The sirtfood diet was developed by two “celebrity” nutritionists in the UK and has recently rocketed to the top of this year’s top diet trends due to the claim that Adele has used it to lose 40+ lbs.

Adele has not personally confirmed doing the sirtfood diet OR how much weight she has lost.

The creators of the sirtfood diet, Aidan Goggin and Glen Matten, claim that you can “lose weight and not feel hungry. You can drop 7 lbs and 7 days and none of it will be muscle.” This quote is taken straight from the sirtfood website.

They claim that sirtuins (SIRTs), a group of seven proteins in the body, have been shown to regulate a variety of functions, including metabolism, inflammation and lifespan. Of note, these studies were on fruit flies and mice, not humans.

What do you eat on the sirtfood diet?

“Sirtfoods” supposedly increase sirtuins in the body.

Here is their list of the “top 20 sirtfoods:” 

During week one, you are to limit your calories to 1000 per day, drink 3 sirtfood green juices per day, and eat one sirtfood rich meal.

During week two, you up your intake to 1500 calories per day, drink 2 sirtfood green juices per day, and eat 2 sirtfood-rich meals per day.

There is no long-term plan. Once you have completed the 2 weeks, you are supposed to continue to incorporate sirtfoods and green juices.

So basically, they’re telling you to eat healthy foods and cut your calories.

Will I lose weight?

The scale will probably go down. It WILL be muscle, water, and a little fat (I don’t know how two people with clinical backgrounds could possible claim that you wouldn’t lose muscle on a calorie-restricted diet).

You will probably gain the weight back as soon as the 2 weeks are over.

Goggin and Matten claim in their very small “in-house” study that the participants lost weight and maintained muscle, but they did not follow up with any of the participants after 3 weeks.

I’m also not sure how they can make the claim that you “won’t be hungry.” Your body won’t just turn off it’s hunger cues for some magic combination of foods when you’re only eating 1000 calories a day. That’s just BS.

While they do a great job of copying and pasting peoples wildest dreams into their taglines, this diet is nothing special. It’s just a reiteration of every other diet we’ve seen: eat this, not that, starve yourself, lose weight, gain it back, then come back for the next new “celebrity” diet.

Remember the Dukan diet, the 5:2 diet, and the cabbage soup diet? These diets were all endorsed by celebrities at one time, but you don’t hear them talked about much today. The sirtfood diet will have it’s time in the limelight then it will fade away when people tire of it and the media will be on to covering the next fad.

What could I do instead?

Do you find yourself constantly trying to keep up with the rules of various diets throughout the years? No legumes or peanut butter on paleo. No grains or dairy on Whole 30. No bread or fruit on keto. The list goes on and on and it’s no wonder why everyone is confused about how to eat.⁣⁣

My best advice? Stop following all the arbitrary rules that weren’t made with you in mind, but to sell to the masses.⁣⁣

Throw out the idea that the next diet (AKA set of arbitrary rules) is going to be THE ONE. It’s not.⁣⁣ The only thing that works long term is developing a specific plan of action that fuels YOUR body in the best way possible and leaves you feeling happy and satisfied. ⁣⁣

If you’re not sure how to do that, it’s time to get help and hire a registered dietitian.

Megan (Ware) Poczekaj is a registered dietitian nutritionist in Orlando, FL. She owns the private practice, Nutrition Awareness, where she teaches other entrepreneurs how to maximize their productivity and performance with nutrition. She is the author of the book The Optimized Life: A Nutrition Guide for Entrepreneurs.

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