The allure of losing weight while enjoying cookies is a powerful one, and the Australian Cookie Diet has garnered attention for promising just that. This article delves into a comprehensive review of the Australian Cookie Diet, examining its principles, purported benefits, potential risks, and overall effectiveness for sustainable weight loss.
What is the Cookie Diet?
The cookie diet involves replacing most daily meals with specially formulated, low-calorie cookies. The idea is that these cookies, often fortified with protein and fiber, help control hunger and reduce overall calorie intake, leading to weight loss. The diet typically includes one healthy dinner meal in the evening. The cookie diet has been around for over 40 years and claims to help you lose 11-17 pounds (5-7.8 kg) in one month.
History
First popularized in the 1970s by Dr. Sanford Siegal, the cookie diet (also known as Seigal's Cookie Diet) is relatively simple in concept. Dr. Siegal developed the cookies in his private bakery to help his bariatric patients control their hunger and stick to a reduced-calorie diet. Prior to being available online in 2007, the diet program was sold in more than 400 medical practices in South Florida.
How the Cookie Diet Works
The cookie diet operates on a foundation of calorie restriction. The cookies contain a special mixture of natural proteins that naturally control hunger. * based on 1,000 to 1,200 daily calories. This diet conquers both convenience and hunger and gives you a way to keep the weight off afterwards.
The standard plan involves consuming nine Dr. Siegal brand cookies throughout the day, along with a dinner of lean meat and vegetables. The cookies are designed to be eaten at regular intervals to control hunger and maintain energy levels.
Read also: Easy keto fat bomb recipe
The Dr. Siegal's Eating Plan
The following table shows the Dr. Siegal's Eating Plan. This timetable will work for most people who have a typical workday schedule. It assumes that you wake up at around 7am, work from 9pm to 5pm or so, have dinner around 8pm, and go to bed around 11pm. It also assumes that you will have your one “real” meal in the evening (but you can adjust the time to suit your lifestyle).
Phases of the Cookie Diet
The Cookie Diet has two phases - weight loss and maintenance.
Weight Loss Phase
During the weight loss phase, you’re allowed to consume nine Dr. Siegal cookies per day, as well as a healthy dinner comprising lean meat or fish and vegetables. The eating plan is spaced out as follows:
- Breakfast: 2 cookies
- Morning tea: 1 cookie
- Snack: 1 cookie
- Lunch: 2 cookies
- Afternoon tea: 1 cookie
- Snack: 1 cookie
- Dinner: 250 grams of lean meat or fish and vegetables
- Snack: 1 cookie
Each cookie provides 52.5-60 calories, and the dinner should provide 500-700 calories. In total, this adds up to approximately 1,000-1,200 calories per day. There are no strict guidelines on how to prepare the dinner, though it’s ideal to cook the meat and vegetables in a way that keeps the calorie content low, such as baking, broiling, roasting, steaming, or sautéeing. It’s claimed that this will reduce your risk of feeling hungry, as well as boost your metabolism.
In addition to the meal and cookies, dieters are advised to take a multivitamin supplement and drink eight glasses of water per day. Exercise is not necessary during this phase, as dieters are already in a large calorie deficit. However, you may perform light exercise if desired, such as a 30-minute walk up to 3 times per week.
Read also: Edible Keto Cookie Dough
Weight Maintenance Phase
Once you have achieved your weight loss goal, you can move to the maintenance phase indefinitely. The weight maintenance phase is as follows:
- Breakfast: egg and vegetable omelet and berries
- Snack: 1-2 cookies in between meals
- Lunch: 250 grams of lean meat or fish and vegetables
- Snack: 1-2 cookies in between meals
- Dinner: 250 grams of lean meat or fish and vegetables
- Optional snack: 1 cookie if needed
In addition to the eating plan, it’s encouraged to drink eight glasses of water per day and perform three 30-40-minute sessions of moderate to advanced exercise, though there are no specific exercise guidelines.
Ingredients
The cookies are baked in a high-quality facility with premium all-natural ingredients.
Common Ingredients
The cookies contain gluten, milk, eggs, and wheat.
Flavors
The cookies come in four delicious flavors to help you get control of your hunger and achieve your weight-loss goals, naturally. They taste amazing, especially the maple pancakes.
Read also: Guilt-Free Keto Dessert
Testimonials and User Experiences
Many users have reported positive experiences with the Australian Cookie Diet, citing its convenience and effectiveness in curbing cravings and controlling hunger. This is the easiest and most satisfying diet. This diet was great cause it’s so convenient, don’t even have to think about anything or plan anything.
Positive Feedback
- Convenience: The cookies are easy to carry and consume, making the diet suitable for busy individuals. The cookies are so convenient as you have nothing to prepare or make up, you just take 1 bag of cookies with you for the day and eat 1 or 2 cookies every 2 hours, then dinner is a simple lean meat plus salad or veggies.
