I first heard about GM Diet roughly two years ago from a Facebook link sharing by a friend. The claims and review sounds promising but after a quick look at the daily meal plan, I decided that I cannot do it.

Two weeks ago, I read a blog post by a friend Gjanawi on how she lost 7kg from a week of GM Diet and two weeks of her own special diet. I downloaded the app based on her blog post to my phone almost instant, took a look at the meal plan thoroughly this time and set my foot down to just do it. I still remember that it was a Wednesday. I had just completed MLMax 1-month plan and I needed to let my body rest for a few days before starting this GM Diet. The target day to start was the coming Monday. That was a week ago. I had completed the full week long of GM Diet with flying colours. No cheating, no giving up (almost!) and I follow the instruction stated strictly. What you’re about to read below would be what GM Diet are all about, my experience and why I would not do it anymore. Before I start, let me make a disclaimer in advance. I am not overweight at all and I’m a small eater. I may lose lesser weight than other people due to this. All I want is to lose weight to the pre-Hyperthyroidism treatment 🙂

This diet plan was named as GM Diet as rumours stated that General Motors Inc developed this plan with both Food and Drug Administration and US Department of Agriculture in order to help keep their employees stay in shape. The same diet plan was also said to be first used in field tests at Johns Hopkins Research Center in 1985. GM Diet is designed with a specific seven-day eating plan to target weight loss of 10 to 17 lbs. in a week, as compared to 1 to 2 lbs. per week on most conventional diets. Now, don’t get too excited with the 10 to 17 lbs yet because not everyone will experience the same result. It is also mentioned on the app that the diet will improve your attitude and emotions due to the cleansing systematic effects. I can tell you that your attitude will definitely change in that seven days due to lack of food intake and craving but after that your attitude towards food changes dramatically as well.

The theory behind this GM Diet is simple. The specific food eaten helped to burn more calories than what it gave to the body in caloric value. Massive water intake is also a part of the diet plan to flush all the impurities from the system. You can repeat this diet as many times as you like but I wouldn’t suggest doing it continuously. Take a week or two off before repeating.

On Day 1, you can eat all fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your changes of losing 3 pounds on first day are very good. During Day 1, your body is getting ready for the program. Your only source of nutrition is fresh or canned fruits. Fruits are nature’s perfect food. They provide everything you could possible want to sustain life except total balance and variety.

My experience with Day 1
This is easy day for me. I can eat fruits all day every day. I bought myself a melon, a small honeydew as backup and my house are well stocked up with apples and oranges so I’m fine. I took some melons in the morning, then a small cup of black coffee, one apple in the afternoon and another apple at night. In between are snacks that consists of melon, oranges and kiwis. Nope. I certainly did not lose 3 pounds as claimed 😛

On Day 2, you can eat as many raw or cooked veggies as you want today, nothing else. That means no fruits, breads, meats, or anything else. There is no limit on the amount or type of vegetables that you can eat. For your complex carbohydrates, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may put a little bit of butter on top of your potato but not too much. During Day 2, you’re starting off with some complex carbs mixed with an oil dose from the butter. This helps you to get some energy and balance. The rest of day two consists of vegetables which are virtually calorie free and provide essential nutrients and fiber.

My experience with Day 2
This is the toughest day for me. I nearly gave up by afternoon. In the morning I had two small steamed potatoes with a bit of unsalted butter. I read that some people substitute with sweet potato but I want to cut sugar intake so I chose to stay with the original meal plan. Then I had a small cup of black coffee. By today I missed the normal coffee so badly. I love salad but not without any dressing. The only dressing allowed is lemon juice. I chose not to steam or boil my veges as I prefer them raw if I needed to eat veges. I wanted to gave up but I told myself if I gave up, I need to relive Day 2 again so I continued with the day as I certainly did not want to repeat this day. EVER. The whole day I was craving for a hot plate of nasi lemak 😛

On Day 3, you can eat as many fruits or veggies as you want today. So go ahead and pig out. There are no limits to the amount or quantity so eat away! However, no bananas or potatoes today. During Day 3, we get rid of potatoes since you’re already getting carbs from the fruits. You body is now getting ready to shed an insane amount of weight. You’re still going to have cravings, but it should be gone tomorrow.

