — and the method of this simple yet effective weight loss regime is being serialised
exclusively in Life & Style.
The key to the diet — and the reason it works so quickly — is the fact it is specifically designed to protect your
muscles from wasting away as you reduce the amount you eat.
We all lose muscle mass as we age — at the rate of 1 per cent a year from the age of 30 — and dieting can
make this worse.
When the body detects a significant drop in food intake it immediately looks to your muscles for extra energy.
This means you will potentially get thinner, but you’ll also get weaker and flabbier. When you stop dieting and
the weight starts to creep back on — as it does for 95 per cent of dieters — it typically returns as fat rather than
muscle.
GETTING STARTED
It doesn't matter which day of the week you choose for your smoothies day, just ensure you can stick to doing
it on the same day each week.
Dr Apovian says many people choose Sunday because they’re off work, they have all their smoothie
ingredients to hand and are able to spend more time preparing them than they would on other days of the
week.
The plan is simple: make one smoothie for breakfast, one for lunch, and one for your evening meal. But these
are no ordinary shop-bought smoothies — most of which contain fruit, sugar and very little else.
Each Overnight Diet smoothie is packed with protein to ensure you maintain lean muscle. They are also rich in
fibre to aid digestion and keep you feeling full, and are made from wholefoods which contain no unnecessary
chemicals or additives.
You can either follow Dr Apovian’s recipes (right) or mix-and-match to make your own favourites.
It’s important to aim for variety and create three different tasting smoothies throughout the day rather than drink
three lots of the same one.
This is not only to stop you getting bored but also to ensure you get a good mix of nutrients.
Some of the smoothies are so large that you probably won’t be able to finish them in one sitting — which
means you should have enough left over for a smoothie snack later in the day.
How it works
The diet is divided into two parts. For one day each week you take a complete break from food and consume
three nutrient-packed homemade smoothies instead.
Dr Apovian’s studies show that this effectively ‘jump-starts’ weight loss — her patients typically lost 2lb
overnight after their smoothie day. It also accelerates fat burning.
For the other six days, you follow a healthy eating diet plan that centres on providing enough lean protein
(meat, fish, eggs) to feed the muscles and fuel the body so your body stays in fat-burning mode.
The good news is that during this stage you can still eat many of the foods you love including peanut butter,
avocados and potatoes (albeit in limited amounts).
After one week, the seven-day cycle is started all over again with a day of smoothies to re-boot the fat-burning
process and trigger another round of overnight weight loss (that means another 2lb down).
How it works: The diet is divided into two parts. For one day each week you take a complete break from food
and consume three nutrient-packed homemade smoothies instead
The idea is you keep returning to your non-food day once a week and repeating the plan until you reach your
goal weight and those jeans zip up effortlessly.
The diet plan can be adapted long-term with a slight relaxation of the restrictions — for example, swapping one
or two of the smoothies on your non-food day for a meal — to allow you to remain at your ideal weight for
ever.
The principle shares some similarities to the now hugely popular Two Day diet (which advocates two days of
restricted low-carb eating each week and a less-restricted healthy diet on the other five days), which the Mail
serialised last month.
However, Dr Apovian is adamant the smoothies are so jam-packed with filling and nourishing ingredients that
they won’t leave you feeling hungry. They contain a finely tuned balance of micro-nutrients to keep you fit and
healthy, plus protein to maintain muscle and fibre to keep you feeling full.
Good for you: On the Overnight Diet you'll experience reduced hunger, fewer cravings, better moods, higher
energy levels, more restful sleep and enhanced mental alertness
On the Overnight Diet you’ll experience reduced hunger, fewer cravings, better moods, higher energy levels,
more restful sleep and enhanced mental alertness.
Higher energy levels pump up your desire to get moving with physical activity, which boosts production of a
metabolic enzyme called AMP-kinase, which boosts energy levels, and increases production of a hormone
called irisin that helps you burn more calories.
