Eat What You Want Diets – Lose weight and still indulge in your favorite foods.

Eat what you want dieting doesn’t mean anything and everything in sight. But, who sticks to a diet where they can’t eat their favorite foods?

Strict diets can be no fun at all. You may have one indulgence that you look forward to each day, or week, that are strictly off limits when following the diet plan you’re on. Life on a limiting weight loss plan can make you drop off in no time. But, with these diet books,  you don’t have to give up all your favorite things to get your weight back on track.  Learn how to live a little while you lose the weight, and it may just help you to stay in shape forever.

1. Shred: The Revolutionary Diet

Alcohol

Diets and drinking can go well together because alcohol dulls the pain of denying yourself delicious eats. No kidding. But even as the sweet nectar soothes the troubled soul, there’s still that nagging question: “What about all those calories?” Never fear—Ian K. Smith’s “Shred” diet allows a tipple in moderation: After an initial period of abstinence, you can work up to one mixed drink twice a week (or 3 light beers or 3 glasses of wine per week). You don’t have to go crazy, but this might just do the trick to help you feel like you still indulge while staying in shape.

2. Eat to Live

Chocolate

Judith Viorst wrote in “Love & Guilt & The Meaning of Life, Etc.” that “strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands—and then eat just one of the pieces.” So, if you’re in desperate need of a lift, can’t you just have a bit of chocolate? Imagine our joy that on day three of Joel Fuhrman’s “Eat to Live” plan, the morning begins with a chocolate smoothie. Chocolate can be healthy, and isn’t the worst thing to eat while losing weight. Remember it’s moderation, not abstinence.

3. Wheat Belly

Cookies

For some dieters, the mere mention of cookies can scuttle an otherwise successful attempt at losing weight (they’re so tiny, what’s the harm?). The cardiologist William Davis is a strong advocate for removing wheat from your diet—in “Wheat Belly,” he claims that when some of his patients stop eating the grain, they get “typical weight loss totaling 20, 30 or 50 pounds just within the first few months.” All fine—but doesn’t that mean no cookies? Au contraire: “Wheat Belly” features a non-wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe.

4. The Virgin Diet

Coffee

Sadly, caffeine is often cited as a no-no for those trying to lose weight—Dr. Atkins, for example, forbids it because of its effect on blood sugar, while multiple macrobiotic diets tell you caffeine’s impact as an aggressive stimulant doesn’t help with the delicate balance of foods necessary to shed pounds. JJ Virgin takes a different approach in her “Virgin Diet.” She warns that it is food intolerance which causes bloating and weight gain, so if you don’t cut out certain foods, you’ll never consistently lose the pounds. She cites gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, corn, peanuts and sugar/artificial sweeteners as the top high-intolerance foods; drop ’em all for 21 days, and bloat will go away, says Virgin. Crucially, JJ doesn’t mention coffee in that list, so as long as you like it black, feel free to make it a trenta.

5. The 8-Hour Diet

Pizza

How does a rational human being live without pizza? We honestly have no answer. So, thank god for David Zinczenko, whose “The 8-Hour Diet” features the following advice: “Eat whatever you want, as much as you want. But only eat during an 8-hour period each day.” (Even better, you only have to follow the 8-hour plan for three days per week.) Zinczenko cites the lure of the “stuffed-crust pizza that leaps out from the TV screen during a bowl game,” but crucially, he doesn’t say don’t eat it. Instead, his plan seeks to limit the open window for eating which, according to research, is key to losing weight. We take that as a tacit OK on of the joys of pepperoni, pineapple, anchovies…whichever topping strikes your fancy.

6. Most Decadent Diet Ever!

Bacon Cheeseburgers

The cookbook that reveals the secrets to cooking your favorites in a healthier way was created by Devin Alexander, who is a chef and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Biggest Loser Cookbook. In this book Alexander promises that you can enjoy America’s all-time favorite foods while still managing to lose weight. She shares her recipes for indulgent meals that have been transformed into healthy and guilt-free (yet still very delicious) versions of the originals.

Alexander says that she lost fifty-five pounds by eating this way and has kept the weight off for over sixteen years. However, she reminds dieters that although The Most Decadent Diet Ever recipes have reduced calories, it is still necessary to monitor your portions if you want to lose weight.