Contents
Liepaja diet: key points
Duration: 3-4 months, the menu for the second half of the diet is ideally selected in the author’s clinic;
Features: ordinary products are used in strictly measured small portions, measured by volume, and not by weight, for each day of the week its own menu;
Cost: low, does not require additional separate costs, the diet can be integrated into the usual family meals;
Result: depends on the starting weight;
Recommended frequency: Once in a lifetime, after graduation – maintenance fitness and constant control of portion sizes;
Additional effect: change in eating habits, correction of metabolism;
Liepaja diet is not suitable: For any chronic diseases, pregnant and lactating. There are no more specific contraindications due to the specifics of the menu, an individual consultation with the attending physician is required!
Liepaja diet: “father” and “sons”
Lev Yakovlevich Khazan, who was glorified by the “Liepaja diet”, does not like the attention of the press so much that for some time he was even considered a fictional character. He rarely and reluctantly communicates with journalists and does not appear in popular programs, but not only does he actually exist, but he also lives and hosts a reception as a practicing nutritionist. Today you can sign up for a consultation with Lev Khazan in Moscow and Nizhnevartovsk.
According to some reports, influential people of the country come to him for recommendations on how to combat obesity – but not from those whom we see in entertainment programs. This is one of the reasons why the “father” of the Liepaja diet is often called “the most closed dietitian in Europe”.
Dr. Khazan was educated at the University of Tartu at the Department of Sports Medicine. After graduation, he worked for fifteen years as an endocrinologist in the Latvian port city of Liepaja. Apparently, the taste of life on the picturesque coast of the Baltic Sea inspired Lev Khazan to develop a diet, following which you can eat everything.
Having opened the first private doctor’s office in Latvia in 1986 in Riga, Dr. Khazan proposed a new nutrition plan to his patients, named after the seaside town. “Liepaja diet” became known thanks to word of mouth: the first “graduates” of Khazan, who lost tens of kilos, turned into a walking advertisement for his method.
The popularizer of Lev Khazan’s dietary approach was the Russian journalist Alexei Bogomolov. In 2008, he weighed 218 kg and, having tried many diets, was already desperate to lose weight. But one day one of the readers sent a letter to the editorial office where Bogomolov worked, describing the “Liepaja diet.” Interested in unusual recommendations, the journalist became addicted to the Khazan method and, as a result, got rid of 70 kilos in three years!
The Liepaja diet, as well as the mysteriousness of its creator, captivated Alexei Bogomolov so much that he wrote a whole book about the saving nutrition plan that turned out to be for him. And in the course of its preparation, driven by professional passion, I nevertheless sought out Lev Khazan and was convinced of his existence and that the recommendations really have an author and are supported by his medical experience.
In one of his few interviews, Lev Khazan unveiled the record minuses on the scales that the Liepaja diet gave. The winner among men lost 123 kg, in the women’s category the best was an anonymous Muscovite who managed to get rid of 113 kg.
By the way, when looking for information about the Liepaja diet, you can often come across the name “Audrius Jozenos’s Liepaja diet.” However, the Latvian psychiatrist is not the creator of this technique – she was also first a patient (lost 50 kg with an initial weight of 140), and then a devoted student of Lev Khazan. Jozenos is now practicing as a nutritionist in Kazakhstan with the full approval of the “founding father” of the Liepai diet, helping the Asian elite lose weight.
McDonald’s among diets
Lev Khazan’s approach to the diet menu can be puzzling at first with its paradoxicality. He is sure that separate meals, the ban on eating after six in the evening, and in general any restrictions leading to suffering and hunger are outdated, harmful and meaningless. The doctor categorically forbids sports loads while the Liepaja diet lasts.
According to the philosophy of the Liepaja diet, being overweight is a disease, a metabolic disease, and sports will not benefit the patient. You need to start training, having already lost weight, in order to facilitate the task of the musculoskeletal systems, as well as the heart with blood vessels.
At the same time, the author of the nutrition plan emphasizes that it is not the disease that heals, but its consequences. Dr. Khazan tries to avoid the definition of “proper nutrition”, specifying that it is possible to eat properly from a medical point of view only while lying in a hospital, and for a modern person this is not available, and it is not necessary.
Therefore, in the diet of the Liepaja diet, there are ordinary foods from the table of the average working Russian: salads, juices, canned food, sandwiches. The Liepaja diet is affordable, designed for the masses (in the words of Hazan himself, “like McDonald’s”) and everyone can withstand it, without spending money on rare especially useful ingredients and without suffering from the taste of unusual and unloved dishes.
Lev Khazan defines his approach to nutrition, which helps to lose weight, cynically, but in fact it is true: “to lose weight, you need to eat less.” He compares the habit of a modern person to eat without measure and without looking back with the condition of a pregnant woman, who needs to feed another creature within herself. And in the body of someone suffering from excess weight, it is as if an “additional person” is sitting, demanding food. Therefore, according to Khazan, it is necessary to lose weight quickly and decisively so that the “other” understands that there will be no more food and stops demanding it.
