As you may have guessed, I’m not a fan of Atkins. There’s a lot of misinformation about this diet that a recent study helped clarify… and frankly validates my own beliefs about this controversial diet. First let me first say you will lose weight on Atkins and your cholesterol levels will go down. Sounds good right? Well don’t be fooled.

Consider this. Cholesterol levels will go down as a result of any weight loss period. You could be drinking motor oil to lose weight and your cholesterol will go down so don’t think for a second Atkins is healthy.

A recent study presented at the American Heart Association, corrected for this cholesterol “weight loss” lowering effect. This study involved 18 people, each of whom were put on three different diets for month, and they were carefully monitored so they had no weight loss. The three diets were: Atkins with 50% of calories as fat, South Beach with 30% calories as fat and the Ornish diet with 10% fat.

Atkins was decidedly the worst diet. LDL or bad cholesterol went up by 7% on Atkins, while it decreased by 7% on the Ornish diet and by 10% on the South Beach diet. Not only that, but markers for inflammation went up by 30-45% on the Atkins diet whereas on the South Beach and Ornish diets they were either unchanged or decrease by 15-20%. Inflammation is a marker for accelerated aging and high levels of inflammation are associated with an increased risk of cancer, stroke, heart disease, dementia to name just a few chronic diseases that plague Western society.

Atkins has so many devotees because it’s easy to follow in our overly processed food world. It will result in weight loss because by cutting out refined carbs such as white flour products (cakes, cookies, breads etc) you’re essentially cutting calories. However by consuming a diet high in animal protein that’s low in fruits and veggies you’re putting your health at risk. The cholesterol lowering effect of Atkins is an illusion. It’s due to weight loss, not the diet. When you factor the weight loss out, Atkins causes your cholesterol and inflammatory markers to go up.

If you can get past all the shock-jock language such as – you’re a gluttonous pig – you need to exercise you lazy shit – don’t be a pussy – you’ll find that Skinny Bitch offers some good dietary advice. I frankly wasn’t expecting much in the way of sound nutritional advice from the authors who are proudly skinny bitches themselves. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin are both former models, with Kim holding a degree in holistic nutrition.

First it should be mentioned that these skinny bitches are vegans and Peta supporters which helps explains their anti-meat stance. But instead of blindly discarding “meat as evil,” they point out some of the negative health consequences of an animal based diet. They correctly point out that a diet high in animal protein is associated with heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis. They also debunk dairy. As I have written earlier, dairy does not aid with weight loss. Do you really think that a pro-growth substance like dairy, created to make a calf double in size, is going to help you lose weight? Dairy consumption is, like other animal protein sources, associated with osteoporosis and a higher fracture rate. Dairy was never meant for human consumption, which is why 90% of the world is lactose intolerant. I also agree with their other nutritional recommendations to avoid refined carbs (white flour and sugar products), go organic, and eat more whole unprocessed fruits and veggies.

Consumption of animal products can be part of a healthy diet, but in much lower amounts that consumed by the average American. The form of Omega -3 fatty acids found in fish, which is absent from a vegan diet, have proven benefits against heart disease and stroke with possible benefits against dementia, depression, asthma, and several forms of cancer. I would like to make clear that the plant-based form of Omega – 3 is not the same as that found in animal sources and they should not be considered as equivalent. Getting your omega 3 from flax seed is not the same as getting it from fish. Our body converts only about 5% the plant-based version of Omega 3 (ALA) to the longer chain animal form (DHA and EPA). While there is evidence that plant based Omega 3 is also beneficial in its own right, the majority of evidence for health benefits is from the animal form.

What the authors got completely wrong, however, is their advice on “detoxing” and fasting. They claim that fasting “is a powerful tool for cleansing, flushing, detoxifying and maintaining your body, and healing illnesses, both minor and major.” The authors mistakenly attribute symptoms of fasting such as “headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping, stomach pains, sweating, a swollen tongue, bad breath” as a “good thing” because the body is “digesting and expelling poisons, toxins, and bad cells – and it feels crappy.” Hello! Do you think that symptoms of headaches, weakness, nausea, cramping and the like are a good thing? It’s your body’s way of telling you that fasting is a really bad idea. There is no “detox” in fasts. In fact, fasts cause a build up of toxins because, nutritionally deprived, your body is getting sick. Any notion that practitioners feel their bodies are being “detoxed” by a fast is probably some form of fast-induced delirium. If you want to “detox” your body, eat more fruits and veggies to help rev up the most important detoxifying organ in your body which is your liver.

