Psychotherapist Vladimir Ivanovich Mirkin offered a radically new look at weight loss. The system he developed involves rapid weight loss without fasting. Instead of strict restrictions and eternal malnutrition, the candidate of medical sciences offers a balanced diet and a beautiful figure. Scientists have developed a program that combines a light diet and simple self-development training. Taken together, such exercises lead to a loss of up to 10 kilograms in 1 month.
Diet rules
The whole system will consist of a healthy diet and psychological work on oneself. Dietary nutrition will be based on the principle: add healthy, exclude harmful. The division of foods into permitted and prohibited, for the most part, is typical for many diets. But the scientist also has his own characteristics. For example, sausage is a permitted food component, although it is difficult to call it healthy. Why Mirkin considers her as such remains a mystery. Otherwise, Mirkin’s menu can be called classic for all diets and all times.
Things are different with diet rules. One of the main requirements is the presence of a small plate. This is what food should be taken from. This is not just a whim of a nutritionist, but a proven method for losing weight. When pouring food into a small plate, a person sees a full bowl of food, although there is very little of it there. But the brain perceives this picture as a full portion. You can eat your fill even with a small amount of food. The same rule was laid down in another popular diet - “Saucer”.
If before starting the diet the volumes of food were very large, they should be reduced gradually so as not to cause stress to the body. When a person suddenly switches from usual portions to minimal ones, the body can react to this with weight gain. Therefore, in most cases, fasting is pointless. Under no circumstances should you starve yourself to speed up the results of your diet.
In order to get full faster, while eating less, the meal must take place at the table. No snacking on the go. If your work schedule is very tight, you need to find at least a few minutes to sit down while eating. Even better is to eat slowly, cut food into small pieces, and chew them thoroughly. Mirkin himself believes that a meal should last 20 minutes. This is how a signal of saturation comes even if you eat very little, but in a measured manner.
The main rule that follows the Mirkin diet is to eat only in case of real hunger. Among nutritionists of the last generation, the concept of “machine food” has spread. It means that a person eats not because of a physiological need, but purely for psychological factors. For example: it became sad, boring, for company, so as not to offend the person, and so on. This is also called food addiction. People often eat when they are stressed or in a bad mood; for many, food is the only thing that brings pleasure. To easily and forever say goodbye to extra pounds, you need to learn to eat only when you really need it. It is very important to learn to perceive food only as food, as fuel for life. Many psychologists and nutritionists agree with this idea. Olga Goloshchapova’s book, “The Goodbye Diet,” popular among those losing weight, is built on the same principle.
Another requirement of the Mirkin system relates to the drinking regime. 15 minutes before meals you will need to drink a glass of water. This will make you feel full even faster and speed up the fat burning process. The water should be still and warm.
Food can be processed by any thermal method. For frying, only unrefined vegetable oil is allowed. Instead of thick soup, Mirkin advises eating only broth, without grounds. The author of the method also suggests separating carbohydrates and proteins. That is, if there is meat or fish for lunch, then no side dish.
It is advisable to give yourself at least one fasting day within one week. During this day you can eat one selected product in small quantities. It could be apples, cucumbers or kefir. Periodic unloading will help the body cleanse itself and speed up the weight loss process. The main thing is not longer than one day, then normal nutrition again.
So, the Mirkin diet suggests: eating from a small plate, slowly, at the table and only when you are hungry. Before meals you need to drink water, and do not combine main courses with side dishes.
Diet rules from Dr. Mirkin
To achieve your desired weight, you need to follow a few simple rules. These include:
- You need to eat only when you feel hungry, and it is not necessary to follow a diet.
- To avoid overeating, it is better to use small plates. This way the portion will fill all the space on the dish and will seem sufficient.
- To get a feeling of fullness, you need to chew as long as possible, since the signal reaches the brain only after 20 minutes. If you don’t have time, then it’s better to get up from the table with a slight feeling of hunger. After some time, the person realizes that he is full.
- To avoid overeating at celebrations, you should drink a cup of kefir or water in advance. They will fill the space in the stomach, so there will be less temptation to eat too much.
- You should start your meal with liquid dishes, eat plenty of meat, and preferably leave the side dish untouched.
- You can unlimitedly consume vegetable salads, fermented milk products and unsweetened drinks.
- It is important to reduce the amount of sugar to the bare minimum; it is best to eat dessert with tea. Stevia also works well.
- Fruits and vegetables are used as snacks.
- If you need to prepare a fried dish, you should use vegetable oil.
- You can't eat while running, because the signal of saturation arrives much slower. It is important to try to take at least a little time to eat in a calm environment. Even junk food should be eaten while sitting at the table, chewing thoroughly.
