This work is dedicated to analyzing a book called best life diet book then evaluating it basing on the weight lose strategies designed by American heart association. The first section entails analyzing what the book contain while the next section deals with evaluation. As the name of the book implies, the Best Life Diet Book is a book that was designed to give readers a comprehensive plan on how to lose weight. The author defines the diet from his book as actually a way of eating for life. The book, according to the writer is rooted in the idea that eating is and always should be one of the life’s greatest pleasures (Bob, 2006, p. 24). The writer does not aim at imposing restrictive rules that make people hate some food but his main goal is to bring out a plan where despite enjoying the taste of any given meal, a person still meets weight loss goals.
According to the writer, the first step involves setting certain boundaries for what you have for what you do and do not eat. In addition, while explaining this, he mentioned that the choice should not be that that could deprive the person. Instead, the choice should involve quality and wholesomeness food (Bob, 2006, p. 12). He state that the person should choose whole grain cereals that is low in sugar instead of cereals that contains barely a hint of fiber and is sweetened to the hilt. He also asserted that a person should go for a lean turkey burger instead of a burger made from many fats. In the case of fruit, he or she should take real fruit juice instead of a fruit drink loaded with sugar. The program also involved eating only healthy foods and eliminating foods that have empty calories.
The best diet book is divided into three stages. The first two phase last four weeks, while the final one is open-ended and may even last for the lifetime. The writer has managed to classify the plan into steps that can be articulated easily by the reader. The writer asserted that taking things step-by step generally yields better results in weight loss program. He mentioned that there are logical orders to the way our bodies adapt to new habits and hence the program is designed to capitalize on that (Bob, 2006, p. 46). This base implies that the individual is barely going to alter what he or she eats during the initial weeks the writer asserted that the person should at this phase hold off on overhauling the food he or she eats because if he or she simultaneously increase his or her level of physical activity, then the metabolism may get revved up.
During phase two, the writer stated that this should be accompanied by aggressive loss of extra pounds. Simple modification should be made on the diet. Six foods that inhibit weight loss should be eliminated. The issue of physical and emotional reasons why someone gets hungry is addressed in this phase. To do so, the writer gave a valuable tool called hunger scale, which can be used to manage appetite. Phase 3 on the other hand involves taking measure that can enable the person intending to lose weight to maintain the weight loss achieved in the first two phases. Like in phase two, the person still have to change what he or she normally eat, eliminate more foods that contain empty calories and replace them with nutritious alternatives(Bob, 2006,p. 57)..
The writer however asserted that the program is gradual in nature and can be tough for a beginner. Due to this the writer mentioned that anyone intending to lose weight should therefore be ready and be prepared for the challenge and must think about the bigger picture and what other rewards he or she can get from program besides a slimmer body. While addressing the issue of starvation and weight loss, the book out rightly discourages starvation in that, the physiological impact of starvation may not actually boost weight loss. When calories are reduced, the body in self-preservation slows the metabolism to reduce the calorie burning and fat loss. As a result, even when the calorie reduction is dramatic, the body will not allow a loss of much more than 3 pounds of fat a week (Bob, 2006, p. 73).
The book describes how set point can result to a halt in weight loss process. Set point, according to bob is a level of body fat that one’s body fat is preconditioned to maintain. Set points are normally determined by innate factors. However, the writer stressed the fact that activity level can lower the set point. Another good ingredient of weight loss as depicted by writer is that weight loss does not involve diet alone. Neither does it involve diet nor exercise as most programs thinks (Bob, 2006, p. 89). In his program, bob explained that a comprehensive weight loss program should involve a third component, a very essential ingredient: eliminating emotional eating. The writer asserted that a person could lose weight by diet alone; he or she can also lose even more weight by combining diet and exercise.
However he state that an emotional eater may not succeed in weight loss. In other words, if a person concentrates on diet and exercise alone, he or she may be neglecting some issues in his or her life that caused him to become overweight in the first place. Therefore, the write maintained that a person intending to lose weight should address his or her life.
As stated earlier, phase one of weight loss program should entail gradual reduction in calories. This is because a steep reduction in calories may trigger the body’s starvation –defense mechanism and hence slowing down the weight-loss process (Bob, 2006, p.122). Therefore, an increase in level of physical activity should be incorporated with calorie reduction as this is going to keep the starvation effects from kicking in. Mr. Bob therefore encourages taking regular meals and snacks to avoid hunger highs and lows. other strategies that should be done at phase one involve: quitting smoking, eliminating consumption of alcohol, drinking a lot of water, and from nutritional point of view, Mr. bob insisted that good multivitamin and mineral supplement should be taken. Additionally, omega-3-fatty acid supplement and calcium should also be taken daily. In phase two, the person should increase his level of physical activity but this should be done according to some set guidelines (Bob, 2006, p.90).
A person who is ranked at level one of the physical activity scale for example cannot just increase his or her level of physical activity if he is in level zero. In addition, the amount of serving for each activity is also shown. The writer gave some guidelines on how to make transitions that: if a person is 20 pounds or less from his or her goal weight and still consistently dropping pounds, then such person have a couple of options he or she can stay in phase two until he reach his goal or stop losing, then move to phase three or he can move to phase three right way. If a person still have more than 20 pounds to lose and are still consistently dropping pounds, then he just have to keep doing what he is doing and stay in phase two. On the other hand, if is 20 pounds or more from his original goal weight and have stopped dropping pounds, then he has to make sure that he is fulfilling all of the phase one and phase two objectives and that he hasn’t unconsciously let extra calories slip back into his diet. If he has stayed, then he has to recommit to and reinstate the entire phase one and phase two changes.
Evaluation of the book
Having learn how the writer described his plan for weight lose, our next mission is to analyze the book basing on the faddism, sound weight loss plans, as well as food pyramid and food guidelines. The base of this evaluation would be as per the American heart association.
As the general standards on weight lose, the book discourages the use of fad diets as a way of losing weight. The book maintained on the fact that a combination of diet, exercise or physical activity and addressing some of the life issues such as emotional factors constitute a long lasting measures of cutting off some pounds. Therefore, the book is in consistent with other sound weight loss plan as far as the issue of faddism is concerned.
On the aspect of food pyramids and food guidelines, the book did not involve the application of food pyramid in meal planning. Instead, the author had his own dietary plan. The book has generalized a lot on the food selection and hence the idea of using food pyramid is not well brought up. Therefore, unlike other sound weight lose plan the writer did not dwell much on the aspect of food pyramid.
Works cited
Bob Greene. The Best Life Diet. Simon and Schuster. Oxford. 2006. Pp 1-124. Print.
Forbes, Gilbert B., American Academy of Pediatrics, 1980. "[Food Fads: Safe Feeding of
Children p. 130-156.print.
Retrieved on 27th April 2010from