The authors also claim that fasting “has been used as a healthy method of weight loss. ” Another piece of bad advice. Fasting will result in weight loss because you’re basically starving yourself. But very low calorie diets also result in a substantial loss of metabolically active muscle which causes your metabolism to crash. So when you go off your crazy fast, your body has become a finely tuned fat making machine. You have just starved your body, and with your wreaked metabolism it will convert more calories into fat, so you regain weight but now you have become proportionally fatter. Welcome to the world of yo- yo dieting.

While their misguided advice on fasting and detoxing prevents me from being more enthusiastic about their book, their bad girl “skinny bitches” approach to dieting makes Skinny Bitch an entertaining read.

The Volumetrics Eating Plan is written by Barbara Rolls a leading authority on weight management and eating behavior at Penn State University. She is best known for her work on “energy density” which is simply calories per given weight of food. What’s so important about energy density you ask? It is the key to understanding how you can eat more and weigh less. Sound too good to be true?

Volumetric Diet Plan
The Volumetric diet plan is all about eating low energy density foods. Since we eat about the same amount of food per day, filling up on low cal, high volume foods will curb your hunger as you lose weight. Hence the term Volumetrics! It’s an eat more, weigh less strategy. So what are these low density foods that are going to make you lose weight? Before I get to that let’s talk first about how to calculate energy density. First look on the nutrition facts panel and locate the number of calories per serving as well as the serving size. For example looking at a can of chick peas in my kitchen I see that it has a serving size of 125 grams and and 124 calories per serving. This gives an energy density of about 1. This is good as foods with an energy density less than 1 will help you lose weight. Foods such as crackers, that have an energy density of 4.5 have four and half times as many calories as the chick pea example. This is not so good and you need to careful about portion control here.

How to eat more weigh less
So here now is the secret to losing weight. Eat more unprocessed fruits and veggies! Fruits and veggies have a low energy density and are great for weight loss because they contain a lot of water per weight. The more water a food contains the lower the energy density. Lowering the fat content will also lower the energy density, but it will not have as dramatic effect as water does. As an example, grapes weigh in at only 50 calories per cup but the dried version, raisins, weigh in at 400 calories per cup! The lesson here is that the more refined and processed a food is, the higher the energy density and the more likely we are to gain weight. Please see my earlier post on what happens to the calorie content of corn as it gets dried pulverized and fried. Corn’s calorie content for a 4 ounce serving sky rockets from 90 calories for boiled corn to 627 calories for corn chips!

The energy density concept highlights what we have known all along about weight loss. More fruits and veggies, less refined products are the key to sustainable weight loss. To get you started on your “weigh” to weight loss, Volumetrics offers 125 low energy density recipes packed with veggies and fruits. In a field littered with false promises of quick and easy weight loss, Volumetrics delivers. It’s a well written, well organized book that offers practical and effective strategies for weight loss.

Harley Pasternak is a celebrity trainer who has penned Hollywood’s hottest diet, The 5 Factor Diet. Some of his clients include Jessica Simpson, Alicia Keys, Eva Mendes, Kanye West, and Mandy Moore. So why 5 Factor?

5 is the unifying principle for the book: 5 meals a day, 5 “elements” at each meal, 5 is the maximum number of ingredients in each recipe, 5 workouts per week, 5 types of food to keep in your kitchen… you get the idea.

