The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet: The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting (Signet)
The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet: The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting (Signet)
If you’ve been a yo-yo dieter for years or if you can eat a pound of pasta at one sitting, this book may very well be an eye opener. In simple–but never condescending–language, it explains the roots of carbohydrate cravings and teaches you how to normalize your insulin levels to prevent future food binges. Regulated insulin levels in turn help to temper serotonin levels, so food cravings and mood swings are prevented. The authors, both research scientists (one a health psychologist, the other a pathologist), have lost and kept off a total of 200 pounds between them. They’ve based this book on nearly a decade’s worth of research, during which they’ve helped nearly 80 percent of their patients lose weight and keep it off for at least a year.
They explain that carbohydrate addicts most commonly crave popcorn, breads, bagels, rice, pasta, potatoes, ice cream, chocolate, pie, cookies, crackers, cake, fruit and fruit juice, potato chips, and pretzels. A questionnaire at the beginning of the book determines if you’re indeed a carbohydrate addict, and if so, to what extent. (For those readers whose quiz doesn’t indicate addiction, but who are bothered by their food cravings, the authors recommend a doctor’s visit for an explanation.) The book includes a diet plan with dozens of easy recipes, a chart of the carbohydrate content of many common foods, and lists of binge triggers to watch for. The most appealing part of the diet–and one reason that it wins raves from its followers–is its once-a-day reward meal, which allows you to eat anything you want. The authors also offer helpful tips for incorporating the diet away from home, such as at parties and restaurants. Filled with sound advice and effective strategies, a guide to putting the individual in charge of eating and weight–for life–includes recipes and menu plans from leading professionals in the field of carbohydrate addiction. Reissue.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Good job!
Thanks, I received the book and even though it is paperback, it is just like new, no writing, no bent pages, etc. I will purchase from this company again, and again.
3 Stars Not what I expected
The main focus of this little book is to determine if your weight problem is too many carbohydrates in your diet and if you body can handle them. The whole premise of the book is that you are addicted to carbohydrates and they make you fat. The state that you can eat as much fat and protein as you wan and you will not get fat. This is hard to believe and there is very little evidence for this. The authors give no evidence. While I do believe that too much of any food can make you fat, mixed with the lack of exercise, stress, and illnesses make you fat. It is not just one thing.
We all know how bad too many carbohydrates are in you diet, leading to high cholesterol and diabetes; but could it be, if we can eat what we want and not gain weight if we eliminate carbs twice a day? This is the claim of these two authors, but for me it left questions. The conclusions make little sense.
1. How can we be addicted to something that we need every day? Since Carbohydrates are used in the body as energy, eliminating them can be a dangerous move. Since our lifestyle is one of laziness, our cells don’t get the glucose and energy from our lifestyle.
2. If I am addict, then I really should not be having any, right? When you think of an alcoholic or a drug addict, the theory is to eliminate the source. So why do they say we can some carbs during the day. Wouldn’t you still have the same problems? Their response is that they do not want to be too restrictive on the diet to get people to use it. That people won’t give up their Carbohydrates. That is like saying to the Alcoholic it is ok to drink scotch for an hour in the morning because you will be sober in the evening. It doesn’t make sense.
3. How do you navigate strange schedule considering those who work 2nd and 3rd shift or have staggering schedules? This is hard enough with any diet, but the authors ignore this. These people may need to be on the diet, but this is never discussed.
4. What types of foods can I eat? The book goes over a schedule of foods and recipes, but doesn’t tell you which foods constitute your “Complimentary Meal” or what you can eat during your non- “Complimentary Meal” so that you can tailor the program to your needs, likes and schedule. The amount of meals and recipes are not enough to get me excited about this diet for they are limiting or conflict with my allergies.
5. Where’s the Fruit? Fruit is so good for you and every other low carbohydrate diet and diabetic diet includes them in your diet. They mention not eating any until your reward snack which comes only after completing your goal weight which can be several months or years away. Most fruits including Apples and Pears actually have benefits the dieter and diabetic because they have pectin and fiber which helps with reducing insulin Low Density Lipids and triglycerides in the blood. Don’t forget your vitamins also. The fiber helps you to be “full” longer between meals. An inconsistency the authors don’t mention.
