Customer Reviews

Dr. Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program for Permanent Weight Loss

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Five years ago, I walked into Dr. Shapiro's office with over 40 lbs. to lose and was literally at the end of my dieting rope. I had subjected myself to every diet from Optifast to Jenny Craig to Dr. Atkins to Richard Simmon's deal-a-meal and was successful at losing weight, but as soon as the diet was over, all the weight came back.... and then some.

From the moment I walked into Dr. Shapiro's office, all the dieting rules that had been drilled into my head were thrown out the window. He and his team of nutritionists taught me that I was actually setting myself up for failure with diets that were based on deprivation and control. I learned that I was actually sabotaging myself with some of the dieting techniques I had been taught over the years. Almost every dieting counselor/coach/sadist that I went to forbid me to eat fat, sugar, and salt, so I was trained to eat only low-fat, low-sugar, low-salt (and low-taste) "diet" foods. Every morning, I choked down a waxy, low-fat muffin or a plain bagel, sometimes making it more palatable with a smidgeon of low-fat cream cheese because I thought I was being good. In my mind, I was a model dieter.... but yet, I GAINED weight. How could this be! And the frustration just led to more eating.

The first and most poignant lesson I learned from Dr. Shapiro was that a bagel has the same calorie content as the three-egg deli breakfast I avoided like the plague. No wonder I wasn't losing weight! This book is full of simple strategies like this that help you to understand what you are eating and enable you to make better choices. There's no starvation, no weird or embarrassing dieting tactics and no suffering involved. Throughout the entire time I was losing weight, I ate most of my meals at restaurants, traveled extensively, and never felt like I was on a "diet". It took me a year to lose those 40 lbs and I've kept the weight off for four years. My Dad started seeing Dr. Shapiro 6 months ago and has lost 35 lbs. I am thankful to Dr. Shapiro and his staff for literally changing my life. Read this book and follow Dr. Shapiro's advice and it can work for you too!

Dr. Shapiro's book demonstrates very succinctly how to make some simple yet profound changes in your eating styles/food selection and how these choices will ultimately lead to maintained weight loss. The biggest factor working for him is the fact that this is not a "diet" -- i.e., replete with complicated and stringent eating rules and regulations -- he simply shows you that by increasing your consumption of fruits/vegetables and decreasing your consumption of other foods (not necessarily eliminating them however) you can eat a good deal of food (even interesting food) and still lose weight/maintain weight. The only thing I wish he had added to the book: 1. more info on better meat choices (i.e., lean chicken etc.) 2. ideas for people with seafood allergies (i.e., he includes many examples of low cal meals based on shrimp, scallop, clams, etc- - but if you're allergic to seafood this part can be somewhat disheartening). Overall, as I mentioned in the title of this review -- it's a well-written, well-illustrated book and it is worth a read.

Dr. Shapiro's book turned me around overnight. I've never gone on a diet before -so I don't know how the others work. I was simply ignorant of how many calories were in different foods. I just ate what came before me, including junk foods at the convenience store. After ,looking at the sensible pictures (well done, by the way), I changed my eating routine immediately, with no regrets. I simply eat stuff that has less calories- without having to diet. Every now and then I have a "treat" if I feel like it. My pounds are lessening and I have done nothing but made the right choices. I feel great! Thanks Dr. Shapiro!

I was sceptical when I frist heard about the premise for this book, but I had read the reviews and figured it was worth trying. I'm always entertaining for business so I eat out at a lot. As a result 'traditional diets' are almost impossible for me to follow. Dr. Shapiro's book is not a diet plan, but rather an alternate way of looking at food and eating. He gives many examples of restaurant menus and what would be good choices to make. This is reinforced by the pictures. After looking at the pictures a few times I realized I was starting to make the better choices -- this was not a concious thing, either. Something about this book really clicked for me. I guess I needed to see and not just read or be told what I 'should' eat. After 3 weeks I have gone down one dress size. I would definately recommend this book to anyone who has tried everything out there.

I have purchased many weight loss books over the years. This is one of the few that I actually read and not just skimmed. It makes sense and is easy to follow. I lost 23 pounds using the Zone Plan a year and a half ago. All but 3 pounds are back. Ask yourself if you can envision being on a certain eating plan a year from now and if you cannot answer yes, don't bother with it because as soon as you go off of it, back comes the weight. This plan I think I can live with. I laugh when I listen to a co-worker lament about how she can't lose weight even though all she eats for breakfast are two bagels. I'll have to show her the bagel comparisons in the book!

