Information About "The Zone"

Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, M.D.

Claim

Carbohydrates provoke hunger, causing you to overeat and gain weight. If you eliminate carbs and increase protein and fat intake to satisfy hunger instead, your body will thank you for it by losing weight without food cravings.

The Doc's Prescription

A meat lover's dream: Thick steaks with slabs of melting butter, crisp bacon, eggs (yolks and all), thick cream instead of milk, mayonnaise-based salad dressings, fried pork rinds and, finally, rich desserts like cheesecake and mocha pie.

How It's Supposed to Work

Atkins claims that ketosis is the key: Without incoming carbs, your body first burns its carbohydrate stores, and then the protein in its lean muscle tissue for energy, both of which release a lot of water. Your body also starts burning some fat in an inefficient way that creates toxic by-products called ketones. These build up in your bloodstream and need to be processed through your kidneys to be eliminated.

But How do You Feel?

Too many ketones in your blood can cause dizziness, headaches, mental confusion, nausea, fatigue, sleep problems and bad breath. Also, high protein intake causes your body to lose calcium, so add weakening bones to the list.

What's Really Happening

Since your brain and body are designed to get energy primarily from carbohydrates, they view anything else as abnormal food, especially ketones. "Ketosis is a signal that your body has gone into starvation mode," says Howard Flaks, M.D., a bariatric physician (weight loss specialist) based in Beverly Hills, California. When your body thinks it's starving, it slows your metabolism to conserve whatever fuel it can and eats at its own muscle tissue to get at the carbs stored there as glycogen.

What to Tell Friends on the Diet

If you lose weight, you'll gain it all back - and more - once you stop the diet. Not planning on quitting the diet? Then don't expect to have healthy kidneys for the long term: Over time, the stress of processing so many ketones can damage your kidneys, causing ketoacidosis or toxic ammonia in your blood, according to Megan McCrory, PhD., a researcher in the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, at Tufts University.

The 5 Day Miracle Diet by Adele Puhn, M.S., C.N.S.

The Claim

Follow this diet for five days and you will miraculously lose the cravings that make you overeat.

What You Eat

Puhn believes that most people are in a constant state of low blood sugar, which makes them crave sugary foods, such as cookies and cakes, or high-glycemic foods, such as pasta. Her plan: Stick to foods that are low-glycemic - which take longer to process - and eat them every two hours. After five days, Puhn claims your blood sugar will be so rock- steady that you'll stop having cravings, be able to make wiser food choices, and have more energy.

What to Know

First, you can't rely on the glycemic index to prevent overeating because, according to Carolyn O'Neil, M.S., R.D., executive producer and senior correspondent for CNN's Food & Health Unit, "A true sugar crash only happens in a few people who are particularly sensitive." For most people, a little sluggishness or a need to overeat just means you're hungry.

More importantly, this diet doesn't teach you to eat in moderation. Instead, Puhn provides a list of foods you're supposed to avoid, a list of ones you're allowed to eat and an eating schedule for when to eat them. Besides being boring, this regimen doesn't prepare you to deal with your hunger when sanctioned snacks aren't at hand. You may end up caving to cravings.

Why Read the Book

Even if you learn how to eat healthfully, you may not lose weight if you haven't dealt with the emotional reasons that caused you to begin and continue overeating. Puhn comes closer to the real source of overeating by devoting much of her book to psychological triggers or what she calls "fathead issues." Her clients demonstrate how you can better achieve your goals if you conquer your fathead issues.

Take-Away Lesson

Puhn recommends small, nutritious snacks every two to three hours, which will make you feel less hungry and thus, less likely to reach for fatty and/or sugary snacks. "Eating every couple hours is a well-founded recommendation," says Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., a regular columnist for Physician and Sportsmedicine and a nutrition consultant to professional athletes and sports teams. Because your brain has a constant supply of food, you'll probably feel more energetic, too.

However, you don't need to eliminate certain foods in order to maintain a healthy blood sugar level. Kleiner says, "A responsible eating program - one you can do forever - should show you how to include all foods in a moderate and healthy manner. There are no bad foods."

The ubiquitous Grapefruit Diet found on Internet forum postings and spread by word of mouth.

The Claim

Grapefruit contains a fat-burning enzyme. If that were true, you'd figure the person who discovered it would've taken the credit and won the Nobel Prize for science, or at least become very wealthy writing diet books. As it is, we don't know who created the diet, what the true diet regimen is, or whether it was created as a joke in the first place.

What to Eat

It varies, depending on the version you're following. Most versions require you to consume half a grapefruit before each meal, along with lots of coffee, tea and not much else.

Why it Seems to Work

No mystery: Very few calories and plenty of caffeine to act as a diuretic and appetite suppressant.