WOMEN
Up to 5ft 5in: 350g
5ft 6-7in: 375g
5ft 8-9in: 400g
5ft 10-11in: 425g
6ft: 450g
MEN
Up to 5ft 7in: 400g
5ft 8in: 425g
5ft 9-10in: 450g
5ft 11in-6ft: 480g
6ft 1-2in: 500g
6ft 3in: 540g
6ft 4-6in: 570g
Once you have found your DPR it stays with you for life. Dr Apovian believes that whether you’re trying to lose
weight or merely maintain the weight you’ve lost, you should try to eat this much lean protein every day.
SIMPLE RULES FOR THE OTHER SIX DAYS
1. Work out your own daily protein requirement (see guide above) and NEVER eat less than that in a day.
2. Eat as much fruit as you like.
3. Eat as many non-starchy vegetables (broccoli, leeks, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, mushrooms,
peppers, spinach, swede, tomatoes) and as much salad as you like.
4. Enjoy two 240ml servings of fat-free or low-fat yoghurt, skimmed milk, cottage cheese, or cheese a
day.
5. You can have two or three small servings of wholegrains a day such as half a wholemeal bagel, 1 thin slice
of wholemeal bread, 2 wholemeal or rye crackers, or a 30g portion of oats, oatbran, high-fibre cereal (if it is
sugar-free and at least 6g of fibre per 100g), brown rice, wholemeal pasta, quinoa or couscous.
6. You can have 100g a day of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkin, beans, peas
or lentils.
7. For fats, have 4x1 tsp servings a day of avocado, olive oil, low-fat mayo, nuts or seeds.
8. For water, have 8 glasses a day. You can also drink black coffee, tea and diet drinks, but these do
not count as part of your water allowance.
BREAKFAST IDEAS
Hearty Pancakes
(makes 12 – 2 pancakes per portion)
Each pancake serving is 60g protein
240g protein powder
4 eggs plus whites of 2 eggs
300g wholemeal flour
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
50g rolled oats
60g plain white flour
2 tbsp baking powder
540ml skimmed milk
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix eggs, egg whites, milk and oil in a separate bowl, then pour the wet mix
into the dry and stir. Spray a griddle or large frying pan with oil and pour 125ml of batter into the hot pan. Cook
for 3-4 minutes on each side
1 beetroot, grated
100g alfalfa sprouts
fruit, to serve
Mix together the tuna, yoghurt, apple, mustard and honey and divide among the wraps. Top with the other
ingredients, roll up and serve with fruit.
DINNER IDEAS
Chicken and veggie stir-fry
(serves 4)
225g protein per serving
900g skinless chicken breast, cut into 1cm cubes,
3 tbsp olive oil
5cm fresh root ginger, or to taste, peeled and grated 3 garlic cloves,
crushed
450g fresh shiitake mushrooms, caps sliced
180g broccoli, cut into florets
2 red peppers, seeded and sliced
2 bunches of spring onions, sliced
120ml dry white wine
50ml soy sauce
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fry the chicken in a little oil in a large pan or wok fry for 4 minutes or until it goes brown around the edges.
Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the ginger and garlic for 1 minute.
Add the mushrooms and stir-fry for 5 minutes or until tender. Add the broccoli, peppers and spring onions, and
stir-fry until crisp-tender. Return the chicken to the pan. In a small bowl, stir together the white wine, soy sauce
and sesame oil, then add to the chicken mixture. Heat through for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.
Extracted from The Overnight Diet by Dr Caroline Apovian, published by Piatkus, £12.99. To order your
copy for £11.49 (incl. P&P) call 0844 472 4157 or visit mailbookshop.co.uk. If you have kidney disease
or diabetes, check with your doctor before starting the diet.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2298515/Slim-sleep-It-sounds-good-true-But-
revolutionary-diet-devised-leading-U-S-doctor-really-CAN-shift-pounds-overnight.html#ixzz42ZQNWGWC
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