What They Say: “The Mayo Clinic Diet continues to cause considerable confusion. This is not an “official” Mayo Clinic Diet. The Mayo Clinic health center (based in Rochester, USA) categorically states that it had never endorsed any diet plan until December 2005, when it was announced that the official Mayo Clinic Plan was available via the Internet.” – from everydiet.org
My Experience: In essence, this fad diet is really just a combination of Atkins and the grapefruit diet! Every meal is loaded with protein, deficient of carbs and includes at least half a grapefruit! The menu is also very strict in that you’re eating the SAME thing each day for each meal. Though, you can eat ALL you want of meat at lunch and dinner. Like the Atkins diet and other high-protein diets, you’re almost certain to lose weight, sometimes excessively! Without carbs to contend with, the body can lose weight quite quickly. When my mother and I tried this, we lost almost twenty pounds! And here’s the fun part – you only do the diet for 12 days at a time, and then you get two FREE days!
Of course, here’s the downside – once you lose the weight, it is very tempting to start eating “regular” foods again – including carbs! And if you’re like me (and most other people who try it!) you’re going to find that you put all the weight back on in half the time it took to take it off in the first place!
ISMe Rating: 5/10 – good if you have an event to slim down for, but no lasting results