One of the things I choose to do here at DietHobby is give an occasional review of a diet and/or diet book which I’ve read and have found unusual or interesting enough to personally experiment with (although usually only after I make personal and individual modifications to the basic plan). This is one such review.  

 Snack Yourself Slim (2008) was written by Richard Warburg, a lawyer, assisted by Tessa Lorant who is a published author and knitting expert. This diet book is based on the rather unique premise of having tiny snacks every hour instead of meals.

Warburg shares a personal eating plan that he developed and used successfully. He asserts that it is a known fact that the body craves satiety through smaller, more frequent meals. His lifestyle approach is to eat a very small amount of something every hour that you are awake.

Here is his diet plan. Every hour that you are awake you eat approximately 80 to 100 calories of any food. If you arise at 7 a.m. and are awake until 10 p.m. for those 15 hours you would consume about 1200 to 1500 calories. Warburg says that such a plan is destined for success since the body’s caloric needs can be determined through scientific charts which show a person’s daily caloric needs, based upon gender, height, weight, and exertion level.

As an example, the charts say that a six-foot, 40-year-old man, weighing approximately 200 pounds with a moderate physical activity level (five exercise sessions a week), would need about 2800 calories a day to maintain his current weight. Since 3500 calories equals one pound of fat, reducing daily intake to a 2000 calories would equate to nearly a pound of fat being reduced every four days.

Snack Yourself Slim encourages such a hypothetical man to eliminate another 500 calories from that amount for even quicker weight loss.

Based on the conventional wisdom of calories-in calories-out, it would appear that this could be a successful means of weight loss. Warburg cites his own success with the plan, as well as the success of a few of his friends who have used it. The main drawback of the plan, appears to be that it would require giving up eating all normal size meals. For most occupations and lifestyles, this could be rather difficult to accomplish.

Warburg claims no medical expertise, and his knowledge about body functions appears to be based on his own armchair reading about various dieting methods. Current conventional wisdom is calories-in-calories-out, and he seems to understand that basic concept, however he makes the statement that all calories are NOT created equal because “you can have as many as you like in protein form – the body simply excretes those you don’t need”. This inaccurate statement indicates that Warburg is unfamiliar with the concept of gluconeogensis which is the process whereby the body turns extra protein into glucose, which then … if unused… gets stored as fat. Based on this rather egregious error, I would advise a reader not to heavily rely on Warburg’s sketchy interpretation of how insulin and his diet work together.

I have previously reviewed the book “The No S Diet” (2008), which is a 3 meal zero snacking plan. I am very fond of the Habit concepts of the author, Reinhard Engles, and in March 2008, I began experimenting with the No S diet. I was unsuccessful at establishing a 3 meal, 0 snacking habit, probably due to the fact that my entire 60+ year lifetime involves a strong established habit involving small meals with snacking at random throughout the day. However, I am still strongly attracted to the diet and to Reinhard’s habit concepts, and I enjoy and recommend his No S forum which frequently contains the comments of some interesting, intelligent, and courteous people.

With that personal background, I ran across “Snack Yourself Slim”, in mid-2009; I purchased and read the book, intrigued by the idea of All snacks, 0 meals which is actually a reverse pattern of The No S Diet, and a diet concept I’d never tried.

My only experimentation with this diet was for about 10 days in early May, 2009, just a few days after returning from a long vacation in Boston. During that 10 days, I ate …what for me were maintenance calories … divided into approximately 11 to13 snack eating sessions. My average weight went down approximately 1 lb during that 2 week period, but this appeared to be merely due to normal flucuation. I found that I missed meals, plus I was strongly motivated to quickly drop a few lbs of vacation weight, so I quit that all-snacking-zero-meal-plan to experiment with other diet plans.

I have no strong feelings about the personal effectiveness of the diet, either way. Recently I’ve became interested in doing a second experiment with it, and I now have a plan to do that. If I follow through with such a plan, and I have results that I find interesting, I will share those in some later article.

A basic idea is to develop sustainable habit that lead to reaching and maintaining a lower weight. One needs the behavior of consistently eating in a manner that results in one’s food intake totaling the same ...for maintenance.. or less…for weight-loss.. caloric energy than one’s body uses.
This is simple, but not easy.

