[Article updated on 19/09/2023]
Developed by a doctor from the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Thonon-les-Bains, the Thonon diet aims to help patients who had to undergo surgery or necessarily have to lose weight for health reasons to lose weight. I present to you this diet with enormous benefits for anyone who follows it with rigor and determination. Many give wonderful testimonies of it; and I hope so for you too! What are: its principles, its different phases, its advantages, its disadvantages, opinions and testimonials?
Before reading on
I’m not an expert in this field, but I am passionate about nutrition and health.
The articles you’ll find on my site are the result of in-depth research that I’d like to share with you. However, I would like to stress that I am not a health professional and that my advice should in no way replace that of a qualified physician. I’m here to guide you, but it’s important that you consult a professional for specific questions or medical concerns. Your well-being is important. So be sure to consult the appropriate experts and take the best possible care of yourself.
What is the Thonon diet and what are its principles?
The Thonon diet is a low-calorie weight loss diet that requires a lot of effort and willpower to achieve the set goals. In fact, you will need to change your eating habits by consuming only the foods allowed during the diet. You will have to deprive yourself of foods rich in vitamins, carbohydrates and lipids such as sweets, chocolate, croissants, hot dogs, pizzas, frozen meals, hamburgers, fries and biscuits.
In addition, given that the Thonon diet is also high protein, you will need to consume a lot of protein foods to allow the body to consolidate your muscles and their shape. This will mainly concern eggs, meat, fish, without forgetting spinach, lettuce leaves and tomatoes, among other foods of plant origin. As fat melts, your body will continue to draw on your fat reserves. This will lead to weight loss.
Duration
This diet promotes significant weight loss (between 3 and 4 kg at least and up to 10 kg of body weight) in just 14 days. These 2 weeks constitute the first phase of the diet. A second phase follows which extends over time, depending on the number of kilograms lost during the first phase.
The benefits of the Thonon diet
This diet is very suitable for quickly losing kilograms (up to 10 kg in 2 weeks), unlike certain weight loss diets whose convincing results are only observed after several months. You therefore do not need to combine it with weight loss products like powerful fat burners.
Financially, this plan is not budget-friendly. No need to spend a lot to get the recommended foods. On the contrary, you will save money by following the Thonon diet. On a moral level, you will strengthen your “self-confidence” after a successful bet and gain the esteem of those close to you and why not society.
Finally, the stabilization phase of the diet prevents you from regaining the weight you lost at the end of the diet.
The inconvenients
Very popular as a weight loss diet, the Thonon diet can however present certain risks for people who are anemic or suffering from digestive disorders. The fact is that the diet causes an imbalance in the diet and therefore a disruption in the functioning of the body.
Excessive weight loss poses enormous health risks. Consult a nutritionist before following this diet (and any other weight loss diet for that matter).
Special menus and recipes for the Thonon diet
| MORNING | NOON | EVENING | |
| 1er day | Green coffee or green tea without sugar and as much as you like (without milk). Tip: No chocolate, no rusk, no cappuccino; nothing but unlimited coffee. | 2 hard-boiled eggs + spinach without salt (without mayonnaise or added products) and as desired. Tip: Sprinkle your spinach with lemon juice to enhance the flavor. | 1 large grilled steak (or 3 chopped steaks) + green salad (your choice: lamb’s lettuce, green salad, arugula) + celery as desired (homemade celery, not with a homemade vinaigrette: lemon juice with natural yogurt 0 %). |
| 2th day | Green coffee or green tea without sugar, with a little milk (about 100 ml) | 1 large grilled steak + green salad with tomatoes seasoned with homemade sauce (lemon juice + 0% natural yogurt) + fruit as desired | Ham cooked as desired |
| 3th day | Coffee or green tea without sugar, with a small cereal bread (wholemeal bread for example) | 2 hard-boiled eggs + green salad + tomatoes as desired (seasoned with a homemade sauce: lemon juice + 0% natural yogurt) | Cooked ham + green salad as desired |
| 4th day | Green coffee or green tea without sugar, with a bun | 1 hard-boiled egg + raw or cooked carrots of your choice (always homemade; do not buy ready-made, seasoned and high-calorie containers), + a piece of Gruyere cheese. | Unlimited fruit + full-fat natural yogurt |
| 5th day | Grated carrots (especially “homemade”) + green coffee or tea (of your choice) without sugar | Fish in court broth + salad of 2 tomatoes (homemade sauce: lemon juice + 0% natural yogurt) | 1 normal steak + unlimited green salad (homemade sauce: lemon juice + 1 0% natural yogurt) |
| 6th day | Green coffee or green tea without sugar + a roll | All-you-can-eat chicken fillets cooked without oil in the oven | 2 hard-boiled eggs + raw carrot salad (“homemade”, your own sauce: lemon juice + 0% natural yogurt) or cooked carrots as desired |
| 7th day | Green coffee or green tea or lemon herbal tea | 1 large steak + fruit as desired | You can eat (in normal proportions) whatever you want (without added sugar or alcohol) |
| 8th day | Unlimited sugar-free green tea or coffee | 2 hard-boiled eggs + salt-free spinach as desired | 1 large grilled steak (or 3 small chopped steaks) + green salad + celery as desired (homemade sauce) |
| 9th day | Green coffee or tea without sugar + milk (approximately 100 ml) | 1 large steak + green salad + tomatoes + fruit as desired | Slices of ham cooked as desired (no limit, until you are full) |
| 10th day | Green coffee or tea without sugar + cereal roll (wholemeal bread) | 2 hard-boiled eggs + green salad + tomatoes as desired (your own lemon juice sauce + 0% natural yogurt) | Cooked ham + green salad as desired (homemade) |
| 11th day | Green coffee or tea without sugar + roll | 1 hard-boiled egg, raw carrot salad (or cooked as desired) + 1 piece of Gruyère (or other hard cheese) | Unlimited fruit + 1 full-fat natural yogurt |
| 12th day | Grated carrot salad + black coffee or green tea | Fish in court broth + salad of 2 tomatoes (homemade sauce: lemon juice, possibly 0% natural yogurt) | 1 normal steak + unlimited green salad (homemade sauce) |
| 13th day | Green coffee or green tea without sugar + roll | Grilled chicken fillet without oil as desired (until full) | 2 hard-boiled eggs + raw carrot salad + lemon juice (or cooked carrots to your liking) |
| 14th day | Green coffee or green tea or lemon herbal tea | 1 large steak + fruit as desired | Eat whatever you want but in reasonable proportions (avoid sweets and alcohol) |
Why ham cooked as desired on the Thonon diet?
