Tom Brady Diet Review: Weight Loss, Meal Plan, and More
- Dietitian.Lauren Hmede
- Aug 6, 2019
- 4 min read
The Tom Brady Diet, also known as the TB12 Method, is a whole-foods-based diet developed by professional American football player Tom Brady.
It’s claimed to be one of the main reasons behind Brady’s longevity in the professional football world, as well as lower your risk of injury and improve athletic performance, recovery, energy levels, and overall health.
Still, many people simply follow the diet to lose weight or feel more energized. They rave about its results, though critics point out that it’s unnecessarily complex, unsustainable in the long term, and not supported by strong science.
This article reviews the pros and cons of the Tom Brady Diet to help you decide whether it may work for you.
What is the Tom Brady Diet?
The Tom Brady Diet is a diet and training program developed by professional American football player Tom Brady to improve energy levels, sports performance, recovery, and overall health.
How to follow the Tom Brady Diet
The Tom Brady Diet encourages eating minimally processed, whole foods and restricting processed ones. It recommends avoiding foods deemed inflammatory or acidifying and includes a few additional rules.
Additional rules:
Aside from its strict food guidelines, the Tom Brady Diet has a few additional rules:
Food combining. Fruits should not be combined with other foods. Plus, you should avoid eating high-protein foods like meat or fish together with carb-rich ones like brown rice or sweet potatoes.
Drink a lot of fluids. You should halve your body weight in pounds and drink that many ounces of water daily. However, avoid drinking water with or around food.
Meal timing. You should avoid eating within three hours of going to bed.
Can it help you lose weight?
The Tom Brady Diet’s strict rules and high fiber and water contents work together to help you lose weight. Still, the diet may be difficult to maintain long term, increasing your likelihood of weight regain.
Other benefits
The Tom Brady Diet may offer several additional benefits.
The Tom Brady Diet encourages adequate hydration and eating minimally processed, anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich foods. This may protect against various diseases and enhance athletic performance and recovery.
Potential downsides of the Tom Brady Diet
Despite its potential benefits, there are several downsides associated with the Tom Brady Diet.
The Tom Brady Diet is unnecessarily expensive and likely difficult to follow in the long term. Moreover, many aspects of this diet are contradictory, confusing, or not based on strong science.
Foods to eat
The Tom Brady Diet encourages you to eat the following minimally processed foods:
Fruits and vegetables. These should be organic, non-GMO, locally grown, and seasonal. Fruits and vegetables believed to be acidifying or inflammatory should be avoided.
Meats. Especially leaner meats, such as chicken, steak, and duck, which should be organic, grass-fed, and free of hormones and antibiotics, are encouraged.
Fish and seafood. These must be wild caught instead of farmed.
Whole grains. These should be gluten-free, such as brown rice, quinoa, oats, millet, buckwheat, and amaranth.
Legumes. This category includes all beans, peas, and lentils, except for soybeans and products derived from them.
TB12 products and supplements. These include whey protein powder, vegan protein bars, electrolyte mixes, nut mixes, and granola.
Around 80% of the diet should consist of plant foods, while the remaining 20% can be made up of grass-fed organic, antibiotic- and hormone-free lean meats, and wild-caught fish or seafood.
The Tom Brady Diet also encourages you to halve your body weight in pounds and drink that many ounces of water daily.
Foods to avoid
The Tom Brady diet restricts your intake of the following foods:
Gluten-containing foods. This includes bread, pasta, breakfast cereals, pastries, and wheat-flour-based foods of any kind.
Caffeinated foods and drinks. You shouldn’t drink coffee, tea, energy drinks, soft drinks, and chocolate.
Dairy-containing foods. These include milk, cheese, and yogurt. TB12 whey protein supplements are allowed.
Processed grains. This category features white pasta, white bread, and white rice.
Non-organic, non-local, or non-seasonal produce. This includes conventionally grown vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes, as well as those that are imported or bought out of season.
Factory-farmed meat and seafood. You should not eat non-organic, hormone- or antibiotic-containing meat, fish, or seafood.
Cooking oils. Nearly all cooking oils are discouraged, except for coconut oil, which may be used for cooking, and olive oil, which can be used for salad dressings.
Soybeans. Avoid soybeans and all foods derived from this legume, such as edamame, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, soy sauce, and many processed foods containing soy-derived ingredients like soy lecithin.
Processed foods. Candy, soft drinks, store-bought sauces, and foods containing added sugar,artificial sweeteners, MSG, or trans fats should be avoided.
GMOs. Dieters should not eat foods that come from a genetically modified organism (GMO).
Iodized salt. The diet discourages using this type of salt and suggests using Himalayan pink salt instead.
Alcohol. All types of alcoholic drinks should be avoided.
In addition, the Tom Brady Diet limits your intake of tomatoes, mushrooms, eggplants, peppers, and potatoes, as these foods are thought to be acidic or inflammatory.
It also discourages drinking water with or close to meals, eating fruits together with other foods, or eating within three hours of going to bed.
You should also avoid eating high-protein foods, such as meat or fish, together with carb-rich foods like brown rice and sweet potatoes.
Sample menu
Here’s a typical 3-day menu suited for the Tom Brady Diet.
Day 1
Breakfast: chia pudding topped with almonds and coconut flakes
Lunch: hearty vegetable-chicken soup with kale and brown rice vermicelli
Dinner: wild salmon tacos on GMO-free corn tortilla wraps served with a side green salad
Day 2
Breakfast: homemade granola stirred into coconut yogurt
Lunch: raw lasagna
Dinner: lentil dahl topped with fresh spinach and served on a bed of brown rice
Day 3
Breakfast: smoothie with TB12 whey protein and fruit
Lunch: vegetable-quinoa bowl topped with cashew sauce, lime curry, and black beans
Dinner: steak,broccoli and sweet potatoes
You are encouraged to drink a lot of water between meals. Plus, you can include some snacks if you wish.
Specific recipes for this diet can be found in the TB12 Nutrition Manual.
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