A Closer Look at... The Cookie Diet

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Imagine a parallel universe where instead of judiciously counting calories to shed those extra pounds, all you had to do was eat sweets. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, it isn't, claims a slew of marketers who swear that dieting can be as easy as eating fewer meals and more cookies.

A handful of so-called cookie diets are out there -- all with the same gist: Substitute your breakfast and lunch with protein-packed cookies and finish off your day with a balanced meal; then sit back and watch the weight disappear.

For anyone living in a post-infomercial world, a quick-fix diet involving little more than baked goods might bring out the skeptic in you. So let's break this cookie diet down and see if it really adds up.

One hundred percent of the reason why diets work is because they're low-calorie.

Dawn Jackson Blatner, registered dietitian and author of "The Flexitarian Diet"

What Is It Exactly?

A quick online search will produce a few different options, many of which follow the same basic structure. The most popular are the Smart For Life Cookie Diet, the Hollywood Cookie Diet and Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet.

Let's take Dr. Siegal's diet plan as an example. Here's how it works: You buy a box of the doctor's cookies at your local health store or online. You eat six cookies -- which come in oatmeal raisin, chocolate, blueberry, banana and coconut varieties -- throughout the day. Then you finish the day with a healthy dinner, sans cookies.

Sanford Siegal has been concocting his own version of diet cookies since 1975. He says his recipe contains a "secret formula" of amino acids meant to keep hunger at bay and that his cookies have one purpose: to control hunger well enough to enable a person to follow a diet of 1,000 to 1,200 calories.

The results? Siegal says that on average, the cookie dieters who use his brand lose 10 to 15 pounds.

But I Don't Really Like Cookies

Other meal replacement diets are available, and they serve the same purpose as the cookie diet. While they are almost always effective for weight loss, dietitian Heather Mangieri reminds dieters to be wary of their promises. "The real proof of effectiveness is long-term nutritional adequacy and whether or not the individual can maintain their healthier body weight," she said.

Special K Challenge

Start your day with a bowl of Special K cereal and skim milk. Add fruit or accompany the cereal and milk with a protein shake or a protein meal bar -- Special K brand is on a version of both. Lunch also consists of cereal, a protein shake or a meal bar. Dinner is a balanced meal of your choosing. The diet also allows for two snacks each day.

Medifast 5 & 1 Plan

Choose five Medifast meals. These are ready-made and include everything from chili to brownies. Each day, you eat five of the meals, which you can order online or over the phone, in addition to one "lean and green meal" of lean protein and vegetables.

Slim Fast

This diet plan consists of three components: The first is the three-snack allotment. You can choose from Slim Fast 100-calorie bars, nuts, fruits or vegetables. The second is the two shakes or meal bars. And the day ends, much like the other diets, with a 500-calorie, balanced dinner.

Can We Believe It?

In fact, we can. Experts say it isn't wishful thinking to believe this cookie-based diet strategy can help you lose those extra pounds. But dietitians also warn against putting too much stock in talk of secret recipes.

"One hundred percent of the reason why diets work is because they're low-calorie," said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian and author of "The Flexitarian Diet."

And the cookie diet is no different. By reducing the number of calories you consume, you're bound to lose weight.

What's more, the cookie diet makes for a ready-made diet where the hardest decision you'll have to make is between chocolate and banana, says Heather Mangieri, a registered dietitian and founder of Nutrition Checkup, a private nutrition practice in Pittsburgh.

"The diet is portion-controlled, simple and convenient," she said -- all things that are desirable for busy people looking to make a quick change in their lives.

This is exactly what happened to Jonathan Cooper, a 27-year-old radio personality in New York City. He fell victim to a busy, irregular schedule and bad eating habits. At 285 pounds, he decided to give the Cookie Diet a go in early 2010. Since then, he has consulted regularly with a doctor and shed a whopping 125 pounds.

He said it was the convenience of a pre-packaged diet that carried him toward success. With a daily allotment of cookies at your disposal, "you're not even going to think about making a bad decision," Cooper said.

So What's the Catch?

"The diet plan is restrictive and boring," Mangieri said. She explains that when people choose what foods they eat, they're driven by taste and hunger. The repetition of any food -- even if it is a cookie -- can get monotonous.

Not to mention the fact that we're very social beings, Blatner adds. It isn't much fun to go out to lunch with your co-workers and watch them eat a delicious meal while you nibble on your pre-packaged cookie. The fact of the matter is, even if the cookie diet provides a clear-cut route toward a smaller waistline, it isn't always realistic.

In fact, the monotony that could cause a dieter to fall off the horse is not only a danger while the person is dieting. The cookie-reliant diet becomes a major hurdle when the dieter has lost the weight and is ready to re-enter the nondieting world.

"What happens when all those cookies crumble and we want to eat real food again?" Mangieri asked.

In an ideal world, cookie dieters would have a support system that included a nutritionist to help them learn about healthy eating habits as they went. This is what Cooper has had, and it's what Siegal says he does with his own patients.

If you really want the diet to work in the long-run, Blatner says, you've got to put all your energy into learning the correct elements of that last meal of the day. She suggests composing your meal of 25 percent lean protein, 25 percent whole grains and 50 percent produce. That way, you have a balanced formula on which to base your post-cookie diet eating habits.

But she remains skeptical about people making the transition out of the cookie diet without putting on weight.

"Don't be surprised when it works," Blatner said. "But for most people, it's just a short-term solution."

A Closer Look at... The Cookie Diet courtesy of LIVESTRONG.COM.

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