Adele credits the sirtfood diet with her weight loss transformation – but does it really work? We asked a registered dietitian
When Adele revealed her dramatic transformation on Instagram, fans wondered how she did it – but is the sirtfood diet’s rigid calorie-counting right for you? A registered dietitian weighs in with the pros, the cons, and the science
When global pop sensation Adele showed off her weight loss success, everyone was asking how she did it. It turns out the answer is through the sirtfood diet. The programme co-creators and nutrition researchers, Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten, claim that shedding “seven pounds in seven days” is easy peasy. Does this sound too good to be true?
Here comes the science bit
The theory behind the sirtfood diet is that sirtuins, a group of proteins, are thought to play a role in metabolism, muscle growth, ageing and more, by activating the SIRT1 gene, which is also known as the “skinny gene”.
To achieve weight loss, however, the skinny gene needs to be triggered by food and drinks that are high in sirtuin activators. These include red wine, cocoa, green vegetables, blueberries, strawberries, lovage, buckwheat, green tea, turmeric, onion, parsley and olive oil.
Moreover, these foods need to be consumed in a span of two phases over a three-week period, with phase one consisting of seven days, which is further separated into two sub-phases.
For the first three days of phase one, one consumes no more than 1,000 calories per day, which consists of three sirtfood green juices made with lovage, green tea and/or buckwheat, and one meal with sirtfoods. For the remaining four days, one eats no more than 1,500 calories, with two green juices and two sirtfood-rich meals each day.
Phase two involves a 14-day maintenance period where one consumes three sirtfood-rich meals with one green juice daily.