I lose X kg from 21 days bone broth diet. Here’s my experience on the diet.
Hi there.
Are you trying to lose weight?
Are you trying to shed of a couple pounds and goes ‘New Year, New Me?”
You’ve come to the right place! I’ll be sharing my 21 days bone broth diet journey with you, and I hope it would come handy for you (especially this festive season urgh).
So, you may have heard that Bone Broth is packed with tons of nutrients, and drinking it daily is ‘health boosting’. But what really is Bone Broth?
What’s Bone Broth?
Bone broth is the result from long-simmering of bones, and usually takes about 12–48 hours, depending on how thick you want it to be. It is great for culinary uses, often as a base because of it’s unparalleled flavor, but it also serves as a powerful health tonic for many people.
You can make bone broth using bones from just any animal — chicken, fish, pork, beef etc. I didn’t want to cause a spike in my electricity consumption, so I was fortunate enough to have a cafe in Singapore offering frozen bone broth. I just had to boil/ microwave them when I’m read to consume.
Benefits of bone broth you should know about.
- Supports bone and joint health.
The process of creating bone broth involves breaking down of collagen from bones and connective tissue into another protein known as gelatin. Gelatin contains proline and glycine which your body uses to build its own connective tissue. Did you know that 25% of our body is made of collagen? By consuming adequate level of collagen it helps support bone and joint health.
In one study involving 60 patients with severe, active rheumatoid arthrities, it was found that subjects fed with chicken collagen for 3 months noticed decrease in the number of swollen joints and tender joints. 4 patients in the collagen group had complete remission of the disease.
2. Packed with nutrients
In general, bone broth is very nutritious.
Bones are high in vitamins, amino acids and minerals like calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. The nutrients would depend on the different bones you use when preparing the bone broth. For example, fish bones contain iodine which benefits the thyroid function and metabolism. May people do not get enough of these nutrients in their diet, so drinking bone broth is an alternate way to get more.
So how to carry out the 21 days bone broth diet?
The idea of the 21 days of bone broth diet is to follow 5 days of normal ketogenic diet with 250 mL of bone broth before breakfast and another after lunch/ dinner, and on 2 separate days, do bone broth fast with a total of 1L of bone broth. You might be questioning why 21 days. It has been proven that 21 is the number of days required to change a habit or to form a new habit. So by doing this for 21 days consecutively, your body would notice the change and perhaps picking up this new habit.
To aid my planning process, I actually came out with a calendar for 21 days like below:
I actually like the idea of having a table above when carrying out something that requires a lot of planning. It was so convenient for me to not only plan, but also grocery shopping. I would strongly recommend anyone who is trying this 21 days diet to plan using a table above. It’s so convenient !
So as you can see I try to separate the 2 days of bone broth fast with 2 regular meal days. On regular days, although not included in the table I would still consume my bone broth for breakfast and dinner. I didn’t want to force myself on my fasting days. It’s my first time doing fasting solely on liquids so I tend to listen to my body more.
Here’s my diary for (almost) 21 days
Honestly when I made the decision to start this 21 days diet, I was browsing through the web looking for more information. Yes I did find some ‘reviews’ from blogs but Youtube but not many actually shared how they felt day to day. So I made an extra effort of recording how I felt (almost) every day.
1st Dec
First day of the challenge. Was feeling a little hungry. Had some snacks (blueberry + nuts). Nothing unusual.
2nd Dec
Second day of the challenge. Feeling tired. Could be because of menstruation period. Woke up hungry but able to withstand. Took broth to office and drank at 10am. Lunch at 12pm. Not feeling hungry. Just tired.
3rd Dec
I was feeling light headed today. Along with that I find myself really really hungry at 2:30 pm, that’s about 1 hour after my lunch. I made myself a cup of butter tea with MCT Oil. And had a couple nuts as quick snack.
4th Dec
I’m kinda nervous today. It’s my first fasting with bone broth only. I have previously tried IF but there are days that I can’t make it through. Lets not force myself to this, that’s what I thought. If I’m too hungry I’ll probably grab sth for quick bites.
