These Diet Reviews Say "Special K Diet Didn't Work For Them"

by Dr.Dan

You've probably seen advertisements for the Special K Diet, also known as the Special K Challenge.

The idea is simple: You eat either Kellog's Special K cereal, Protein Shake or Protein Meal Bar for breakfast and lunch.

You eat your evening meal as you would normally.

And you have two other Kellogg's Special K products for snacks during the day -- either Protein Snack Bars, Crackers, or Protein drinks. You can also have fruits and veggies for snacks.

So does it work? Not according to these reviewers, who were less than satisfied with their results. You can read their reviews, which are printed below.

Or for the other side of the story, click here to read positive reviews of the Special K Diet.

Special K Diet = Hunger

by Yolanda
(Anaheim, CA)

So, I was at home when I saw a commercial for the Special K diet. The lady on the commercial seemed happy, and it promised weight loss.

All you had to do was replace two of your meals with the cereal, seemed pretty simple. So I bought my cereal and was on the diet for a whole two days.

The cereal does not keep you full for a long time. You get hungry causing you to eat whatever you can get at the time.

I chose to replace breakfast & dinner with the cereal and have my lunch to fill me up in the middle of the day. But at the end of the day when I was tired I had my bowl of cereal followed by a headache.

I got the headache because I knew I was still hungry but tried to ignore it. I realized it is not healthy. Replacing fourteen of your meals a week with cereal will work temporarily but you cannot keep the weight off in the long run.

I don't think they should've even come up with this diet in the first place. They knew it would catch people's attention but it would not work.

Eating at restaurants is not an option unless you haven't had your meal yet that day.

I definitely do not recommend this diet to anyone. It is a quick fix at best, but you will be miserable while you're doing it.

As much as people hate to hear it the answer is eat healthier and exercise more. It is the only way to take the weight off and keep it off!

Yolanda

Note from Dr. Dan

Yolanda,

Special K is not a particularly healthy food. It is not a high-calorie food, but it has four times as much carbohydrates as it does protein.

There is no way to continually eat food that is excessively high in carbohydrates and not have your metabolism suffer. So Special K will not lead to healthy weight loss.

It is a way to sell more products. It is not a way to help you become healthier.

By the way, the healthy part of the diet is the milk -- good old fashioned whole milk.

Do you think milk will make you fat? Well, all the kids in the 1950s drank whole milk. And all the people on farms drank whole milk. In fact , sometimes they drank whole cream.

And they were a skinny bunch back then. It's something to think about.

Dr. Dan

Special K Diet Not So Special

by Miranda
(Los Angeles, CA)

Being an avid lover of cereal, I thought the Special K diet would be a simple and effective way to lose weight.

I picked up a box of Special K red berries, some of their chocolate granola bars, and a gallon of low-fat milk, feeling proud of myself as I walked out of the store.

When I got home, I tore open the granola bars and had one for dinner. Later that night, around midnight when the late night munchies started setting in, I had a bowl of cereal.

I was craving something salty, so the cereal didn't really help curb my appetite. I went to bed hungry.

For the next three days, I ate nothing but cereal and granola bars. I would have cereal three times daily, then a granola bar in the evening.

On the end of the third day, I was so hungry I could have eaten a horse! Well, the horses were safe, because I found some Pizza and donuts in the refrigerator.

I felt guilty afterward and didn't allow myself to eat ANYTHING the next day.

The day after that, I went back to the Special K cereal diet. This time, I stuck with it for about a week.

I was weighing myself about ten times a day, but I was actually gaining instead of losing. I was feeling extremely tired and light headed.

I grew sick of cereal 24/7.

There was a box of the always delicious Cocoa Puffs on the counter. I read over the nutrition facts and noticed that it had the same amount of calories as Special K.

So, what's so special about Special K? It wasn't fulfilling. I wasn't losing weight, and I knew it wasn't healthy to eat the same thing day after day, so I stopped the diet.

In conclusion, the Special K diet isn't as special as it sounds.

