The doctors at Mayo Clinic have had to bear with some years of public illusion that they developed, endorsed or in some way are related to the fad mayo clinic diet.  Representatives from Mayo clinic have disowned the diet; "Versions of a Mayo Clinic Diet have been circulating for decades. Most push grapefruit, eggs, cabbage soup or meat and promise dramatic weight loss. None of these diets is associated with or has been endorsed by Mayo Clinic." 

Donald Hensrud, MD, of Mayo Clinic says the fad diet has been making the rounds for years, inspiring experts at the clinic to set the record straight with a healthy weight loss plan. In 2006, they had had it and came out with their own version of the diet; The Mayo Clinic Diet – Eat Well, Enjoy Life, Lose Weight available in Amazon. The diet comes with a journal and a cook book

How a high fat low carb fad diet was christened "mayo clinic" is unclear. 

However the regime prescribed by the fad also appears as Grapefruit diet. 

This is because the diet is based on the belief that grapefruit has some unique and powerful fat burning capabilities.

As such your meals are revolved around regular consumption of grapefruit together with a strict high fat low card eating plan.

Both diet target huge and fast weight loss… albeit differently. But ultimately, if you want to lose body fat, especially belly fat, you will need to ignore calories. You need to ignore calories and Go Beyond Calories. You need to Go Beyond Calories and focus on two things, just two. Watch the video to see these two.

The official Mayo Clinic Diet

Developed by the staff at Mayo Clinic, the diet is based on a food pyramid also developed in-house. 

The mayo clinic healthy weight food-pyramid is founded on fruits and vegetables. This is followed by whole carbs and then proteins and finally fat.

Exercises are considered central for healthy weight loss and as such occupy a center circled position of the pyramid. 

According to MayoClinic.com, "If you try to lose weight by only cutting calories, you may lose muscle mass as well as body fat, plus you'll miss out on the other health benefits of physical activity."

The diet is structure to help you develop 5 lifestyle habits. These are

1.      Healthy breakfast

2.      Daily serving of 4 vegetables and three fruits

3.      whole grains

4.      Healthy fat

5.      30 minutes of exercise a day

As you know, the problem is not usually losing weight, it is keeping it off.

You do the diet in two phases; the first is the "Lose It" phase. And like the similarly named fad diet, this phase aims to lose a lot of weight fast; as much as 10 pounds in two weeks.

However they argue, "Unlike fad diets that promise rapid weight loss, The Mayo Clinic Diet approach is safe and healthy while building momentum and enthusiasm. It's based on changing habits for a lifetime so that the weight you lose doesn't come back, as it probably has in the past on fad diets."

If you consider there are fad diets that can actually lose you twice the amount of weight in the same time, this diet does not look too bad. Not to mention early success with a diet can increase compliance.

The second phase is the "Live It" phase. This is the phase in which you are to tweak your habits so you can create personally effective habits that will lose you weight and keep it off. It is expected you will continue to "…lose weight at a rate of 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kg) a week until you reach your weight goal. This phase also helps you maintain your weight goal permanently by continuing and tweaking lifelong healthy habits".

The fad Mayo Clinic Diet

The fad version of this diet has been in circulation as early as the 1940’s. The regiment has been circulated by mail, photocopy, fax and now the internet. The diet can be pretty effective in losing you a lot of fat fast. But if you will keep it off is a whole other matter.

The diet is developed on the belief that grapefruit has unique fat burning properties. To be fair to the diet; according to one 2006 study sponsored by Florida Department of Citrus this regimen resulted in an average weight loss of 3 pounds in 12 weeks. Scientist believe that the fruit lowered the insulin level there reducing amount of fat stored in the body.

But equally important is that this grape fruit diet averages 800 – 1000 calories. This by itself should lose you weight.

You do the fad mayo clinic diet for 12 days and get off-it for two. You are expected to lose as much as 50 pounds in 10 weeks. The following is a sample day’s menu.

Breakfast: Have half a grapefruit or 8 ounces of its unsweetened juice. Have 2 eggs cooked in any way, 2 slices of bacon with black tea, or coffee; no sugar.

Lunch: Have another half grapefruit or 8 ounces of its unsweetened juice. Eat salad and or raw vegetables. You can use any salad dressing but do not use low-fat or fat-free versions. Down the salad with meat cooked in any way you like.

Dinner: Again half a grape fruit or 8 ounces of unsweetened grapefruit juice. Meat cooked any way you like it. Include vegetables; you can cook them in butter, season, or as a salad. You are allowed to take coffee or tea, no sugar.

Before you sleep you can opt for 8 ounces of tomato juice or skimmed milk.

Keep the following in mind…

9. You are also required to drink at least 8 glasses of water. Note all you soft drink must be diet and caffeine free.

While you follow this regiment, you should not eat the following White onions, potatoes, celery, peas, cereal, carrots, corn, starchy vegetables, bread, noodles, rice, potato chips, pretzels or fruit or diet dressing.

But you may include the following; Red onions, bell peppers, radishes, broccoli, cucumbers, green onions, leaf spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, chili (no beans) mayonnaise, any cheese, hot dogs, cole slaw, regular salad dressing, green vegetables, 1tsp nuts, dill or bread and butter pickles.

There have been some observations among some people who say they tend NOT to lose weight if they eat cheeses though. So what your cheese.

Follow this diet for 12 days and stop for 2 days and expect start losing huge in less than a week.

Obviously the official mayo clinic diet is a balanced and healthier diet, not to mention it has been developed by doctors. On the other hand, you cannot deny the result you can get with the fad version. All in all, weight loss is a question of keeping the weight off long term.

And to do this you need to approaach weight loss from a different angle. You need to Go Beyond Calories. To go beyond calories you need to do two things, just two. These two are....