The Cookie Diet – swap daily meals for SIX biscuits: Is it just another fad?
Eat cookies all day and lose weight? Well, if it works I’m in. Being hungry, and giving in to the craving of sweets, are the two main reasons people fall off their healthy routine. The Cookie Diet entices you with sweets that act as an appetite suppressant – solving both problems. But does it work?
- Dr Sanford Siegal’s Cookie Diet claims to help you lose 10lb a month
- Eat low-calorie meal-replacement biscuits
- Dr. Siegal claims diet has helped half a million people lose weight since 1975
- Hollywood stars like Denise Richards, Jennifer Hudson and others claim to have benefitted
- Starting at $59.95 per week
Imagine a diet on which you were permitted to stuff your face with biscuits while still losing weight. Well, now you can stop imagining, because there is one eating plan that claims to let you do precisely that.
The only catch is that you’re only allowed six, specially formulated biscuits per day.
Dr Siegal’s Cookie Diet was founded by Miami-based weight-loss expert Dr Sanford Siegal. It is a meal-replacement eating plan of the same ilk as Slim-Fast. It’s also very similar to The Hollywood Cookie Diet and Smart For Life . Each has their own spin, but the theme is the same – replace meals with a cookie.
The cookies – which, according to Madonna, made her then-husband Ritchie lose his sex drive in 2008 – are made from fibrous grains such as oats, fruit and amino acids. A week’s supply will set you back upwards of $59.95, and the diet claims to help you drop 10lb per month.
How it works
With Dr. Siegal’s program, dieters eat six cookies throughout the day; drink at least eight to 10 glasses of water, then a small dinner consisting of a lean protein source, such as chicken or fish, and vegetables.
The Dr. Siegel’s Cookie Diet is not really a full blown diet. While the diet does call for you to eat six cookies throughout the day, they are to be eaten in conjunction with “any” other diet. So, the cookies are designed primarily as snacks that make a diet easier to stick with.
Dr. Siegal states that his cookies are scientifically designed to help control appetite and reduce hunger. Each cookie has about 90 calories and the secret to their success is the amino acids blended in. The cookies contain select amino acids thought to suppress hunger. They also contain fiber, and other ingredients that digest slowly to help keep you feeling full.
There is actually some scientific basis to this since proteins have been found to have a greater effect on appetite reduction than carbohydrates and fat in the diet.
Dinners are simple: Lean protein and veggies, or a light frozen dinner and a salad. The dinners range from a low of 300 to a high of about 1,000 calories each. Eating 4-6 of the cookies a day will give you somewhere around 500 calories. Therefore, the diet has a grand total of 800-1,500 calories per day.
Most dieters report that the cookies are edible but not the tastiest. Dr. Seigel’s website states that ‘we wouldn’t call them delicious’. They say delicious cookies make people fat and there certainly is some logic to this as dieters are less likely to overindulge in average tasting cookies.
The cookies are available in 5 flavors including: Chocolate, Oatmeal Raisin, Coconut, Banana and Blueberry.
How The Cookie Diet helps to lose weight
The main objective of The Cookie Diet is getting dieters to believe they can eat foods normally considered an indulgence and lose weight in the process. And, The Cookie Diet is wonderful for that. If you’re someone who craves sweets, this diet can be a great help to you.
The Cookie Diet’s claim to fame: “One of the greatest motivators to sticking to a diet is when you manage hunger, decrease cravings, and watch the weight come off, and virtually everyone will lose weight at 800 calories,”
True enough, anyone following an 800-calorie per day plan is sure to lose weight – not matter what you eat. Medical supervision is actually recommended for people following very low-calorie diets (less than 1,200 per day), as they are likely to be deficient in nutrients. Most of the very low-calorie cookie diet plans recommend a daily multivitamin to fill in the nutritional gaps.
It’s also easy enough to eat a small meal that’s around 90 to 150 calories four to six times a day. You don’t really need a cookie for that. Even worse, when dieters eat the same foods over and over again it is also a dietary downfall for several reasons. Not only does it increase your chances of becoming bored and unsatisfied the longer you stick with it, but it also increases your odds of missing out on certain important nutrients. Most dietitians and nutritionist stress the importance of rotating your diet to ensure that you eat a healthy mix of nutrients.
However, if The Cookie Diet is used to complement your normal diet (rather than a meal substitute) it may be a great combination. If you find yourself constantly craving a treat while dieting, it may help greatly satisfy your cravings and reduce the hunger to help stick to your diet.
Is the diet healthy?
Many nutritionists say no. The biggest issue experts have with cookie diets is that they encourage dieters to keep their daily caloric intake at 1,200 or less, which may run too low for some people. Also, eating the same food over and over again can also prevent dieters from getting certain nutrients. Lastly, there is no exercise component to The Cookie Diet plan. This leaves a lot of due-diligence up to the dieter, in making sure they get a healthy balance of nutrition while on the diet.
What do the experts say?
Many dieticians claim The Cookie Diets downfall is the same as its charm – Not a lot of thinking involved, which is something many dieters look to as the main component in a diet plan. “It’s a diet that’s made to look like you can indulge, but it’s really just a low-calorie diet that uses cookies as its’ marketing tool”, say many dieticians.
The cookies similar in content, taste and texture to the nutrient-fortified meal-replacement bars you see in the supermarkets and health food stores — only it’s in the round shape of a cookie. American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dee Sandquist, MS, RD, says the Cookie Diet is another version of the meal replacement plan, known to be an effective option for some.
“For lots of people, decisions about meals are tough, whether at home or eating out, and when you can drink a shake [or, eat a cookie or a bar instead of a meal, it simplifies it and helps some dieters stay in control,” she says.
She emphasizes the importance of making wise food choices when following the Cookie Diet, and recommends that dieters include lean protein, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and low-fat dairy in the dinner meal, even it if ends up being more than 300 calories.
She also suggests checking the nutrition facts panel to see how many grams of fiber, carbs, protein, and other nutrients are in each cookie, as these numbers vary from plan to plan.
It’s also a good idea to consult a registered dietitian before you embark on any weight loss plan, especially one that calls for eating less than 1,200 calories a day.
Costs and expenses
Cookies are packed in boxes containing 42 cookies packed in 7 daily bags which will last for one week if the diet is followed according to the instructions above. The price is $59.95 US plus shipping and handling.
Pros
- Good for dieters that crave sweets
- Reduces hunger and helps to control portions and calories
- Easy to follow – with rapid results
Cons
- Nutritionally inadequate and lacking in protective nutrients from fresh foods
- Calorie levels are well below that recommended for safe and effective weight loss – should seek medical supervision before trying
- Lacking in variety and may cause boredom with diet
- Fitness an long-term advice not part of plan
Recommendation
With such severe calorie restrictions, there is no doubt you can rapidly lose weight with The Cookie Diet. And, if you’re a person who breaks their diet throughout the week due to cravings for sweets this could be a great component to the diet you choose.
On the flip side, this is a diet that is supposed to be used in conjunction with another diet approved by a physician and then monitored thereafter. This makes the overall diet plan one that is likely to get costly or at least a bit complicated. And, if dropping your calorie intake to under 1,000/day, you should know such extreme diets have a high number of dieters regaining the weight afterward.
Most practical advice given by dietitians is to use The Cookie Diet in moderation with a well-balanced diet as a means to curb hunger, and cravings, between meals. Be aware of your body, and how you feel, and don’t look to The Cookie Diet to give you all you need to lose the weight.
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