Cottage Cheese Crash Diet

Crash dieting is never a long-term solution to achieve weight loss, but if you need to fit into that special party outfit or want to lose a few pounds fast, try a cottage cheese crash diet. In addition to fast weight loss, one of the most popular benefits of this diet is that you will hardly need to cook-and cleanup is a snap.

How It Works

This inexpensive diet is easy to follow and should be followed for less than two weeks. You'll eat approximately 1,000 to 1,200 calories per day. Eat five 200-calorie servings of low-fat cottage cheese throughout the day. Stay hydrated by drinking at least 64 ounces of water per day. Water also flushes your system of toxins and fat, which encourages the weight-loss process.

In addition to this diet being low in calories, you'll lose weight because this program is high in protein. Cottage cheese contains between 25 and 30 grams of protein per serving, which helps you metabolize fat and also helps you maintain your immune system during your diet. The amino acids in protein also burn fat more efficiently, allowing you to see results quickly.

If the diet gets too monotonous, add a dash of cinnamon or some artificial sweetener to your cottage cheese. A variation of the strict cottage cheese crash diet is to integrate a piece of fruit along with your three cottage cheese "meals."

How Crash Diets Can Harm Your Health

Your temporary fast weight drop could be permanently damaging your health. Cardiologist Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, says that although one crash diet won't directly harm your heart, repeatedly crash dieting will increase your risk for heart attacks. Dr. Rosenfeld adds that crash diets also damage blood vessels due to rapid shrinking and growing. You could also be set up to experience shortness of breath and heart palpitations.

You also don't alter your overall lifestyle when you crash diet. A quick weight-loss program, such as the cottage cheese crash diet, only removes the pounds while you are on the diet. Eventually you'll resume your normal eating pattern and gain weight, which might be the reason you needed a crash diet.

MTV Documentary "True Life" featured a beauty contestant who followed the cottage cheese crash diet to lose weight and dropped a decent amount. The downside is that once Amber stopped her diet, she gorged on cheeseburgers and French fries and gained the weight back.