The Morning Banana Diet also emphasizes the importance of a good night’s sleep and keeping a diet journal.
The diet does not have strict meal plans or calorie counts, and you can eat what you normally would for lunch and dinner, but stop eating when you feel 80% full and skip dessert after dinner.
What is the Japanese Morning Banana Diet?
Originating from Japan, the Morning Banana Diet was created by a husband and wife team, Sumiko Watanabe, a pharmacist and preventive medicine expert, and Hamachi, who has studied traditional Chinese medicine and counseling.
This diet quickly became a craze in Japan and later spread to other countries. So what is the Morning Banana Diet? It’s a straightforward and effortless diet that entails consuming a banana for breakfast along with room-temperature water.
Additionally, the diet emphasizes getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night and avoiding snacking after dinner. Give it a try and see if this simple diet works for you!
What You Can Eat and What You Can’t
The diet has various versions, but the core concepts remain the same. For breakfast, you should eat raw bananas and drink room-temperature water. You can substitute other fruit but only one type per meal. If you are still hungry after eating fruit, you can have something else 15 to 30 minutes later.
For lunch and dinner, you can eat anything you like, but the diet recommends Japanese food, especially rice for lunch. You are allowed only one snack each day in the afternoon, which is also the only time you can have sweets. The diet also suggests avoiding dairy and ice cream most of the time.
Level of Effort: Low
You don’t need to make drastic changes to your diet, and portion control is not necessary. You will need to limit your dairy intake and pay attention to when you start to feel full.
- Limitations: The diet restricts breakfast to bananas or another type of fruit.
- Cooking and Shopping: You can cook and eat out as you normally would.
- Packaged Foods or Meals: No.
- In-person Meetings: No.
What Else You Should Know about the Morning Banana Diet
- Cost: No special foods are required, and you may even save money as bananas are inexpensive.
- Exercise: The diet encourages daily walking, but only if it doesn’t stress you out.
- Dietary Restrictions or Preferences: The diet is flexible enough to accommodate vegetarians and people with any dietary restrictions.
Does Morning Banana Diet works?
The Morning Banana Diet may work because you’ll be eating less, but there is nothing specific about eating a banana in the morning that promotes weight loss. Not eating anything after 8 PM and stopping eating when you’re 80% full will likely reduce your calorie intake.
The diet’s focus on sleep is unique, as multiple studies have shown that people who get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night tend to weigh less. When you’re tired, you’re more likely to overeat and eat unhealthy foods. Exercise, although not emphasized by the diet, can help with stress and sleep, as well as burning calories.
If you’re not ready for major changes, this diet may be a good fit, as it’s more of a gradual transition into healthy eating and weight loss. If you adopt the diet’s strategies, you can expect to see weight loss and improved health in the long term.
