Fish Diet to Lose Weight

Fish has always been popular as a diet food because it is high in protein and low in fat and calories. In most places around the world renowned for human longevity, fish is a dietary mainstay. It's not hard to see why this food is so popular, but a question remains: Is a fish diet a good, healthy way to lose weight?

You Need a Variety of Fish

Eating the exact same meal every single meal for every single day isn't practical. For dieters wanting to lose weight on the fish diet, canned tuna seems great because it's loaded with protein, low in calories and has the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. While a fish diet should include canned tuna, you will need more of a variety to stay on the diet. Fresh fish from markets can provide this variety, and you will want to prepare the fish in more than one way. Grilled and baked fish are still better than fried, and mixing fresh fish with canned will help you stay on track.

A warning: Pregnant women should not go on a fish diet because there is a chance of mercury contamination, which can be harmful for the fetus.

The second caveat is to be careful of eating too much catfish or carp. Both of these fish are known to eat anything and collect pollutants in their flesh. An occasional bit of carp or catfish won't hurt, but these should not be the mainstay of any fish diet.

Preparing Meals

While replacing most red and white meats with fish will dramatically improve the healthfulness of a diet, this isn't enough alone. Eating fish is great, but if you add in two big spoonfuls of mayonnaise, it's going to make up for all those eliminated calories and fat. Breakfast is the meal that least lends itself to fish, and it's OK not to eat fish for this meal. A reasonable breakfast is fine, and by having one meal that doesn't have fish, you're less likely to get completely sick of the diet.

Eat fish for both lunch and dinner. Don't skimp on the portions; you can eat a lot of fish before you come anywhere close to the calories in beef or other common meat. Many dieters also recommend taking fish oil pills in the morning around breakfast to get that early dose of Omega-3.

Precautions and Things to Avoid

Dieters who switch from a high fat, high calorie diet are going to see some huge changes from eating reasonable meals with the fish diet, but there are some precautions you should heed.

First, the common "tuna sandwich" might be a favorite, but it's a terrible choice for the fish diet. On average, one tablespoon of mayonnaise contains 100 calories, almost all of which are fat. Most people use 2-3 spoonfuls for tuna fish sandwich, which takes away all of the health benefits this could otherwise offer.

The other temptation is to always deep-fry the fish, then drown it in tartar sauce. Once again, this adds fat calories and takes away from many of the health benefits that fish can offer. While having some fried fish isn't a bad thing, fish that is steamed, baked, or grilled is better for you and even tuna out of a can will be better healthwise than fish that has been deep-fried in oil.

As also mentioned earlier, be careful of eating too much "scavenger fish" like catfish or carp, which have a tendency to absorb any toxins or pollution that could be in the water.