121 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've lost thirty-two lbs. of fat in ten weeks., May 11, 2006
This review is from: The Abs Diet Eat Right Every Time Guide (Paperback)
I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend this book. If you are overweight, and want to do something about it, this book has the information you need to change your life for good. Know though that this is not a "diet" - it is a dietary strategy. A way of life. One which - if you embrace it, will change your life forever in very positive ways.
My personal testimony: I am 6' 2" tall and 35 years old. My weight has been over 250lbs for the last few years. But I have a large frame, and my body type is primarily mesomorphic, with a strong endomorphic influence. This means I have a good deal of muscle mass and definition, but have also always carried a significant amount of fat. Anyway, my BMI was about 31 and my body fat was over 30%.
That is technically obese, though I neither felt nor looked it. I would tell people how much I weighed, and they never would believe me.
So I carried the fat well, thus I didn't particularly care. I idly thought about doing something about it. I bought the main book of this series (to which this book is a supplement) last year, but it sat on my shelf collecting dust.
Until two months ago. On March 2nd 2006, I went to the doctor's for my checkup. I got on the scale. It tipped. 263lbs. Then my blood pressure: 200/100. That's right. 200/100. Nice round numbers. I've had slightly high blood pressure for years. Always 140/80 or less. Nothing too dramatic. This new reading blew my mind. I wasn't scared, just astonished. I had it taken again that afternoon, and it came out at 169/90. I was officially suffering from hypertension.
The old clich?d wake-up call. I had been eating a lot. Not poorly, I hardly ever eat junk or processed food. But richly. Lots of cheese, desserts, bread, salt, sugar, second and third portions... no breakfasts. And wine. And gin & tonic. And bourbon. All very yummy stuff.
I was - to put it bluntly - a fat gluttonous hypertensive lush.
I went home that evening and resolved to change. I took the main book of this series off the shelf, and read it. I went out and bought a small notebook, which I christened my food journal. I recorded everything I put in my mouth for about a month. I began simultaneously phasing the principles in this book into my life.
I eat five small meals a day, 3 or at the most 4 hours apart. Each & every food choice is a deliberate one. I make the best possible choices I can, every time, knowing that each thing I put in my mouth is making me healthier and leaner. I've stopped drinking alcohol & most other caloried drinks all together. I bought a blender and have begun drinking smoothies. I eat loads of good, substantive food. Tasty food. Whole grains. Vegetables, berries & fruit. Nuts. Lean proteins- fish, chicken & beef jerky. Healthy fats like olive oil and avocado paste.
And my bodyfat has simply melted - metabolized - inexorably away. Very gracefully. I counted calories, protein, carb & fat percentages for a few weeks (which this plan does not recommend, but I felt was important for me, just so I could get a sense of what I was eating) - but did no formal exercise at all. I have been active - walking a lot (I always take stairs, do a lot of yard & house work, etc.) but have not gone out of my way to exert myself. No running. No lifting. None.
It's been just over two months on the plan. I've bought a very good scale and blood pressure monitor, and have kept daily track of my progress.
Today is May 11th, 2006. I weighed in this morning at 231 lbs. That's a loss of 32lbs, to date. My blood pressure is 127/80. It hasn't been over - or even really near 140/90 - in weeks. I'm still losing fat at a rate of about two pounds a week. I can feel my body burning it away. I feel so much better - almost euphoric at times. And I'm eating all the time. Several small portions of simple but tasty food, every three hours or so. I drink water and lightly sweetened iced tea all day. I am rarely hungry, and when I am it means it is time to eat.
I am not doing this for aesthetic reasons, but people have noticed - particularly girls - and I got to admit it's gratifying. When I finally cut my six-pack - which I expect to do by the around the end of the summer, with a little exercise - it is going to be sweet. I still have about 30lbs of fat to lose.
So, this is the deal: if you want to know how burn fat without destroying your metabolism and losing muscle, buy this series. It will require significant permanent changes in your life, probably, but the results will more than compensate. You will like what you eat, you won't starve, and you will lose fat and become healthier. It is win win win, requiring just a bit of self-awareness & discipline. Anybody can do it.
This book - almost a booklet, really - is the core of the plan. It details the dietary rules, and provides very quick & simple, good tasting recipes. I would say that you could buy this, and not bother with the other, main book and you'd have all the information you need. This book has far more recipes, and all the essential nutrition information. It's also much smaller, and so very portable - easily slipped into a glove compartment, book bag, purse, or even pocket. What it doesn't have is the workout plan. But the workout is secondary. Nutrition is over 80% of the game here.
Upshot: Buy them both, but this is to my mind the more helpful of the two.
So go, learn the principles & eat with deliberation. You will not regret it. Good luck.
Addendum: November 13, 2006:
After a summer of partial laxity during which I hovered in the low 230's (never exercising, and thus not cutting that six pack) I re- engaged fully in August, began sporadically exercising and lost another fifteen pounds, weighing in now c. 218 lbs. I've been lifting three days a week the last three weeks- the differance has been pretty immediate & dramatic.
This plan really is simple, and easy. Like I say, simple good choices, consistently made. Your reality today is just an accumulation of millions of choices. Make 90% of them well, and you will get good results. Forgive yourself for your failures, choose to be decisively slack, re- affirm your goals, and you will progress.
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85 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the book I'm recommending to my patients and why..., April 5, 2005
This review is from: The Abs Diet Eat Right Every Time Guide (Paperback)
There are a few things that all my patients who lose weight and KEEP IT OFF have in common (all made pracitcal by following the instructions in this book). I'll list a few of them below (I specialize in metabolism, endocrinology (hormones), and sexual function and have treated several thousand patients for weight loss):
1. They don't count calories for very long. Maybe as an educational exercise but eventually the maintenance plan must be easier.
2. They spread their calories out over the day (most American's eat most of their food after about 2pm...a recipe for obesity)
3. They don't go hungry. they may experience hunger but usually eat as much as they want when they do feel hunger (not whatever they want). Most people don't do well with daily, persistent, hunger.
4. They eat at least 5 times a day (small, frequent meals avoid hunger and fat storage by keeping insulin levels low).
5. They get adequate exercise. This is more important than the diet. If you follow the instructions in this hand guide (better I think than the hardback book version of the diet) you'd be walking somewhere between 20 to 25 miles per week. Unfortunately, that's about what's required for most people (not starting but working up to). That's about 30 to 60 minutes per day depending on whether you walk or jog or something in between. Most won't make time...hence 70% obesity in this country.
You'll find a few more tips listed on my review of the original hard-back version of the book. This is the diet of choice for now. No one does it perfectly. But, persist with increasing walking about 10% per week and keep learning more about application of the diet and you will eventually find your best weight.
--Charles Runels, MD
Author of "Anytime...for as Long as You Want: Strength, Genius, Libido, & Erection by Integrative Sex Transmutation (A 15-Day Course for Men to Improve Life and Sex)
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