- It is important to drink as much fluid as possible, especially water. Before meals, this will help you avoid overeating, and during the day it will normalize your water-salt balance.
Dr. Mirkin has identified a list of products that you need to finally get rid of. He considers carbohydrates, especially fast ones, to be the main evil. The following products should not be used in the diet:
- bakery products, sweets;
- pasta, macaroni, as well as almost all cereals, even buckwheat and rice;
- sugar and chocolate;
- fast food, canned food, pickles and convenience foods;
- high fat dairy products;
- starchy vegetables, for example, potatoes, corn, peas, beans are excluded;
- dried fruits and sugary fruits, such as banana, date;
- oils and fats.
Diet ration
The scientist lists the following as permitted and useful products:
- meat and poultry (exclude fried pork and duck);
- any fish, seafood;
- dairy products (up to 3.2% fat content);
- cheeses up to 40% fat;
- all types of mushrooms;
- eggs;
- fruits (except sweet ones);
- vegetables (except potatoes);
- natural spices and herbs;
- vegetable oils.
In addition, Dr. Mirkin’s nutritional system does not prohibit the consumption of sausage and canned sprat in tomatoes. As reviews of this diet show, many still refuse these products, since their composition leaves much to be desired. But this does not affect the results of the diet; those who eat sausage also lose weight.
Prohibited products include:
- roast pork and duck;
- any beans;
- potato;
- bakery products;
- baking;
- confectionery and sweets;
- cereals;
- sweet fruits: bananas, dates, peaches, apricots, figs, etc.;
- any nuts;
- sugar.
Some products that are banned can be used indirectly. For example, you can make soup with potatoes, but do not eat potatoes. You can make homemade compote from sweet fruits, but without sugar.
Losing weight on the Mirkin diet
Everyone wants to be slim and healthy, and almost everyone wants to get back to normal without making much effort. Vladimir Ivanovich Mirkin is a psychotherapist and specialist in the fight against obesity, offering his help with this. Even those who are obese with concomitant diseases can benefit from his diet.
Basic rules for losing weight from Dr. Mirkin 1. Only you are responsible for your figure, first of all you need to realize this. We tend to blame anyone and anything for excess weight, but we must admit that only our actions (or inaction): overeating, not following a diet, including food, and inattention to our health lead to extra pounds.
2. Your own desire to lose weight is the most powerful incentive. Check with yourself why you decided to go on a diet. If the only reason is that your significant other does not like you at the weight you are or you are losing weight for the sake of fashion, and there is no trace of your own desire to get rid of extra pounds, the diet turns into flour that does not bring any results.
3. So that the fight against fat deposits is not too much of a burden and at the same time you come out of it as a winner, you need to have a motive. It will be different for everyone: for some, obesity is associated with health problems, while others believe that they have lost their attractiveness in the eyes of others. Select the motive that is most important to you.
Awareness of the motive is also important because in everyday life we constantly encounter “justifying motives” - meeting with friends, stress, etc. In order for such motives not to take over, the motivation to lose weight must be stronger.
4. Before you go on a diet, set at least an approximate time frame and the number of kilograms you intend to get rid of - this will be a kind of weight loss goal. When determining the timing, keep in mind that the more excess weight (body mass index), the faster it usually goes away.
5. To lose weight, you will have to develop a new diet, which it is advisable to adhere to for the rest of your life. Therefore, the new food model should be unburdensome and simple.
6. Losing weight can be prevented by fear of the complexity of the upcoming work on yourself. Only those who, casting aside all doubts, take the first, albeit small, step towards a new life will achieve success.
7. Self-hypnosis is an indispensable assistant in losing weight. Daily sessions will help create a positive attitude towards the diet (“my diet is a beautiful body, lightness and health, self-esteem, attention from men/women”) and set yourself against overeating and “bad” foods (“sugar is shortness of breath, discord in the family, wrinkles on the stomach, double chin").
You can practice self-hypnosis at any time, but it is better in the morning and evening, when you are relaxed, as well as during the day, at those moments when you are tempted to break your diet.
Foods you can eat on the Mirkin diet
- any fish and seafood,
- all dairy products with a fat content of no more than 3.5%,
- cheeses with fat content not exceeding 40%,
- vegetables (exclude potatoes and legumes),
- sweet and sour fruits,
- eggs,
- mushrooms,
- meat (exclude pork and roasted duck),
- spices and herbs,
- vegetable oil,
- unsweetened drinks (can be with saccharin), sweet juices can be drunk diluted with water.
Dishes can be prepared in any way, using vegetable oil when frying.
