EnglishEspañol

The Rice Diet: What Should You Know?

Written by Sharon Liao
Medically Reviewed by Shruthi N, MD on August 17, 2025
9 min read

The Rice Diet is a short-term eating plan that’s low in calories, fat, salt, and protein, but high in carbs. It was first created to help treat high blood pressure and kidney disease, but some people now try it for quick weight loss.

Despite its name, this diet is not all about rice. It’s been around since 1939, but it got a new wave of popularity when The Rice Diet Solution was published in 2006.

The Rice Diet now includes a variety of whole foods. The plan promises to help you shed pounds and “cleanse and detox” your body while keeping you satisfied with nutrient-dense meals and controlled portions.

How much weight can you expect to lose? Everyone is different, but during the first month, women lose 19 pounds and men lose 30 pounds, on average, claims the book.

But there’s more to it than your weight. The plan also recommends exercise, keeping a food journal, and meditation to help achieve balance and manage stress. As the book says, “it’s a physical, emotional, and spiritual program that will change the way you live.”

The Rice Diet is a low-fat, low-salt diet. Because sodium is an appetite stimulant, cutting back curbs your hunger. You’ll also fill up on high-fiber foods, so you’ll feel satisfied with fewer calories, say the authors.

The diet has three phases: 

Phase 1(detox mode). You’ll eat 800 calories a day. On the first day, you’ll stick with starches, such as rice, bread, pasta, or potatoes, and fruit. Over the next six days, you can add beans, vegetables, and non-fat milk. You’ll get 300-500 milligrams of sodium per day.

Phase 2 (weight loss mode). You’ll average about 1,000 calories and 300-500 milligrams of sodium each day. You’ll eat fruit and starches for one day, followed by five days of fruit, starches, beans, vegetables, and non-fat milk. On the seventh day, you’ll add fish, dairy, eggs, or lean meat.

Phase 3 (maintenance mode). This phase is the same as phase 1, but you’ll add 200 more calories per week until you reach your goal weight. You can also add tofu, cheese, nuts, seeds, olives, and olive oil. Sodium is increased to 500-1,000 milligrams per day.

Instead of counting calories, the Rice Diet breaks down its meals into portions. For example, one starch is 1/2 cup cooked grains, pasta, or starchy vegetables, and one fruit is 1 medium-sized whole fruit or 1 cup of fruit.

You’ll fill up on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nonfat or low-fat dairy, low-sodium beans, and lean protein. You can eat any whole grain, fruit, or vegetable, as long as they don’t have added fat or sodium. During the detox phase, you might have 2/3 cups of brown rice plus one cup each of berries and melon for dinner.

As you continue the plan, you’ll keep eating starches, fruits, and vegetables daily, and add in dairy, eggs, fish, tofu, and lean meat. Because the diet’s low in salt and fat, you’ll season your food with herbs, vinegar, lemon, lime, and no-salt-added condiments.

For beverages, you can have water, seltzer, herbal tea, unsweetened fruit juices, and unsalted vegetable juices. You can also drink milk — skim and low-fat soy and grain milks are recommended.

“The Rice Diet is extremely strict,” says Dolores Woods, RD, nutritionist with UTHealth Houston. You’re going to cut way down on calories, salt, fat, and sugar — all at once. The food on the plan doesn’t give you enough calcium and vitamin D, so you will need supplements. Also, the plan offers much less protein than what’s recommended for healthy people. If you have a medical condition, check with your doctor before starting this diet.

Rice Diet limitations 

All the food groups are fair game, but portion sizes count. One day a week on the plan, you’ll eat only starches and fruit. The rest of the time, you can eat a variety of whole foods. The plan also recommends you skip alcohol, coffee, and caffeinated sodas.

Cooking and shopping on the Rice Diet

You’ll shop and cook for most of your meals. “It’s difficult to follow the plan in restaurants,” Woods says. The recommended foods are available at any grocery store. The book contains a healthy grocery list to help you stock up on the right foods, drinks, and seasonings.

The Rice Diet Solution features weekly meal plans, plus suggested recipes that take time to prep and cook. Because the plan limits fat and sodium, you’ll cook with no or very little salt. They’re usually cooked with a small amount of extra-virgin olive oil.

Can you have packaged foods or meals on the rice diet?

Because processed and packaged foods are often high in sodium and fat, they typically don’t fit into the Rice Diet. But the book recommends some items, such as certain cereals, crackers, and no-salt-added canned soups.

Does the Rice Diet have in-person meetings?

You follow the Rice Diet on your own, so there are no in-person meetings.

Should you exercise while on the Rice Diet?

The plan recommends regular exercise, such as walking and yoga. Because the diet is low in calories and electrolytes, use caution if you work out a lot or for long periods, says Woods. Talk to your doctor before you try the Rice Diet.

You can adjust the Rice Diet to fit your dietary restrictions and preferences. If you’re vegetarian, you can have eggs for your lean protein. Beans, soy, tempeh, tofu, as well as soy- and grain-based milks are also recommended, making it suitable for vegans, too.

