121 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Progress Update at 8 Weeks, May 15, 2001
"The Formula" is an easy to understand, easy to follow 40:30:30 cookbook. I like it better now than when we began. I want to personally thank the Daousts for their work.
I wrote an anonymous review from Redondo Beach after my first week. It's now been eight weeks. I'm 6 feet tall and was 221 pounds. I have lost 22 pounds. My goal is to reach 180. I broke 200 this past weekend. By the way, I have not exercised at all. Perhaps pounds do come off easier when starting out 40 lbs over, but they are coming off.
My doctor told me three years ago, "Lose 30 lbs and lower your blood pressure. Goodbye." No suggestions, no help. Almost by accident my wife saw The Formula mentioned on TV. It looked "balanced." We tried it.
The 40:30:30 system works and is painless weight loss. Yes, protein sources such as 2% cottage cheese, lowfat cheese, chicken, beef and whey are somewhat expensive. We have had to re-learn shopping. We shop the perimeter of the market, not the inside aisles. We have re-learned cooking and eating, too. Yes, 40:30:30 is low calorie. That's the point: low calorie without hunger. How else are you going to lose weight? The difference is that I don't want to go off this diet. It's simply a better way to eat.
It's more than weight loss, though. With more study, I find this diet is really about controlling hormones, not calories (see "Entering The Zone," by Dr. Barry Sears, to understand the theory behind the practice in this book). At age 49 and 40 lbs overweight, I had around 164,000 calories stored. (9 cal/gram of fat.) How to get that fat to burn off? 40:30:30 controls glucose/blood sugar levels, which in turn controls insulin levels. With insulin under control, another hormone, glucagon, can come into play. This hormone tells the body to burn fat. It releases the stored fat energy. As long as I am burning that fat, I don't feel hungry and I am losing weight, even at night, even without exercise.
The gentleman who only had a few pounds to lose and complained he didn't lose anything in a week might have overlooked what was actually going on in his body: reduction of body fat and the build up of lean muscle mass. This can happen when one is exercising, which he was. When put on this diet, professional football players actually gained as much as eleven pounds, but reduced the percentage of body fat. They became leaner, stronger, faster and more agile. One man started the diet at 190 and never lost a pound. He had to buy a new wardrobe, though, because he leaned out. He looked great.
For me, my mood is better, I handle stress better, I sleep better, I have less intestinal gas (better digestion) and my blood pressure is normal. I have increased energy, need less sleep, and rise early on weekends ready to go instead of taking most of the weekend to recover from the week's stresses. I feel as if I've been given many additional years of active life.
Does it require cooking and prep? Yes. Good food doesn't just happen. It takes some work. Is it a burden? No. My wife felt she was going to lose me unless we did something. She views this as a ministry to me, which I deeply appreciate. I have gotten into the kitchen, too. We are eating fruits, vegetables, lean meats, dairy-all good stuff. We don't miss the pizza and white bread. It's fun baking good food. It's better than staring at some lamebrain TV sitcom, which is what I was doing because I had no energy. What's more, I know the food we prepare is exactly right for us and tastes great. Consider another angle: we in America have every food we need, in high quality, available at good prices all year long. It's right there in the store. That is an amazing blessing. Take advantage of it.
Look--you can find dozens of reasons to stay fat. "I don't have time." "If we had a personal chef, I'd do it." "I refuse to give up some foods." "I don't like to shop and want the food to jump into my mouth by itself and still want to look like a movie star." If you like it that way, fine. All I know is that I have to buy new clothes because everything I have is too large. I also have people (especially women) asking me what is going on and how I lost so much weight so fast. I print out a copy of this ... page and give it to them.
The method is in The Formula and several other 40:30:30 cookbooks. The theory is in Dr. Sears' works on The Zone. The information you need is there. You don't need magic potions. You don't need exercise equipment. You don't need appetite suppressants. You don't need a cabinet full of supplements. You don't need liposuction.
What you need is recipes for each meal and each snack that give your body the right portions of carbohydrates, fat and protein it needs for peak performance--not too much food, not too little.
This book is a great start. The rest is up to you.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Book Is Fantastic !!!, June 3, 2003
This review is from: The Formula: A Personalized 40-30-30 Fat-Burning Nutrition Program (Paperback)
I won't go into all the details but here is an honest opinion.
This is not a miracle diet. I was hungry, but because the diet worked so fast, my willpower was sky high !!! In the first month I lost 20 lbs, without ANY exercise.
I found that I had to always reduce the calories lower than what the book called for to keep the weight loss going, but it just kept going. For anyone who believes all peoples bodies work exactly the same (including doctors) YOU ARE WRONG !!! People like myself who were morbidly obese have defective bodies... They just don't work right.
I am 10 ½ months into this "Life Change" and have lost 98 lbs. I am presently at 218 lbs. And feel FANTASTIC !!! I walk and jog and lift weights now... TONS OF ENERGY !!! My 14 year old twin sons cannot keep up with me on my bike.
My shirts are not 4XL anymore... they are XL.
My inseam is now the same as my waist (32").
I can find cheap clothes now.
You have got to try this !!!
Because of my success, another very large man I work with started this diet. In four months he's lost 47 lbs.
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