The "I" Diet: Use Your Instincts to Lose Weight--and Keep It Off--Without Feeling Hungry Paperback – January 7, 2010

With my 35 pounds of excess fat (and my husband's 80 extra) that have stubbornly refused to disappear despite LOTS of exercise and good eating, I must admit, as a non-dieter, I was skeptical about this "diet" at first. After reading many of Dr.Susan Roberts' papers and browsing through the book, however, I was pretty impressed at the science, logic, and recipes behind this eating plan and decided we'd give it a try.After a week, I can say several things about the "I"Diet:--If you like to eat lots of delicious, fresh, healthy food, this plan fits the bill. It uses principles of volumetrics (fiber, liquids, etc.) to fill you up and help you stay full. No hunger AT ALL. If you are not used to eating a lot of fiber, though, you need to follow the instructions for gradually building up to the 50+ grams a day. Drinking a lot of water is also essential with this amount of dietary fiber.--If you like variety in your meals and snacks, there is plenty of choice here, if you want it, whether you are herbivore or carnivore, basic or advanced cook.--If you want to automate your meals, this system makes it easy. I just copied the three meal plan pages for stage I, then cooked enough of each days' entrees to feed us for two days. The first day we cook, the next, we just heat and eat, and so on.--If you want to introduce a little food-confusion to your normal dietary habits, this plan does it. Some days are high-carb/high-fiber, while others have more protein, which keeps your body guessing about what's coming next and what to hold onto.--The nutritional values of the foods here are excellent. We are using BodyMedia Fit LINK Armband Weight Management System bands with this diet and are logging nutritional info. It is clear to see that this is designed to satisfy a body's needs for both macro and micro nutrients, even as low cal as it is.--The recipes for meals in the book produce flavorful, delicious, nutritious food. As gourmet cooks, my husband and I were very impressed with this aspect. I also like the fact that the recipes for soups and etc., make a lot at one time so you can freeze some and have to cook less frequently.The bottom line:At the end of one week, with daily exercise including a minimum of 10,000 daily steps, I've racked up an average daily deficit of calories of >1000 kcals. and lost 3 pounds while my husband has lost 7, eating the foods we usually eat; all without hunger, dehydration, or any reduction in metabolism. I refuse to call this a diet, but consider it more in the original Latin (from Greek) sense: as diaita or "a way of life.'

This is not a review of the diet itself (haven't been on long enough to comment) but a review of the Kindle format of this book.I STRONGLY urge you to buy the book instead. Very difficult to follow and many charts are unreadable so you have to leave the book and go to another website to access readable copies! Totally user unfriendly. In fact, this should never have been published in a Kindle version.Buyer beware!***************UPDATE************** Now that I've had the book version for awhile and have followed it for several weeks I'd say it's okay. Ideas in it are very sound but I don't see it being a whole lot different than the principles in Weight Watchers and other tried and true diet plans. Lots of fiber is one of the cornerstones of this program, much in the form of high fiber cereal, as much as you want pretty much. So it's important that you like high fiber cereal like all bran or fiber one and don't have digestive issues with a high fiber diet. The plus is with all the fiber you'll be eating, you won't be hungry at all! Weight loss is not rapid, averaging maybe 1/2-1 lb a week for me so a safe, steady weight loss. If you're looking for amazing weight loss quickly I think you'll be disappointed.. The program uses strict menus for the 1st couple of stages so if you're used to the convenience of counting points and having some leeway in creating your meals, again this may not appeal to you as you could find it too restrictive in the fist couple of stages. Some good menus in the book, not great but good - some are quite easy, others are very fussy to prepare. Not a bad diet but not one I highly recommend. The Mediterranean Diet, WW andeven South Beach I found more appealing. Like many researchers the author believes she has found the holy grail of dieting. I wish it were true!

I rarely rate books, but this one is worth it. It's just as advertised: a slow-but-steady, no-nonsense way to accomplish one's weight loss goals. To me, there are two great benefits:1. It makes sense. Once you read the opening chapters, you're almost certain to have an "aha!" moment where you realize just why weight/fat loss is such a struggle. At that point, it becomes obvious why the stage I/II/III food plans are structured the way they are.2. It's flexible. All diet plans allow for substitutions as appropriate. There's a vegetarian option, there's an option for those of different weights who need different amounts of calories, there are periodic checkups so you can easily tell if you're on track or not (and how to adjust if appropriate), and so on. Very thorough.The only drawback would be that the initial meal planning takes some work. I freely admit that if it weren't for my wonderful, food-minded wife, I would probably not have made it through stage I. However, once she initially determined all our needs, groceries, and meal plans for the first several days, it became simple, straightforward, and satisfying.Most importantly, we've both seen results just one week into it and have felt good and satisfied almost the entire time. Looking forward to additional progress!

Les conseils de ce livre ont superbement bien fonctionné pour moi. Et pour cause, j'ai compris le pourquoi et le comment de chaque phrase.Ce livre transcrit avec des phrases simples les connaissances scientifiques fondamentales du comportement animal et donc humain.J'ai aussi compris très vite aussi que l'auteure l'avait écrit avec passion, en testant la valeur scientifique mais aussi pratique et attrayante de chaque recette, de chaque conseil.Au dos du livre on lit : "Ce livre changera une fois pour toute votre relation à l'alimentation". Pour moi, cela a été 100% vrai, et... super facilement de surcroît. Bravo et Merci

If you want to be helped this book will help you. It empowers you with knowledge of why you have the relationship with food that you do and enables you to use that knowledge to change your relationship for the better. It helped me to change my life. It's not easy, but his book gives a ton of recipes to help you on your way. At first I didn't think I would like some of the recipes but as time has gone on I now enjoy almost all of them, and I have shared many of them with eager friends. I haven't stuck to the i diet religiously, although the food I choose to put in my mouth is far better for me now than ever before, but over 6 months I lost 25lbs and I am still losing. At the end of the day, no book will ever make you loose weight. You are ultimately responsible for what you put in your mouth, but if nothing else has worked before (I have tried weight watchers, slimming world, atkins and more...) and you REALLY DO WANT TO LIVE HEALTHIER and lose weight and keep it off, then I think this book is for you. I was skeptical at the start but it has really worked for me. The breakfast bars are a must!!!

It is now commonplace to hear that "diets simply don't work". I disagree: they do work, but only if you stick to them - which, for most diets, is totally impossible! (I recently read a magazine article about Hollywood stars staying slim by not exceeding 1,200 kcals a day and exercising for 2 hours 6 times a week. It clearly does work - it's only that it is utterly unrealistic as a long-term lifestyle for anyone normal.) What I like about the "i" diet book is that it is ruthlessly honest (most of the time): it is light on the usual "miracle claims" (once you get past the marketing material upfront) and packed with scientific evidence and practical advice on what regulates appetite, eating, metabolism and weight-gain or weight-loss. I have now been on (and off) the diet for 2 months and lost 7 lbs - not a miracle, but the first time ever that I have genuinely felt that this is a sustainable way of eating, that I *can* stay on it as long as I need to. In fact, after the initial shock (when you realise what a huge amount of calories you have been munching through every day, much of it unnoticed), the "i" diet is not actually very hard work. You do have to stick to it, but the reward is radically reduced cravings, filling and satisfying meals and - at least for me - a break from constant obsessing about food. And you are allowed (surprisingly delicious high-fibre) bread every day!

Kind of like a modified weight watchers plan.

I am not following the diet as I got put off by the no substitutions when I really dislike a couple of foods that appear regularly and the cal count is too low for me. But there are some good principles that you can follow that so far have helped me lose a couple of pounds so far and I an stick to