The Roller Coaster Diet: Relevance, History, Menu, Results

Who built this amusement park?

The diet plan was published in the eighties of the last century by the American Martin Catan, a psychologist interested in the current issues of effective weight loss.

The basis of the method of Dr.Katan, as is often the case, was his own experience – the man suffered from excess weight and started looking for a simple solution that did not require serious lifestyle changes and did not drive depression into changes in the usual menu.

On a diet of his own invention, alternating fasting days with loading days, the psychologist lost 35 kg over several years. During this time, Martin Catan continued to study how metabolism works, and as a result published another popular diet for men known as the T-Factor, as well as a supermarket guide for healthy food lovers.

But it was the roller coaster that brought Katana worldwide fame: this diet is known as one of the ways to outsmart stopping weight loss (plateau stage). Plateaus is an annoying side effect of many weight loss diets. This stage occurs due to the fact that with a nutritional deficiency, metabolic processes slow down. Calorie jumps allow you to cheat the metabolism – so do cheating practitioners.

The original name of the Katana diet is by no means “roller coaster diet”, but much more prosaic – the rotation diet, or the rotation diet (The Rotation Diet), but Russian fans of the original plan of struggle for a slender figure came up with a more imaginative and sonorous name for it, reflecting the essence of the idea.

It also took root due to the fact that it removed the issue of confusion with a common therapeutic meal plan for those suffering from allergic diseases (doctors call a rotational diet prescribed for atopic dermatitis – its essence is that the patient changes foods in the diet as often as possible in order to prevent allergens accumulate in the body and cause a reaction).

And the famous diet of BUCH, the favorite diet of athletes, is called the alternation diet in popular domestic dietetics. The change of protein-carbohydrate days allows you to quickly and noticeably reduce weight, improving muscle relief – of course, subject to regular training.

Martin Catan, on the other hand, does not focus on sports. In his opinion, all three weeks of the roller coaster diet, losing weight will have enough work with the diet, which should be focused on. And although the author of the diet offers many ready-made recipes with specific calories in his book, fitness is a good way to consolidate the results obtained on the diet after the period of metabolic ups and downs.

Rollercoaster Diet Cycles: Don’t Get More Than Three!

The roller coaster comparison is indeed very apt: the diet is easy to follow and therefore appealing to those who wish to lose weight on their own. Although it contains a share of extreme, which, however, can be called controlled – well, just like in an amusement park!

You have to start at the foot of the high American mountain:

days 1, 2, 3 – 600 kcal / day

Then it’s time to get up:

days 4, 5, 6 – 900 kcal / day

And here you are at the top:

days 7, 8, 9 – 1200 kcal / day

From which you will plummet, returning again to the three-day cluster of 600 kcal. Then the program continues. Thus, in the three weeks of roller coasters recommended by the author, you will experience the “ascent” and “the top” twice and descend to the “bottom” three times.

What is, while throwing it up and down

The author of the roller coaster diet advises choosing lean foods for the best weight loss effect. The fat component in the menu should be provided with restraint, giving preference to high-quality vegetable oil, literally a couple of teaspoons a day, for dressing vegetables.

You will have to give up frying in oil by steaming food or baking it on the grill or in the oven (no fat). The less processed foods you end up on your plate, the better.

It is better to abstain from bread, pastries and, of course, sweets, but allow yourself whole grains, however, watching the portion size (grains and legumes are high in calories) and avoiding additives in the form of oils and sauces. It is important to use salt in moderation, but you can add spices and herbs to food without restrictions.

It is worth knowing that Martin Catan has provided an important loophole in his diet for those who want to lose weight, but are terribly afraid of hunger. On any of the days, you can consume fresh vegetables in excess of the calorie norm without restrictions (focus on those that are rich in water and fiber – tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce), as well as unsweetened fruits as a snack 2-3 times a day (especially respected by the psychologist dietician watermelon and apples, pay attention to them, avoiding sugar-rich grapes and bananas).

Drinking regime on a roller coaster diet includes a large amount (1,5-2 liters per day) of plain non-carbonated water. Black coffee and tea, including herbal tea, without sugar, are also allowed.

The last meal of the roller-coaster diet prescribes to schedule at 17 pm. If you intend to follow this rule, do not forget to read the opinions of nutritionists about what you should know when deciding not to eat after six, seven, or another “fatal” line on the clock face.

Roller coaster: retro fun or timeless classic?

Dietetics, on the one hand, is sensitive to scientific achievements and fashion trends, on the other hand, it is distinguished by a certain conservatism. For example, for several years we have seen an impressive change in landmarks: several prominent researchers have taken and rehabilitated fats that have been expelled from the healthy menu for many years.

Nutritionists have proven that just as broccoli doesn’t make people green, fat doesn’t make them fat, it’s more complex hormonal processes.

The army of high-fat keto fans is growing day by day, and the recommendation to run away from fat like fire is outdated.

It seems that about the same fate awaits in the near future the theory of calorie content, which has reigned in the science of proper nutrition since the middle of the XNUMXth century. The Prussian chemist Liebig enthusiastically burned various food in the calorimeter stove and recorded how much heat it emits, and his experiments literally captivated hunters for a slender waist for a whole century and a half. It is possible that in a couple of years we will not remember the theory that equated the human body with a red-hot iron crucible: more and more progressive nutritionists refuse to count calories in principle, recognizing their calculation as troublesome and useless.

In modern diets, the emphasis is on the quality and quantity of food: it turned out that it is not butter or abstract energy units that spoil the waist, but industrial methods of food processing and the habit of eating for fun.

So if the roller-coaster diet allows you to make the diet more useful in terms of composition and normalize eating behavior, getting rid of the dependence on sweets, fast food, baked goods, this will be an excellent result in any case. But the teaching of a healthy diet has taken a huge step since the invention of the roller coaster diet – try something fresher or adapt what you love about this weight loss plan to your body’s needs and expectations.