Make grapefruit a part of your daily diet this winter and you could avoid putting on those holiday pounds. Studies show that the average person gains between five and ten pounds every holiday season. Adding grapefruit to your breakfast routine, or drinking grapefruit juice everyday can help you avoid gaining weight over the food focused holidays and may even help you lose weight.  In one 12 week study that was done the participants, both men and women, who were instructed to eat a half of a grapefruit with each of their meals or drink the equivalent amount of grapefruit juice everyday lost considerably more weight than people who did not eat or drink grapefruit.  In many cases the people who ate grapefruit at each meal or drank grapefruit juice each day lost more than seven pounds more than people who did not add grapefruit juice to their daily diet.

For many years the Grapefruit Diet has been under scrutiny as a possible fad diet. Fad diets generally do not work because one the initial period of calorie restriction is over the body will overcorrect itself and store more calories than it did before which will lead to even greater weight gain. Fad diets are often criticized for setting up unreal expectations and in extreme cases they can forever damage a person's metabolism which can cause lifelong health problems and weight struggles.  Whether or not the Grapefruit Diet is a fad is still up for debate, whether or not grapefruit juice can help you lose weight is not. Scientific studies prove that eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice on a regular basis can indeed help people lose weight in a safe, healthy, natural way. All you need to do in order to avoid packing on pounds during the holidays is make sure that you are eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice every day.

Grapefruits help people lose weight because an element found in grapefruit juice, naringin, has been found to block the absorption of carbohydrates into the bloodstream.  The fewer carbs your body processes the more fat will be broken down by your body and used for energy, which leads to higher calorie burn which leads to weight loss. Naringin is the same element that gives grapefruit juice a slightly bitter taste, but since it can help you lose weight most people do not mind that it makes the juice a little bit bitter. Just make sure that you do not use too much sugar to balance out the bitterness of the juice.