- Hunger Control: The cookies are designed to control hunger, helping dieters stick to a low-calorie diet. So glad I found the cookie diet, curbs my cravings and controls my hunger so I don’t end up over eating when its lunch time, Thanks Dr.
- Taste: Many users find the cookies delicious, making the diet more enjoyable. These cookies are highly pleasant to taste.
- Weight Loss: Some users have experienced significant weight loss. Nearly 20 weeks in and I’ve lost 23kgs and 60 plus centimetres. Been eating cookies for a week and a half now and have lost 2.5kgs!!!
Negative Feedback
- Sugar Content: Some users have expressed concern about the sugar content of the cookies. Won’t buy them again way 2 much sugar.
- Effectiveness: Some users find the cookies ineffective for weight loss. Extremely expensive and totally ineffective.
- Nutrition: Some users find the cookies very poor nutrition, far too much sugar, very poor quality protein that the body cannot digest, causing constipation,
Benefits of the Cookie Diet
There are several benefits to following the Cookie Diet.
Weight Loss
First, it should help you lose weight, regardless of your current weight and gender. On average, to maintain weight, men and women need to consume 2,500 and 2,000 calories per day, respectively. Reducing these daily amounts by 500 calories should contribute to an estimated 1-pound (0.45-kg) of weight loss per week (4).
Considering that the Cookie Diet provides just 1,000-1,200 calories per day, it should contribute to an even greater weekly weight loss. Although studies have shown mixed results, some research has found that full or partial meal replacement plans may result in greater weight loss than conventional low calorie diets (5, 6).
Convenience and Cost-Effectiveness
Furthermore, the Cookie Diet is relatively cost-effective and convenient, as the cookies are pre-made and dinner is the only meal you need to prepare each day. A lot of our customers say, “It’s cheaper to be on the diet than off it!” How does that make sense? The reason being is when your in the weight losing phase you’re eating 9 cookies a day plus dinner, dinner is the only meal you this diet doesn’t cover.
Potential Risks and Drawbacks
Though the Cookie Diet should help you lose weight, it has several significant downsides.
Restrictive Calorie Intake
The diet does not factor in your specific nutritional needs, which are influenced by factors like your starting weight, age, height, or muscle mass. In addition, it’s highly restrictive and provides too few calories.
For healthy and sustainable weight loss, it’s recommended that women eat no fewer than 1,200 calories per day, and men no fewer than 1,500. Given that this diet restricts calories to 1,000-1,200 per day, it falls below these guidelines (7).
What’s more, though this significant reduction in calories may result in overall weight loss, research shows it could likewise lead to significant muscle loss (8).
Reliance on Processed Foods
Another downside of the diet is that it relies on processed foods and multivitamins to make up for the lack of real food. Moreover, due to its restrictiveness, following the diet could make it difficult to reach your daily needs for nutrients like fiber, iron, folate, and vitamin B12.
On the contrary, the best foods for weight loss and optimal health remain whole foods like vegetables, fruits, protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats, which are all nutrient-dense and have synergistic effects on your health.
It’s also important to note that the maintenance phase doesn’t provide guidance on how to make healthy long-term dietary changes to keep the weight off without relying on the cookies.
Dietary Restrictions
Lastly, the Cookie Diet is unsuitable for people following a vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free diet, as the cookies contain milk and wheat. All of our cookies currently contain gluten. All of our cookies currently contain milk.
Alternative Cookie Options for a Balanced Diet
If you're looking to incorporate cookies into a balanced diet, consider these options:
- Paleo Diet Cookies: Made with whole-food ingredients like almond flour, coconut oil, and natural sweeteners, excluding grains, dairy, and refined sugar.
- Keto Diet Cookies: High in fat and low in carbs, often made with almond or coconut flour and sugar substitutes like stevia.
- Low-Carb Diet Cookies: Designed to keep carbs minimal, without necessarily emphasizing fat.
- Sugar-Free Cookies: Made with alternative sweeteners to cut down on added sugar.
A Holistic Approach to Weight Loss
While the cookie diet is marketed with grand promises and stories of amazing weight loss success achieved in short amounts of time, most experts agree that lasting change and long-term, sustainable weight loss aren't something that can be achieved with a crash or fad diet. Rather than a very low-calorie cookie diet that will most likely lead to rapid weight regain and another cycle of yo-yo dieting, restricting and bingeing, lasting weight loss is built with small, sustainable changes made over time.
Is the Cookie Diet Right for You?
Before starting the Cookie Diet, consider the following:
Consult a Healthcare Professional
If you are diabetic, we recommend that you consult your GP before starting any diet. Whilst pregnant or lactating, before going on any diet you must consult your doctor. Questions about medical conditions must be directed to your doctor. Show the ingredients to your doctor and always follow his or her instructions.
Individual Needs and Preferences
Assess your dietary needs, preferences, and any underlying health conditions.
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