5 Factor Diet
According to Harley, the benefit of frequent small meals throughout the day is to keep insulin levels low so less food is converted into fat, keep your metabolism up, improve your mood, and reduce stress. The 5 “elements” you should have with every meal include

1. Protein: Protein has been shown to satisfy hunger more effectively than carbs and fats. It is also not as efficiently converted to fuel or fat, as carbs and protein.
2. Carbohydrates: Low and moderate glycemic carbs will tend to keep blood sugar levels lower which helps reduce insulin levels and conversion of calories into fat.
3. Fiber: Between 5-10 grams of fiber with each meal will help keep you full, lower blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol.
4. HealthyFats: Good fats are monounsaturated (olive oil, peanut oil) and polyunsaturated fats (fish, sunflower, canola and flaxseed oils). Bad fats include saturated fats (primarily found in animal products such as butter, milk, poultry skin and meats as well as coconut and palm oils) and hydrogenated or transfats (found in processed commercially prepared baked goods, margarine, and shortening)
5. Sugar Free Beverages: To help keep you from feeling thirsty so you don’t confuse hunger for thirst.

5 Factor Workout
There are 5 workouts a week, each 25 minutes long. Each workout is broken up into 5 phases:

1. Phase 1: 5 minutes of cardio-warm up
2. Phase 2: 5 minutes of upper strength training
3. Phase 3: 5 minutes of lower strength training
4. Phase 4: 5 minutes of core training
5. Phase 5: 5 minutes of cardio.

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in…
The “5″ in 5 Factor is a little gimmicky and seemed contrived at times. On the plus side the menu plan is clear and well laid out. With only 5 ingredients each, the recipes are really easy to make although I can’t vouch for the taste.

There are a couple errors in the book including the suggestion that dairy will help with weight loss. As the FDA ruled against the dairy council earlier this year, we should stop perpetrating this myth. Dairy will not help you lose weight. Think about it. Do you think milk, which is created so calves can double in size every couple of months, is going to help you lose weight?

So what’s it going to take to get you looking like a Hollywood celeb? Portion control is going to be the key to making this diet work, although he does not really address this in the book, as well as the workouts. Harley Pasternak claims that what sets his diet apart is the use of the glycemic diet. Considering that the South Beach Diet and the GI Diet have already popularized the glycemic index concept, this is really nothing new. Personally I think what sets his diet apart are Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore, Eva Mendes…

Alli, “the poop and fart your way to weight loss pill,” now has a diet plan. Written by Caroline Apovian, a physician who is the Director of the Center for Weight Management at Boston University Medical Center, it’s aptly titled “the Alli Diet Plan.” I can sum up the purpose of this book by saying…

- it was created to help minimize the pill’s “treatment effects.” The Alli Diet pill works by blocking absorption of fat and that fat needs somewhere to go. Unfortunately that usually means your pants and a lot of time on the toilet. In case you didn’t see my earlier post on the Alli treatment side effects, here are some recommendations regarding these “treatment effects” taken directly from the myalli website:

“You may feel an urgent need to go to the bathroom. Until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work.”

“You may not usually get gassy, but it’s a possibility when you take alli. The bathroom is really the best place to go when that happens“

The Alli Diet Plan
The Alli Diet Plan is divided into 3 phases, no doubt to help minimize pant soiling and time spent in the bathroom. You start off in phase 1 in which 15% of your calories come from fat. In phase 2, 20% of your calories come from fat and in phase 3, 30% of your calories come from fat. My assumption here is that by phase 3, you’ll be less likely to experience “problems” with the Alli diet pill. The author recommends that you also take a multivitamin while taking Alli, since you’ll have trouble absorbing the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. The bulk of this book is devoted to menu plans and recipes, so if you’re looking for nutritional and diet information you’ll be disappointed. For those who are committed to the Alli diet pill and want to minimize these embarrassing “side effects,” this book can help.

You should also be aware of safety concerns raised regarding the use of Alli, over a possible link to pre-cancerous growths in the colon. Personally, I recommend that you skip the pill and these “treatment effects” entirely, and just follow a sensible low-fat diet.

Jim Karas has come out with a new diet book, the Cardio-Free Diet, with a somewhat sensationalist premise: “cardio-kills.” Basically he is an advocate of strength training over cardio-exercise for weight loss. He claims “cardio kills” and is a recipe for failure because it:

• causes wear and tear on your joints. (an occupational hazard of any form of exercise including strength training)
• suppresses immunity. (he cites studies on marathon runners… not your typical person trying to lose weight)
• does not change your body shape. (while strength training is a great way to increase muscle mass and metabolism, cardio can also be effective especially when combined with circuit training)
• it’s not an efficient form of exercise. (states you will get faster results with strength training)
• makes you eat more. (you may gain weight because any calories burned by cardio exercise is more than offset by greater calorie consumption due to an increased appetite. – Dubious assertion at best. He cherry-picked one study to support his claim)

