Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Diet - OK Book, August 25, 2007
The Good -
The diet is sound, appears to work well and most importantly (for most people) it's easy to follow. The book is easy to read, gives good information on this diet and why some others fail.
The Bad -
If you are a numbers person (like I am) - and you want to be able to check off "perfect diet day", you won't be able to. Joel gives no recommendations on number of calories, grams of carbs, fats, protein etc. He gives size recommendations (a piece of chicken breast about the size of your palm counts as a protein item in a meal) and he has a bunch of great recipe's in the book, but I would have like to know what counts as a "low carb day" for instance - if I'm under 100g?, 50g? 30g? As I'm sure this was conscious decision on Joel's part to make the diet easy to follow, and so as not to scare off the masses, I can't really kill the book because of this.
The Ugly -
OK 2 things here.
1) The book has almost as many pages of references as it does diet information. At the end of each chapter he just lists a ton of references - sometimes 8-10 pages of them! It honestly looks to me like the books editor said "The books great Joel, but without the recipe's it's only 100 pages - we need another 50 or so" and they just found a bunch of studies on leptin and threw them into the book (by the way my numbers - 50 pages - are probably an exaggeration, but the point is there is a lot of "wasted" pages.)
2) The web site - if you go to the web site for the book, it's set up to have you pay $5/month to use "The Cheat to Lose Diet" - I didn't buy the book to be upsold on a web site - if they are going to put a site up for the book, it should have a free area for the people that buy the book, and then maybe a pay area for extra recipes, one on one Joel info etc. It almost looks like the book is just a marketing tool for the web site which is kind of annoying.
That said - the book is cheap and contains enough info to execute the diet, so I can't complain too much.
My review sounds more negative than my real feeling about the book. The 4 stars is my feeling, so don't skip the book because I didn't say it was perfect. I think, for the average person, this might be the "perfect" diet because you can eat whatever you want at times.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This diet works!!, August 22, 2007
I recently purchased this book and gave it a read. I had been dieting and exercising pretty hard lately, but I had been stuck at the same weight and bodyfat level for a good two weeks or so. I was really depriving myself and was getting discouraged.
After reading the book, I decided to give the full day cheat a try. On Saturday, I feasted on pancakes, waffles, sausage and hash browns. Later that night, I made macaroni and cheese. I really enjoyed the day as I loved all the food I ate. :)
On Sunday, I resumed the diet and exercise plan. It is now Wednesday and I've already lost 3 additional pounds! I'm now officially the lowest weight I've been in over 2 years. The cheating recommended by Joel Marion in this book really works! I've seen the results first hand.
I recommend this book to anyone that wants to lose weight but still enjoy life and good food!
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, August 17, 2007
Excellent book. Easy to read, informative. I know some people will ask "isn't this just a eat clean during the week and cheat on weekends book?" No, it's not. Joel tells you how to use strategic cheat meals to keep your fat burning hormones (letpin) primed and working with you, not against you, as they do on many traditional diets.
The book will help you out with exercise, meal planning and how to set up each of the phases of the diet. My only problem is that it's called a "diet." I know that word sells, but it should be called a life-style, since this plan could be followed long-term.
As with all diet books, there is a long list of recipes in the back. I don't like this aspect, but I know many people do. I will say that the recipes are easy to use and use common ingredients, unlike books that have you running to specialty shops for odd ingredients.
Overall, I'd give the book 5 stars, and I'm very selective when it comes to diet and exercise books.
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