Diet and Weight Loss Lies

Michelle Baumgartner

Michelle writes from her own perspective on exercise and anorexia, and finding your way out of the dieting hole. Backed up with science and a couple of relevant university Degrees, Michelle sets down planning for a new you in 8 weeks. Reminds me of the 12 week program touted by someone else…

Did I learn anything new from this? No, I didn’t really. I’ve read other books like this before, and find many of them the same. That being said, one of the diet books I read was completely a fad, and I couldn’t recommend it to anyone. See here for my rather ripping-apart review. This book is a reasonable source of information, and is certainly not a ‘fad diet’.

I loved the recipe section at the back. It’s a good formula for people who don’t feel comfortable working out what they should be eating from a random list of ‘allowed’ foods. There are some random lists in this book that you can skip over if so desired. I only wish that the menu plans had come with a total list of what you needed for the recipes.

Some fad diets come up with diets based on blood type, which is completely absurd. Instead, this guide uses your body shape. I think the overall view is good, but don’t shackle yourself into sticking to one body type meal. The main thing is being sensible about what you eat, and how much you eat!

I don’t agree with putting only a fist-full of food in your stomach at one time. For people working 9-5 hours, it’s simply not possible to fit in 5 meals. As it is, the earliest time we can have dinner is at 6pm. If you work from home like I do sometimes, I would strongly suggest packaging up your portions for the day, and eating them when you get hungry. If not, it is likely you will just snack from the fridge and not get far on anything.

A non-nonsense guide. I think I’d actually recommend this one. The only thing that let me down were the limited case studies – I always find that part the most fascinating.