Morning Banana Diet to Lose Weight: Are bananas good for you?

Have you ever wonder that eating bananas can help you lose weight? If you think it a joke, then you are still unaware about the banana benefits for weight loss. Eating banana for weight loss is so common in Japan that it even caused a scarcity of bananas in the market in the year 2008 [1].

The Morning Banana diet gained attraction among the masses, when the creator of this diet Sumiko Watanabe helped her husband shed 37 pounds by this method [2]. This makes the Morning Banana Diet the talk of town and became a popular weight loss diet among the population of Japan

So, can the banana diet work for you? Will you able to achieve similar results with this banana diet for weight loss. Lets dive straight into the article.

What is a Morning Banana Diet?

A Morning Banana Diet is a weight loss diet which was created to help the people of Japan to lose excess weight. It is a hassle free weight loss diet. You need not to make any dietary changes and it is even cost friendly to run a banana diet. There are no as such restrictions on what you eat on a morning banana diet.

The only restriction the morning banana diet put is on your breakfast. During a banana diet for weight loss, you are allowed to eat only bananas in the morning and nothing else. You can eat anything for your lunch and dinner. However, it still has some guidelines that you need to follow. You need to follow these guidelines to ensure your banana diet success.

Morning Banana Diet Rules- How to eat banana to lose weight?

The rules for morning banana diet are simple. They are flexible enough that some people think it as another fad diet that promises to help you lose weight. This Japanese diet helps you to stay productive and does not involve a lot of meal planning. So, let us see the rules of the morning banana diet to help you lose weight.

Morning banana Diet Rule 1:

You have to eat bananas the first thing in the morning. The amount of banana you can eat depends upon your need. You can eat any number of bananas you want. However, you shouldn`t over stuff the bananas and should stop when you feel full.

And if you still feel hungry immediately after eating bananas, you can include a snack between your breakfast and your lunch. The snack shall not exceed more than 200 calories. It can be consumed anytime after 45 minutes of your breakfast and before lunch.

Morning banana Diet Rule 2:

The lunch remains an unrestricted choice and you can eat what you want. You can also think of eating bananas for lunch with a small salad. The dinner is again an unrestricted choice. And you can eat what you wish to eat.

The only thing is to eat dinner before 8 pm. You can also include a snack between your lunch and dinner if you feel hungry. Having a banana for snack is a great option to consider.

Morning banana Diet Rule 3:

The creator of morning banana diet also recommends getting to sleep before midnight. The more you get a good sleep, the better your weight loss result will be. There should be a gap of minimum 4 hours between your last meal and the time you sleep to avoid abdominal bloating.

Morning banana Diet Rule 4:

The only beverage allowed between meals is mineral or filtered water. You can drink water only at room temperature and it should not be too hot or too cold. You can drink any amount of water but it should be done in small sips and not for washing the food down. The other beverages like tea or coffee can be taken sometimes but it is something to frown off.

Morning banana Diet Rule 5:

According to the creator of this diet, you should eat every meal till you feel eight by tenths of full. This means, you should eat up to the point where you feel satisfied and not full or stuffed. If you go by mindful eating, you should not go beyond 6 on a hunger scale to aim for weight loss [3].

Morning banana Diet Rule 6

If you crave for sugar and wish to eat a dessert, it is only allowed sometimes. You can only eat sweets in your snack after your lunch. You cannot eat a dessert just at anytime of the day. The Japanese eat a sweet rice ball during this diet to manage their cravings. However, it is best if you include some fresh fruits rather than binging on desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Morning banana Diet Rule 7

This rule of banana diet tells you about the foods restricted on a banana diet. You should stay away from eating donuts, ice creams, potato chips and dairy milk products. The alcoholic beverages like wine and beer should be cut and remain for only few special occasions.

Morning banana Diet Rule 8

According to morning banana diet, you should only eat raw bananas. Frozen or cooked bananas are not allowed on this diet and are discouraged by the creator of this diet. You can eat any number of bananas you want but should not over-stuff eating it. Remember to stay in mindful eating and stop once you feel satiated.

How does the banana diet work (Science Based)

The simple way to understand the banana diet results is to first summarize the principles of banana diet. Secondly, we will evaluate these principles of morning banana diet under the light of science.

It will help you understand better on whether to run a morning banana diet for weight loss or not. Some articles however suggest it to be another fad diet. Let us put some information to help you ease your weight loss journey.

Morning Banana Diet Principle 1

The creator of morning banana diet advises you to eat only bananas for weight loss. This restriction may cause you to think that banana is a magical fruit which can melt your fat. But before hearing about this diet, you always wondered are bananas fattening? So, are bananas good for weight loss or it is just another fad diet?

Are Bananas good for you?

Understand that banana is not a magical fruit but rather it is a nutritious food. It doesn`t burn fat on its own but can help you in losing fat. Wonder how? Banana is a super food which contains lots of healthy fibre and resistant starch which helps you in losing fat.

