The “it’s a mystery” tag line of the Shibboleth diet may have you wondering if it’s the mystery to your goals for weight loss.
Nonetheless, you may also wonder how the Shibboleth diet varies from the infinite number of other programs for weight loss, and whether it works for weight loss.
A thorough overview of the Shibboleth diet, exploring its weight loss advantages and downsides, is given in this article.
About Shibboleth diet
Travis Martin, an entrepreneur who lost 100 pounds (45.5 kg) and maintained his weight loss for years, developed the Shibboleth diet. Martin markets the Shibboleth diet as a weight loss, lifestyle, and health ministry.
The diet portion of the wellness ministry has a strong emphasis on Christianity, so much so that the website has a segment called ‘prayers’ where people can ask for prayers and pray for others.
The Shibboleth diet offers nutrition education, weight loss video collection, regular meal plan alternatives with recipes, and live support for a subscription rate of $99.00 per year, $9.95 per month, or $4.95 a week. These membership features are said to help you lose as well as retain weight and are mainly provided through their website and by phone.
According to the Shibboleth diet website, you don’t have to buy special foods or supplements as anything you need can be purchased at your local grocery store.
Nevertheless, the website offers hundreds of products such as apple cider vinegar, calorie-free syrups and spreads of fruit, protein bars and powders, as well as other dietary supplements from which they are assumed beneficial.
Although the diet states that it does not require nutrition supplements, they are recommended by some of its meal plans.
In any case, following the website, the buying of food for the Shibboleth diet does not cost you any more than what you already spend on food.
Can the shibboleth diet help you lose weight?
Diet plans such as the Shibboleth diet operate by establishing a calorie deficit, which ensures that the number of calories that you consume is decreased.
How much weight you lose and the pace at which you lose it determines the magnitude of the calorie deficit. The diet includes 900 – 1,500 calories a day, using meal and snack examples from their website.
While this calorie range may make it hard to get enough vitamins and minerals if the diet is not carefully formulated, it can assist most people in losing weight.
Consequently, hundreds of reviews from members who have lost weight on a diet are on their website.
However, there is little evidence about whether it has been sustained in the long term by individuals who have lost weight on a diet.
Likely benefits
There are numerous benefits to the Shibboleth diet that may make it useful for weight loss, and they include the following:
Uses self-monitoring and strategies for self-reflection
The Shibboleth diet advocates self-monitoring methods, such as maintaining a dietary record and self-weighing. These methods increase self-awareness of eating habits and can help individuals identify concerns and make changes when appropriate.
Studies have demonstrated that weight loss and weight loss maintenance are closely correlated with self-monitoring strategies.
The diet also incorporates techniques of self-reflection by encouraging participants to set goals, take action, and determine whether that action was successful or whether a different approach is required.
Self-reflection methods can aid in improving healthy activities, setting the stage for maintaining weight loss, and for weight loss.
Offers accountability and assistance
The Shibboleth diet demands that participants regularly attend classes for both transparency and encouragement during their weight loss process.
Studies have indicated that it may increase adherence to a diet by providing clarity and social support.
This is particularly important as a significant percentage of individuals have difficulty sticking to diet programs. There are also a number of Facebook groups where diet program members can exchange tips, ask questions, and inspire each other.
Promotes nutrients-dense foods
Consuming a variety of nutrient-dense foods, such as lean proteins, low-fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, beans, and nuts, is promoted by the Shibboleth diet.
A decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers that include colorectal cancer has been correlated with dietary habits that emphasize these kinds of foods.
Nonetheless, the company also offers highly refined, low, and zero-calorie foods, such as calorie-free pancake syrup and coffee creamer, to keep the calorie consumption minimal.
These foods are not inherently nutritious, and, irrespective of calorie content, any healthy dietary pattern should depend more on nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods.
Potential disadvantages
There are advantages to the Shibboleth diet, but it also has several disadvantages, which include:
The diet is based on the weight loss experience of one individual
The Shibboleth diet program is built on the personal weight loss experience of its creator. Having said that, what worked for him might not work for you. It’s also uncertain if there is any research, nutrition history or qualifications for Martin or any of his staff.
Therefore, the nutrition content library and video courses of the diet may contain unreliable data.
An unhealthy food relationship may be promoted
The diet advocates an all or nothing strategy to dieting, suggesting that it’s frowned upon if you don’t obey the program exactly as written.
While this strict diet can work for some individuals, it may build in others an unhealthy relationship with food.
For instance, signs of poor body image, mood disturbances, and eating disorders have been documented by people who practice extremely restrictive dieting techniques. There may also be less dieting success for specific individuals who adopt strict diets.
It’s too low in calories for most individuals
If the Shibboleth diet is specifically designed to include a range of foods in ample quantities, the risk of nutritional deficiencies may be increased by its low number of calories.
As such, a labelled multivitamin that they market is usually recommended by the diet. Plus, for most individuals, the 900 – 1,500 calorie range is far too low.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest that women should eat 1,200 – 1,500 calories daily, and males 1,500-1,800 calories for healthy weight loss. The low-calorie intake of the diet can also cause adverse side effects, such as dizziness, low energy, headaches, and intense hunger.
