We weren’t exactly being kind when we challenged five people to test this season’s new diet books for six weeks — right in the midst of Halloween and Thanksgiving. But our dieters were as game as their holiday turkeys. Armed with a three-month pass to New York Sports Club and the accountability of being photographed “after” in The Post, they all gave it their best shot. But sometimes, the books just fell short (or a Snickers fell into their hands). Here’s how the gut-loss guides shaped up.
The Dieter
Marlon Mills, 34
The Diet: “Diet Rehab” ($26), by Dr. Mike Dow, is a psychologist’s take on dieting — a four-week program rooted in how food chemically alters the brain.
The Results: Mills had never eaten quinoa before he read “Diet Rehab.” But it was one of the new habits he picked up from the book during his quest to get healthy, propelled in part by his mother’s death one year ago. Mills is a professional dancer, which means he was burning a ton of calories onstage and in the classroom. But his post-dancing, late-night eating habits piled on 25 pounds over the years.
PHOTOS: BEFORE AND AFTER SHOTS OF OUR DIETERS
After reading “Diet Rehab,” Mills realized he needed to switch things up. “Before, there was a 99-cent pizza place [that I’d go to],” he says. “Now I’ll go a block up and get a bottle of water and a yogurt and some nuts and fruit after a show.”
While Mills found the book an interesting read, it was more about food addiction than dieting. “The main content was understanding why you eat certain foods, which ones release dopamine versus serotonin and how they effect your mood,” says Mills, a Flatbush, Brooklyn resident, who adds that he “sometimes got lost in the heavy science lingo.”
Mills is keen on continuing to alter his actions. He still goes to a juice bar three times a week, patronizes places that cater to vegetarians and, instead of taking taxis, is walking a lot more. “One of my favorite things in the book was the list of different healthy activities you can do, like bike rides or long walks,” Mills says.
Before
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 230.5 pounds
After
Weight: 216 pounds
Book: Diet rehab
The Grade: B+
“It was about curtailing,” Mills says. “It didn’t tell you not to have things, it was more replacing things that boost your mood, like lettuce. Kind of a change-your-thoughts, change-your-actions model.”
The Dieter
Heidi Bender, 36
The Diet: “Working Out Sucks!” ($14.99), by Chuck Runyon, gives a 21-day eating and workout plan, as well as motivational tidbits and advice for fighting off negative thoughts.
The Results: Bender has had some success with past diets, including Weight Watchers, but she wanted “something fresher, something to breathe new life and up my enthusiasm.”
Runyon’s book wasn’t it. “It was just calorie counting. It didn’t give you the tools for how to survive everyday life,” says Bender, a vegetarian who was disappointed that Runyon’s food suggestions relied largely on processed foods and lunch meat. Plus, the meal plan wasn’t particularly useful, since it was geared toward someone consuming 2,000 calories daily.
“I’ve been shooting for 1,500 calories per day,” explains the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, resident.
And then there was the bit about the book’s title ringing all too true.
“The whole book was called ‘Working Out Sucks!,’ and I didn’t even pay attention to the workouts in the back because it was just boring,” she says. “It wasn’t fun at all. I would never go to the gym and just count reps.”
A textiles designer, Bender still managed to lose a few pounds by monitoring her calories with the CalCounter app for her iPhone. And the book guided her to healthier choices. “If I was going to get eggs, I’d ask for egg whites,” she says. “Or if I were ordering fish, I’d get it with little or no oil — things like that.”
Before
Height: 5’6”
Weight: 170.2 pounds
After
Weight: 167.6 pounds
Book: Working out sucks
The Grade: C+
“I think this book would be more appropriate for the person who hasn’t set foot in a gym for years.”
The Dieter
Jennifer Gopoian, 35
The Diet: “Six Weeks to Skinny Jeans” ($24.99), by Amy Cotta, offers a three-pronged approach to pound-shedding: diet, exercise and attitude. Its diet is broken into “Ignite” and “Melt” phases, with the former banning carbs and fruit. The exercises focus on the body’s core, thighs and hips. A food journal is meant to inspire dieters by tracking their progress.
The Results: With two daughters aged 6 and 1, Gopoian was looking to “get back to where I was before I got married.” Her mother and sister have had gastric bypass surgery, and Gopoian promised herself that she was “never going to have that problem.”
“One thing stuck with me the most: Cotta said you can diet by eating the right foods, or you can exercise by going to the gym every day,” she says. “But only when you do them together do you really achieve your maximum goals.”
The White Plains resident took the book’s advice, like getting a buddy who motivates you: “It’s definitely important because there’s accountability,” she says. She also experimented with the book’s “yummy” recipes, including breakfast egg muffins that Gopoian would make in bulk to last the week.
But Gopoian wasn’t willing to accept all the plan’s mantras. “[The book] makes this analogy of how your body doesn’t know the difference [between] a slice of chocolate cake or a slice of watermelon because the way it spikes your blood sugar is the same,” she says. “It’s kind of hard to buy, even if it’s true in physiology. Like, really? I can’t have a slice of watermelon?!”
Gopoian, a stay-at-home mom, adjusted accordingly, allowing one “cheat” meal a week without eliminating carbs or fruit entirely. And she couldn’t help but treat herself to a cupcake at her daughter’s birthday party.
Before
Height: 5’2”
Weight: 149.8 pounds
After
Weight: 146.6 pounds
Book: Six weeks skinny jeans
The Grade: B
“There’s nothing really outrageous in there.”
The Dieter
Julie Hardee, 31
The Diet: “Skinny Chicks Eat Real Food” ($26.99) by Christine Avanti, shuns processed, chemical-laden foods in favor of more wholesome (and even full-fat) meals.
The Results: Hardee, a receptionist who lives on the Upper East Side, was slim to start, but wanted to tighten up a few problem areas and rid herself of bad habits, such as midnight snacking on Fire Cheetos and indulging in the office candy bowl.
Within the first week of reading Avanti’s book, Hardee was singing the author’s praises. “I am in love with my book,” she says. “She talks about how you should only eat things [when] you understand what the ingredients are — and try to keep it to five ingredients or less on the label. In short, don’t eat stuff you don’t understand, because it’s probably bad for you.” (Which delighted Hardee, because locally made organic beer was green-lighted.)
Not only did Hardee kick her Diet Coke habit — “Everything in Diet Coke is basically poison,” she says — she took to the health-food store with gusto. “The book didn’t have any specific exercise — it was more about label reading and enhancing your diet with flax meal and coconut oil or drinking a fermented food every day I had a kefir [a yogurt-like dairy beverage].”
Hardee even managed to put aside her fear of full-fat products. “I learned that it’s better to eat a pure-fat sour cream that comes from well-treated, lovely animals than to eat some reduced-fat sour cream fakeness,” she says.
Before
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 143.4 pounds
After
Weight: 141.2 pounds
Book: Skinny chicks eat real food
The Grade: A
“Amazing . . . [but] if you can’t go a health-food store, or if you were on a really tight budget, it’d be really hard.”