What Is the Fat Flush Diet?
Diet & NutritionDiet Types

Fat Flush Diet: What You Need to Know

Fat Flush Diet: What You Need to Know
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Updated on September 2, 2025
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This eating plan is considered a fad diet. Fad diets often promote quick weight loss that is unsustainable and may severely restrict what you eat. They may be harmful and generally do not have long-lasting health benefits. Talk to your healthcare provider before making any major changes to how you eat.

The Fat Flush Plan is a detox diet created by Anne Louise Gittleman, PhD, a holistic nutritionist and author. The detox diet focuses on liver health to increase metabolism, flush out bloat, and speed up weight loss, as noted on her website.

 She claims that you can lose one to five pounds per week.

How Does the Fat Flush Diet Claim to Work?

Although the original diet was created in 1988 and designed to last two weeks, the current plan Dr. Gittleman promotes in her books and on her website is called the New Fat Flush Plan.

 It consists of four phases:
  • Phase 1: Three-day liquid detox
  • Phase 2: Two-week cleanse
  • Phase 3: Reintroduction of gluten-free carbohydrates
  • Phase 4: Maintenance phase
The structure of this diet follows an elimination diet, a concept where you remove foods from your diet for a certain period of time and slowly reintroduce them.

 Traditionally, these diets are done to identify food allergies or sensitivities, or foods that trigger disease flares.
According to the Fat Flush website, the phases of this diet and food choices target “underlying causes” of weight gain, including liver toxicity, thyroid dysfunction, magnesium deficiency, not enough fat in the diet, microbiome imbalance, water retention, stress, and even parasites.

The detox diet is built around “fat-flushing” foods that Gittleman says act as diuretics or burn fat, such as hot lemon water, plain water, lean protein, low-glycemic-index fruits and vegetables, flaxseed oil, and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). GLA is a type of omega-6 fatty acid.

What Can You Eat on the Fat Flush Diet?

The type of food recommended will depend on what phase you’re in. The diet plan starts off strict, focusing on liquid foods like smoothies and then eventually moves into a maintenance phase where you have more food options. For the exact foods to include for each phase, refer to the plan outlined in the book.

Foods to Include

  • Hot water and lemon
  • Smoothies
  • Vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms, salad greens, sweet potato
  • Fruit like apples, blueberries, cherries, grapefruit
  • Lean protein like salmon, shrimp, poultry, steak, eggs
  • Dairy like cheese and yogurt
  • Cran-water (cranberry juice diluted with water)
  • Flaxseeds
  • Steel-cut oats
  • Healthy fats like avocado and olive oil

Foods to Avoid

You’ll avoid eating solid foods and caffeine at the start of the plan. Throughout the entire plan, you’ll avoid ultraprocessed foods, fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, alcohol, and processed meats.

In addition, a Fat Flush Kit is sold on the website, which contains supplements including a ”weight loss formula,” multivitamin, and GLA. It’s unclear from the website what ingredients are in the weight loss formula.

Potential Benefits of the Fat Flush Diet (and Why They May Not Last)

Fad diets that focus on detox and restrict calories can cause fast, short-term weight loss.

 Also, the foods that are recommended on this plan are healthy, whole foods that are rich in fiber and protein. Protein helps you feel full so you eat less, increases metabolism, and helps reduce muscle loss that can occur during weight loss.

 Fiber, which also helps you feel full, is another important nutrient for weight loss.

However, a lot of the weight you lose initially may be from fluid. And health experts say unless your liver or kidneys aren’t working properly, they’re constantly ridding your body of harmful, toxic substances through urine, feces, and sweat. Eating a healthy diet high in fiber and low in fat can help your body continue to detox itself naturally by keeping your liver and kidneys in good working order.


Potential Risks of the Fat Flush Diet

There are some concerns to consider before trying the Fat Flush Plan:

  • Unsustainable weight loss: One risk of fad diets is that eliminating foods, a hallmark of the Fat Flush Plan, can make it difficult to follow the diet.

     If you can’t follow the diet long-term, weight loss won’t last.
  • Potential for disordered eating: Dieting can be a source of mental distress that promotes disordered eating habits for some people.

  • Lack of scientific evidence: There is no peer-reviewed scientific research on the Fat Flush Plan that shows if it is safe and effective for people to follow.
  • Low in calories: The estimated calorie intake is 1,100 to 1,600 calories per day until you reach the maintenance phase.

     It’s generally not recommended to dip below 1,200 calories per day, and most people need more than that, even when losing weight.

  • Requires supplements: There isn’t high-quality evidence to suggest that dietary supplements aid in weight loss.

     Also, supplements don’t undergo the same safety testing and quality control as drugs, and they can interact with medications you may be taking.

Is the Fat Flush Diet Right for You?

The Fat Flush Plan is considered a fad diet, which promotes quick weight loss that may not be sustainable. In general, there is a lack of scientific evidence about how detox diets actually remove toxins from the body. They also have not been shown to be effective or provide long-lasting benefits.

 Be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before starting any diet.

The Takeaway

  • The Fat Flush Plan is a detoxification diet that claims to boost metabolism, flush out excess fat, and enhance your body’s natural detoxification processes.
  • The diet does focus on healthy, whole foods, which are the basis of many doctor-recommended eating plans.
  • However, detox diets lack scientific evidence that they are effective for lasting weight loss, as they can be difficult to adhere to long-term.

Additional reporting by Jessica Migala.

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Decades of Weight Loss Success! Fatflush.com.
  2. The New Fat Flush Plan. Fatflush.com.
  3. Malone JC et al. Elimination Diets. StatPearls. January 9, 2024.
  4. Gamma-linolenic acid as a dietary supplement. EBSCO. 2024.
  5. Tahreem A et al. Fad Diets: Facts and Fiction. Frontiers in Nutrition. July 5, 2022.
  6. Moon J et al. Clinical Evidence and Mechanisms of High-Protein Diet-Induced Weight Loss. Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome. July 23, 2020.
  7. Kelly R et al. Increased dietary fiber is associated with weight loss among Full Plate Living program participants. Frontiers in Nutrition. April 17, 2023.
  8. 4 Detox Myths: Get The Facts. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. October 26, 2020.
  9. Habib A et al. Unintended consequences of dieting: How restrictive eating habits can harm your health. International Journal of Surgery Open. November 2023.
  10. Zarzo I et al. Curiosities of Weight Loss Diets of the Last 60 Years. Recent Progress in Nutrition. November 23, 2023.
  11. Getting past a weight-loss plateau. Mayo Clinic. April 9, 2024.
  12. Batsis JA, et al. A Systematic Review of Dietary Supplements and Alternative Therapies for Weight Loss. Obesity. June 23, 2021.
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Julie Cunningham

Julie Cunningham, MPH, RDN, LDN, CDCES

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Julie Cunningham is a registered dietitian-nutritionist and a certified diabetes care and education specialist.

Cunningham received a bachelor's degree from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She subsequently completed a master's degree in public health nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cunningham has worked in women's and children's health, cardiology, and diabetes. She has written for Abbott Nutrition News, Edgepark Medical HealthInsights, diaTribe, Babylist, and others. She is also the author of 30 Days to Tame Type 2 Diabetes.

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