Pros: Great concepts, delicious recipes, has some results
Cons: Very difficult to stay motivated, could be quite expensive
The Bottom Line: The Fat Flush Plan, while being an extremely well thought out book, covering a variety of good concepts, is extremely difficult to stay motivated on.
biscuitfarmer's Full Review: Ann Louise Gittleman - The Fat Flush Plan Books
I'm not really sure how many books I have read about dieting, self improvement, and nutrition, but I'm sure it's been a whole lot more than most experts. I have made it almost a fetish of mine to be completely knowledgeable of my body, the surrounding world, and how everything effects me and my health.
One of the many books that I have purchased on the topic of dieting and weight control, was The Fat Flush Plan. This is pretty much the diet-nazi's guide to healthy living and dieting.
About the Author
Anne Louise Gittleman has a Master's Degree in Nutrition from Columbia University and is a certified nutritionist. She has appeared on a variety of television shows and has written several books on the topic. She has had several best selling books.
Concept
The basic concept of the fat flush plan is to slowly reduce weight, and cleanse your body through three different steps. The book guides you through the whole process along with practical knowledge, ideas, and of course recipes to get you going.
The concept of the book is that most of our concept of weight loss has to do with eliminating carbs, however, that isn't the entire process. Anne writes that you have to first cleanse your body and detoxify it before you can truly begin to lose weight.
Contents
Throughout the book, you are essentially led through three different phases of weight loss. The first phase is the most regimented in which you are limited to only like 1200 calories of day and have to completely eliminate all carbs in your diet. During this phase of the program, you also have to do things such as drinking a lot of water, AND most importantly drinking several glasses of UNSWEETENED Cranberry Juice. This is supposed to help in cleansing the liver and ensuring that it is working at it's optimal production. It also helps to cleanse the bowels and provides much needed nutrients. Other great things that are introduced are different vitamins and minerals such as Flaxseed Oil, Coconut Oil, things of that nature. You are introduced to pretty much everything that really doesn't come from regular food, but has to be bought and added or consumed later.
Personally, this portion of the phase is rediculous to me. It is extremely hard to stay focused, when you have to do things like purchase a hundred dollars worth of pills and powders in order to make the diet fully work. Most consumers don't have that sort of money to throw around on a diet that may not even potentially work. The fact that you are required to drink things such as UNSWEETENED Cranberry Juice, makes it even more difficult. I know that all of you have tried Cranberry Juice by itself and that's extremely sweet, now imagine how bitter Cranberry Juice without sugar is... Yeah, it's a rough trip. You definitely do feel healthy after drinking it though, if nothing else.
Phase two, allows you to move up in calories, and slowly increase your intake of carbs. You can now include, I think it is two carb items a day. So, this means you could have a tablespoon of sugar and a cookie or something stupid like that. However, the problem with this, is that you are so unlikely to be able to stay within the 1500 calorie range by eating anything with sugar in it, that it's really not worth it in the first place, otherwise you'll starve during your meals.
Phase Three, is the easiest of all of the phases, you get to eat a lot more food, more carbs, and overall it's a much easier diet to follow. While you are still to take the flaxseed oil and all those other natural whatevers, but you don't have to worry about the harsh restrictions on calories and carbs anymore. While they are still somewhat tough, they aren't anywhere near as bad. The issue that I have with this chapter is that you are encouraged to work out, during this phase. The way I took the working out aspect of this phase, was that, she doubted the feasibility of this diet to work unless you workout. Now, my assumption was the whole purpose of the diet was so that you didn't have to workout quite as much, so that seemed a little odd.
Recipes
There are about 40 different recipes that include a lot of the nutrients that are required for this diet to work. However the majority of the recipes are just low carb recipes, that you see in virtually every dieting book on the market. I wasn't really impressed with the recipes, as I felt that they were the same ones that consumers are constantly seeing, but they are still rather delicious to eat. I found the majority of the recipes were reasonable to eat, fairly easy to prepare, and helped make the diet achievable.
My Results
I went on this diet, for about 3 months, in combination with other things that I was doing. I found that the diet was extremely hard to stay focused on, so I really had a hard time doing just this diet by itself. Without modification, I knew that I wouldn't have been able to fully do the diet. I had to have at least a few hundred more calories, as I am extremely active and was finding myself quite dizzy by the end of the day.
I lost probably 3 pounds over the time that I was on the diet. This however, is misleading, as I was working out pretty heavily, and the muscle weighs more than the fat, so it pretty much cancelled each other out.
Final Thoughts
Personally, I felt that this book was an extremely difficult regimented diet that you had to follow exactly or you wouldn't have the promised results. I don't think that the majority of Americans can follow this diet over the long term as I don't feel it's totally reasonable. You begin to question the diet almost immediately, and crave other foods, which makes it impossible to stay on.
I have see pictures of the author of this book, and I'm assuming that she herself isn't on the diet, as she is a fairly heavyset woman herself. I think that before anyone can write a book about a diet, she needs to be able to prove that the diet can work on herself first. Saying that it works and then having somewhat of a weight issue, is completely contradictory, and makes me assume that this diet is just fluff inside a cover to make money.
There are some great concepts that are discussed in the book, which I still do use to this day. I do drink a lot more Cranberry Juice as I noticed that I feel much more rejuvenated, and my urinary tract, seems to have had a benefit from the program.
I also continue to take a lot of the nutrients that are suggested in the book, as many of them have really made me feel better day to day. I have a lot healthier skin, my hair is shinier, and my urine pretty much glows in the dark, but that's all fine.
Overall, I think that there are great ideas, but combined together, it makes for one of the most impossible diet plans around.
The textbook, Fat Flush Plan, by Ann Louise Gittleman, available in Hardback. Published by: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. Edition: . ISBN10: 00...More at Textbooks.com
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