‘Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show’ Episode 234: Is Dr. Sanford Siegal’s Cookie Diet Low-Carb?

I’m a big believer in the power of fiber for weight loss. Try eating 35-grams of fiber a day and see if you don’t lose weight.

Fiber isn’t the great wonder of the world of weight loss, though, Greg. You can exactly eat 35g of dietary fiber and then whatever else you want and expect to be healthy or shed pounds or fat. Fiber is nice to bulk up your poop, but that’s about it. I know, bad visual.

–Jimmy

It would have been interesting to find out how much of the weight loss on this version of a very low calorie diet is lean mass and/or bone mass. Does he routinely measure body comp?

Jackie Eberstein

That’s a good point, Jackie! Dr. Siegal didn’t mention anything about measuring what was lost except for weight. I think you could almost eat high-fiber/high-protein M&Ms instead of the cookies on this kind of diet and lose weight–but how much of it would be stored body fat?

–Jimmy

I know I must be splitting hairs – but where, for example, I find your advertising products on the site to be just fine (even though I don’t use them – I’m strictly a ‘meat, fish, eggs, fresh veggies, and low impact fresh fruits’ girl), because I see this as just making information known which your readers may find useful, I dislike any approach to weight loss which makes a particular product (such as Dr Siegal’s cookies) an essential. (This apart from that I disagree with other elements of his approach.)

I’ve been disappointed even with the Atkins site (obviously not the New Diet Revolution itself) in recent years – and I am inclined to think that it is because, in trying to promote products or win acceptance, it is because they both have minimised Dr Atkins approach (which was so unembarrassedly against the grain – pun intended), and have sought to promote products excessively (witness the recipes.) I very much dislike the misleading information – as if people had to observe ‘serving’ sizes (3 oz of meat, perhaps – sycophancy for doctors), or deliberately minimise weight loss – and I loathe some of the pop psychology on the site. (A dieter, of any variety, who brings it up constantly in social settings is a bl**dy bore – it doesn’t mean that others cannot accept a change in her and she needs therapy…) Veronica Atkins latest cook book is useless for weight loss, but recipes too often required ingredients which were sold by the organisation.

Sorry to ramble – it’s just that, like yourself, I’ve found a godsend in the low carbohydrate approach. I dislike when people may fail because they make it more difficult than it has to be (usually from hearing some diet guru or advertisement… though, if they listen to most doctors, it’s all over…) I’m not opposed to anyone’s using products if they find them helpful at all, but it would be troubling (as you never do, as far as I can see in all my months of reading your sites) if it were made to appear that products are essential to low carb.