I listed most of your weight-loss program options in the introduction to this series. Now it’s time to make a choice. And it’s not easy sorting through all the options.
Straight away, I must tell you that women over 300 pounds (136 kg) and men over 350 pounds (159 kg) rarely have permanent success with self-help methods such as diet books, meal replacement programs, diet pills or supplements, and meal-delivery systems. People at those high weights who have tried and failed multiple different weight-loss methods should seriously consider bariatric surgery.
I respect your intelligence and desire to do your “due diligence” and weigh all your options: diet books, diet pills and supplements, bariatric surgery, meal replacement products (e.g., SlimFast), portion-control meal providers (e.g., NutriSystem), Weight Watchers, fad diets, no-diet diets, “just cutting back,” etc. You have to make the choice; I can’t make it for you. Here are some well-respected sources of advice to review before you choose:
For me personally, the “diet book” option is appealing. Why? Convenience. Low cost. Effectiveness. If I forget or don’t understand something, I can re-read it.
Since I am a diet book author, you may consider me biased in favor of my own book, which is more of a lifestyle modification book than a diet book. If I didn’t think I could do better than the other books on the market, I wouldn’t have bothered to write my own.
So, please consider my Advanced Mediterranean Diet: Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer. Click here for a description of the book. Click here for customer reviews. Joel Gates, 2008 Diet Blogger of the Year per DietsInReview, tried it and blogged about it here. You can order the book at the AMD website or from Amazon.com, or check it out from your local library.
I’ve also published a free, online, stripped-down version of my healthy lifestyle program: the Do-It-Yourself Mediterranean Diet. [I’m doing everything I can to help you live longer and healthier.]
Whatever your choice, I wish you success and good health in 2009 and beyond!
-Steve Parker, M.D.
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