My experience with Day 3
Also another tough day for me but fruits makes it 20% better. I was still “full” from all the veges I had yesterday so I was quite moody on day 3. Mum see the changes in me i.e. moody and bad temper on this particular day. I had black coffee in the morning with some melons and honeydew. I went out for lunch at Antipodean with a friend, ordered grilled vege salad with cheese and I requested the waiter to set the cheese aside. The salad are lightly dressed with balsamic vinegar and I freaked out. My friend have to calm me down with the balsamic vinegar talk so I felt okay thereafter. I couldn’t finish the salad as I couldn’t bear to even chew anymore vege. I drank lots of water to make myself full. Trust me. The fear to stuff vege down the throat kind of puts me to a full stomach state until night time. Of course I took an apple at night 🙂 . That night I watched Giada At Home and she makes me crave for shrimp bruschetta lol.

By day 3 night, I already lost 1.5kg.

On Day 4, you can eat up to 8 bananas and drink 3 glasses of milk. Feel free to drink some Wonder Soup if you need a sodium fix. However, only drink limited quantities. During Day 4, bananas, milk and soup may not seem appetizing or desirable. The bananas are helping to replenish all the potassium and sodium you have lost during the past 3 days. You will notice a definite loss of desire for sweets. You will be surprised how easy this day will go.

My experience with Day 4
To be honest I was so looking forward to day 4. Bananas! Today is easy peasy. I start the day with a glass of low fat milk then a banana. Of course I had to have my coffee so a small cup of black coffee thereafter. Around 11am I took another banana. For lunch I repeat my breakfast which is a glass of low fat milk with a banana. It was so good and I was in a good mood all day! For dinner I took a glass of low fat milk with two bananas. Around 10pm I took one last banana. In total it was 6 bananas for me. I think 8 bananas are too much so I’ve decided to just go with 6.

Today I lost another 0.5kg making the total weight lost at 2kg.

On Day 5, you can eat beef and tomatoes! You can eat two 10 oz. portions of lean beef. Hamburgers are fine as long as you eat only the meat (no buns, etc). Combine this with 6 whole tomatoes. Today you must increase your water intake by 1 quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing. The beef is for iron and proteins, the tomatoes are for digestion and fiber. Lots and lots of water purifies your system. You should notice colorless urine today. Your allowance calls for the equivalent of five “quarter ponders”. Don’t feel the need to eat all the beef. Just east as much as you want. However, you must eat all the six tomatoes.

My experience with Day 5
I dreaded for day 5 and 6. First of all, I don’t take beef so I substitute with chicken breast. I have no idea how to cook chicken breast the simplest, no flavouring, no nothing way. So I search Google for recipe and found one that I think I can replicate at home. I didn’t have the ingredients at home so I went to Jaya Grocers in the morning. It turns out to be slightly different from what I saw but the taste was alright. I did not take any photo because I didn’t plan to even blog about this so if you must know the recipe and how it looked like, click this link 🙂 . I cooked slight more in the afternoon so that I can reheat and eat at night.

I begin the day with a whole tomato for breakfast, followed by black coffee and then two glasses of plain water. Throughout the day I drank about 14 glasses of water as requested by the diet. Probably due to the chicken and drastic water intake, my stomach was a bit bloated. I felt heavy. Finishing 6 whole tomatoes was probably the hardest for me. I, for one don’t take raw tomatoes. This would be my first time. By the end of the day, I probably gained back near to 0.5kg due to all the meat. FYI. I only cooked half a chicken breast for lunch and dinner.

On Day 6, you can eat as much beef and veggies as you want. Go ahead and pig out. Day 6 is similar to Day 5. You’re getting iron and proteins from beef, vitamins and fiber from veggies. By now your system is in a total weight loss inclination. There should be a noticeable difference in the way you look today, compared to day one.

My experience with Day 6
I was kinda happy that it’s back to vege because I know I can easily work something out. I planned to cook chicken vege soup, not the stew type but typical Malaysian soup. I found this recipe online and it sure do looks good and easy for me. I bought 1000ml chicken broth from Jaya Grocers although the recipe stated 500gm as I needed to work out lunch and dinner altogether. My veges are onions, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and carrots. That’s all. I didn’t want to complicate my soup so I kept it simple. The taste is surprisingly really good. It taste like Borsch Soup, only lighter in taste. If I were to cook this soup again, I would reduce the soup more and make it into a stew 🙂

I reduced my water intake just a little bit due to the soup and I wouldn’t want to gain all the water weight. By the end of the day, my weight maintained as yesterday. Not happy as I regained 0.5kg since yesterday!

On Day 7, eat as much brown rice and veggies as you want. Also feel free to drink as much fruit juice as you want. Congrats for making it through the diet! By now you should be 10 to 17 pounds lighter and feel great. Your body will thank you for flushing out all the junk that was there before. This is a great stepping stone into your diet and weight loss journey. Don’t just “go back to the way things were” after you finish the diet. Otherwise your body will do just that. You need to use this opportunity to kick-start a balanced diet and workout plan.

