- Weight loss mechanism
- Advantages and disadvantages
- Contraindications
- How to choose?
- Recommendations
- Options
Many people are surprised when nutritionists recommend a chocolate fasting day for quick and tasty weight loss. Can such a high-calorie, sugary product really help you lose weight? It turns out that such miracles do exist, and our body is still a great mystery to us. If you’re tired of boring diets, then this option will be a real treat for you.
Weight loss mechanism
Nutritionists have known about chocolate fasting days for a long time, and its effect on the body has been thoroughly studied. Weight loss is possible due to cocoa beans, which:
- prevent insulin resistance (a common cause of obesity) and improve the regulation of glucose absorption;
- support healthy intestinal microflora, which speeds up food digestion;
- eliminate inflammation in the body, which can trigger excess weight gain;
- reduce depression, eliminating the need to “stress eat”;
- speed up metabolism;
- effectively break down fats and remove them from the body (although this is a rather long process that can’t be completed in one day, but at least you’ll start it).
So it turns out that chocolate, despite its high calorie content (more than 500 kcal per 100 g), is no less useful for weight loss than many other diet products. The results of such fasting days serve as proof of this. If you do everything correctly, you can lose up to 1.5 kg.
Origin of the name. The word “chocolate” comes from the Mayan language, where “xocolatl” meant “bitter water”.
Advantages and disadvantages
If you decide to lose weight with this sweet treat, you need to understand what benefits it can bring and where to expect a catch.
Advantages:
- prevents cardiovascular disease;
- reduces the risk of strokes and heart attacks by preventing blood clots;
- prevents diabetes by regulating the body’s glucose absorption processes;
- normalizes blood pressure;
- improves vascular elasticity;
- alleviates autoimmune diseases;
- stimulates intellectual activity, improves memory, and activates thought processes;
- antioxidants prevent the formation of tumors;
- polyunsaturated acids remove harmful cholesterol.
Disadvantages:
- damages tooth enamel;
- causes food addiction;
- high calorie content;
- the small daily portion leaves you hungry, which can be very difficult to endure;
- the diet is monotonous;
- side effects include nausea and dizziness;
- may cause fainting;
- often causes gastrointestinal upset;
- contributes to skin rashes.
Obvious harm from such fasting days can only be felt in extreme cases: when contraindications have been ignored or the recommended dosage has been exceeded.
Additional information. Chocolate improves heart function, strengthens blood vessels, and cleanses them from cholesterol plaques.
Contraindications
Do not consider chocolate fasting days if you have the following contraindications:
- allergy to cocoa beans;
- pregnancy;
- diabetes;
- obesity;
- hypotension;
- gout;
- urolithiasis;
- joint diseases;
- insomnia;
- metabolic disorder.
Of course, eating 100 g of chocolate per day will not trigger an exacerbation of gout or osteochondrosis, but unpleasant side effects are quite possible.
Did you know that… chocolate contains “theobromine” – a substance that makes this product poisonous to animals?
How to choose?
The variety of chocolate available today is so diverse that it’s impossible not to run into the problem of choice. Porous, dessert, vegan, diabetic, powdered, liquid… Which type of chocolate will help you lose weight most effectively on fasting days? After all, if you choose the wrong one, you can gain weight instead of losing it.
- Dark / bitter
Dark chocolate is the most effective option recommended by nutritionists for weight loss. It has the highest percentage of cocoa beans, which are responsible for weight loss – more than 55%. It is better to choose products with a cocoa content of 75% or more, as these will be even more beneficial. This product is labeled as “bitter”. If the percentage is lower, the packaging will say “dark”.
- Milk
Without a doubt, losing weight with milk chocolate is much more pleasant, as it has a very delicate and creamy taste that literally melts in your mouth. However, it contains very little cocoa beans, which means that all the hardships of the fasting day may be in vain. In addition, the powdered milk or cream with a fat content of 2.5% that it contains is far from a diet product and has practically no benefits. Therefore, nutritionists do not recommend this type.
- White
You can find anything on the Internet. Even such a paradox as a fasting day menu based on white chocolate. Although this treat does not contain a single gram of cocoa beans, which are responsible for all the processes in the body that lead to weight loss. So there is nothing more useless when it comes to fighting extra pounds.
Other varieties also have no value for weight loss, so you can safely bypass them.
Interesting fact. The most expensive type of chocolate is “Chocopologie by Knipschildt”. A 453 g treat costs $2,600.
Recommendations
To achieve results, learn how to properly spend a fasting day and get out of it without harming your health.
Preparation
Chocolate fasting is a real stress for the body, which can react to it completely differently than you would like. Therefore, it is important to prepare the body for this event in advance. To do this, 2-3 days before the fasting day, do the following.
- Start drinking plenty of water.
- Gradually eliminate alcohol, carbonated drinks, fried foods, pickles, smoked meats, fatty foods, salty foods, fast foods, and sweets from your diet.
- Switch to five meals a day.
- Eat 20-30 g of dark chocolate daily.
- Get enough sleep.
- Exercise.
- On the eve of the hunger strike, your dinner should be as light as possible, and it is better to drink a glass of fat-free kefir before going to bed.
Fasting
- Recommended daily dose – 100 g of dark chocolate.
- Use scheme: divide into 5 equal portions and eat at equal intervals.
- You can drink the treat with green tea (you can add various fat-burning additives, such as cinnamon or lemon) or herbal teas. Kefir and milk don’t really fit into the scheme, but as an exception, you can consume them if they are fat-free.
