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Guide to the Dr. Valencia Diet – The Tiktok Sensation

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The Valencia Diet is a new diet buzzing around on Tiktok—a colorful and fruit-filled diet people worldwide attribute to weight loss and improved overall health. What is the Valencia Diet? How does it work? Is it worth the hype? This is a Guide to the Dr. Valencia Diet. Get the full scoop here!

Child holding an apple.

The Valencia Diet has been making waves on TikTok, presenting itself as a holistic approach to weight loss and improved health. Spearheaded by Dr. Daniel Valencia, a TikTok sensation with a background in osteopathic medicine, this diet plan emphasizes whole, unprocessed foods, primarily plant-based and rich in essential nutrients. With over a million followers, Dr. Valencia has garnered significant attention, though it’s important to approach fad diets with caution and consider individual needs and medical conditions.

Who is Dr. Valencia?

Dr. Valencia-Lopez is a Doctor of Osteopathy trained at the Edward Dia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He has an immensely popular TikTok account known for mainly serving up mountains of fresh veggies, diet tips, and motivational content.

How was the Valencia Diet created?

According to the TikTok videos, Dr. Valencia explains he created this diet to help himself lose weight. It explicitly states that it is not dietitian-approved nor recommended for long-term weight management.

The goal is to help overweight people shed excess pounds naturally and then move to a weight loss maintenance mode once they reach their desired weight.

What Can I Eat on the Valencia Diet

One key component of this diet is caloric restriction. Dr. Valencia recommends that each dieter consume about 1,500 calories daily, mostly from plant-based foods like fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

According to this study, reducing overall calories and increasing the amount of vegetables in a person’s diet led to consistent weight loss and other health benefits, like reduced insulin levels, fasting glucose, and triglyceride levels. Study participants who ate the most vegetables (5 servings of 1 cup of cooked or 2 cups of raw vegetables) were the most satisfied and had the fewest cravings.

Loading up on veggies is a great way to get essential nutrients and lose weight without feeling hungry.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables on the Valencia Diet


  • Eat as much fresh produce as you can
  • Focus on unprocessed, whole foods
  • Consume raw or cooked produce

Who can benefit from the Valencia Diet?

The 7-day Valencia diet plan was created to help overweight people shed their excess pounds. The meal plan has two variations: one for weight loss and one for diabetics.

For diabetics, pregnant people, and those who have gone through gastric bypass surgery, he recommends consuming more protein and low-glycemic fruits and vegetables.

Girl eating veggies from the Valencia diet.
  • Prioritize non-meat or plant-based protein sources (eggs, nuts, cottage cheese, etc)
  • Consume 1g of protein per pound of your ideal body weight (so 150g of protein if you want to weigh 150 lbs)
  • For increasing muscle, move to 1.5 g of protein per pound

Based on this study, eating sufficient protein (.8-1.2g per kilogram of body weight) can help people feel full for longer while maintaining muscle mass. This range is ideal for body composition and blood pressure and prevents weight regain. This is approximately half of Dr. Valencia’s recommended amounts.

Since high protein diets may cause kidney damage in people at risk for the disease, you’ll undoubtedly want to discuss this choice with your healthcare professional first.

Dr. Valencia diet recommends lots of fresh prouce.

Intermittent Fasting on the Valencia Diet

  • The meal plan advocates for a daily fast at least 12 hours long (8 pm to 8 am, etc)
  • In this review of numerous studies related to fasting shows that fasting can promote weight loss, similar to calorie restriction, and improve overall health. However, most research does not show how fasting may affect long-term health. Since the Valencia Diet is recommended as a short-term solution to lose weight, it does not recommend fasting for an extended period. 

Daily Physical Activity

  • 20-minute workouts in the morning and night
  • Building up to 100 minutes of activity per day
  • Based on current research, exercise itself does not generally result in weight loss, but can offer a variety of favorable health outcomes, like increased energy levels, improving heart health, and much more.

Gluten-Free Version of the Valencia Diet

Since the Valencia diet is so unprocessed, it is easy to fit it into a gluten-free lifestyle.

Breakfast and dinner are typically made with fresh fruit, vegetables, and non-meat protein sources, making those meals naturally gluten-free. At lunch, he recommends having a source of carbohydrates, but he always recommends unprocessed sources like quinoa, lentils, and whole grains. This means gluten-free eaters can continue to eat many of the same starches they know and love.

Since the Valencia Diet does recommend cheat meals, celiacs and those who are gluten-intolerant should continue to choose healthy, gluten-free, wheat-free meals.

Sample Valencia Diet Plan

  • Breakfast – A large grapefruit with two hard-boiled eggs or a large veggie omelet with mostly egg whites
  • For diabetics: A cup of fat-free cottage cheese with a whole cucumber and a small avocado 
  • Lunch – A serving of quinoa with baked salmon, zucchini, bell peppers, and cauliflower.
  • Diabetics: Eat the same with green vegetables
  • Dinner – Eat a large green salad with almonds, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. For dessert, enjoy a small peach or apple.
  • Diabetics: Enjoy the same salad, but eat two servings of protein and ditch the fruit

How does the Valencia Diet Differ from the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean Diet is one of the most highly studied (and respected) diets, recommended by doctors everywhere. Based on decades of research, this diet can help reduce the risk of diabetes, improve cardiovascular health, and increase longevity while promoting greater weight loss than eating low fat.

It’s traditionally high in plant foods (like vegetables, cereals, beans, and nuts), very unprocessed, recommends lots of olive oil, and limits dairy, eggs, and animal-based sources of proteins.

The Valencia Diet doesn’t have quite the same restrictions about how many eggs or how much dairy to eat daily. Both diets are naturally lower in carbohydrates, relying on lots of fruits and vegetables to fill your plate.

The Mediterranean diet recommends whole grains at every meal, while the Valencia Diet limits grains to lunch and dinner. Both are restrictive about the types of proteins to consume, but both recommend fish, lean proteins, and limited amounts of meat overall.

Both plans recommend eating plenty of healthy fats, especially olive oil, avocados, and nuts.

But, the most important thing to remember is that the Mediterranean Diet is heavily studied and approved for long-term use, while the Valencia Diet is not. It should only be used short term to lose weight. Based on similarities between the two plans, the Mediterranean Diet would be a reasonable option for maintaining a healthy weight after losing weight on the Valencia Diet.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Valencia Diet

Does the Valencia Diet help with weight loss?

Like any dietary-restricted diet, the Valencia Diet will likely aid weight loss. However, it is not meant to be implemented on a long-term basis.
*We at Delectable Food Life recommend working with a nutritionist or dietitian when embarking on a new weight loss plan that can ‘safely’ help you on your weight loss journey.

I hope you enjoyed this Valencia Diet Blog Post! To find out more about Dr. Valencia and The Valencia Diet, Explore Dr. Valencia’s TikTok channel.

5 Comments

  1. Hello, this is Dr. Daniel Valencia creator of the Valencia Lifestyle/Diet. Thank you for your work and helping the world be a better place.

    1. Hi Dr. Valencia! I am interested in following your meal plan. How can I make an appointment? I am from Texas, so it would have to be a video appointment. Thank you for the information.

  2. I need help with creating a well balanced diet menu for I need to lose at least 45 pounds. I’ve tried multiple diets but none have worked for me.

    Thank you.

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