Cardio-Free Exercise Plan
The book presents exercises you can do at home with simple exercise tubing and free weights. He offers several workout tips:

• he recommends you should be hitting “failure,” indicated when you can’t complete another rep, by the tenth rep. If you’re not, then he recommends increasing the weight (free weights) or tension (exercise tubing) given that you’re not compromising your form or risk of injury.
• reps should take 2 counts on the way up and 4 counts on the way down. Muscle building is caused when the muscle lengthens (eccentric) so he recommends stressing the eccentric part of the exercise with a 4 count.
• he recommends spacing out your strength training to give the body time to heal. A sample schedule may include workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Cardio-Free Diet Plan
It’s is a calorie counting plan that recommends you:

• don’t skip breakfast, never skip meals
• eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day to keep your blood sugar levels stable to avoid cravings
• eat protein with every meal.
• include 1200 milligrams of calcium and dairy every day. (this recommendation is flawed since calcium and dairy do not aid weight loss)
• consume high fiber carbohydrates to regulate blood sugar to reduce cravings
• skip liquid calories
• be careful with fat calories

The plan is divided into 4 phases, where you gradually increase your calorie intake as you progress with the diet. You start out at 1,200 calories for women and 1,500 calories for men in phase 1, increasing to 1,500 calories for women and 1,800 calories for men by phase 4.

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in
My only guess as to why Mr Karas decided to go with “cardio kills” is based on the belief that “controversy sells.” While I do agree with the merits of strength training, cardio does not “kill.” Cardio-exercise has been shown in multiple studies to lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. In addition engaging in some form of cardio exercise is one of the strongest predictors of weight loss maintenance.

As far as weight loss, Mr Karas is correct in pointing out that exercise alone will not have a measurable impact on weight loss, despite what all the inflated “calories burned” readings on the elliptical trainers will have you believe. But he is missing the point on the role of exercise in weight loss. Studies show that you lose weight by cutting calories, and maintain weight loss through exercise. In fact the “biggest weight losers,” individuals who have lost an average of 70 pounds and kept if off for an average of about 6 years , engage in over 60 minutes of exercise each day. The most popular exercise in this group is not strength training but walking.

I like his emphasis on mixing up exercise routines to recruit more muscle fibers. Interesting the same philosophy of increasing muscle recruitment can be applied to cardio-exercise, through high intensity interval training. The point of the book, simply put, is that strength training is a great way to increase your lean muscle mass and your metabolism. Point taken. He starts to lose me when he says: lose the cardio to lose the weight…

The title of the book is somewhat of a misnomer, the Beck Diet Solution, given that it really isn’t a diet. Rather it addresses how to prevent self-sabotage and overcome the psychological hurdles associated with weight loss and maintenance. Written by Judith Beck, a psychologist and daughter of Aaron Beck the father of “Cognitive Behavior Therapy,” it’s a step by step manual to “help your brain think like a thin person.” Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a mouthful to say, but it simply teaches you how to solve problems through goal setting and changing the way you think.

Change your Mindset
Throughout the book, she talks about two “muscles”, your “resistance muscle” and your “giving-in muscle.” For example, tension will arise if you’re presented with chocolate cake. While you can reduce your tension by “giving in,” you can also reduce this tension by strengthening your “resistance muscle.” By developing skills to strengthen your “resistance muscle,” you will more likely resist a poor food choice in the future.

How Thin People Think
To model the successful behaviors of thin people, Dr. Judith Beck outlines how overweight people may think differently about food.

