Buckwheat Diet
Diet & NutritionDiet Types
Explore This Topic

Buckwheat Diet: What You Need to Know

Buckwheat Diet: What You Need to Know
Adobe Stock
By
Chris Kinsey
Updated on August 14, 2025
by

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.

As the name suggests, the buckwheat diet is a diet that involves eating only buckwheat three times a day. It aims to provide quick weight loss through calorie restriction.

How Does the Buckwheat Diet Work?

The buckwheat diet is a type of single-food diet, or mono diet. Mono diets claim to promote rapid weight loss by limiting you to only one type of food. They work mainly by restricting calories.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020–2025 recommends most adults get between 1,600 to 3,000 calories per day, depending on sex, age, and activity level.

By contrast, a 1-cup serving (168 grams) of cooked buckwheat contains 155 calories.

 Eating three of these servings per day only provides about 465 calories.

What Can You Eat on the Buckwheat Diet?

Since the buckwheat diet is very restrictive, it may not allow for much variation in what you can eat. The most restrictive forms of the diet encourage you to eat only buckwheat and nothing else.

Foods to Include

  • Buckwheat
  • Kefir, up to about half a cup per day
  • One or two pieces of fruit or dried fruit
  • Water
  • One cup of tea or coffee

Foods to Avoid

  • Any foods not listed above
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • Spices
  • Butter

Potential Benefits of the Buckwheat Diet

The buckwheat diet aims to help you lose weight rapidly by creating a calorie deficit, meaning you burn more calories than you take in.

Although very low-calorie diets, like the buckwheat diet, may help you lose weight in the short term, they may not be sustainable. Once you resume your normal dietary habits, you may quickly regain any weight you lost.

However, buckwheat can have many health benefits when eaten as part of a balanced diet. According to a study published in 2025 in the European Journal of Nutrition, buckwheat is a good source of:

  • Protein
  • Dietary fiber
  • Minerals
  • Vitamins
  • Essential amino acids
Buckwheat is also linked to improved blood sugar control in people with diabetes.

It’s worth noting that there is currently no scientific evidence to support the safety or effectiveness of the buckwheat diet.

Potential Risks of the Buckwheat Diet

The potential risks of the buckwheat diet may outweigh any of its potential benefits. They include:

  • Nutrient Deficiencies The extreme restrictions imposed by the buckwheat and other mono diets mean you likely won't get enough nutrients. Staying on this diet for too long may cause nutrient deficiencies and increase your risk of disease.

  • Unsustainable Weight Loss Losing a lot of weight over a short period of time can cause metabolic changes that make it hard to keep the weight off. Once you resume your normal diet, you may regain any weight you lost.

  • Health Conditions Rapid weight loss can cause health problems, such as gout or gallstones.

  • Social Isolation If you’re only eating buckwheat three times a day, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to go out to eat or even get a coffee with friends or family. This may restrict social interactions, which could make you feel lonely or isolated.

Is the Buckwheat Diet Right for You?

Because of the potential health risks of mono diets, like the buckwheat diet, they may not be safe for most people.

Always speak with your healthcare provider before starting a new diet. They can help you find one that works best for your health goals.

The Takeaway

  • The buckwheat diet is a type of single-food (mono) diet that involves eating only buckwheat for three meals per day. It aims to help you lose weight quickly by restricting calories.
  • Mono- and very low-calorie diets may not help you maintain weight loss and can increase your risk of nutrient deficiencies and other health issues.
  • Always speak with your doctor before trying a new diet. They can recommend safe ways to meet your weight and health goals.
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. Hall M et al. Assessing Long-Term Impact of Dietary Interventions on Occurrence of Symptoms Consistent with Hypoglycemia in Patients without Diabetes: A One-Year Follow-Up Study. Nutrients. January 24, 2022.
  2. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. U.S. Department of Agriculture. December 2020.
  3. Buckwheat groats, roasted, cooked. U.S. Department of Agriculture. April 1, 2019.
  4. How To Lose Weight With Buckwheat Diet - Experiment! Steemit. April 2017.
  5. Janssen TAH et al. The impact and utility of very low-calorie diets: the role of exercise and protein in preserving skeletal muscle mass. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care. November 2023.
  6. Neacsu M et al. Fava bean and buckwheat are sustainable food sources which support satiety and beneficially modulate several biomarkers, bacteria and metabolites associated with human health. European Journal of Nutrition. June 7, 2025.
  7. Begum K et al. Effect of Buckwheat‐Containing Bread on Postprandial Glycemia, Appetite, Palatability, and Gastrointestinal Well‐Being. Food Science and Nutrition. May 26, 2025.
  8. Diet for rapid weight loss. MedlinePlus. May 20, 2024.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
Roxana Ehsani, RDN

Roxana Ehsani, RD

Medical Reviewer

Roxana Ehsani, RD, is a Miami-based licensed dietitian-nutritionist, board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, and media spokesperson, consultant, and content creator for food and nutrition brands. She is an adjunct instructor for sports nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Ehsani appears as a food and nutrition expert for television stations across the nation and in national publications, including Runner's World, Women's Health, Glamour, and more, and is a contributing writer for EatingWell. She has a strong background in sports nutrition and has worked with professional, Olympic, collegiate, and high school teams and individual athletes, whom she sees through her private practice. 

See full bio

Chris Kinsey

Author
Chris Kinsey works as an editor for a medical publisher and has experience dealing with many topics, ranging from athlete's foot to cancer and brain injury. Kinsey has a great deal of freelance experience writing for sports and parenting magazines as well. Kinsey holds a Bachelor of Arts in communications from California University of Pennsylvania.
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network