Most clear thinking people understand they don’t know everything and are open to learning something new. There is always more we can learn about weight loss. Despite that, there is some knowledge that people hold on to as gospel. Many try to be open to a new way of thinking, but tend to revert back to their original way of doing things. Today, we will take a closer look at how culture views dieting and eating. If you have trouble losing weight or simply want to learn something new about nutrition, read on!

As the great Yoda would say:

You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned

Much of what we learn from our parents, school, or watching the television, seems to entrench itself into our cultures and become “fact”. In reality, much of what we know is just learned habits. Habits can be broken so that new and better habits can be put into their place. All we have to do is realize the popular methods may not be the best way and be open to relearning what we think we know.

Eat Less to Lose Weight – WRONG

Eating less is widely accepted as a way to lose weight. While generally true, eating less to lose weight is NOT a fact. Many overweight or obese people don’t eat more calories than healthier people. They simply eat their calories at the wrong time(s) of the day, or perhaps eat more calories than their daily activity requires (which is not necessarily a large number of calories). For these folks, eating less may actually slow their metabolism further which will eventually lead to them needing even fewer calories to maintain their current weight. This cycle of lowering calories to lose weight cannot continue; from there weight gain is really the only option.

Eat More and You Will Gain Weight – WRONG

You can gain weight if you eat too much or too often. It’s NOT a fact. There are plenty of people in the world that can eat more calories and not gain weight because they are active. Eating unprocessed foods with a low calorie density will allow a person to consume much more throughout the day without gaining weight.

Many people realize that activity determines if they can eat more and “get away with it”. Those same people might exercise a great deal and complain about their performance not improving. Most of the time they are not getting enough calories to fuel their body so they can take their exercise to the next level. But when someone suggests eating more calories, they refuse because they don’t want to gain weight. It’s a programmed response that has become habit, even if they acknowledge that eating more food can be beneficial, they won’t be able to do it.

Everyone Should Eat X Calories – WRONG

There are an endless number of diets pushed on late night infommericals that will tell you how many calories to eat in a day. Every nutrition label on every item of food in the grocery store states “… based on a 2000 calorie diet” which leads many to believe this is the proper number of calories to eat. This is NOT a fact.

No two people are the same. Each person has their own special calorie needs. If there is a diet program that tells you the ideal number of calories to eat, they are likely wrong and the diet will fail. Sure, there are diets that say eat 800 calories a day, such as the ridiculous cookie diet, then you will lose weight. These diets are designed to get you quick results so they can sell more units. You will almost always gain the weight back after your metabolism slows down in response to the extremely low calories.

You must determine your own calorie needs in order to be successful in your health and fitness efforts.

You Have to Eat “Rabbit Food” to Lost Weight - WRONG

While eating more vegetables is a good idea and part of a balanced eating plan, they only make up a small portion of the calories you need. Foods that most rabbits would avoid are necessary on any good diet plan. While you will lose weight eating only vegetables, the extreme low calories will trash your metabolism to the point where eating just about anything will cause you to gain weight.

Being Fat (or Skinny) is in my Genes – PROBABLY NOT

While there are people that are predisposed to a certain body type, it does not mean you are genetically doomed to being fat. Only a very small number of people have genetic issues that cause them to be overweight, most likely the result of regulation issues with their hormones. Most everyone else is the result of following the poor eating habits of your family and friends.

You’ll get better results in your health if you stop blaming your genes for your failures.

Six Meals a Day is Better Suited for Athletes – WRONG

Anyone that has heard of the Olympics has also heard of Michael Phelps. This guy, as well as many athletes, must eat an extreme amount of calories due to their high levels of activity. Eating many meals a day works for athletes only because they can’t eat all of their calories in just a few meals.

You don’t have to be a world-class athlete to eat five or six meals a day. You only need to scale back the calories. You can benefit from feeding your body the correct amount of calories to fuel your activity throughout the day, just like an athlete.

Diet Soda is Good For Me – WRONG

Diet soda’s are the go-to drink for anyone who wants to cut down on their calories. These drinks taste good and are often with zero calories, which make it easy to incorporate into a diet plan. But…

There are numerous studies in regard to the health related issues associated with diet soft drinks. There are statistics that show those who drink diet sodas are almost certain to become obese. There are numerous factors that contribute to this, but diet soda does not help. If you consume ANY diet drinks during the day, you have a 36.5% chance of becoming obese. If you drink two cans a day, you chances of becoming obese jumps up to a staggering 57.1%.

If you care in the least bit about your health, drop the diet soda.

Eating a Natural Balanced Meal Every Three Hours Will Increase My Energy Levels and Allow Me to Eat More Food is Exactly What I Need to Achieve My Health and Fitness Goals - TRUE!

Yes, this is a shameless plug, but it is true.  

Three meals a day is programmed into our limbic brain. After decades of eating on the schedule I am suddenly asking you to double the number of times you eat in a day. No matter how much sense it makes on the surface, when it comes time to eat, you will have a difficult time convincing yourself you need to eat a second breakfast, second lunch and perhaps second dinner.

Resist the bad habits and focus on the reasons you should start eating every three hours.

It’s All About Forming New Habits

Making lifestyle changes in order to improve your health is all about breaking old habits and forming new ones to replace them. Steve Pavlina runs a personal development blog and wrote an article titled 30 Days to Success that describes forming new habits in just a month. On one of my favorite blogs, Zenhabits.net, there is an article that offers advice in regard to forming new habits.

There are many myths regarding dieting and nutrition that we regard as fact, but in the end is not true. Do you have any diet myths or habit forming tips you would like to share?

