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.”