Although there is a lot of helpful nutritional information, this book could have been improved by including meat/poultry choices. Dr. Shapiro does not include choices for meat and poultry, saying that they are bad for you and soy substitutes are so much healthier. Be that as it may, if his program is truly about personal choices for weight loss (as he claims), then he should have included options for meats and poultry. Although I use many soy products, I also find that many fall short of the mark. I truly would have appreciated some pictures featuring meats and poultry, so that I could make better choices among those particular items. The pictures do, however, offer lots of choices for other food types.

This is an excellent book for those who want help losing weight, and do not expect anything further of it. Eschewing the gimmick and trick diet route, it focuses on the undeniable, but elusive, key to weight loss: reducing calorie intake. And it does this well. I found the use of pictoral comparisons to vividly demonstrate that one can make a low calorie choice AND have a large portion of enjoyable food to be far more effective in guiding my food choices than the typical calories charts one often finds. I was particularly impressed with the cleverness of the comparisons. Anyone can figure out on an intellectual level that they'd be better off eating an apple than a plate of fried chicken, but if you're in KFC, that's not a choice anyone's ever going to make (or should I say it's not an apples-to-apples comparison). But the book compares close and usually available substitutes: bagel v. english muffin, items one could get from a NYC street vendor (knish v. hot dog), choose at a holiday meal, or select at a typical chinese restaurant (no more egg rolls for me!). What one should understand, however, is that guidance in selecting lower calorie foods without sacrafice is pretty much the only thing this book provides. Very little consideration seems to be given to nutritional issues, excercise is discussed but not with much depth, etc. There is much more to good health than weight loss, and it is not to be found here. I do not offer that as a criticism, for I think this book is truly excellent for what it is and it can't be everything. But I'd only make it a component of my health and fitness reading, not a complete plan. (I'd recommend Dr. Weil's books for nutrition, Kenneth Cooper's aerobics classics and (with caution) Bill Phillips' gym-rat guide for exercise.) A final note: while the price may seem high for a diet book, its really quite reasonable considering the many heavy glossy pages of photos, a sort of down-sized coffee-table book.

I think the immense virtue of this book is that it raises people's awareness about the foods they eat: many people blindly assume that if a food item is "fat-free" it's "healthy," or that certain foods are ipso facto "fattening," but Dr. Shapiro pops that bubble neatly. And by showing that you can improve your diet by making the right choices among easily available foods, vs. following someone's weird (or expensive) "diet plan," he's done everyone a great service. Still, I have some problems with his approach: (1) His concept of protein equals "soy," which is fine if you're a vegetarian, but those of us who still include moderate amounts of animal protein in our diets would have appreciated some guidance there too. (My doctor says I'm "pre-diabetic," so I'm trying to raise my protein intake and reduce carbohydrates, but it's hard to stick to this regimen if my only choice is tofu!) (2) The implication of many of the pictures is that quantity is more important than content -- but one reason Americans are fatter today is that we've grown accustomed to "supersizing" everything and stuffing ourselves. I think portion control is just as important as making the right choices. (3) He doesn't (usually) take into account the carbohydrate vs. protein content of the foods he compares. Given the choice between eating only fruit or having a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, I'd choose the latter because I need the protein. I think that the book is fundamentally sound and very helpful, but I'd appreciate it if, in future editions, Dr. Shapiro made more of an effort to address these issues too.

As a nurse and a 20plus year dieter, I've read it all and know everything there is to know about good nutrition and the various weight-loss tricks and trixter's out there. Dr. Shapiro's message is basic and simple but the photos are dramatic. The book is visual reinforcement of the basics of healthy weightloss. I bought the book on October 30, read it in two days and put it into practice on November 1. In spite of the Holidays, a Christmas baking fest and five Christmas parties, I have to date lost 22 pounds. At the hospital where I work, I've become Dr.Shapiro's poster child and have been responsible for the sale of at least fifteen books. Where is my commission, Dr. Shapiro?

The photos of this book really are an outstanding way to get people to re-think their food choices. I have to agree with other critics, though, that his push of soy products gets old. Soy products are expensive, not available everywhere, and some people (not me, but my husband) just hate them. Yet Dr. Shapiro gives almost no other protein options. He also uses low-sugar products, many of which have artificial sweeteners that many people would argue are more unhealthy than sugar. Also, he uses some super-size foods for basic comparisons...he uses an oversized 400 calorie bagel as an example, yet the bagels my family buys prepackaged from the store have only 180 calories. My point is this: Dr. Shapiro's book will get you out of your comfort zone and make you re-evaluate what you eat, which is fabulous So use that same principle when using his book. You can still have a turkey sandwich if you use less meat than his photos, and no-fat mayo -- you don't have to use expensive soy lunch products. I also found it disappoining that he included photos of specialized dishes, but then didn't provide recipes. All this aside, I have lost weight because I am incorporating much from his book into my eating choices.