What can I say, I love a beer diet. When I completed my successful return to the 170 pound weight class this past October,  I just wished I had another reason to do another diet a bit sooner. I started to think, “Why does the beer diet have to be an annual event? Is there a way I could make it semi-annual?” Soon, over a tasty pint of Sierra Nevada, I realized that if I did a mid-year beer diet it would coincide with my birthday in April and that would be yet another reason to celebrate life with a beer and burger diet. After debating the timing, I decided due to travel plans and a magnificent cake that was rumored for my birthday that the optimal dates would be April 11-20.

Similar to the beer and sausage diet, the beer diet is simply a diet which allows you to have as much beer as your heart desires, but limits your consumption of food to one type only. So in the case of the burger diet, I would be limited to only eating hamburgers for 10 days. For the most part these burgers are bun-less, served with peppers of differing varieties and copious quantities of Sriracha as well. (Note, see Cheats section below). A guys dream right?

For the beer and sausage diet, I feel something of a pro now that I have done it for the last two years (hey, thats an eternity in beer-diet terms!). With my experience, I know exactly what to get and how to plan for my meals. But what would a burger diet require? How could I plan it and still lose weight? I decided to go to Sprouts (upscale grocery store) and get a mix of gourmet turkey and beef burgers. I also bought a few packs of standard 93% fat free frozen hamburgers as well as frozen turkey and salmon burgers. For beer, I had luckily received a gift card which significantly lowered my receipt when I checked out of the beer and wine superstore.

As with the sausage diet, I allow myself two main cheats.

1. I drink coffee in the morning.  A big cup of sweetened coffee gets me through all morning and I rarely feel any hunger until 12pm.

2. If, at a restaurant, a burger is served in its natural environment which may include a bun, mayo, etc than I may consume said ingredients as the burger has been served that way. However, I am responsible for losing the weight so I try to keep this cheat to a minimum.

So I got started and it went well. I was easily able to schedule my business lunch meetings (which has been a problem in past beer diets) because let’s face it, almost every restaurant in the U.S. will serve you a burger. I had gone up in weight to just over 190 pounds before the diet stated which I was a bit disappointed about so I had a lot to lose. I genuinely try to do my best to keep the weight off between beer diets but it wasn’t in the cards this time.

Overall, I lost 5 pounds in 10 days. Not bad for just eating burgers and drinking beer for 10 days, but not quite to the level of the two sausage diets which had results of 8 and 7 pounds respectively. I’m not sure why this diet was less effective, possibly I ate more buns as I don’t find the burgers as tasty by themselves as I do a bratwurst or smoked sausage. The most beers I had in one day was 7 and the fewest was 2.

By far the best burger during the diet was the Hopdoddys Bison burger I had with a group of friends. I fully planned on eating half of this burger, but it was far too tasty to not pick back up and finish. I even ate the bun…

The best beer I had over the 10 days was the Sleepy Dog Porter. It was delicious and really highlighted the last 5 days of the diet. Additionally, it was a welcome relief from the polarizing effect of mixing too many heavy IPA’s and lighter, fruit beers which is the mix I opted for heavily during the first five days.

‘There is never a bad day when on the beer diet’ is something I like to say. However, overall I do enjoy the beer and sausage diet better and currently have no future plans for doing the burger diet again. However, I will say with an updated strategy I think the beer and burger diet could be just as effective in the weight-loss category as the sausage diet.

Note that all beers have been estimated at 200 calories each unless larger than a pint.

Day 2

 – a turkey burger around noon and an all beef burger, with peppers at 6pm. 200 calories on the first, 300 on the second. (500 total)

1. Heineken Dark
2. Nimbus Dirty Guerra
3. Odell Tree Shaker
4. Santa Fe State Pen Porter
5. Abita Louisiana Spiced

– beef cheeseburger for lunch, 1/2 a Joe’s midnight burger with 1/4 bun. For dinner a 1/2 an Arcadia tavern burger with 1/4 bun. (1100 total)

1. Woodchuck Cider
2. Bells Two hearted ipa
3. Ohso Smoked Cherry Porter
4.  Ninkasi Stout
5. Colorado Vixnu
6. Chimay Premiere
7. Funkwerks Saison

– cheddar jalapeño turkey burger. Second one later in the day, 250 calories each. (500)

1. Louisiana Spiced ale
2. Nimbus Dirty Guerra
3. Heineken Dark
4. Treeshaker Imperial IPA Peaches
5. State Pen Porter

– spinach feta cheese turkeyburger. (250). Cheeseburger in morning. (550 total)

1. Sonoran White Chocolate
2. Henry’s Hard Orange
3. Lagunitas IPA

4. San Tan Hefewizen
5. Sierra Nevada pale ale

– turkey cheeseburger. Whole hopdoddys bison burger with bun, 630 calories. (880 total)

1. Sleepy Dog Porter

2. Sleepy Dog Parched Pooch
3. Desert Eagle Grapefruit Session White IPA
4. Perch Brewing Oatmeal Stout
5. king Cobra 12oz

Day 7

– Turkeyburger with ham (300). 1 super turkey burger and 1/2 turkeyburger are night. (800 total)
1.Grapefruit Shandy San Tan Beermosa
2. Grapefruit Shandy San Tan Beermosa
3. Grapefruit Shandy San Tan Beermosa
4. Wasatch Apricot
5. Henry’s Hard Soda
6. Iunta Detour Double IPA

Day 8

– turkey burger at noon. 1/2 turkey/ham around 5pm. 1/2 turkey at night. (600 total)
1. Leinenkugel Grapefruit Shandy
2. Stella Artois Cadre
3. Hyve Honey Ale –  Uinta
4. Sierra Nevada Summerfest

Day 9

– half turkey burger at 11am. Chicken burger at 2pm. Burger Rush lettuce burger at 9:30pm. (720 total).
– Grand Canyon IPA
– mother road tower ipa 16oz

Day 10

– 1 chicken-cheeseburger. One Turkeyburger for dinner. (550 total)

1. Fate IPA
2. Four Peaks Kilt Lifter
3. Boulevard Heavy Lifting IPA
4. Mendocino Red Tail Amber
5. San Tan Grapefruit Shandy
6. Paulaner Salvator Double Bock

A Few More Photos