Research has indicated that while low-calorie diets may originally lead to rapid weight loss, these diets may induce metabolic damage. Also, their restrictive as well as unstable nature, usually lead to weight recovery over time.
Low-calorie diets contribute to physiological changes that increase appetite and decrease the metabolic rate of rest. This allows fewer calories to be consumed on a regular basis, which may lead to weight gain over time.
For these reasons, most experts suggest that only small reductions should be made in calorie consumption to promote sustainable, healthy weight loss.
How the Shibboleth diet can be practised
There are particular rules and guidelines for the Shibboleth diet on what you can and can not consume.
Foods you should eat
The diet contains seven categories of foods that, when mixed up in a particular way, claim to throw your body into an effective and efficient “fat-burning mode.” Oddly, this claim is backed by no evidence.
The diet determines which of these categories should be combined for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
These seven classifications include:
- Lean protein: low fat cottage cheese, chicken breast, egg whites, Greek yoghurt (nonfat, plain), fish, and deli meat.
- Energy carbs: oatmeal, grits, potatoes, peas, brown rice, navy beans, corn, and whole-wheat pasta.
- Shellfish: lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams, crab, etc
- Fibrous carbs: spinach, cucumbers, green beans, salad greens, bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, asparagus, and high fibre tortillas & bread.
- Protein and fat: lean ground beef, lean steak cuts like sirloin & round steaks, dark meat chicken, whole eggs, Canadian bacon, and tuna packed in oil.
- Superfood: nuts, seeds, peanut butter, and beans, including black, kidney, soy, red, garbanzo, red, and pinto.
- Antioxidant carbs: prunes, berries, cantaloupe, kiwi fruit, grapes, oranges, apples, and watermelons.
The diet also permits one snack a day for women, and two for men. The allowed snack options include:
- Two rice cakes with a tablespoon of peanut butter
- A can of tuna with five whole-wheat crackers
- A handful of little nuts
- 1/4 cup of low-fat cottage cheese and five whole wheat crackers
- Four cups of Skinny Pop Popcorn
- 1/2 portion of any approved product for meal or meal replacement
The diet allows you to have ‘freebie’ products, such as fibrous vegetables, pickles, and sugar-free Jell-O and popsicles if you’re still hungry.
Water, clear diet soda, some protein drinks, coffee, unsweetened tea, and low-calorie powdered drink mixes such as Crystal Light drink are allowed on a diet.
The food you should avoid
The Shibboleth diet is too descriptive on what you should consume, listing brand names of foods, condiments, drinks, and supplements.
However, the diet does not have a list of foods to avoid and instead allows its participants to concentrate on foods that they can have rather than foods that they can not.
3-day sample menu
The Shibboleth diet states that the size of the meal should not be greater than the size of the hands when cupped together. The diet also demands that you consume 64 – 128 ounces of water daily (1.9 – 3.8 litres).
Below is a 3-day sample menu of the Shibboleth diet for both men and women. Men should add one snack per day.
Day 1
- Breakfast: white egg omelette prepared with six egg whites, peppers, mushrooms, spinach, onions, and a slice of wheat bread
- Snack: white string cheese stick along with five whole-wheat crackers
- Lunch: chicken salad prepared with shredded chicken breast, diced tomato, shredded cheese, and leafy greens, topped with apple cider vinegar
- Dinner: turkey sandwich prepared with deli turkey meat, mustard, mayo, whole wheat bread, cheese, and cucumber slices
Day 2
- Breakfast: French toast prepared using two slices of whole-wheat bread plunged in whites eggs, fried in cooking spray, and topped with spray butter, cinnamon, and calorie-free syrup.
- Snack: peanut butter spread over rice cakes
- Lunch: tuna sandwich prepared with water-packed tuna, lettuce, whole-wheat bread, tomato, mayo, and relish
- Dinner: chicken stir-fry prepared with chopped chicken breast, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, and mushrooms, blended with soy sauce
Day 3
- Breakfast: peanut butter and jelly sandwich prepared using peanut butter, wheat bread, and sugar-free jelly
- Snack: low fat cottage cheese with five whole-wheat crackers
- Lunch: protein bar substitute meal
- Dinner: baked tilapia along with lightly buttered asparagus spears flavoured using salt and pepper
The Shibboleth diet is a weight loss and fitness program developed by Travis Martin. The diet will help most individuals lose weight if they adhere to it, owing to the low-calorie allowance of the diet.
Nevertheless, for most individuals, particularly on a long-term basis, the low-calorie intake of the Shilobeth diet is not ideal because it can cause negative metabolic changes that can lead to weight recovery over time.
The Shibboleth diet promotes a change of behaviour and provides transparency. Still, it can contain unreliable information on nutrition, establishing an unhealthy food relationship in some individuals, and can be very low in calories.
Reference;
- Shibboleth Diet Review; Healthline
- Shibboleth!; Shibboleth
