Four Day Diet Review

If you've been following me anywhere else lately then you know that I've taken up the challenge to read 100 books this year that I haven't ever read before. At the moment I'm only working on number eight, so I'm a little behind. Anyway, number seven was a diet book, and since my BMI is crazy high, I decided to actually go on the diet.

The book is The 4 Day Diet by Ian K. Smith and there are some things I really like about it. Diet books are almost a genre of their own... not quite fiction and not quite nonfiction and they tend to start the same way. One thing I really like about this book is that it skips the whole, "it's not your fault you're overweight," thing. I mean every diet I've ever been on tells me that it's the fault of something else, like the particular nutrients we all eat, or something. Ian doesn't do that.

The whole first part of this book is about motivation and goal setting and that's refreshing, even if it is a little bit boring to read. Then, toward the end of the book is the actual diet and some recipes. The diet is made up of modules which are four day eating plans that are very specific and include exercise regimens that are a little more general. I've never had a lot of luck with specific meal plans like this, but so far it's working out okay for me. I've lost about seven pounds already and I'm on day four. Now, I'm really overweight and I've been eating stupid so that's probably not typical.

There are some things about the diet that make it a little hard to follow. While, other modules have more calories, the starting one is very low in calories. You really know you are dieting. Also, the recipes don't seem to fit very well with the diet. They are a little expensive and I would have liked a note with each one telling me what modules they are good for and which things they count for. It seems that some things, like a little cooking oil for making various vegetables palatable are accepted even though they aren't in the menu plans. Finally, he says on the back of the book that you could follow this plan for life, but honestly, I don't think so. I don't see how I could even eat out on this plan unless I stuck to salad bars and ate only the parts I don't like. This seems to be a book for people who are dead serious about losing weight. Fortunately, I find that I am.