What Is The Sirtfood Diet & Is It Safe?

The Sirtfood Diet is only a few years old but has caught on as one of the hottest weight-loss diets around.

It’s been made famous by a number of celebrities, including Adele, who have seen incredible results from the prescribed eating regimes. 

That makes the Sirtfood Diet a point of interest for anyone who is looking to cut weight, which sometimes includes athletes at various levels of sport.

Here, Built for Athletes takes a look at what the Sirtfood Diet involves.

What Is The Sirtfood Diet?

The diet was developed in the UK and revolves around theories about the benefits of sirtuins - a type of protein in the body which have been shown to regulate metabolism and inflammation. 

There are a host of natural plant compounds that can increase levels of these proteins, and they are labelled sirtfoods. Common sirtfoods include blueberries, strawberries, dark chocolate, green tea, parsley, kale and red wine.

The diet involves two phases. Phase one starts with three days of restricting calorie intake to 1,000kcal per day made up of three sirtfood green juices and one meal rich in sirtfoods. This is followed by four days on 1,500kcal including two sirtfood green juices and two sirtfood-rich meals.

Dieters then move into phase two, known as the maintenance phase, for two weeks. Caloric restriction is no longer the focus, and the prescribed plan includes three sirtfood-rich meals and one green juice per day, plus optional sirtfood bite snacks.

Is The Sirtfood Diet Safe?

Whether or not the Sirtfood Diet is safe for you will of course depend on your individual circumstances, but it’s always best to consult a nutritionist or doctor before radically overhauling your diet.

There’s also the question of whether the diet is actually sustainable, and dietician Emer Delaney is unconvinced. “At first glance, this is not a diet I would advise for my clients,” he told BBC Good Food. “Aiming to have 1,000kcal for three consecutive days is extremely difficult and I believe the majority of people would be unable to achieve it.”

For those looking to make gradual weight loss while sustaining a high level of performance, cutting food intake down to 1,000kcal a day is certainly not a good idea.