Cooked ham contains very little fat, around 3 grams per 100 grams of cooked ham. In addition, cooked ham is a high-protein food. A slice of ham covers on average 17% of daily protein intake for women and 13% for men. Furthermore, eating cooked ham as much as you want will keep you full. So you will not need a appetite suppressant however effective it may be.
Some tips for Thonon diet recipes
- Dress your salad with oil-free vinegar, with lemon juice to accompany.
- Allow around 300 grams per person for steamed celery, and 150 grams per person for raw celery.
- Brown the minced steak in boiling water, or grill it in the oven (without adding fat) to remove its fat.
- If your finances permit, buy beef from the butcher; it will then have the advantage of being fresher and less greasy.
Opinions of professionals
Opinion of the medical profession
Always seek the advice of your doctor before undertaking a slimming program or changing your eating habits. Very restrictive, the Thonon diet poses health risks. Hence its ban on seniors, pregnant women, people with fragile intestines and children.
Opinion of nutrition professionals on the main nutrients or foods in the menus and recipes of the Thonon slimming program
On proteins
Note that the daily protein intake is 0.8 grams multiplied by your weight in kilos. A 50 gram slice of cooked ham contains approximately 60 calories. Which makes cooked ham a particularly popular and effective food in the Thonon diet, due to its low calorie content and its high protein intake.
The studies of Young (1987) then Young and El-Khoury (1995) show the essential nature of proteins (which are sequences of amino acids) for the human organism. Animal proteins are generally richer in essential amino acids and also have better digestibility than plant proteins (Mahe et al., 1997).
About coffee
Green coffee is suitable for breakfast (avoid cappuccino, it contains too many calories). Green coffee is recommended for diets because of its low caloric content (less than 5 calories per 200 cl glass). It also helps to increase the heart rate, thus promoting calorie loss.
Regarding sugar
Synthetic sugar is allowed in coffee but avoid oils in salads and salt as much as possible on this diet.
About celery
Celery is very low in calories (18 calories per 100 grams) hence its choice. However, it is recommended to consume fresh celery and not chemically treated (avoid industrially treated celery for food preservation, which is high in calories due to mayonnaise and other components).
Eat your celery steamed, cooked or even raw, seasoned with lemon juice (without mayonnaise, vegetable oils, or even olive oil due to the excess calories).
Thonon diet: Consumer reviews and recommendations
There are various opinions and testimonies on the question of succeeding on the Thonon diet. Here are some of them, full of lessons.
The first is that of Alice who affirms that on the first try, this diet did not live up to her expectations. For her, this diet requires a lot of rigor and a mind of steel. She admits to having broken down several times because she couldn’t stand the cravings at the end of the day and because of the stress due to the rigor required. Ultimately, she only lost 2 small kilos, which she regained very quickly.
Alice told this story to a close friend who told her about a rather unexpected object (the neodymium magnetic bracelet) which helped her succeed in her diet. Thanks to this object, she would have significantly reduced her stress and eliminated cravings. Two weeks later, this bracelet acted in the same way that a magnetizer would during a consultation. She didn’t believe it much before trying. But from the first hours, she felt much stronger. His stress gradually diminished and his hunger became less and less difficult.
Another beneficiary of the Thonon diet reveals that he weighed 108 kilograms when he was told about this slimming program. His desire to lose weight led him to try without hesitation. By the end of the 14th day, he had lost 8 kilograms. His goal is to only weigh 90 to 85 kg fairly quickly.
Another satisfied user explains how to stay motivated. “If you want to succeed on the Thonon diet, don’t think about what you eat, but only about the result you will get in the end. This motivates you more and imagine yourself with fewer kilograms of body mass. And add ” Above all, take the time to eat dinner and go to bed early so that you don’t feel the urge to snack or eat in the evening.”