- Weight Loss Mechanism
- Benefits and Harms
- Contraindications
- How to Choose
- Recommendations
- Options
Many are surprised that dietetics offers a fasting day on chocolate for a quick and enjoyable weight loss. Can such a high-calorie and sweet product reduce weight? It turns out that such miracles happen, and we still do not know much about our body. If you are afraid of lean fasting, this option is a real find for you.
Weight Loss Mechanism
Dietitians have been developing a chocolate fasting day for a long time, and its effect on the body has been studied inside and out. Reducing weight becomes a reality due to cocoa beans, which:
- prevent the development of insulin resistance (the most common cause of obesity) and enhance glucose utilization regulation;
- support beneficial microflora in the intestines, resulting in faster digestion of food;
- remove inflammation in the body which can provoke excess weight gain;
- reduce depression, eliminating the need to “seize up” stress;
- accelerate metabolism;
- effectively break down fats, removing them from the body (although this is rather a long process that cannot be completed in one day, but at least it can be started).
Thus, it turns out that chocolate, despite its high calorie content (more than 500 kcal per 100 g), is as useful for losing weight as many other dietary products. The results of such fasting days are proof of that. If everything is done correctly, you can lose up to 1.5 kg.
Origin of the Word. The word “chocolate” goes back to the Mayan language, where “xocolatl” meant “bitter water”.
Benefits and Harms
Opting to lose weight with the help of this sweet treat, you need to understand what benefits to expect and what the catch is.
Benefits:
- prevents cardiovascular diseases;
- reduces the risk of strokes and heart attacks, preventing thrombus formation;
- acts as a preventive agent against diabetes, as it controls the process of glucose absorption in the body;
- normalizes blood pressure;
- promotes elasticity of blood vessels;
- facilitates the course of autoimmune diseases;
- stimulates intellectual activity, improves memory, and activates thought processes;
- antioxidant substances prevent the development of tumors;
- polyunsaturated fatty acids remove harmful cholesterol.
Harms:
- damages tooth enamel;
- causes food addiction;
- high calorie content;
- the minimum daily portion makes you experience hunger pangs, which can be very difficult to endure;
- monotony of the diet;
- side effects include nausea and dizziness;
- may cause fainting;
- often provokes gastrointestinal disorders;
- contributes to skin rashes.
Such fasting days can cause apparent harm only in rare cases when contraindications were ignored or the recommended dosage was increased.
Additional Information. Chocolate improves heart function, strengthens and cleanses blood vessels from cholesterol plaques.
Contraindications
You should not resort to chocolate fasting days in the presence of the following contraindications:
- allergy to cocoa beans;
- pregnancy;
- diabetes;
- obesity;
- hypotension;
- gout;
- urolithiasis;
- joint diseases;
- insomnia;
- metabolic disorders.
Undoubtedly, 100 g of chocolate consumed per day will not provoke an exacerbation of gout or osteochondrosis, but unpleasant side effects are quite possible.
Did You Know?… chocolate contains “theobromine”, a substance that makes this product poisonous to animals.
How to Choose
The choice of chocolate is so wide today that it is inevitably a dilemma. Porous, dessert, vegan, diabetic, powdered, liquid… What kind of chocolate will promote maximum weight loss during a fasting day? After all, if you make a mistake in this matter, you can, on the contrary, gain weight instead of losing it.
- Dark / Bitter
The optimal option recommended by nutritionists for losing weight is dark chocolate. It contains the highest percentage of cocoa beans, which are responsible for weight loss: more than 55%. It is better to choose grades starting from 75% – there will be more benefits. This is exactly the product that is labeled “bitter”. If the numbers are lower, the packaging will say “dark” or “black”.
- Milk
Undoubtedly, it is much more pleasant to lose weight on milk chocolate, as its taste is very delicate, literally melting in the mouth. However, the content of cocoa beans in it is minimal, which means that all the hardships of a fasting day may go unnoticed. Moreover, nonfat dry milk or cream with a 2.5% fat content are far from being dietary products, and there is practically no benefit from them. Therefore, nutritionists do not recommend this type.
- White
You can find anything on the Internet. Even such a paradox as a menu for a fasting day on white chocolate. Although this treat does not contain a single gram of cocoa beans, which are the ones that trigger all the processes in the body that lead to weight loss. So, it is impossible to find something more useless for fighting extra pounds.
Other varieties also have no value for weight loss, so you can safely ignore them.
Interesting Fact. The most expensive chocolate is “Chocopologie by Knipschildt”. 453 g of such a treat cost $2,600.
Recommendations
To succeed, you need to learn how to properly spend a fasting day and exit it without harming your health.
Preparation
Chocolate fasting is a real stress for the body, which may not react to it at all as you would like. That is why it is so important to prepare it for this event in advance. To do this, take the following measures 2-3 days before it.
- Start drinking plenty of water.
- Gradually exclude alcohol, carbonated drinks, fried foods, pickled, smoked, fatty, salty foods, and fast food from your diet.
- Switch to a five-time meal.
- Eat 20-30 g of a bar of dark chocolate daily.
- Get enough sleep.
- Exercise.
- On the eve of the fasting day, dinner should be as light as possible, and before going to bed, it is better to drink a glass of low-fat kefir.
Fasting
- The recommended daily volume is 100 g of dark chocolate.
- Application schedule: divide into 5 equal portions, which must be consumed at regular intervals.
- The treat may be accompanied with drinks such as green tea (various fat-burning additives such as cinnamon or lemon can be added) and herbal teas. Kefir and milk do not quite fit into the scheme, but as an exception, if they are nonfat, they are also allowed. Everything listed must be unsweetened.
- It is imperative to follow the drinking regimen – at least 2 liters of clean water.
- Physical activity is contraindicated on this day. Only a short walk and a 10-minute morning exercise are allowed.