My experience on Day 7
It was my happiest day as it’s finally the last and final day for GM Diet. Today I get to eat brown rice with veges and fruit juice. Not really looking forward to rice. I know brown rice would be a bit bland so in my mind I’ve decided to make a light fried rice. In the morning I had my usual black coffee with an apple. I get mum to cook the brown rice in advance so that I could fried them in the afternoon. I was craving for ‘kangkung’ so I chop some kangkung, cabbage and onions. Just a simple vegetarian fried rice. The onion which I cook with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil until it turned soft and aromatic sort of binds all the taste together. This time I have to season with a bit of black pepper. It was so good that even mum was impressed 😀 . The day seems easier to get by as I get to eat fruits again. I had this fried rice in the morning and just have fruits at night.

Side Effects

Although this diet plan does not involve any other product consumption, it does comes with a few side effects.

• Sudden muscle weakness – I have heard people experiencing muscle weakness but I did not so I have no idea how is that. Contrary to that, I felt great and super energetic. Probably I was ‘lighter’ lol.
• Headache – This I had and I had it bad. Headache is a part of the process of getting used to the diet aka getting used to lesser food consumption or in my case, getting used to not getting any ‘real’ food. On the first day I had slight headache and it gotten worse on the second day. On the third day I am still having headache but much better. The headache stopped on Day 4 and it never came back.
• Dehydration – This is normal. The diet plan require lots and lots of water consumption so either way I will still need to drink more water. And I pee a lot. So frequent that I’m beginning to consider if I should work from the ladies room 😀

Overall thoughts

I won’t lie. It was really tough and I’m glad it’s finally over. I didn’t expect this 7-days diet to be this mind challenging. I had mild cravings for the first three days and the cravings went away on Day 4 until Day 5 and 6, whereas I had to stuff chicken down my throat only the whole day. One thing I did that every other people who tried GM Diet didn’t was to follow the diet plan exactly as it is. I did not alter the food and I skipped cooking if necessary to avoid unnecessary seasoning. Another thing that I did differently was that my food intake was far lesser. I don’t usually eat a lot and eating vege all day sort of reduced my appetite even more. I have to force myself to eat a little bit as food is needed to burn fat. So when the menu said ‘pig out’, I actually did not. The happiest day for me is definitely the milk and banana day. Maybe because the bananas I got was quite good and I was in a happy mood the whole day.

I was emotionally challenged. I see that I get agitated very easily due to the change in eating habit but it only happened on the 3rd day. I started to get used to the diet by Day 4 onwards, although Day 5 and 6 was not easy too as I needed to cook to make the bland chicken breast taste better. On days where I can eat fruits, I avoided all fruits that are high in sugar. The hardest part for me is also eating veges for the whole day. I am someone that get bored very easily so eating the same thing over and over gain for a day is really tough. I’m seriously not into veges unless it comes with a good salad dressing 😀 . The menu said that you could take GM Diet Wonder Soup if you get too hungry but I didn’t. I decided to skip all that crap and just stick to what’s stated on the app.

On the first day after the diet ended, I decided to go for nasi lemak for lunch. My stomach shrunk so I couldn’t eat much. It took me half an hour just to eat a few bites from the plate. Then I had stomach cramp half an hour later and that turned into one epic stomachache. I was drenched in sweat and needless to say I had to purge everything out. I realized that I shouldn’t invade the newly detoxed system with bad food because the stomach just couldn’t take it. For the rest of the day my stomach was tingling in ache and I had apple for dinner with lots of water intake throughout the day. The next morning I lost 0.5kg making the total to 2kg. Before this I’ve already lost all the extra bulging around my waist from MLMax program. After GM Diet, I could now fit into one of my itty bitty mini dress that I bought 2 years ago but couldn’t fit nicely without looking like a dumpling lol.

Here is the result! 🙂

What’s next? Well, GM Diet is sort of like a kick start to any weight lost program so I’m going to continue to eat clean, with lots of fruits, veges and water. I would not go through GM Diet anymore as it’s pretty stressful to follow the meal plan as it is but I will continue to keep the system as clean as possible with more healthy food. I will be cutting carbs and sugar from my daily diet, except for my morning coffee, with one cheat day per week 😛 . My attitude towards food definitely changed even more than before. Before this I eat moderately but now I will think twice before putting anything to my mouth no matter how less I eat. If you’ve gone through such a grueling one week diet, you will probably do the same too 😀