The Benefits Of A Cookie Diet

For those of you unfamiliar with this diet, here are the basics: You eat around 6 specially designed cookies during the course of the day followed by a balanced, yet low-calorie dinner. The cookies contribute roughly 400 to 500 calories and the dinner around the same. The cookies are basically a high protein/ high fiber/ whole grain food that are engineered to eliminate hunger and cravings. They are essentially a number of “mini-meals” eaten throughout the day.

I have looked at all the major cookie diets available and have determined that there is nothing “magical” about any of the cookies. None of the websites promises anything miraculous. Their effectiveness is simple and straight-forward: The cookies eliminate hunger and cravings so that you can stay on a very low calorie diet and lose weight as fast as possible, for you. Depending on how much weight you have to lose, that could be 20 pounds in the first month. According to some of the cookie diet websites, weight loss will naturally slow down after the initial weight loss and average somewhere in the 10 to 15 pounds per month area.

The major benefit of cookie dieting is that they eliminate hunger and cravings. We can all go on a diet but we are not designed to stay in hunger mode for long. Hunger and cravings are the numbers 1 and 2 reasons we give up on our diet efforts. If hunger and cravings are eliminated it is easier to stick to our weight loss plan. This is important!
Another major benefit of cookie dieting is that the weight loss is fast compared to most other methods. It is difficult to stay on a calorie restricted diet for long periods. We all know that we can be dieting for months and if we lose at the recommended rate of 1 or 2 pounds per week, we may have lost 10 pounds in 2 months. Two months to lose what we know could only take 2 or 3 days to gain back. This just isn’t right… but it’s reality. Again, this frustration is enough reason to make us give up on our diet.

The faster weight loss by cookie dieting is a great motivator to stick with the plan. If you are losing at a faster pace and not experiencing hunger or cravings you are less likely to give up on your diet. You are more inclined to stick with it until you have lost all the weight you want, or at least a significant portion of it. Then, if you splurge for a weekend, you are dealing with your “last 10”, not your first 10. This is not so demoralizing!

The last benefit of cookie dieting I want to mention is the simplicity. You carry around a bag of cookies with you all day. They can stay in your purse, your desk, your car. You should always have some in your car for emergencies. You don’t have to worry about calories, fat grams, carb grams, etc. The only meal to plan is dinner.