 There is no one list of “correct” eating habits for everyone.   There are some who need to combine exercise with diet, but there is no magic highway to success.  We all have to find our own way.  We have to find what works for us.

And I have learned that…over time…what works individually may change.

As part of my Dieting Hobby, I read many diet books.
Here's a link to a video I previously posted about that practice.

I also experiment personally with various diets. Here at DietHobby, sometimes I will share information about this in detail, and other times, I will not.

This week I’ve been reading “Weight Loss for Food Lovers” (2008) by George Blair.
After I’ve finished reading it, while I’m still processing the ideas presented, I will probably share some of the concepts that I find interesting, but I don’t plan to do a summary or detailed book review.

My overall goal is NOT to provide a comprehensive review of all the various diets, or even of my all own personal ways of eating. My goal is to share the information that I find interesting along with my thoughts, as they occur, which I find helpful to me in my own maintenance.

 Everything I do here at DietHobby is to help me maintain my weight-loss. Hopefully some of the things I share will also be helpful to others. I welcome questions, ideas, and opinions from readers.  Unless on extremely private issues, I prefer to see them in the Comments section, so that everyone can participate in any discussion, but e-mails are also welcome.  My intention is to respond individually to each one.
Thanks for being here. 

                        
I like reading, and I especially enjoy reading Diet Books. Reading them is part of my DietHobby.

Diet Books are written by medical doctors, and psychologists, and trainers, and nutritionists, and journalists, and lawyers, and housewives, and people from many other walks of life.

Most diet book authors say that they have personally lost weight while following their recommended diet, and/or have seen their clients, their patients, their fellow members, or their friends lose weight while participating in the diet presented.

This is also true of authors who espouse diets that aren’t officially labeled “Diet”, such as diets which based on intuitive eating principles like: “Eat only when hungry; Eat what you like: Stop when you’re full.”

Books are work products that are normally intended to benefit their authors financially, and/or bring them into the public eye…i.e. provide them with fame and fortune. Honest and dishonest people both exist in this world. Some people lie.

Authors can exaggerate or actually fabricate examples of successful dieters in order to boost the credibility of their diets. Their motives vary.  Some of these do this for financial gain, and others do it to benefit humanity. For some, it is a mixture of both.  Except for that fact, initially, I have no reason to doubt an author’s claims.

While reading a diet book, I charge myself with the personal responsibility of doing my best to keep an open mind to the author’s concepts, and while I cannot keep myself from factoring in my own common sense, my prior knowledge, my own life experience, and my personal values, I work to temporarily suspend my personal judgments about the concepts presented.

After a lifetime of reading hundreds of diet books, my belief is that just about every diet works for someone.

Every diet book I’ve ever read has benefited me in some way. Even the worst of them usually contains some useful kernel of Truth, and most of them contain recipes that I find personally interesting.

Each diet book has provided me with information, and sometimes… the information I gained was not what the author intended.

Over time, it is my intention to write here about a variety of diets, and about some of the diet books I have read. I’ll be doing this as the mood strikes, and in no particular order. My reviews of new diet books and old diet books will be provided at random. Which, I believe is appropriate…since that’s how I read them.

Occasionally, there will be a “diet” book that I judge to be particularly unusual, interesting, or outstanding. such as Gary Taubes’ new book, Why We Get Fat and What to Do about It (2011), and such a book will be featured here in BOOKTALK for a long-term Discussion.

 I like to think about the different aspects of Diets and Dieting,and the benefits this brings to my life.

I've experienced a great deal of weight-loss through dieting, but dieting has been beneficial to me in other ways as well.

As part of my DietHobby, I engage in various activities which includes: reading many diet books; experimenting with many diet plans; participating in various online forums; reviewing the blogs of others; and reading various diet and health nutrition articles. Many of these activities provide me with interesting facts, and some of them provide me with intense amusement.

In my Blog here on DietHobby, I will discuss, in no particular order, various articles, books, and diet concepts as thoughts about those subjects occur to me.

 I like hearing about the experiences of others, and I look forward to receiving ideas and comments from you. I’d like to hear your slant on things. I want to hear your opinions, whether you agree with me or not.  I’m hoping this site will help establish and nurture an online friendship  between you and me, and also friendships between those of you who make comments.