Customer Reviews

The False Fat Diet: The Revolutionary 21-Day Program for Losing the Weight You Think Is Fat

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I am using this book, in conjunction with "Eat Right For Your Type" by Dr. Peter D'Adamo, and seeing wonderful results! The premise is simple: certain foods make certain people's bodies react in ways which cause them to gain and retain weight. Some of these reactions are food allergies, some are food sensitivities. If you determine which foods cause reactions for your particular body, and stop eating them, you'll be amazed at what happens!

I am following these two programs (they go together very well) under the supervision of my doctor. I have stopped eating wheat/gluten products and dairy, and having done so am quite pleased with the results. In only two weeks I have lost six pounds and 2% of my body fat (I have a scale which measures both). My clothes are much looser (I should have measured myself before starting), a long term health issue is clearing up and going away, and I feel terrific!

I will note that I did not do the juice fast part of the elimination diet suggested in this book as one of the ways to determine food sensitivites. As someone with hypoglycemia, and having tried juice fasts before and had problems, I knew that was not the right route for me. But I did use the "Sensitive Seven Elimination Diet", and have had great results!

If you're willing to make some real changes in your eating habits, in exchange for real and measurable changes in your life, don't hesitate, buy this book. It's full of great information which can help you lose the weight you're hoping to.

I'm at the other end of the continuum: early 50s, overweight, raging eczema, chronic sleeping problems, &c. Eternally questing for some "fix," I happened upon Dr. Haas' book, ordered it & the rest is incredible. In ONE WEEK on the Elimination Diet I lost 10 lbs (NO food cravings), eczema healed, have boundless energy & am sleeping! Eliminate the reactive foods (clearly presented) and heal. "Don't think of eliminating foods as deprivation, but as POWER!" Finally, a lifestyle change I can DO--and live with. I recommend this book unreservedly. Try it.

Thanks to Mr. Haas, I have been enlightened to a new, moreproductive lifestyle. I no longer feel sluggish, bloated orfrustrated due to my body image. Having a B.S. in Exercise Science along with being a certified personal trainer and aerobic instructor, I am daily in an industry where I have to look,feel, and perform at my best. Until reading "The False Fat Diet", I felt that I was stuck in a physical dilemma that could not be corrected. Although my body fat only measured 7% and I was extremely active, my abdominal region always looked as if I was 8 - 9 months pregnant. After trying the elimination diet process he suggests, I now look and feel like I am a fitness leader again. I no longer look like someone who has swallowed a hot air balloon, just waiting for it to pop! My deepest gratitude goes out to Dr. Haas for the knowledge and information he has incorporated into his new book. He is my "Angel of Mercy" ! END

This is a really interesting book. I began reading it just as I started working with a holistic doctor here where I live. Many of the things she suggested are things Haas mentions in his book.

I've been following a food elimination diet for over a week now, and am amazed at how my food cravings (especially those for sugar and chocolate) have gone away. This is not an easy process to follow, I'll warn you of that up front.

To start with, the elimination diet has you giving up what he calls the Sensitive Seven: Most Commonly Reactive Foods: Dairy, Wheat, Corn, Sugar, Soy, Eggs, Peanuts. Cutting those seven things out of a diet is very hard to do without some real planning and committment. But once you do so, the benefits are tremendous. Problems that had been plaguing me for years have gone away, simply by cutting out all gluten (wheat and other gluten-containing grains) and dairy out of my diet.

I do suggest that you follow this, or any major diet change, under the supervision of a doctor. The most stringent elimination diet Haas recommends is five or more days of juice fasting, which is fine for some people, but would be difficult for people with blood sugar issues like diabetes or hypoglycemia. So check with your doc first.

That being said, the advice in this book is, for the most part, excellent, and sure to help those who are dealing with food sensitivities and allergies which keep them from losing weight.

I bought this book after listening to the author being interviewed on New Dimensions Radio. He is very knowledgeable about helping people discover their own keys to good health. Unfortunately, this book presents the material badly.

Here's the premise. Most of us have reactions to certain foods -- not severe enough to close our throats or break us out in hives, but enough to cause nasal congestion, low energy, 10 pounds of water retention ("false fat"), and other undesirable side effects. With his program, you spend the first week eating from a very small group of foods that are usually non-reactive. If all goes well, after a few days your reactivity symptoms go away so you feel great. The second week you begin reintroducing foods into your diet, one at a time, and observe whether your symptoms return. In this way, you identify the foods you need to avoid in order to feel your best. It's a great idea, simple and elegant.