The Mirkin diet is also known as the “elimination diet.” One of the advantages of this diet is that you don’t have to cook for yourself separately, and:
- in the first course (in soup) the grounds are excluded - we eat only broth, which is useful for digestion,
- We eat the second course without a side dish - meat or fish and salad,
- dessert will have to be chosen without sugar,
- You can eat fruits, excluding bananas, dates, dried apricots, figs, and you should not eat nuts.
Prohibited foods can sometimes also be afforded, but in small quantities.
Approximate daily menu according to the Mirkin diet:
Breakfast: 100 gr. protein foods (cottage cheese, cheese up to 40% fat, boiled or fried meat, boiled or fried fish, 2 eggs), tea or coffee without sugar (with milk). Lunch: broth from the first course (grounds excluded, except cabbage) – 250g, 100g. meat or fish and 150 gr. vegetable salad (except potatoes and beans) with vegetable oil, 30 gr. bread, unsweetened compote or juice. Dinner: 100 gr. meat or fish, a glass of kefir (up to 3.2% fat), fruit. Between main meals, snacks are possible - vegetables or fruits (up to 100g).
You can create a specific menu for the day yourself from permitted products, guided by the scheme proposed above. The daily diet should not exceed 1500 Kcal. In order for the body to receive all the necessary substances during a diet, you need to eat a varied diet.
3 options for the Mirkin diet menu No. 1:
breakfast – 200 gr. cottage cheese + coffee (coffee with milk) without sugar, lunch - borscht without grounds in meat broth (potatoes should not be included in it) + a slice of bread (30 gr.), for the main course: 100 gr. boiled meat and 150 gr. salad of fresh green vegetables with salt and onions, seasoned with vegetable oil + a glass of tomato juice, afternoon snack - milk (1.5% fat), dinner - 100 g. milk sausages + 250 ml kefir (3.2% fat) + apple (200 g).
Daily diet - 1200 kcal.
№ 2:
breakfast – 100 gr. boiled sausage + coffee with milk, lunch - fish soup without grounds + a slice of bread, for the second cutlet (100g) with a salad of fresh tomatoes and dill with vegetable oil + a glass of apple juice, afternoon snack - a glass of tomato juice, dinner - 200g. cottage cheese + a glass of kefir (3.2% fat) + grapes (200 gr.).
Daily diet - 1400 kcal.
№ 3:
breakfast – 2 boiled eggs with salt + tea with milk, lunch – soup in meat broth without thickening + a slice of bread, for the main course: 100 gr. sausages and fresh cucumber salad + a glass of dried fruit compote without sugar, afternoon snack – a glass of kefir (1.5% fat), dinner – 100 g. cheese + a glass of kefir (2.5%) + grapefruit or orange.
Daily diet - 1300 kcal.
If you don’t want to create a menu yourself, you can buy Dr. Mirkin’s book with recipe options.
The Mirkin diet can be followed constantly; it is not even a diet, but a system of proper nutrition. The absence of strict restrictions makes this technique safe and at the same time effective.
If you are very overweight, in the first 2-3 weeks of following the diet you will lose 5-7 kg, then weight loss may stop (during this period a restructuring of fat metabolism occurs). In the future, following the Mirkin diet will make it possible to lose 7-10 kg per month.
For intensive weight loss, Dr. Mirkin recommends doing fasting days every other day. Dr. Mirkin considers fasting days on kefir to be the most effective. Cottage cheese, apple, cucumber, and cabbage fasting days are also recommended.
Subsequently, it will be possible to arrange unloading once a week. If during the holiday feast you allowed yourself more than usual, a fasting day will also help out.
Regular physical activity will be an additional advantage.
How to lose weight once and for all. 11 steps to a slim figure
This book most fully describes the author's weight loss method of Dr. Mirkin. You will learn how to lose weight effectively without harm to your health, how to deal with “hunger attacks”, how to relieve emotional stress while losing weight. The author's unique diet will help you lose 10 kilograms in a month. We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the famous Malysheva diet.
Start of the diet
As a psychotherapist, Vladimir Mirkin could not ignore the psychological side of the diet. He claims that the problem of excess weight is caused solely by the wrong attitude towards food. It should be noted here that we are not talking about people whose obesity is associated with a severe illness. Most often, extra pounds are the result of poor nutrition.
Before you start losing weight and learn to perceive food only as food, you need to fully understand your responsibility for excess weight. You should carefully consider your figure and answer yourself honestly what led to such results. Most likely it's overeating. It is important to understand that only we are responsible for what happens to us. This means that only we can solve the problem.
