I tried the Friends diet from the 90s (could it have *been* any harder?!)

This time I decided to dive into the 90s diet culture universe - by trying the diet that Rachel, Monica and Phoebe from Friends would have done back in the day. When I was younger I thought girls on TV "looked just like that naturally" but I don't anymore. Today let's look at what was really going on and how the three 'friends' looked so gorgeous all the time.

Have you ever tried one of these diets?
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++ Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:54 Day 1: Rachel Green
07:58 Day 2: Monica Geller
10:49 Day 3: Phoebe Buffay
14:42 Conclusions (BMI) *TW*
15:22 Conclusions (Caloric Intake Estimate) *TW*
16:58 Conclusions (TDEE) *TW*
18:51 Conclusions (Side effects)
19:50 Conclusions (Final)

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Jessica Viana
#JessicaViana #FriendsReunion #DietChallenge

[JessicaVianaa]

Hi everyone! So... I never thought this video would have so many views and from the comments I just wanted to mention 2 things:
1. The reason why I mentioned a few times that "I don't eat meat but I eat fish" was to explain why I was deviating from the original recipes. I know that fish is meat, but that is the language used in the definition of Pescatarian. I don't like saying that I'm a Pescatarian because I don't like to label my diet (I could do a whole video on this ramble) but if there is a better term or way to phrase it then please let me know and I will use that going forward. 🙏
2. Yes that was raw zucchini 😅 and it's good to eat raw! (if bought commercially and well washed) - I never knew this would be so controversial but I accept that I'm a minority who just doesn't like cucumber at all 😂

Thank you for watching and for all the love, really! You're all just too sweet 💖

[eunicejeruthlin]

It’s insane that Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc’s weights fluctuated like crazy and no one ever cared about how they looked.

[chloecurtis]

Watching Friends I never thought Lisa looked fat AT ALL. I thought she looked really good and healthy. That’s so horrible that she felt that way🥺

[ahobbit]

I think one of the saddest things is that a part of my brain felt like I should try this diet, too. Diet culture is ingrained in us so deeply.

[hannahnl]

Lisa Kudrow came out and talked about how sick she would get trying to stay so unaturally small for her body type and I love her for sharing that. More colds and flu, loss of energy etc. Dieting, can be dangerous.

[Niinque]

“If you’re a woman and you’re underweight, you look good”

Reminded me of 8th grade when we were being weighted by the school nurse, and girls from my class would brag about being underweight. I was at a normal weight, but I felt like I was incredibly fat because of that.

[SuperDesignChick]

What I noticed in the 90’s was that no one EVER asked the guys on the show what they ate.

[MsTriangle]

While rewatching Friends as an adult woman, I realized how horribly skinny Monica looked in the 'middle' seasons. You could tell it was super intense dieting because the quality of her hair also diminished.
From a fitness standpoint, weight training after cardio in the morning on an EMPTY STOMACH makes zero sense.

[catherinemadsen]

I’m a registered dietitian and I’m so impressed with your scientific approach to trying these women’s diets! Your research was spot on. A lot of youtubers/ influences promote such unhealthy diets without any real research at all. This was so refreshing! Thank you (:

[nikitas]

Lisa was gorgeous. Her clothes were frumpy most of the time while the other girls were better dressed. But in the scenes where she was given the option to dress well, she could out-do anyone.

[melissataylor]

As a child seeing fat Monica turn into thin Monica genuinely made me think that to be an adult you had to be thin. I was like ‘when im in my 20s I’ll be thin too, and now im in my 20s and im not thin there’s still a part of me that feels like I should look like Monica Geller

[SnowdropWood]

It's sad that they didn't treat Monica as a human being when she was 'Fat Monica'. She was no less sweet, fun, friendly, caring, or generous, but was only ever shown as the butt of jokes about food and size and weight and being a virgin. Like she didn't warrant common decency from the people around her until she was thin and therefore a 'real person'.
It might seem like harmless comedy to some, but at the peak of Friendsmania I witnessed that influence play out on people in real life for sure.

[jacquiereid]

My daughter was hooked in by the clean eating, 1200 calorie a day schtick. She ended up quite severely anorexic but at no point was it the classic refusing to eat. No - she ate 3 meals a day and lots of veg so she was “healthy”. Fortunately, she eventually recognised she had a problem, sought treatment and is now in recovery, although she still struggles enormously around food and exercise. Thank you so much for doing this video. The way that extreme eating is normalised and even seen as something to aim for and emulate is really messed up and can do so much harm.

[couch_philosoph]

I don't mind filling salads for lunch. But the same lunch for 10 years? You can have healthy meals that aren't always the same. I cannot believe they ate always the same

[tanyaelias]

Lisa had a baby pretty early on in the series and that just changes your body in so many ways. It's too bad that she had to be surrounded by two underweight woman and feel the pressure of that comparison.

[lilyhomma]

It’s no wonder they were all smokers: nicotine is an appetite suppressant. I wouldn’t be surprised if, whenever they felt hungry, they reached for a cigarette (or several) instead. This, in addition to the low calorie, high energy, and high stress conditions they punished their bodies with for decades, likely resulted in some lasting health problems and definitely a warped view of food and body image. I feel awful for these women.

If you’re David Schwimmer showing up to the Friends set and not feeling great about how you look, so what? Wardrobe department puts you in a comfortably-fitting button-up and some jeans — problem solved. If you’re Jennifer, Courtney, or Lisa, you’re probably feeling awful about your body every single day. You show up to set exhausted from insufficient food and poor sleep (also a nasty side effect of undereating), are hyper-aware that whatever your body looks like now will be recorded on film for all of time, and are surrounded by beautiful, equally hungry and burnt-out actresses you can’t help but compare yourself to. You feel fat, awful, ugly. You walk into wardrobe and are handed a bodycon dress that shows ev-er-y-thing. You feel miserable and want nothing more than to wear a sweatshirt two sizes too large (it’ll help with the cold hands too), because, in a case of deeply cruel irony, the same obsessive fixation on “the PERFECT body” that makes you look great in everyone else’s eyes only draws your attention to every flaw…and rather than enjoy and show off your hard work and agonizing dedication, you’d rather just hide.

The clips you inserted of the female Friends placing their dinner orders and being ridiculed by the waiter were painful to watch 😢 Glad you only subjected yourself to this for three days! Thank you for the care and emphasis you put into explaining how awful these behaviors are for you. 🙏 It’s just not worth it

[rachhhnicole]

this video made me want to give Lisa Kudrow a giant hug!

I have never ever compared any of the girls’ bodies in all the time watching the show! i’ve been jealous of them compared to myself but it breaks my heart that Lisa cared so much that she wouldn’t even watch it 😭😭😭

[breadpirateoverhere]

This is a really good video that shows the reality of the extremely dangerous body images that were popularized during the 90s and just how hard the women had to live in order to keep their jobs. Also, side note, I like that on your phoebe day you walked with your friend Monica, if you have a Rachel friend she should have come with.

[NicoleBertone]

I think it’s interesting that the 1200 calorie diets are popular at the same time that 90s style fashion has made a comeback. It shows how much we manipulated ourselves to fit the fashion and not the other way around. While I was naturally thinner in the 90s because I was younger and hadn’t had children yet, very few people are naturally that slim with no diet modification or restriction.

[luvndanestrin]

As a recovering anorexic who was hospitalized at 80 pounds with my organs shutting down; we can spot an eating disorder a mile away. Just like how a drug addict can spot an addict. Courtney and Jennifer were ED for sure. They trigger me so bad.