GM Diet Plan for Weight Loss: Can You See Results in a Week?

The GM diet plan for weight loss is one of the most popular eating regimens in the world. Many dietitians and fitness experts vouch for its efficacy. Formulated in 1987 by General Motors Company (GM), it was intended to help employees lose 10-17 pounds, detoxify their bodies, and achieve mental calmness. 

Discover the foods you can consume as part of this seven-day plan.

So, What Can You Eat as Part of the GM Diet Plan?  

The primary focus of this programme is the consumption of low-calorie foods like fruits and vegetables and 10-12 glasses of water daily. Likewise, the suggested food options are also likely to contain high amounts of water.  

Separately, GM diet plan followers should refrain from eating refined carbohydrates, as well as processed or sugary foods.  

Day one 

The first day of the GM diet plan involves eating only fruits. For instance, you may consume a bowl of watermelon for breakfast, papaya for lunch, and berries for dinner.  

If you want to snack during the day, you can drink a glass of coconut water during the evening and eat a bowl of grapes before bedtime. Avoid mixing your fruit bowls with honey, cream, or sugary dressing.  

Day two 

On the second day, you should eat only vegetables. You can choose to consume them raw, boiled, or cooked with one to two spoons of olive oil or ghee. Do be sure to season your cooked vegetables with pepper, vinegar, rock salt, or herbs. 

However, you must restrict your consumption of potatoes or starch-rich food for breakfast and limit your intake to 100 to 150 calories. These guidelines can help ensure that you have sufficient energy throughout the day.

Day three 

For day three, the GM diet plan proposes that you consume a mixture of fruits and vegetables. Hence, a typical meal plan for the day may consist of a bowl of fruit for breakfast, vegetable soup for lunch, and a cup of boiled or cooked vegetables for dinner. 

Day four 

Interestingly, day four centres on the consumption of only skimmed milk and bananas. The recommended serving is six to eight bananas and two to three glasses of milk. You can replace the skimmed milk with soy milk and bananas with figs. Also, steer clear of adding honey, sugar or sweeteners to your milk.

Days five and six 

On days five and six, the GM diet plan asks that you consume approximately 284 grams of protein but don’t eat an evening or bedtime snack. Several foods can supplement a healthy amount of this nutrient, such as fish, poultry and lean, red meat.  

If you’re vegetarian, you can substitute these protein-rich foods with tofu, brown rice or cottage cheese. During the fifth day, you’re also urged to consume up to six tomatoes and increase your fluid intake by two glasses. Meanwhile, there are no restrictions on the number of vegetables you can eat on the sixth day.  

Day seven 

On the final day of this diet, you’re allowed to indulge in unlimited amounts of fruits, vegetables and brown rice. A good way to start the day is to eat a bowl of fruits. This can be followed by brown rice, cottage cheese and a glass of fruit juice for lunch.

To complete the diet, you may choose to consume brown rice, mixed vegetables and one or two glasses of fruit juice for dinner.

What Constitutes a Balanced Diet for Good Health? 

If you follow the GM diet plan religiously, it’s possible for you to attain significant weight loss, improve skin health, and boost digestion and metabolism. However, it is only a temporary fix. In fact, once you stop and become more relaxed with your food choices, the odds of you gaining back your lost weight are high. You’ll also be at risk of experiencing a deficiency of certain vitamins and minerals. 

It’s better for you to adopt a diet that provides healthy and sustainable weight management benefits. A few steps that you can take include: 

• Drinking water first thing in the morning to reduce hunger 
• Eating high-fibre foods to aid digestion and satiate the appetite 
• Lowering your intake of salt as it provokes water retention and bloating 
• Lowering your intake of sugar as it’s sweeter than fruits 
• Upping your protein intake to enhance your metabolism 

Nutritionist Salome Tham from Eu Yan Sang emphasises the importance of having a healthy diet to balance metabolic and digestive enzymes. “If enzymes in the body are insufficient, the food you eat — no matter how nutritious it is — will only become a burden that cannot be digested. This will increase the accumulation of toxins in the body and affect your health.”

Salome explains there are three types of digestive enzymes: proteolytic, amylolytic, and lipolytic enzymes. Although the body naturally produces enzymes, you can maintain adequate enzymes by consuming fresh vegetables, fruits, and fermented foods. “Enzymes are not resistant to heat. When the enzymes in the food are heated and cooked, their activity will be destroyed, causing the enzymes to lose their function,” she warns.

How to Eat Right, According to Traditional Chinese Medicine 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it’s believed that eating in moderation and maintaining a balanced diet helps keep the body healthy while minimising bowel contamination. In addition, the wisdom of TCM also promotes habits that are similar to the clinical guidelines of natural weight control. Examples of these are:  

• Consuming coarse and fine grains to stimulate digestive system function and prevent constipation  
• Replacing sugar-rich carbohydrates like rice and noodles with pumpkin, yam, and sweet potatoes  
• Limiting your consumption of processed foods and consuming equal portions of meat and vegetables  
• Avoiding artificially sweetened beverages altogether  

In addition, the use of herbal ingredients can also support the consumption of a balanced diet. Real Health Medical Senior TCM Physician Chu I Ta explains, “White atractylodes (bai zhu, 白术), poria (fu ling, 茯苓), Chinese yam (shan yao, 山药), astragalus (huang qi, 黃芪), Codonopsis (dang shen, 党参), liquorice (gan cao, 甘草), hawthorn berry (shan zha, 山楂) and wheat germ (mai pei, 麦胚) are widely available in the market. They can be used to prepare a soup base and are effective in improving digestion, strengthening immunity, and tonifying Spleen qi (vital life force).” 

If weight loss is your primary objective, you may opt to consume Roselle Semen Cassia tea. It uses Roselle (luo shen hua, 洛神花) and Semen Cassia (jue ming zi, 决明子) alongside ingredients like hawthorn, black plums (wu mei, 乌梅) and lotus leaves (he ye, 荷叶). 

Ultimately, the GM diet plan can lead to momentary yet considerable weight loss. It’s advisable to consult with healthcare providers like a nutritionist or a TCM practitioner to maintain your weight. In doing so, you’ll be able to understand how different foods influence not just weight but also holistic health.