Mar 9, 2006 11:49 pm US/Eastern
'Cheater's Diet' Allows Dieters To Splurge
by Dr. Mallika Marshall
(CBS4)
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Fast food is OK if you're on the Cheater's Diet.
CBS
The "Cheater's Diet" certainly has a good ring to it. This approach promises to let you have your favorite foods once in awhile and still lose weight. So go ahead, indulge a little. Have some chocolate or a donut or a fast food splurge. They may be diet no-no's, but that's OK on the Cheater's Diet.
Kim Domenico actually cut her weight in half, going from 283 pounds to 148. "If I wanted the burger, I would have the burger," she says. "With this diet you don't have to deprive yourself so I wasn't feeling the need to binge."
Dr. Paul Rivas, author of "The Cheater's Diet," says the plan helped 16,000 of his patients lose weight, from extreme cases like Kim's, to people who just wanted to lose a few pounds. It's five days of sticking to a diet, any diet, and then two days of cheating.
The secret? Dr. Rivas says people don't feel constantly deprived so they stick to the plan. Secondly, the two days of indulging boosts the metabolism. "You're taking in more calories so your body says oh, she's not starving anymore, so we can raise the metabolism now to start burning off some of the food intake," Dr. Rivas says.
Kim says she ate a balanced low calorie diet during the week, and on weekends, cheated. "Before I would say, I screwed up this lunch so that's it for the week, but with this you're just right back on."
You have to keep the cheating in check. It's a few treats, and not binging. "Have that beer, have that slice of pizza, have some chocolate, but don't go hog wild," Dr. Rivas says.
Nutritionist Emily Rice from Caritas St. Elizabeth Medical Center believes the diet isn't as good as it sounds. Although a patient could lose weight in the short term, she worries "this isn't a heart healthy diet. It seems more like a fad to me. It's not a lifestyle diet. What happens when you stop the diet? You will probably just gain all the weight back you lost to begin with."
Experts also say this approach only works for people with tremendous self control. And like any weight loss program, you need to factor in additional exercise.
Click Here for the List of 50 Guilt-Free Cheat Foods included in Dr. Paul Rivas' book "The Cheater's Diet", published by Health Communications, Inc.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
50 Guilt-Free Cheat Foods
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