I should have written more these past few days, but honestly I found this whole diet depressing. I can’t go on anymore diets that last for more than a few days. I can only subjugate my own better judgments for a few days at a time before I become miserable. For the first few days it was kind of fun to be told exactly what to eat. Peanuts and milk? Sounds good! In the short-term it’s nice to not have to make those choices. I think I felt about this diet the same way I would feel if I was to join the Army. The first couple of days I would enjoy the novelty of it, having your day broken down into a very structured order, having everything planned out for you. But after a few days of that I’d be like “F this shit” and I’d lock myself in the bathroom trying to cut off my toe with a butter knife to get discharged.
[At this point in the post I went into a long ramble about throwing away your diet and self-help books. It's not related to this diet so I've edited it out and I'll post it soon.]
When we last left the idiot-proof diet it was day 8. That meant three more days of following their goofy eating scheme and then three days of eating whatever I wanted. Days 9, 10, and 11 on the idiot proof diet follow the same general formula. Some meals are all protein, some are all carb, and some are a mixture of the two. For a final example, here is the menu for day 11.
DAY #11
Meal #1:
Roast Beef Slices
Low Fat Milk
Bowl of Green Beans
Meal #2:
Chicken
Turkey Slices
Meal #3:
Fresh Apples
Fresh Pears
Meal #4:
Sausage Links
Scrambled Eggs
Occasionally you’ll get a meal like #4 above, sausage and eggs, that looks like a sentient being actually put the menu together, but that was just good luck. The menus are obviously thrown together randomly by a computer from the protein and carbohydrate foods you select.
Now, after the 11 days are up, you are supposed to eat “whatever you want to” for three days. You’re just not supposed to ever let yourself get full. Unfortunately I don’t really have much of a barometer to know when I’m about to feel full. I just tend to eat and then at some point I say, “Oh crap, I’m full.” So I didn’t even enjoy my meals of eating whatever I wanted because I was too paranoid that I was going to overindulge and screw up the rules of the diet. It would be a blow to my ego if I screwed up something that was labeled as “idiot-proof.”
And here’s how it all worked out. After 11 days I had lost 11 pounds. One pound per day (yeah, that’s right, I did the math). Then after my three “cheat days” I gained back 4 pounds for a net loss of 7 pounds. That’s still a pretty good loss for two weeks, but I lost similar amounts in half the time in many of the other diets I tried. You might say, “But Andy, if you didn’t do the cheat days you would have been down 11 pounds, that’s pretty good.” That’s true, but according to the diet… “You MUST take 3 days off… the ‘cheat period’ is necessary to force more fat burning to happen during the next 11 days.” That sounds suspiciously like bullshit to me. In fact, the whole “calorie shifting” idea that the diet is based on sounds like bull. I would guess that I lost weight on this diet because with the awful menus it shoots out, I didn’t end up eating that much. It’s true I lost 11 pounds in 11 days, but on the Special K diet I lost 7 pounds in 7 days, on the Apple and Nut diet I lost 5 pounds in 3 days, on the McDonalds and Coca Cola diet I lost 10 pounds in 7 days. None of those diets involved “shifting” calories. I’m not saying the idiot-proof diet is worthless, I just don’t think it works in the way they claim it does. I’m guessing that’s why they don’t bother putting any scientific evidence for calorie-shifting on their site — because none exists.
In a way, the diet isn’t just “idiot-proof,” it’s idiot-centric. It’s really designed for people who like to have everything planned out for them. I can understand that desire because sometimes I feel that way too. But I just don’t think it’s worth $40 to have someone tell you what to eat unless there’s some magical properties to the combination of foods they’re giving and I don’t believe there is with the Idiot-Proof diet.
If you like the idea of having all the food decisions left up to someone else, then perhaps you’ll like enjoy the dieting idea I’m going to post soon. I call it the Dipshit-Proof Diet. Seriously. I’ll write it up tomorrow.
-
Thank you for you blog on this diet. I’m an intelligent person, but after 5 days of low-calorie dieting when I read about “calorie-shifting” and that you supposedly need to have high-calorie days to keep your metabolism up, I nearly ran off to Burger King. I knew that had to be wishful thinking, so I kept researching.
These people (whoever they are) have been really clever at getting themselves all over the internet by setting up all these “weight loss discussion blogs” and phony health articles that all point and link to the ONE website that has many different domain names and redirects.