The next step is to understand why you should lose weight in the first place. The best results are achieved by those who are driven by motive. To do this, you can make a list (preferably in writing, not in your head) of all the negative aspects of being overweight. It could be: normal clothes don’t suit me, next to a slender friend (friend) I feel inferior, colleagues are always making fun of me, etc. At this moment, most likely, I will feel sorry for myself. And, if you don’t mind, this is already a serious problem. The main thing is to understand that all this can be solved. Many people live with excess weight for 20 years, although sometimes 2-3 months are enough to lose weight. You need to find the motive, then the annoying folds won’t have a chance.
It can be difficult to give up your favorite foods, even after realizing they are harmful. To overcome this attachment, the doctor suggested something like a mantra for losing weight. To do this, you need to determine why exactly this or that product is not allowed. For example: beer is a huge belly and bloated sides, sweets are a double chin, pizza is cellulite, I don’t want cellulite, and so on. You need to repeat this to yourself every time you want something forbidden. After reaching the desired weight, you can occasionally allow yourself to be weak, but do not overdo it.
So, only we are responsible for the excess weight that greatly bothers us, and we will get rid of it.
Psychological aspects
Mirkin's weight loss system is based primarily on the psychosomatic state of a person. The doctor claims that the only reason for the appearance of excess weight is the internal attitude. To lose weight, you just need to pull yourself together, set a weight loss goal, and, gathering your strength, follow in the right direction.
It is important to determine reasonable time limits for the weight loss process, and remember that the responsibility for getting rid of excess weight lies only with the person losing weight.
Menu for the week
For minimal weight loss, 2 weeks of the diet prescribed by Mirkin in compliance with the rules will be enough. But in order to always stay in shape and not torment yourself with strict diets, it is better to get used to this program and always stick to it. This is not so difficult to do; prohibited foods can be introduced in minimal quantities after significant weight loss. On the background of a healthy diet, one serving of fried pork will not affect your weight in any way. It turns out that you can eat anything, the main thing is to do it wisely.
Most often, Vladimir Mirkin’s diet is used for a month.
During this time, many manage to lose 6-10 kg. Since according to the rules you need to eat only when you feel hungry, there is no clear diet regimen. Everyone will have their own. For clarity, you can consider the weekly menu for the Mirkin diet. Menu for 7 days
| Day by count | Morning | Dinner | Evening |
| 1 | 2 boiled eggs, one cucumber, unsweetened coffee | Meat broth, cabbage salad | 150 grams of boiled beef, a glass of low-fat kefir |
| 2 | Cottage cheese with fresh apple | Fish broth, separately a piece of fish | Vegetable salad, 150 g baked chicken |
| 3 | Boiled sausages, one tomato, coffee | Meat soup without grounds, separately a piece of meat | Baked fish, cucumber |
| 4 | Boiled egg, vegetable salad | Okroshka with kefir (without potatoes) | Boiled veal, cabbage and carrot salad |
| 5 | Omelet with milk, coffee without sugar | Meat broth (can be served with a piece of white bread) | Boiled chicken fillet, some vegetables |
| 6 | Cottage cheese with berries, tea or coffee | Yushka of tomato soup or borscht, separately a piece of boiled meat | Piece of fish, salad with herbs and egg |
| 7 | Boiled sausage, tomato, cottage cheese and herbs salad | Vegetable broth, boiled beet salad with prunes | Piece of boiled pork, green apple, yogurt |
There may be light snacks between main meals. But only if it's really necessary. For lunch or afternoon snack, you can take fruits, berries, vegetable salads, and dairy products. Sometimes you can afford white bread, but it is better to switch to diet bread. It is recommended to get up from the table a little hungry; the feeling of fullness may come a little later. In any case, as soon as you feel hungry, you need to eat something light and not starve yourself.
This scheme must be strictly followed until the required weight is achieved. After this, you can smoothly end the diet or keep its rules forever.
Quitting the diet
There is no need to quit this diet. If you are impatient with your previous diet, you can simply avoid eating foods high in carbohydrates for 1-2 days. At first, you will need to avoid confectionery products, fatty meats and bread. They can be introduced gradually, one product per day. This is necessary to protect your body from stress and prevent the return of excess folds.
In general, Dr. Mirkin’s diet may well become a way of life. If you include at least minimal physical activity, there will be no prohibitions on food at all. You shouldn’t stick to a strict menu for too long; it doesn’t contain enough vegetable fats and carbohydrates. During the weight loss program, the stomach will decrease slightly in size. This means that in the future very small portions will be enough to completely satiate.
The main thing is to avoid the temptations of “junk food” - fast food, processed foods and products filled with harmful additives.