• Banana contains Fibre

A medium sized banana contains about 3 grams of total fibre [4]. Out of 3 grams, 0.6 gram is soluble fibre. This soluble fibre content helps you feel satiated as it slows down the digestion process of your body [5]. It further helps you to limit the intake of food as you feel satisfied already.

Also, drinking room temperature water with banana in morning can help you eliminate constipation and stomach bloating [6]. The fibre content in banana also helps in lowering your cholesterol levels further promoting a good heart health.

• Banana contains Resistant Starch

A raw banana is a good source of resistant starch. It is a type of starch, your body is unable to digest and pass it to the colon [7]. This starch is fermented by a bacteria present in large intestine and produces a fatty acid which also promotes intestinal health [8].

This helps in slowing down the process of digestion and promoting satiety. Furthermore, the resistant starch present in bananas also promotes fat oxidation [9] [10].

However, if you wish to avail all the above mentioned benefits of banana, eat bananas in raw form only. If the bananas got ripe, the starch got converted into sugars and you are not able to take its benefits for fat loss.

Morning Banana Diet Principle 2

The morning diet puts no restriction on lunch and dinner. You can eat anything you want but the creator of this diet wants you eat only eight by tenth portion of your meal. This mindful eating can help you stay away from overeating and gaining extra pounds [11].

Morning Banana Diet Principle 3

The morning banana diet requires you to sleep before midnight and have your dinner before 8 pm in any case. Having your dinner four hours before your bed can improve your digestion. It will help you wake up fresh and energetic the next morning.

Also, sleeping with stomach full of food can end you with stomach gas which can disrupt your good night sleep [12]. A good night sleep is must for improving bodily functions like metabolism, immunity and overall wellness.

It has also been experienced that if you have your dinner late in the night, you often fall prey to junk food and sugar cravings in the evening [13]. So, it is always a good idea to have your dinner before 8 pm to cut on extra junk calories from piling up.

Benefits of banana diet

1. Bananas are the cheap super foods and the banana diet can help you stay on your budget.
2. It is the most convenient diet which requires no meal planning. It will help you save time and stay productive.
3. The eat anything principle also comes with a convenience that you will not feel bored of eating same food all over again. But, you should always stay cautious and make healthy food choices if you wish to lose weight.
4. A lot of other weight loss diets can interfere with your social life. Before morning banana diet, you always felt guilty in cheating your diet meals in any social gatherings. But this is not the case with banana diet.
5. The morning banana diet doesn`t requires you to exercise necessarily to make your weight loss.

Morning Banana Diet Results

If you go on looking the morning banana diet success stories on the internet. You will get interested at it immediately seeing the banana diet before and after pictures. So, whether this diet can also provide you the same results? How much weight can you lose on a morning banana diet?

As, we have mentioned earlier that the creator of this diet has helped her husband lose about 37 pounds of weight. However, there are no claims made by the creator Sumiko Watanabe on how much you can actually lose. But, if we take this number only as a reference then you can expect to lose a good amount of weight.

There are many forums which also suggest that you can lose up to 10 pounds of weight on a 12 day banana diet. Furthermore, we are sharing details on whether should you follow the banana diet for weight loss or not.

Should you follow the banana diet for weight loss?

There are many successful weight loss diets in market but there is no such convenient diet other than banana diet. However, if you look closely the creator of this diet helped her husband to lose 37 pounds of weight.

This suggests that the banana diet results can be seen evident with people who are seriously overweight. There are chances that you see minimal or no results if you are slightly or just overweight.




The morning banana diet has rules which help you improve your lifestyle. It strains on making good choices and eating right. This diet is no magic. It is very much different from other calorie restricted diet.

The other calorie restricted diet requires you to make dietary changes and employ many nutritional strategies to lose weight. You can follow this convenient weight loss diet if you want a less planned and a more sustainable weight loss diet for you.

Bibliography

[1]	“Fad diet declares bananas ‘superfood’ and has shops struggling to meet demand,”
[2]	“Morning banana diet,” Wikipedia
[3]	“The Hunger Level Scale,” Queensland Dietitians
[4]	“Banana,” Wikipedia
[5]	“Are Bananas High in Soluble Fiber?,”
[6]	“The Theory behind the Diet,”
[7]	J. H. C. H N Englyst, “Digestion of the carbohydrates of banana,” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
[8]	A. Arnarson, “Bananas 101: Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits,”
[9]	D. R. H. W. T. D. I. L. B. M. L. B. D. H. B. Janine A Higgins, “Resistant starch consumption promotes lipid oxidation,”
[10]	E. W. J. J. H. A. A. M. J. O. S. C. P. J. A. Christopher L. Gentile, “Resistant starch and protein intake enhances fat oxidation and feelings of fullness in lean and overweight/obese women,”
[11]	“The Hunger Scale: Mindful Eating for Weight Loss,”
[12]	“WELLNESS HABIT: EAT FINAL MEAL 3-4 HOURS BEFORE BED,” .
[13]	T. ROIZMAN, “What Are Benefits of Not Eating Before Bed?,”