• You Confuse Hunger with the Desire to Eat. By knowing when you are truly hungry, you can develop strategies to avoid overeating caused by a desire to eat.
• You have a Low Tolerance for Hunger and Cravings. Here you learn how to respond to feelings of “I have to eat right now.”
• You like the Feeling of being Full. A key is to understand that you don’t need to eat everything on your plate, and don’t have to eat till you’re “full” or “stuffed.”
• You Fool yourself about how much you Eat. Problem here is underestimating the number of calories an overweight person may consume.
• You Comfort yourself with Food. In place of eating, you learn how to develop behavioral coping strategies to deal with life stresses.
• You Feel Helpless and Hopeless When you Gain Weight. For many dieting becomes an “all or none” proposition. Dr Beck talks about strategies to help you recommit to your plan and get back “on the wagon.”
• You Focus on issues of Unfairness. Here you give up on your efforts because you see some “skinny bitch” eat like a horse while you have to eat like a rabbit to lose weight. The author states that this is an illusion; all thin people restrict their diet, whether they are aware of it or not.
• You Stop Dieting once you Lose Weight. Learning successful behaviors and how to properly address sabotaging behaviors, is a life-long process that you use the rest of your life.

Six Week Plan
The Beck Diet Plan is a behavior modification program that works with any diet plan. In fact, for the first 2 weeks you’re not on any diet at all. She has you perform a task a day to develop the skills you need to be successful. By Week 3 you start your chosen diet plan, while continuing to build your skill set by performing a task a day. These include journaling your food intake, eating while only sitting down, setting realistic goals, differentiating between hunger, desire and cravings… etc.

Celebrity Diet Doctor Weigh in..
There are an infinite number of diet plans to choose from. A diet is only successful if you follow it. The key to success, in many cases, is not the diet itself but the ability to incorporate successful behaviors and stick to the plan. The Beck Diet Solution provides the reader with a set of tools and a specific action plan to help make these successful behaviors part of your life. I suspect for many dieters this is the missing link to success. I like this book and recommend it.

Physicians Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, frequent guests on the Oprah Show, have teamed up in their newest book,”You on a Diet.” It’s called the “Owner’s manual for waist management,” for a reason. The good doctors want you to focus on your waist size instead of your weight, since your waist size is a stronger predictor for developing health problems associated with being overweight. The book is mainly an adapted biology course on the science behind being overweight, accompanied by comic book style diagrams and cutesy figurines. The “look and feel” of this book reminded me of a cross between a comic book and “Dieting for Dummies.”

The You on a Diet Plan
Here’s their plan to help you lose some “waist.” Say “yes” to whole grains, nuts, lean meats, fish, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Say “no” to processed goods that contain simple sugars, high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, saturated fat, white, enriched or bleached flour. Here are some specifics of the plan:

• Consists of 3 main meals and snacks. They recommend you make your eating plan routine and boring so you have less of an appetite and eat fewer calories. Use this strategy with lunch first, since this is the one meal many of us rush through, and automate it so you eat the very same lunch everyday.
• Includes fiber to control cravings and protein to decrease appetite.
• Save desert for every other day.
• No eating 3 hours before bedtime.
• To curb your hunger they recommend apples, almonds, walnuts, edamame (soybeans), sugarless gum, water, cut up veggies, low fat yogurt and cottage cheese.
• Drinks may include skim milk coffee, tea, water, diet soda, 8 oz glass of fruit or veggie juice with breakfast, a glass of alcohol with dinner.

For activity the book recommends walking 30 minutes a day and incorporating 20 minute workouts 3 times a week.

Bottom line
You on a Diet may disappoint some, as its main focus seems to be as a biology course on the science behind being overweight. It took some time to get to the actual “diet”, which runs from pages 204-263 followed by about 40 recipes. Although there is a one week sample eating plan and a modest recipe section, I found it difficult to follow without a discussion of portion sizes. The overly playful and cutesy text was wayyyy…. overdone at times. This book does a good job explaining the science, but there needs to be more “Diet” in “You on a Diet.”

Best known as Oprah Winfrey’s trainer, Bob Greene has recently debuted his newest diet book, the Best Life Diet. It includes primarily dietary advice, some exercise and a discussion about the emotional aspect of eating. Overall it’s a sensible plan with an emphasis on low-fat dairy (with the exception of dairy – but that’s for another post), whole grains, lean meats, fruits and veggies.

Diet Plan
Phase 1 (minimum 4 weeks)
The emphasis in this phase is less on diet and more about increasing activity levels “so that your metabolism is operating in high gear.”