One of the strengths of the program is that you get to customize it to meet your meeds. For example, you get to choose from among four different options for Week 1, ranging in severity from a juice fast to a diet that only restricts the most commonly troublesome foods. He also includes sample menus for the first week.

My main complaint throughout is a surprising lack of guidelines to help you figure out how to apply it in real life. For example, the author warns that food sensitivities can develop from eating the same food too frequently, but he fails to say what to do if a sensitivity develops during your juice fast, as happened with me. Well, obviously, I need to avoid carrots for a while, but should I switch to another strict diet, such as an apple fast for the rest of the week (the stricter diets yield the more dramatic results), or should I assume that my body develops food sensitivities easily, and therefore go with more variety? I don't know. The author also mentions that the juice fast induces the body's starvation response, and therefore you need to start off eating less when you begin eating again, in order to avoid rebound weight gain. How much to eat on the first day after the fast, and how many days to ramp up to normal-sized portions? We are left to guess. Dr. Haas tells us that we need to nutritionally support the colon and liver during the first week, and gives lists of vitamin/mineral supplements which will do that. Then three pages later (after I had already made my shopping list), he tells us that not all of those supplements are necessary for each person, and gives a shorter list of those that he typically prescribes. Again, no information on how to determine whether you need some of those additional supplements.

Some of the material is confusing and/or conflicting. For example, sugar is said to be one of the worst seven -- something to avoid the first week even on the least restrictive diet. Yet his sample menus include maple syrup. Are we to understand that only white sugar is reactive? Or that maple syrup is okay because it's relatively unprocessed? Or that the quantity is too small to make any difference? I don't believe any of these, and he doesn't say. My guess is that the author personally has no problem with maple syrup, and included it without thinking. He should have at least put a disclaimer on it.

One more thing. The second week of his program, Dr. Haas calls the False Fat week. This is strange because the "false fat" (water retention) subsides during the *first* week. The other items I've mentioned can be explained by an inability to organize his thoughts, but this? It defies explanation.

This book may help you reach your goals if you're willing to deal with its shortcomings. If I were the editor, though, this material would have been an early draft.

As a woman of 55, through menopause for some time, and with ailments like phlebitis, osteoarthritis, fybromyalgia, severe obesity and on blood thinners for more than a year now I want to tell you that this book has me believing that things can change...really change.

The information in this book incouraged me to "run the pain gauntlet" by discontinuing my pain medication, for at least a while, until the Detoxification phase of this program was done. I also discontinued taking my allergy medication (this one scared me) and I am utterly amazed. Of course it is not a panacea, but I am functioning and working with the pain I still do have without medication and the level of pain is already LESS with no medication, than it was WITH medication. Allergies (stuffy nose and chronic bronchitis all the time) are gone, at least for now. This book, came to my attention and I thought, "Yeah another diet...big deal." I am so glad I didn't stop there! I am not far into the elimination phase (through the detox) and I will be sticking with the "Total Elimination" choice until I have lost a good portion of the weight I carry (was 280, now already down by more than 20 pounds in just two weeks). Best thing about this plan is that it is JUST FOR YOU. You find out what foods you react to and eliminate them, then you eat what you can, within your plan type, and go from there. The supplements he recommends were my saving grace. Without them, the detox phase might have been unbearable! In fact I started without them and got some pretty bad night leg cramps. As soon as I added the water (he recommends a lot and I was not drinking enough) and the supliments, no more cramps and to my amazement the cravings were much more manageable! With the supliments, and SIBERIAN GINSENG TEA in the morning (my personal choice for am tea) I was much better than the first couple of days and the detox phase was definately easier to stick to with them than without.

If you are at your whit's end and have given up on ever being thinner and healthier than you are, especially if you have physical problems causing you pain like arthritis etc. I encourage you to try one more time, or at the very least, read the book so you know first hand what you are passing up. This one will make anybody healthier who gives it a real shot!

