The 4 Day Diet [Paperback]

Ian K. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

Dr. Ian Smith's diets really work. America has lost millions of pounds following his Fat Smash and Extreme Fat Smash diets. Now, in "The 4 Day Diet", Smith has developed a program that allows readers to avoid the normal (and fatal) pitfalls of dieting: boredom, no treats allowed, too much repetition, plateauing. The 4 Day Diet is an ingenious program of dieting modules lasting only four days each: Induction (detox/cleansing); Transition (to reintroduce all food groups); Protein Stretch (to avoid plateaus); Smooth (when you can have some formerly forbidden foods like pizza and French fries); Push (the sprint just before the final stretch, back to a stricter eating plan); Pace (a comfortable module for you to catch your breath); and, Vigorous (the final module to lose those last few pounds). You can follow The 4 Day Diet straight through for a month for stunning results. But Smith also designed The 4 Day Diet so you can customize your own program. After the first two modules, you can do the remaining 5 in whichever order suits your schedule or preferences or you can repeat the modules you like best. It also features over sixty delicious recipes for breakfasts, lunches and dinners and a complete snack list - food that will make you forget you're on a diet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“If you ate your way through the holidays, Dr. Ian K. Smith has got a plan to get you back on track.”—Heart & Soul Magazine

“The perennially positive diet guru.”—Elle

“Dr. Smith is ever the motivator.”—The Dallas Morning News

About the Author

Ian K. Smith, M.D., is the number one bestselling author of The Fat Smash Diet, Extreme Fat Smash Diet, The 4 Day Detox, Happy and EAT. He is a medical contributor on The View and The Rachael Ray Show, the diet expert on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club, and host of the nationally syndicated radio show Healthwise on American Urban Radio Networks. He writes a medical column for Men’s Health magazine. He has written for various publications including Time and Newsweek, and been featured in People, Essence, Ebony and Cosmopolitan, among others. He is a former medical correspondent for NBC and for NewsChannel 4 in New York, where he filed reports for NBC’s Nightly News and The Today Show. In 2007, he created the 50 Million Pound Challenge, a free national weight loss initiative with a growing list of more than 1.9 million people registered. Dr. Smith graduated from Harvard College with an AB and received a master’s in science education from Columbia University. He attended Dartmouth Medical School and completed the last two years of his medical education and graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. A native of Danbury, Connecticut, Dr. Smith currently resides in Manhattan.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312605595
• ISBN-13: 978-0312605599
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ian K. Smith, M.D., is the #1 bestselling author of THE 4 DAY DIET, THE FAT SMASH DIET and EXTREME FAT SMASH DIET. He is the medical/diet expert and host of VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club". In 2008, Smith created The 50 Million Pound Challenge, a free national weight loss initiative. He has written for a variety of publications, including Time, Newsweek, and the New York Daily News.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

264 of 313 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Program!!!, January 3, 2009

By 

Lifelong Dieter - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 4 Day Diet (Hardcover)

I am someone who knows more about dieting than most diet experts. I have battled with weight problems all of my life and I've been on more diets than I can remember. I am a typically yo-yo dieter. My weight goes up and down every year. This year I decided that I had enough and I was going to get one book and stick to that book. A couple of days ago I was shopping for that book and found what I think is a message from above. I took a look at the 4 Day Diet and fell in love with it right away. The book starts out talking about the importance of getting your mind together. The chapters are very concise and make sense and give you exercises you can do at the end if you like. The style of writing is VERY accessible, unlike some of these books where you feel like you need a PhD in order to understand it. I found so many of my own problems in those first few chapters. I felt like I had gone to a shrink and got a diagnosis for free. Now I have such a better understanding of my emotional eating and stress eating and other stuff I've been doing wrong for so long. Then I read the actual 4 Day Diet plan and it blew my mind away. It is so simple to follow. It makes so much sense, because every 4 days you switch the type of food that you eat. The diet is broken up into 4-day modules. There are 7 modules in the book. Here are the modules and what they represent.

Induction (detox/cleansing)

Transition (to reintroduce all food groups)

Protein Stretch (to avoid plateaus)

Smooth (you can have some formerly forbidden foods like pizza and fries)

Push (just before the final stretch, back to a stricter eating plan)

Pace (a comfortable module for you to catch your breath)

Vigorous (the final module to lose those last few pounds)

These modules make SO much sense and they're laid out so perfectly. The food you can eat is spelled out very clearly and most importantly, you don't have to spend a lot of money on organic stuff like other diets make you spend. I went and got my food for the first week from a regular grocery store.

The recipes are some of the best I've ever seen in a diet book. I couldn't believe they were actually in a diet book. Pesto-crusted chickent breast with eggplant caponata,spicy turkey-chipotle meatloaf with sweet potato puree and grilled vegetables, steamed clams with whole wheat linguine and basil-white wine sauce. You get the point. They are like meals you would get in a restaurant. I've already made 2 and my husband can't stop talking about how good they are.

One of my children is a vegetarian and she can follow the 4 Day Diet too, because it has so many options and it allows you to make smart substitutions where necessary. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about losing weight and like me is frustrated not being able to stick to a plan. I'll stick to this for the rest of my life because it doesn't feel like a diet. Thanks for this great book, Dr. Smith.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tough start but a great turn out, April 25, 2010

By 

C. Kerner "R. Kerner" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The 4 Day Diet (Paperback)

the first module of the book is the hardest..the detox..ok first I couldn't do that I tried but it was very hard..but really the rest of the modules were good..and yes the cabbage soup is to die for..yummy...I love Dr Ian and I have every book he has written and I will say this book is the best..I modified the meals and made them my own and I exercised more leading me to lose 13 lbs..just use it as a guideline and you will be fine..its a great book

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Ian Smith's 4 Day Diet Changed My Life, April 27, 2011

By 

L. Griffin "mrsdoone" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The 4 Day Diet (Paperback)

I purchased this book back in September of 2010. I'm 35 years old, married and have 3 children...and I've been on many, many diets. The weight had slowly crept up on me over the past 12 years and before I knew it, I was at 180! I'm 5'1" and at that weight, I was beginning to have knee problems and just didn't feel great most of the time. My size 14s were beginning to get really tight and I just refused to buy a bigger size. I'd been meaning to buy this book for some time. The first thing that struck me was Dr. Ian took the emotional touchy feely stuff out of dieting--he says, in layman's terms, what happens to the body when we consume food. The first week, I lost 7 lbs and I was hooked. I must admit that I actually cried when I served the family lasagna for dinner one night and knew that wasn't in my meal plan for the day. From that day on, I started to focus on foods I could have instead of foods I couldn't. I eat my favorite steamed veggies--red potatoes, broccoli, carrots, snap peas with salsa, lemon pepper, or parmesan. I make sure to bring snack foods along with me--easy travel stuff like apples, grapes, baby carrots. If I'm on the road and tempted to hit the drive thru, instead I'll hit the produce isle at the grocery store--it takes just as long!

This has been a real life changer for me. I feel so great and my husband loves my trimmed down figure--no more knee pain and it's not a struggle to get off the couch now--I've lost 40 lbs so far...and counting!