I’m tempted to set up some bogus diet website and charge people $40 for my “customized meal plan.” I would make it look more professional without all those condescending underlines italics, and bolds every third word, and I could even set up some phony collegiate journals with pretend studies and stats to make it look like science. After their credit card goes through, they get a page that says nothing more than, “Secret to weight loss = Lower calorie intake + Higher calorie output. That’s it, Sucker!”
In case you were wondering, I found your blog by doing an advanced Google search for “calorie shifting” but excluding any results from the domain fatloss4idiots.com
Thanks a lot Andy–This is one of the most helpful diet blogs I’ve run across.
There does seem, to me, to be something intuitively correct about calorie-shifting, despite the lack of evidence. Doesn’t it seem that what looks like anthropomorphizing of the metab. could actually be a way of describing the smartness of evolution?
I’ve been dieting for what feels like 100 years, all my life and I always lose five pounds right away. Then comes the plateau and I keep plateaued no matter how little I eat. It’s amazing. Like I can live on air. It really is as if the body says “Okay we have to cross the dessert now and there’s not enough food so hold onto every molecule of stored fat REALLY really really tight”. ‘Cause we evolved in a niche in which there was so much starvation.
So there seems some sense in the chaos theory of dieting as an attempt to fool this survival mechanism.
Anyway, am on day one and will let you know. Thanks again.
“It really is as if the body says ‘Okay we have to cross the dessert now and there’s not enough food so hold onto every molecule of stored fat REALLY really really tight’. ‘Cause we evolved in a niche in which there was so much starvation. ” ( posted by daphne, 3 November 2007)
I read the passage quoted above as written…with the full meaning of “dessert” rather than the intended word which, at closer reading, I assume should have been “desert.” (Additionally, punctuation always goes inside quotes.)
But yes, I agree. After hitting that plateau, my body seems to freeze even if I exercise! But let me just smell food from a distance and I seem to gain weight by osmosis! At any rate, there’s my two-bits.
-we actually do embroidery- Any and all types!
But i appreciate this article so very much Thanx for nailing it down!-It seems so ashaming that the internet has come to this crap- to steal a nickel- On the other hand what r we doing- capitalizing on great American hopeful things-Hey is there a book on how to do this on websites?- Still tho I appreciate all the tiome and effort and since this has saved me 40-50$ i almost feel i should send u something!
Ok keep writing about stuff like this- lemme review it and we’ll see- !Naw Im sure we can figure out a way to send you8 at least $20- I mean drive people to do the same thing here for even less what they paid for this handy dandy pamphlet
I gues i will always need to eat enough that i still feel hungry- til the end of time!
In the Army the food’s pretty damn good. You fixate on it in Basic Training; you make it through your crappy days by making it to breakfast, to lunch, to dinner, then to bed: these are what you have to look forward to. “Chow, to chow, to chow, to bed.” And it seems like the only sure thing in the army is that they WILL feed you. You may be freezing your ass off, or standing in the pouring rain while they’re feeding you, but they will feed you three times a day no matter what.
Actually, I like calling meals/food/eating “chow.” Such as, “Do you want to go to Chateau Marmont for chow tonight?”
“Gosh, I’m so hungry, I didn’t have time to chow before work this morning!”
Thanks for your post. I was reading alot of “It works great” comments, but something still did not ring true. I did come across a very informative website that I would like to share. 3fatchicks.com They have info from many sources backed by science not enthusiasm!
Good luck everyone.
thankyou so much for uploading this.
i was going to purchase the book but wanted to find a cheaper way. it sounded so good when i read about it but after i googled iddiot proof diet ,i saw your blog and you saved me $40
um im about to start this diet and i hope i lose 10 kilos until the summer time !
Anyone trying this diet… it’s being sold on eBay cheaper… fyi
I lost 100 lbs on this diet last year. Went from a size 24 to a size 4.
Still a size 4
Going back on the diet to loose a few extra pounds and my BF is going on it with me. I am thinking once through and at the most twice. I only have a few pounds to get off.
It does not sound like this is for everyone.
I am in my early 50′s, single again and it fits my life style. In fact when I was going through my divorce, the diet forced me to eat 4 times a day and believe me I did not feel like eating.
I do walk/run 4 miles a day, kayak on the weekends and bike 20 miles too. So exercise is a big part of this.