This book is one of the best I've ever read on diet. It takes some planning and discipline to follow the elimination diet (I chose the sensitive seven plan) but it is well worth the effort. I have lost just 7 pounds in two weeks but the difference in my body is amazing. Clothes that were a bit snug before I started are literally too big around the waist now. Craving for sweets is (nearly) gone, anxiety level is MUCH lower, blood pressure has decreased and energy level is soaring. The vitamin and supplement plans could put a big hole in the budget so I've scaled those back and recommend buying the smallest size available for most as they can change from week to week as you move through the program.

I have a slow thyroid and NOTHING could help me lose the 15lbs I gained because of it. I always looked 'puffy' in the face, and legs. My blood pressure was high as was my cholesterol. I exercised everyday and still no change. I didn't overeat either.

This book helped me find a resource to do the proper lab testing (ELISA/ACT) test to see what foods I was reacting to. I also had a fantastic doctor who agreed to draw my blood for this test and he was curious to see what they would find.

Lo and behold when I got my results back I was shocked! Everything that I showed a sensitivity to (from mild to severe) were all the things I LOVED and CRAVED to eat on a daily/weekly basis. In order for me to lose weight, I had to cut these foods from my diet. They were causing inflammation which is linked to the host of health problems I was having, including my slow thyroid.

I elimated the 'NO' foods and the weight came off so easily. Not overnight, but steadly. I didn't have to weigh food, count calories or do anything complicated - I just had to stay away from the foods I had sensitivity to. THAT was the hard part, to give up things I was used to eating all the time. But since I knew what I couldn't have, I realized there was still a bunch of stuff I "COULD" have!

You can very well do the diet without the lab testing, but it takes some willpower and journaling and I just didn't have the resolve to do that. I wanted to know NOW.

When I went back to my doctor he was amazed. The puffy look in my face and legs was gone. Blood pressure and cholesterol was great! Best of all my food cravings was gone. He was glad that he didn't have to put me on meds.

Best thing for me was all the compliments. I also felt much more calm instead of anxious all the time.

I think for those on the fence about this book, do an internet search on 'inflammation' symptoms. If you have the diseases/health problems associated with inflammation AND you are overweight and nothing works...this just might be your answer. It was mine!

Unlike many of the reviewers here, I came to this book after being diagnosed with food allergies. Having struggled with skin rashes, mouth sores, constipation, bloating, cramping, diareha, mood swings, depression, shortness of breath, lethargy, aching joints and a multitude of other symptoms, I finally found a food allergy specialist who believed that you could have more than one or two true food allergies. Within 15 mins, he had tested me for 72 different foods and discovered I was allergic to 33 of them. Basically, everything that we all eat every day. Within one week of eliminating those foods, my symptoms stopped and within three weeks, I had lost 15 pounds. Mind you, I was not overweight in the least but due to the water retention and inflammation, I was packing an extra 15 pounds of water weight and several inches around my ankles, thighs, waist, arms and in my face! Also, ladies, staying away from allergenic foods and incorporating moderate exercise will all but eliminate cellulite as well. Afterall, cellulite is not just fat but also toxins trapped under the skin - eliminate the toxins and you eliminate the dipples. In short, everything that Dr. Haas promises (quick weight reduction and continued accelerated fat loss) is exactly what will happen if food allergies are the culprit involved in your weight issues. Not only do I have personal experience with this but my allergist can attest that it is the same story with all of his patients! It may seem all but impossible at first to eliminate these common foods but after the first week, your cravings diminish quickly and are all but gone by week three. I believe food allergy is a hidden epidemic in America and is the cause of the rise in obesity in adults as well as children.

I tried this diet out about 2 years ago. I thought that it might be good for people to see a review that has some experience behind it. One of my comments about diets was always, how long will it work.

I have lost 60 pounds by following the guidelines of this plan. It works amazingly well. There are different ways to get started according to the book--you can do a fast or an elimination. I elected to do a 3 day fast and detox that way. After that I went into the elimination phase and then introduced new foods after that. I figured out what was causing me the most trouble and tried to eliminate those foods. I have not been religious about following this forever, but stick close to what works from me. That's also how Dr. Haas presents things as well. No plan is going to work all the time if you don't allow some flexibility.

I would also recommend combining this with an exercise plan. Walking is easy and putting together a plan isn't too hard.

This plan will work and you will see immediate results. I took measurements week after week and was surprised. The results are the reinforcement and you won't miss the chocolate after that.

The only drawback is if you like to go out to eat. It can be hard to find things that are good and fit in the plan. Best bets were ethnic foods and, of course, vegetarian entrees.