Miranda

Note from Dr. Dan

Miranda,

There is nothing healthy about the Special K diet. If anyone lost weight on that "diet" it would be some sort of miracle.

It's just a thinly disguised way to sell more products.

Dr. Dan

Special K Diet Is A No - No!

by Piya
(India)

I tried the Special K Diet. It's horrible. It just didn't work for me.

Last month I planned on going on this Special K diet. It claims to lose weight in two weeks (at least the advertisements does).

I bought the packet and just started eating it just as it was recommended. I needed to eat two servings of Special K cereals, one for breakfast and other for dinner, along with a small cup of low fat milk. I could eat some meal in between provided it would be low fat and that too in a lesser quantity.

The initial stage went on well. First day, second day, third day. And then I was finished.

I remember the fourth day, when I left for work and on the way, I felt giddy. I managed reaching office but the whole day I felt lack of energy.

It was as if I was fasting and needed to eat something desperately. It was hard to control but I somehow managed.

But the problems kept increasing. I would feel hungry all the time and my cravings made me crazy.

I couldn't eat what I wanted to and when we went out to a restaurant, there was nothing I could order.

The sight of those cereals made me go mad. Eating them over and over again made me nauseated. I couldn't stand the sight of it.

It just seemed so unrealistic. It kind of killed my metabolism and left me hungry. I finally ended up eating heavy dinners and put on more weight.

Special K Diets are said to be high in sugar and hence do trigger hunger. I promised myself I would never go for it again and please, my dear friends, I request you to stay away from it.

Special K Challege -- It's better to consult a physician

by Raji
(India)

I am not a person that consumes a lot of junk foods, and my weight was normal and I always felt I looked good.

But suddenly I saw a tremendous increase in my weight. It really shook up my mind.

So I decided to try a weight loss diet program. I saw an advertisement of “Kellogg’s Special K Challenge.” I thought it might do some good for me, so I decided to take up the challenge.

I did not consult any physicians. I planned my own diet.

I walked vigorously for 30 minutes and had 1 bowl Kellogg’s Special K for my breakfast. I took a cup of rice with gravy for lunch and again I had a bowl of Kellogg’s Special K for dinner.

I lost 4 kg of weight from 63 to 59 over the first 15 days. I was satisfied with that, so I stopped the diet.

But then after stopping the diet I gained 6 kg over the next 3 months. Very discouraging.

My former weight was better. Next time I'm going to consult a physician before I start a diet.

Note from Dr. Dan

Raji,

A lot of people have a similar experience to yours when they diet. You lose a lot of weight fast at the beginning, but then you gain it back.

You can end up heavier than when you started. It's very hard to achieve long term weight loss with unusual diets.

Dr. Dan

Special K Diet Left Me Hungry All The Time

by Rachael
(Brighton, CO USA)

After seeing some of the commercials on television for the Special K diet a few years ago, I decided to give it a try.

I had just had our second child, and was eager to lose the close to 50 pounds I had gained during my pregnancy.

The Special K diet seemed like the best one available to me at the time. It cost very little as opposed to other diets on the market, and seemed extremely easy to follow.

My first assumptions about the diet were correct -- it was extremely inexpensive and very easy to follow. All it required was a bowl of Special K cereal in the morning, a snack, which usually consisted of a Special K bar or a special K protein water, followed by a bowl of cereal again for lunch, and then a normal, healthy dinner.

The diet left much to be desired. I found myself constantly hungry. The cereal was not enough to satisfy me for breakfast and lunch, and the snacks were very meager.

I would find myself foraging for more food throughout the day, and then had huge portions at dinner because I felt deprived.

I suppose if I had a stronger desire to really follow the diet strictly, it would have worked. However, I didn't lose a single pound on the diet.

While many people have been able to succeed on the Special K diet, I was unable to. I followed it for approximately 3 weeks, and was unable to lose any weight.

It was too restrictive for me, and left me feeling hungry and constantly wanting more.