Good luck everyone
I subscribed to Idiot Proof Diet last January of this year 2008 I saw the add thru facebook and I purchased it for around im not sure now $27 , After giving birth I really had a hard time going back to my old weight , Im a busy working mom and I ‘ve tried several ways to loose weight for 7 years, I live in Asia where rice is our staple food , we eat rice for breakfast , lunch and dinner .
To cut my long ranting about my weight problem , I decided to do the diet January 2008 , Im very determined to follow the first 11 days of the program which promises 9lbs in 11 days ,on the first 11 days I lost 7lbs and Im impressed!!! did the cheating for 3 days and gained back 2 lbs back which I think is possible because I ate high carb food during my cheat days … so I’ve tried it again and lost 7lbs again …. I continued doing it for
2 1/2 months with some occasional long cheat days and I lost a total of 22lbs ,from137-115lbs and Ilove it !!
When I decided to stop the diet last end of March I became resposible with the food I eat , I eat less than the usual , I cut down the rice instead I eat bread and occasionally pasta , did some exercise ..There are times that I gained a few pounds back because of occasional alcohol drinking and the dessert i eat but its very easy for me to loose it by doing just 1 round of 11 days again or maybe 2 ….
To end my piece ,I recommend this diet for people who want to be disciplined with the food they eat and for people who want to loose weight without doing stretunous exercise .. My only doubt about the diet is that I did’nt loose the promise 9lbs in 11 days , the maximum weight loss i had was 7lbs but overall I am happy, I feel good and it is worth my money …
I agree with folks that have said this diet is not for everyone. I like being told what to eat, not having to buy a lot of stuff and then eating so little of it that a lot goes to waste and not much preparation. I have not lost nearly what it claims per week but I am losing which is better than most diets. I also don’t feel deprived because there is a variety and I feel like I’m snacking much of the time. I am a veg and I followed with the veg diet the first 4 times then I went off for a couple of months. I’m back on and decided to try it with the regular diet just substituting “fake” meat for real or beans and that seems to work. There are more options for the “regular” diet. For some reason the Veg diet didn’t include the banana milkshake or frozen yogurt desert. Tomorrow is day 11 for me and I get both of those in the same day! What a great lead in to cheat days.
My boyfriend and i are on our 4th day, I love it! We are both obese, according to our bmi. We both love food and love to over eat it….He struggled a bit with self control especially on day 2 (its the all fruit day), but have both already seen results. I have lost over 5 pounds. I really hope i continue to lose like this. I understand that the set meals are not convenient for everyone, but i find it helpful. I also think the crazy meals are easily turned into meals for children, since i didn’t want to cook twice for every meal, for example: the tuna salad plate is easily a sandwich for the kiddo’s. I just add bread or meat to whatever i’m having and whala, they eat too! Anyway i am only 4 days in so maybe i’ll feel differently later……….
I think you are not being very fair here. First of all the diet worked for the two weeks you were on it – you just didn’t like it. Claiming that a diet is bogus because you don’t like meals picked out for you is a logical fallacy (Post hoc ergo propter hoc, if I’m not mistaken).
You are also guilty of doing the same thing you accuse the diet creators of doing. They aren’t being “scientific” in showing that their diet works, but then you turn around and claim that rotating calories sounds like bull (when, if you actually do research, it’s not bull and not exclusive to IDP http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961068,00.html)
Of course you have the right to say that this diet doesn’t work for you because you don’t like having to be so strict or because you are unable to gauge when you are full (for the record this is easy if you take your time eating as opposed to shoving food down your gullet) – but claiming the diet sucks and anyone who goes on it is a dipshit is ignorant, rude and short sighted.
What evidence you did gather is that the diet does in fact work (in the two week period you attempted) and that -you- do not care for it. It’s a shame your followers are unable to see this for themselves.
Your reading comprehension leaves a little to be desired. I have no doubt that you find the Idiot Proof Diet works very well for you.
So, your evidence that calorie-shifting works is a 25-year-old article from TIME magazine about the success of ONE person?
If you read that article you’ll see that, women eat an average of 986 calories a day on it. It doesn’t matter how the calories are rotated. If you eat 986 calories a day you’re going to lose weight. (If you don’t, get yourself to a doctor because there is something wrong with you.)
I never said the diet was bogus because I don’t like meals picked out for me. (Would you like to let me know what logical fallacy it is when you make up something I didn’t say in order to argue against it?) I said I didn’t LIKE the diet because I don’t like meals picked out for me. I’m an adult. I said the diet was bogus because I have a brain in my head and know how physics works.