What They Don't Tell You

If you lose anything at all, it will only be water weight, which you gain right back when you stop the diet, regardless of whether you return to healthful or unhealthful eating habits.

Take-Away Lesson

Grapefruit is a nutritious, low-fat, low-calorie food by itself, but - surprise! - it possesses no magical fat-burning properties.

Why Bother?

Like most fads, this one won't break the cycle of yo-yo dieting, or help you lose weight for good by teaching you how to eat healthfully.

The New Beverly Hills Diet by Judy Mazel

The Claim

Combine or separate certain foods so your body will thoroughly digest every nutrient in the food. This will make you leaner because your stomach and intestines won't create any fatty buildup.

What You Eat

During the first 2 days of a 35-day diet, you eat pineapple; corn on the cob; an entire head of iceberg lettuce, tomato and onion salad; prunes; strawberries and baked potatoes. You spend the third day gorging on grapes - just grapes - all day. The list of other foods you can eat is extremely limited and merely prolongs what is actually a modified fast.

The Truth

Mazel divides food into three main nutrient groups; protein, carbohydrates and fruit. This imaginative restructuring of the food pyramid counts ice cream as protein and wine as fruit. Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., a regular columnist for Physician and Sportsmedicine and a nutrition consultant to professional athletes and sports teams, is familiar with Mazel's original book and her updated version. Kleiner says, "It was creative writing then and it's creative writing now."

Alimentary Education

To prevent your stomach and intestines from being confused by a jumble of foods, you facilitate enzyme digestion by eating foods separately and in the "proper order." Therefore, eat fruits alone or risk getting them "trapped in your stomach by slower foods that join them." Yet, as Carolyn O'Neil, M.S., R.D., the executive producer and senior correspondent for CNN's Food & Health Unit, points out, your stomach was designed to handle all kinds of food at once. O'Neil reminds us, "Many foods, like lasagna, are already a combination of nutrients. How much fun would it be if you had to eat the meat first, wait a few hours, then eat the pasta, then the sauce and so on?"

Next Stop, Reality

Unfortunately, "you can't pit enzymes together and cancel them out by combining them in any special order," says Evelyn Tribole, M.S., a registered dietician in Beverly Hills and former nutrition expert on Good Morning America. The only factor that makes you lose weight on this diet is the extremely low number of calories. Following this diet is practically the same as fasting for a month.

The New Cabbage Soup Diet by Margaret Danbrot

The Claim

"Lose up to 10 pounds in seven days... and never feel hungry!"

What You Eat

As much cabbage soup, fruit, caffeine and tea as you want, but little else.

Heads Up

According to the book, "the Cabbage Soup Diet is strict, low in calories and not meant to be a substitute for lifetime good nutrition." Because it isn't nutritionally sound, the writer urges you to stop after seven days. In fact, Danbrot feels so strongly about it that she reminds you five times within the first ten pages and twice in the same paragraph to give up this diet after seven days. She also prints the same warning right after the title page.

Shredded Evidence

A close look at the unlimited amounts of caffeine from coffee and tea shows that you're mostly losing water weight, not fat. In addition, Howard Flaks, M.D., a bariatric physician (weight loss specialist) in Beverly Hills, California, says, "A certain amount of what you lose on extreme diets [such as the cabbage soup diet] is vital muscle tissue. If you haven't been exercising, you'll gain the weight back as fat - not muscle - and hence, become fatter." Not exactly what you wanted, is it?

So, to summarize and advise about weight loss:

• Don't spend your money and time on unproven remedies and ineffective treatment which may cost you more, i.e., $500.-$1,000. Don't expect instant results or long-term benefits without commitment to exercise and nutrition management. Lifestyle changes take six-to-nine months and are best made under the supervision of professionals.

• Select a doctor, clinic or program that offers what you need to produce results. This includes experts to provide a comprehensive program of diet, exercise, monitoring, group support and individualized attention. Make sure those taking care of you are qualified and competent. Ask for statistics and results of treatment outcomes, not just a good story of one or two patients. Request the credentials of the professional staff and investigate. Call the medical board of your professional (doctor, nurse, physician assistant) and ask if he or she has outstanding actions or suspensions.

• Beware of programs offering short term solutions, expensive meal plans, diets of less than 800 calories or ones that sell unproven diet aids. Especially be suspicious when such items are provided on-site and you are not fully informed about the product. Request a reasonable explanation, and ask your family doctor for his opinion. Avoid shots or diuretics that can be dangerous. Thyroid and hormone problems are rare and should be evaluated by an internist.

• Don't quit if you fail the first time! Research shows that people who have failed three times have more success than those who try the first time.