What is the watermelon diet? The truth about this fruit fad

August 5, 2022

The watermelon diet could be the 2022 version of the trendy 1970s grapefruit diet. Many trending diets owe their popularity to a celebrity connection—for the grapefruit diet, it was reportedly Brooke Shields. And for the watermelon diet, it’s Gabi Butler, who explained to her mom on an episode of the hit Netflix series To cheer that she and a teammate did the watermelon diet for a few days as a cleanse.

Asked about Katie Krause’s diet extra in January Butler said: “It’s basically a watermelon fast. You don’t really fast because you’re getting something in your stomach.” She added, “I will do it every once in a while when I feel like I’ve eaten really badly, not just for my physical appearance but for my own mental state… There is nothing that is unhealthy. It is actually very good for you to remove all the toxic stuff. What the watermelon does is it basically clarifies everything because it’s mostly water.”

But do nutritionists agree with Butler? Here’s an in-depth look at the diet, along with what they had to say.

What is the watermelon Diet?

Different versions of the watermelon diet have circulated around the internet. At its core, the diet consists of eating nothing but watermelon for a set period of time. Common variations last from three to seven days, after which you add some or all of the foods you normally eat, with or without watermelon. Because watermelon is a low-calorie food — a cup of diced watermelon has about 46 calories, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) — this diet is very low in calories. It is considered a cleansing or detoxifying diet.

YouTubers who try it brag about losing a lot of weight — say, 13 pounds in seven days — and say they stop craving junk food, clear their skin, have more mental clarity and energy, and feel lighter and… feel less bloated.

But the nutritionists we spoke to aren’t fans. “[Gabi Butler’s] Advice on the watermelon diet is more toxic than the toxins she’s trying to get rid of with this cleanse,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN, creator of BetterThanDieting.com and author of Read it before you eat it: from label to table. “Too bad she doesn’t understand her importance as a role model.” Unfortunately, in the public eye, people like Butler can lead fans to try diets like this.

“I’m a big fan of watermelon and fruit in general, but this diet isn’t helping,” says Samantha Cassetty, RD, the New York City-based co-author of sugar shock. “Watermelon happens to be a very healthy food, but there’s no evidence that eating it exclusively is healthy. In fact, it’s the opposite.”

Both Cassetty and Taub-Dix are generally skeptical about cleaning. “There is no scientific validity to purification,” says Cassetty. “The idea that you could eliminate toxins simply by eating watermelon is dead wrong.”

Taub-Dix points out that you don’t need a restrictive diet to cleanse your body—your liver and kidneys do it for you.