Body Reset Diet: the Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Everywhere you look, a new fad weight loss diet seems to pop up, requiring you to restrict entire food groups or significantly cut back on calories, leaving you hungry and unsatisfied. These extreme crash diets aren’t sustainable for most people, so over 70% of Americans are overweight or obese.¹ 

Recognizing how hard it is to stick with most diets, celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak (who worked with Hollywood elite like Kim Kardashian, Rihana, and Natalie Portman) designed the diet plan, The Body Reset Diet. This diet consists of a 15-day, smoothie-focused regimen incorporating low-intensity exercise. The diet quickly gained popularity after Jessica Simpson claimed to have lost 100 lbs in six months by working with Pastenak and following the recommendations outlined in his book.²

What is the Body Reset Diet?

The Body Reset Diet emphasizes balancing protein, fat, and fiber. This plan has three phases, each recommending different types of meals and levels of exercise, but throughout the 15-day diet, you’re directed to eat three meals and two snacks each day. In each phase, you must consume smoothies instead of traditional meals. 

The number of smoothies varies from one to three per day, depending on the phase. The plan focuses more on diet than exercise. “It’s not about the workouts,” says Pasternak. “You don’t lose weight doing biceps curls and lunges. You lose weight by changing your diet.”²

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How Does the Body Reset Diet Work?

The Body Reset Diet claims to reboot your metabolism and help you more efficiently burn calories by eliminating unhealthy foods, focusing on low-calorie, plant-based smoothies and other food, and incorporating gentle exercise like walking. This 15-day regimen offers some flexibility in the foods you can choose but requires you to replace some meals with smoothies.

Does the Body Reset Diet Help with Weight Loss?

Like other low-calorie diets, The Body Reset Diet will likely help you lose weight. Even with very little exercise, the human body burns a large number of calories per day for things like respiration, blood circulation, and cellular repair; this is called basal metabolic rate (BMR). 

BMR will vary depending on height, weight, and muscle mass and can be roughly calculated using this equation. If you’re consuming fewer calories than you’re burning, your body will use stored fat for energy, which leads to weight loss. 

Here’s what you can expect with this eating plan:

Short Term Effects

Due to the plant-focused low-calorie meal plan, most people will see two pounds per week, with a total of four to five pounds at the end of the 15 days. 

Long Term Effects

If you continue to stick with a healthy dietary pattern incorporating green smoothies and plenty of vegetables, you can expect to maintain your results and even lose more weight. However, as you move away from the meal plan and add more solid foods back in, your caloric intake will naturally increase. You will stop losing weight when you are no longer in a calorie deficit. Adhering to a low-calorie diet long term can be challenging because the hunger signals to your brain can become stronger after a diet, driving you to eat more.³