A thinking woman’s diet
The web site for “The Instinct Diet” claims this approach to weigh loss is “the most science-based weight loss program ever designed.” More specifically, the Instinct Diet is psychology based.
The book by Susan B. Roberts, PhD, and Betty Kelly Sargent is on sale at Amazon.com for $16.47. I have researched the Instinct Diet to find out whether this book is worth the price.
Good reviews
In all of the articles I read about the Instinct Diet, and there were several, it got positive reviews. Women and Weight Website says the Instinct Diet will helps make weight loss less of a struggle.
On her web site Psychology Today, Roberts says:
The Instinct Diet “has been endorsed by more leading obesity scientists than any diet book ever-including researchers who’ve never before been able to agree on the same recommendations.”
How will it save me money?
The book is inexpensive enough that you probably won’t need a short term loan or even a credit card to purchase it. Because dieting generally causes people to eat less and to eat at home rather than eating out, you could potentially recover the money spent buying the book pretty quickly.
Also, dieting encourages people to plan meals and grocery shopping trips, which reduces the amount of food that doesn’t get eaten. However, if the instinct diet really does help you shed pounds, you could end up having to spend money on new clothes. So maybe finances aren’t the best reason to try the Instinct Diet.
Another strategy
My first instinct when I read about this diet book was that I should try to find out the secret without having to purchase or read the book. So I set out to find out what I could, and here it is.
Five food instincts
Women and Weight Website shares the “five basic food instincts” that Roberts identifies. These are instincts that cause people to become overweight and to struggle with weight loss. They are:
- Hunger: We have a strong and very normal need to satisfy our hunger.
- Availability: We tend to eat whenever we can.
- Calorie Density: The more calorie dense a food the more we like it!
- Familiarity: We prefer and like familiar foods because we associate such food with safety and comfort.
- Variety: The more food choices we have the more we eat.
The idea behind the Instinct Diet is to get these instincts to work with you instead of against you when it comes to weight loss.
Step one
Roberts herself shares some information contained in her book on her web site. There are three phases to the diet, and people can move to the appropriate state depending on how much weight they want to lose. Subjects in a test group researching the diet lost 10-50 pounds.
Roberts says hunger control is the first step in the process. She recommends these foods to help you feel more full and satisfied:
• High fiber foods (such as high fiber cereals, legumes, green vegetables);
• High protein foods (such as lean proteins like chicken breast, white fish, tofu);
• High volume foods (such as green salads and vegetable or bean soups);
• Low glycemic index carbs (such as legumes, again, and also wheat berries, barley, low carb breads, and non-starchy fruits).
A diet with science behind it – that’s good news. I’d rather see a doctor’s endorsement than another raft of uneducated celebrities. Not to mention the idea of “diet” isn’t exactly the best thinking – the idea is that you’ll eat food that’s good for you until you lose enough weight, instead of eating healthy to maintain, I don’t know, a healthy life.
Good article. Just to add to that, I know a few people who eat more/less depending on the mood they’re in. For instance, a good friend of mine eats like there in no tomorrow when she’s feeling blue or upset. She would eat even if she isn’t hungry. So hopefully they have some kind of psychological development training tied in somewhere in the book.