Is the Rice Diet gluten-free?

The Rice Diet isn’t strictly a gluten-free diet because you can eat bread, crackers, and other wheat-based foods. But it can easily become gluten-free. Rice doesn’t have gluten in it, so you’re good there. But gluten is in many products that you might not know it’s in, so if you’re going gluten-free, you’ll need to read food labels. 

Low-salt diet

This plan is a very low-sodium diet. Experts recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day, and the Rice Diet starts with 300-500 milligrams of sodium daily. You’ll build up to 500-1,000 milligrams of sodium.

Low-fat diet 

Eating a low-fat diet can help protect your heart and encourage weight loss, according to the book. This plan is low-fat, with low- or no-fat dairy and lean proteins. It advises having fatty fish, such as salmon, for healthy omega-3 fats.

Overweight and obesity can set the stage for many chronic diseases. The Rice Diet can help you lose weight. The plan got its start as an inpatient way for clinics to help treat hypertension, and more recent research backs up these health benefits.

Lower blood pressure

The plan is low in fat and sodium, which helps reduce blood pressure. In a study of more than 17,000 Rice Diet patients, the plan helped reduce blood pressure and weight in people who were overweight and obese, says study author Lin Pao-Hwa, PhD, a professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.

Can the Rice Diet benefit heart health? 

Scientists are still studying the Rice Diet’s effect on the heart. But a low-sodium, low-fat diet is recommended for heart health. Lowering blood pressure can protect against cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack, stroke, and heart failure.

Because the Rice Diet has been around for decades, researchers show that it is safe when followed correctly and done under medical supervision. “Because the diet is very strict, it has nutritional deficiency,” says Woods. It falls short in vitamin D and calcium, so you’ll need to take supplements. It’s also low in protein, which can lead to muscle loss, especially in older adults. “You may also feel dizzy or tired because you’re not getting enough calories or electrolytes,” she says.

The Rice Diet is simple to manage because you don’t need to count calories or eat very specific foods. The food in the diet is found at the grocery store. But the diet is very restrictive and isn’t doable for most people over the long term, Woods says.

“Because the Rice Diet is very strict and low in calories, pregnant women, young children, and those with a history of eating disorders shouldn’t try it,” Woods says. A low-sodium diet may also be risky for certain people, such as older adults and those who do long-distance endurance exercise. Talk to your health care provider first if you’re thinking about trying the Rice Diet.

The Rice Diet started as a way to help treat heart disease and hypertension. The plan limits sodium, which can help lower blood pressure. And it’s a low-fat diet, which could help you lower high cholesterol.

Costs: None apart from the food you buy.

Support: This is a diet you can do on your own.

Does it work?

This 1,200-calorie, whole-food diet, including exercise, tips to lower stress levels, and advice for making healthy lifestyle changes, will help you lose weight.

But following a strict and low-calorie diet like this one is going to be hard. It would be a real challenge to stay on the plan at social events or when eating out. Plus, there’s a risk for nutritional deficiencies.

Restricting protein to less than half the recommended amount may lead to loss of muscle mass and won’t help keep you feeling full.

And while the plan claims to detoxify your body, there is no evidence that detox diets actually remove toxins from the body.

Is it good for certain conditions?

The Rice Diet is a low-calorie, low-protein, low-fat, low-sodium plan, and it can work for anyone with heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or type 2 diabetes.

But be sure to talk to your doctor before starting the diet.

The final word

Following The Rice Diet Solution will definitely result in weight loss due to the very low calories allowed, but it may also take away some of the pleasure of eating, with all the strict rules and limited food choices.

This program may be a good kick-start to your healthy eating efforts, but it’s probably too strict to do over the long term. Strict diets tend to be better short-term fixes.

If you have a medical condition or need to drop pounds quickly for health reasons, this plan may work for you, given you get the OK from your doctor first. But it’s better to follow a medically-supervised low-calorie diet that contains enough protein instead.

Be sure to supplement your diet with calcium and vitamin D, and possibly a multivitamin, to fill in the nutritional gaps.

The Rice Diet is a low-fat, low-sodium diet meant to help you lose weight and lower your blood pressure. You’ll eat mostly whole foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nonfat or low-fat dairy, low-sodium beans, and lean protein. Although the diet is simple, it’s also very strict and hard to follow over the long run.

What is the recipe for the Rice Diet drink?

There’s no specific drink for the diet. The plan recommends drinking water, herbal tea, unsweetened fruit juice, unsalted vegetable juice, and non- or low-fat milk.

What is phase 1 of the Rice Diet?

The goal of phase 1 is to detox the body of water weight, excess sodium, pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals. You’ll get 800 calories a day from simple, fresh foods. For the first day, you’ll eat grains and fruit, followed by adding vegetables, beans, and organic milk for the other six days.

Can I lose weight by eating only rice?

You don’t only eat rice on the Rice Diet. For starches, you can eat whole grains, bread, pasta, and starchy vegetables. You’ll also load up on fruits and vegetables, and have low-sodium beans, non- or low-fat dairy, fish, eggs, and lean meat.