Basic rules of the Liepaja diet
The Liepaja diet is known for the fact that people lose weight on it rapidly, without feeling hungry. Basic conditions:
strictly follow the menu, scheduled for the days of the week;
monitor portion sizes;
eat three times a day with an interval of no more than 5,5 hours;
sleep for at least 8 hours, get up and go to bed at the same time;
do not allow any snacks between meals;
do not drink any alcohol;
drink at least 1,75 liters of clean water per day in winter and autumn and 2 liters in summer and spring (in addition to the coffee and juice provided for by the diet);
monitor the skin, avoiding sagging, do cosmetic procedures;
take multivitamins from the second month of the Liepaja diet;
daily measure pulse and blood pressure, weekly – blood sugar.
The complete Liepaja diet is designed for 3-4 months, while the first two months the menu is formed on the basis of specific dishes in a certain amount, each day of the week has its own unchanged menu (see below).
After 8 weeks, the basic diet changes slightly, taking into account the weight loss achievements – it is assumed that Lev Khazan develops the continuation of the diet individually for each of his patients. He himself is not opposed to those wishing to lose excess weight to follow his method in absentia, however, he is sure that articles and books about the Liepaja diet can only set the right direction, but only direct contact with a doctor will help avoid mistakes and cope with difficulties.
Liepaja diet: basic weekly meal plan
Pay attention – the vegetable side dish, vinaigrette and meat salad for all days are prepared according to the basic recipes indicated in the menu of the first day of consumption, a slice of bread always has a size of 60x90x15mm, and any addition to it allowed by the plan is 60x90x12 mm.
Monday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, a sandwich with butter and cheese (bread – 60x90x15 mm, a slice of cheese 3 mm thinner).
Lunch: hot from any type of meat with any sauce, total volume – 160 ml, 120 ml of vegetable garnish from three or more types of finely chopped vegetables (recipe for all days – beets and cauliflower can be boiled, green peas can be canned. Dressing – juice only lemon). For a snack – 1 glass of any fresh juice.
Dinner: 120 ml of vinaigrette (recipe for all days: boiled potatoes, beets, carrots + sauerkraut, pickled cucumber and onions, seasoned with 1 tablespoon of any vegetable oil), 1 tablespoon of any fish caviar or some canned fish, 1 slice of bread (size see Breakfast), 1 glass of any liquid (kefir, juice, mineral water, non-alcoholic beer, tea or coffee – with milk).
Tuesday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, a sandwich with butter and meat (or sausage without fat inclusions). Size of bread and meat – see Monday.
Lunch: hot fish or seafood with any sauce, total volume – 160 ml; vegetable side dish (see Monday), 1 glass of fresh juice from any fruit.
Dinner: 120 ml of meat salad (recipe for all days – boiled potatoes in their uniforms, boiled meat or sausage, green peas, an egg, pickled cucumber, dressing a portion – 1 tbsp of mayonnaise or sour cream), 1 glass of any liquid (see Monday) …
Wednesday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, 2,5 eggs.
Lunch: 160 gr of hot meat with sauce, 120 ml of vegetable garnish, 1 glass of fresh.
Dinner: 120 ml vinaigrette, 1 tbsp. l caviar or some canned fish, 1 slice of bread, 1 glass of any liquid (see above).
Thursday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, a sandwich with butter and meat.
Lunch: hot fish with sauce, 160 ml, vegetable side dish, 120 ml, 1 glass of fresh.
Dinner: 120 ml of meat salad, 1 glass of any liquid.
Friday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, a sandwich with butter and cheese.
Lunch: 160 ml of hot meat with sauce, 120 ml of vegetable garnish, 1 glass of fresh.
Dinner: 120 ml of vinaigrette, 1 tablespoon of fish caviar or some canned fish, 1 glass of any liquid.
Saturday
Breakfast: 200 ml of tea or coffee without additives, a sandwich with butter and meat.
Lunch: 160 ml of hot fish with sauce, 120 ml of vegetable garnish, 1 glass of fresh.
Dinner: 120 ml of meat salad, 1 slice of bread, 1 glass of any liquid allowed in the evening.
Sunday
Curd day: 300 grams of cottage cheese, 2,4 tablespoons of honey, 10 walnuts, 2 apples, 0,5 liters of milk, divided into 5-6 meals at regular intervals. Drink, as usual, 1,75 liters of plain still water.
There are no terrible punishments for violating the diet, relying only on the responsibility and dedication of the person losing weight: each indulgence prevents you from losing kilograms as quickly as it could be. If you break your daily meal plan, the Liepaja diet generously allows you to forgive yourself, draw conclusions and return to the prescribed menu the next day.