• Eat 3 meals a day and 1 snack.
• Eating 2 hours before bedtime is banned.
• Alcohol is banned.
• He recommends weighing in at the start and after 4 weeks. More frequent weigh ins may disappoint, since this early phase aims to increase activity levels and boost metabolism rather than focus on weight loss.

Phase 2 (minimum 4 weeks)
This is the weight loss phase of the plan, which lasts until you reach your goal weight or at least within 20 pounds of it:

• Stresses portion control.
• Uses a hunger scale.
• Bans soda, foods that contain transfats, fried foods, white bread, regular pasta, and high-fat dairy.
• Weekly weight ins

Phase 3 (for life)
This final phase helps you develop healthier eating habits and maintain weight loss.

• Introduces concept of “anything goes” calories which is basically your “cheat food” allowance. These can include some of the no-no foods like donuts, french fries, alcohol and ice cream that you eliminated in phase 2, but still crave. These “anything goes” calories are based on your activity levels; the more active you are, the more “anything goes” calories you can “spend” during the day.
• Advice on limiting your intake of saturated fat, trans fats, sugar and sodium.

Assessment
The Best Life Diet has a nice recipe section and sample 2 week menu plan. Eating out and dining tips are lacking however. I was also disappointed not to find any specific fitness routines or plans in the book, considering phase 1 is focused on increasing activity levels. While there is some good basic diet information, it is certainly not very comprehensive and there is nothing here we haven’t heard before.

I admit to being a little annoyed by the product endorsements and pitches littered throughout the book. These are from manufacturers who have paid Mr. Greene a license to get his “Best Life” seal of approval. There are also more than a few mentions of his best life website…. perhaps that’s where you can find some fitness routines.

Developed by naturopath and nurse, Roni Deluz, the Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox plan is a fasting-type diet that claims you’ll lose 21 lbs in 21 days. The diet consists of a 21 day detox (recommended once a year), and shorter versions including a 7 day and a 2 day weekend detox.

The Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox Plan
It is a 21 day “detox” where you consume primarily soups and juices. During the course of the diet, you gradually add solid foods such as oatmeal for breakfast and stir-fried veggies for dinner.

The author makes many valid arguments including the health benefits of organic fruits and veggies, and the negative health consequences of processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup, trans fats and artificial sweeteners. However the premise for this diet is flawed and will not result in any sustainable weight loss.

Weight Loss Claims
The author claims that “many people’s bodies become so overloaded with toxins that it is physically impossible for them to lose weight by using traditional dieting methods.” Although implicating “toxins” as the cause for obesity, the Martha Vineyard diet detox is actually a very low calorie diet. Consisting primarily of juices and soups over the course of 21 days, you can lose a substantial amount of weight, but it is a result of severe calorie restriction and not the result of “detoxing.” This type of diet will send your body into “starvation mode” where your body will not only use fat as fuel but also a substantial amount of metabolically active muscle tissue. While all diets will cause your metabolism to slow, very low calorie diets are particularly damaging to your metabolism. Once over, your resting metabolism is significantly slower because of the loss of muscle tissue, and you become prone to regaining the weight and then some.

Health Claims
The author talks about how the diet temporarily makes you feel “sick” as a result of your body dumping “toxic residues that have built up in its cells- free radicals, hard minerals, oxidized pollutants from smoke and fumes, herbicides, insecticides, food additives, and even cholesterol, for example – into the bloodstream and organs.” These symptoms are not from “detoxing” impurities as the author claims. These crash diets make you feel sick, because your metabolism is shutting down as your body goes into starvation mode. She calls this a “healing crisis” and acknowledges that clients may experience “acne, rashes, nausea, headaches, sleepiness, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, runny nose, ear problems, and body aches.”

The author claims that one should drink fresh juice because processing kills “enzymes” found in store bought juices. While I agree that fresh-squeezed juice is healthier, it is not because of “enzymes.” Any enzymes found in juice will be quickly degraded by the stomach, making any potential benefits highly unlikely. Rather, fresh juices are healthier because extraction methods and heating will lower the antioxidant content of many store-bought juices.

The health and weight loss claims made by the author concerning colon cleansing and coffee enemas, that are part of her diet, have no scientific basis.

The Bottom Line
I would not recommend this diet, or any very low calorie diet, as it will promote a yo-yo pattern of weight loss and weight gain.