There is still plenty of useful information in the book to get you started on lowering your intake of carbohydrates so I would still recommend reading it, just be leery of starting this program or any other with out checking with your doctor and dietitian first. Only they can help you make sure it is right for you.
Enjoy
5 Stars Results Beyond Expectation!!!
this diet totally delivered in terms of results! even when my initial weight loss slowed i was still losing fat at an incredibly fast rate! let me give you a run down of how this diet helped me and what type of journey i’ve been through.
when i was in high school (5 years ago) i was very involved in wrestling. i maintained weight all year, which was around 150lbs, so i wouldn’t have to cut weight during the season and therefore perform at my strongest. as you can imagine, i was pretty obsessed with working out and nutrition. then college hit me….in fact, it hit me with about 45lbs. i had flubbed up from about 150lbs to about 195lbs. i was an emotional mess. i was embarrassed about how my clothes fit and how much fatter my face was in proportion to my body. suddenly, i wasn’t that athletic sports guy anymore, i was that flabby, geeky college guy. what i needed was a drastic change…and fast!!!
about 4 months ago from this day i began to notice my mom was losing a lot of weight, i mean a lot of weight. i asked her what she was doing different since she had always been the working out type. she told me she had started using this diet called the carb addicts diet. she told me a bit about it and then gave me the book. i read it through and was a bit skeptical at first, mainly of the 1 hour where you could eat whatever you wanted, but i decided to give it a try.
i followed the diet religiously and used it in conjunction with a workout program called P90X (which i highly recommend for the strong hearted individual). since the workout program i was using called for a 90 day period i decided to not weigh myself until the end of 90 days.
weeks were going by and i began to notice many changes in my day to day life. i noticed that all my pants and shirts were becoming baggier, so much so that i had to replace nearly every item of clothing i had (except for my socks). also, my cravings had completely vanished, for once in the last 5 years i didn’t care if i was missing out on cheesecake or bacon-cheeseburgers or anything like that. another thing i took notice to was my mental clarity. i wasn’t experiencing that frustrating haze that sometimes comes up when you crave junk food and when you feel overwhelmed by all the goings-on of your life. but they were all changes for the better and i was nearing the end of the road.
90 days had come and gone and though i was very tempted to step onto the scale on the days in between i was able to stave off the urge until day 90. the final result: i had lost 43.5 lbs (195 down to 151.5)!!! i couldn’t believe it, i was practically as light as i was in high school! after a body fat caliper test i had also found that i had 1.7% less body fat than i did in high school (body fat was 6.2% on day 90)!
so that’s my story. bottom line: i totally agree and support all the findings and recommendations that the hellers outline. with this diet, and the help of a great workout program, i gained back my confidence, my social life, and my carefree attitude. i urge anyone looking to lose weight and get their confidence back to follow this program. i think the most perfect word to describe how this diet made me feel when i got back to where i wanted to be was this: “Free”
5 Stars Great Diet!!!
I never believed in low carb diets before. I love this diet now and feel so great on it. And even when I do crave carbs, I know I can have them EVERY DAY for dinner. Great great book.
5 Stars life changing
Ever heard of a diet? Chances are, I’ve tried it. I am the profile carbohydrate addict of which they speak. As I read thru the book, everything they said rang true as the story of my life and the chemical basis of all my yo-yoing back and forth with pounds off, pounds on.
I have one complaint with the book. I wish they would not have fallen for the marketing attempt and used DIET in the title. It is not a diet as we think of it: deprevation and pain. It is quite simply the way you eat the rest of your life. And, unlike a “diet”, you are never more than 23 hours away from having whatever you want again. That’s not a diet; it’s a miracle! Cravings are gone once you balance out your system and you eat so much food each day that it seems alchemy that the pounds fall off. So far, I am down 40+ pounds and feel healthy, have so much more energy, and, most of all, the “diet voices” in my head that scream every time I’m on a diet and the “gotta have it voices” that scream every time I go off a diet that want a hot fudge sundae are silenced. I’ve actually eaten one on the plan and still lost weight.
Please, doctors Heller and Heller, write an update and clue us in as to what’s new in your research and comment on new products on the market. Many thanks for changing my life!
Filed under: Weight Loss Book Reviews