Drank my first cup at 10am. Second cup at 12:50pm. Everything seems fine. I do feel a little hungry but I do not feel a strong urge to eat. Hopefully everything is well around 2–5pm. That’s when I usually get hungry the most.
As expected I got hungry around 2.30pm -ish. Made myself a cup of hot choc with 1 scoop of MCT powder.
Drank my third cup around 4pm. Still feeling hungry. I miss food, definitely.
I was able to pull through the night. Was a little hungry around 8–9pm (my usual dinner timing) but overall was fine.
5th Dec
Woke up having flu and phlegm.
6th Dec
Flu and phlegm persists
7th Dec
Second time fasting. I cheated. Ate a slab of butter and matcha coconut tea (which i will never look back again) in between the broth consumption. I think it’s easier to do it in the office since i’m focused at work, rather than doing it at home.
8th Dec
Drank my broth and went for a run. It’s been a while since I ran. Honestly I felt tired. I’m not sure if it’s because of the new diet or because of the fast yesterday. Lets try again on Wed. Came back and had my avocado coconut shake. Taste so goooood! Had some homemade no bake lime cheesecake as dessert. Been a while :)
10th Dec
Fasting day. I cheated today. I ate some cashew nuts.
11th Dec
Our office had this Christmas spread today so I didn’t bring my homecooked food there. Oh gosh log cakes. Gonna give it a miss this time. Had turkeys, some veges and prawns.
14th Dec
Fasting day. Tried to keep myself busy today and it works. Feeling less hungry. I managed to drag my first broth time to 11am.
15th Dec
I’m still feeling lots of stomach gas. Something must be wrong somewhere. And I have been having blocked nose. Oh dear it’s been raining for 24 hours straight. No weight loss this week. As of now I have loss around 3–4 kg. Must be the water.
18th Dec
How is it that i’m still not used to fasting now that I have done it for few weeks. Managed to drag the first broth to 12pm, but was feeling anxious between 2pm — 5pm. Made myself cocoa with MCT.
19th Dec
I’m back to 67.7kg. The other day was hitting 66. Planning to add some strength training during the weekend.
20th Dec
One thing I noticed during my keto days are, I hardly get constipated. Which is good! The frequency is per normal but the only difference is they are softer now.
How did I felt?
I have now come to my end of 21 days. You must be wondering how I felt.
I felt great.
I have never thought myself being able to cook for 21 days consecutively, with low carbs and, cut (as much as I could) refined sugar and processed food junks.
I do notice a change in my sleeping patterns. In the past I have had troubles going to bed early and would try to tire myself out so that I can be fast asleep. But after drinking bone broth daily I’m going to bed a the same time daily. And I usually sleep soundly till the next day.
I also noticed that I have stronger nails.
I loss about 3–4 kg during the whole process. Started at 70 and ended with 66–67 ish. I think that’s the water loss but I do see that my belly is slightly flatter.
Will I continue this diet in future? Would I recommend it to my friends and family?
I would. I actually tried it after reading so many benefits of it and how it helped people in my mutual groups in healing and recovering from surgeries. I had a surgery last year and my dad, too, so I thought I should try it out before recommending it to him. I can at least tell my parents what to take note of when they are doing it now.
I will try to adapt the ‘more on whole and low carb food’ as part of my lifestyle, as for bone broth detox maybe once in a while, or perhaps once every month. I could also drink bone broth on alternate weeks so lets see how that works out for me.
If you’re still thinking whether to try this out I would say go ahead. But do not force your body. Listen to your body. If you think you can’t make it through on fasting days, perhaps fasting half day would be fine for you. But if you have existing conditions I do suggest consulting your medical doctor before trying this out.
I’m not a professional nor I can’t suggest anything ‘technical’ about this diet. To be honest while I mentioned I was on ‘keto + bone broth diet’, I was obviously breaking a couple rules (cashew nuts + lime cake etc). I try to keep as strict as possible so perhaps low carb would be a better word. If you’re on strict keto you might be able to see better results yourself. But I do hope that my experience could somewhat help you making the decision and knowing what to expect. Let me know if you have tried it and how you felt about it !