Mmmm, cookies. Who does not love cookies? They come in any shape, color and flavor imaginable. Without a doubt, there is a cookie tailored to the needs of even the pickiest of eaters. These delightfully evil treats are a key contributor to the obesity epidemic in the world today. When somebody, a doctor in this case, comes up with a diet based around the cookie, it’s going to get the attention of every cookie lover looking to lose weight.

As a result, the aptly named “Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet” has received a great deal of media attention. No doubt you have heard of it. Now it’s my turn to review the Cookie Diet and whether it should used in the spirit of eating every three hours, or avoided entirely.

Dismissed it Because of the Name

The first time I heard the phrase “Cookie Diet” was a few years ago. I immediately tuned out after hearing the phrase. Back then, I was an obese man still trying to figure out how to lose weight. The idea that a diet can be centered on cookies was outrageous to me. I tuned-out and forgot all about the Cookie Diet, that is until a review of the Cookie Diet popped up on the blog Lazy Man and Health.

About the Cookies

Dr. Siegal chose cookies because he was looking for a snack that was portable, durable and does not require refrigeration. It really is a good idea if you can get your head around that your diet will consist mostly of cookies.

These are not your traditional cookies consisting of large amounts of sugar, chocolate or peanut butter. The Lazy Mandescribed the cookie as nothing more than a “nutrition bar”. I agree with that assessment in the sense that the cookies Dr. Siegal is pushing are not traditional cookies, but I do believe them to be cookies in the sense they are a round, flat-ish and baked product.

I have not personally sampled these cookies, but there is some indication that they probably don’t taste great. There is very little information on their web site. Most useful information is scattered throughout the Cookie Diet Blog. One snippet caught my attention:

If you’re serious about finding truly delicious cookies, or weight loss through magic and miracles, then you probably aren’t serious about doing what is necessary to achieve a healthy and sustainable weight. If that’s the case, you might want to wait until you’re ready. The last thing you need is another diet failure.

Wow. Dr. Siegal indicates if you are looking for a deliciouscookie, you are not serious about losing weight. I agree that one needs to be in the correct mindset in order to lose weight, but he can’t blame people for asking if his cookies taste good. People want the Cookie Diet to be about eating the tasty and unhealthy cookies that we know and love. Maybe Dr. Siegal should have called the diet the “Healthy Cookie Diet”. But if he had done that, his sales would be much lower.

The blog goes on to say “Delicious foods make people overeat and get fat“. I generally disagree. I’m more from the camp that believes having unclear goals and not eating enough calories on a diet will lead to overeating because of a starvation response. I will concede that in a general sense, it’s difficult to eat only one delicious cookie. I’d rather have 2.

Are the Cookies Healthy?

Possibly. There are numerous references to these cookies containing some amount of protein. If they don’t taste ”delicious” then there is probably a limited amount of sugar, if any. The Cookie Diet web site does not provide any information about the nutritional content of its products, which includes drinkable shakes. I’d imagine there is a nutritional label located directly on the product packaging. If anyone has access to one of these labels, please send me the information and I will update this article.

The site does indicate you will eat six cookies a day and they will total about 500 calories. My college education allows me to conclude the cookies are just around 83 calories each. With so few calories there is likely little fat and sugar in the product. There may also be good starchy carbs in addition to the protein in their secret cookie formula.

I don’t think Dr. Siegal is including protein in the cookie for the benefits protein provides, but rather protein has been known to make a person feel fuller and more satisfied. It makes sense that if you are only going to give someone 80-85 calories to last them a few hours, giving them protein may help that person feel less hungry than if you were to give them the same calories in carbohydrates or fat.

Even with the limited information, some might determine the cookies can be called “healthy” based on the fact there are only ~83 calories. There is little chance of gaining weight on these cookies; you would be hard pressed to gain weight even if you scarfed your entire day’s supply in one sitting.

What the Diet Really Involves

The goal of the cookie is to provide a very small number of calories to keep your stomach from shriveling up like a prune during the day. From what I gather, the cookies are only there in an attempt to keep you from eating anything else during the day. I can imagine followers tearing into their 83 calorie cookie as if they were on crack struggling to get their next hit.

The real food comes in the evening when you get to have a 300 calorie dinner consisting of “six ounces of lean chicken, fish or turkey and one cup of non-starchy, green vegetables“, according to the Cookie Diet Blog. This 300 calorie dinner will be your primary source of nourishment for the entire day, and there are no cookies for dessert.

I can’t argue with that type of dinner, it is a good balance of lean protein and fibrous carbohydrates. My problem is a dieting person will have to go hungry (even with the cookies) during their most active hours, which for most people is the morning and afternoon.

Realities of the Cookie Diet

The Cookie Diet is an intriguing idea, but I feel it suitable for a very small number of people. Here are my conclusions about the diet: 

In my opinion, I believe the cookie diet to be more about selling cookies under the disguise of a diet, rather than the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The Cookie Diet is not a lifestyle. The Cookie Diet web site is only pushing cookies and does nothing to educate their customers about weight loss. I had to piece together tid-bits of information scattered around their site just to get an idea of what the diet is about. Perhaps they include some dietary information with their products, but it would seem to me that is something they would mention on their site.

Obviously, I do not recommend the diet. There is no reason to starve while losing weight. Take the Cookie Diet dinner, which does not include cookies, and eat it four or five times a day. You won’t be so hungry and you’ll probably be at a calorie deficit.

Have any of you tried the Cookie Diet or known someone that has? Were they successful in losing weight and keeping it off?