The Pound a Day Diet: Lose Up to 5 Pounds in 5 Days by Eating the Foods You Love

5 stars because this book works.I never thought I'd be able to regularly eat less than 1000 calories a day and not go crazy. My wife and I tried this diet out as soon as the book arrived. You just can't argue with the results ... I lost 10 pounds (and a waist size) within the first 2 weeks. This book completely adjusted my attitude and way I view my diet.Granted, the diet as written in the book is not easy (at least initially):* The shopping is hard (and expensive) as some of the items are very difficult to find or are only available at ridiculously expensive stores (like Whole Foods) ... additionally, there are mistakes in some of the shopping lists (which I hope they fix for the second printing)* The cooking is (initially) hard as there are ALOT of new recipes to learn ... especially for the first week. However, since most recipes only involve 4-5 ingredients, they are actually very simple and quick once you get used to it. By the end of the first month, I had cooked everything and preparing meals was a lot simpler/quicker than my diet before this book.* I still had cravings. But since that's part of any diet, I don't hold that against Rocco ... it's my own fault for getting used to eating large quantities of bad food. However, the cravings I've had on this diet were a lot less than any other diet I've been on. Also, since my target weight of 250 lb is much larger than the average person, Rocco does state that the diet isn't optimized for someone my size. However, if you read the diet portion carefully, you'll note that Rocco recommends supplementing with an extra, healthy snack. For me, I added the broccoli+humus snack every night and that kept my cravings at a manageable level.* After about a week, I started feeling really, really good. I'm not sure if it was the weight dropping off, or the nutritional balance of the diet (or a combination of both), but I just feel a lot healthier and more alert.Once my wife and I started the second month, we wrote our own meal plan based on his. The major changes we made were:1.) Swapped recipes we hated for recipes we really enjoyed. Goodbye rutabaga (*yeck*) ... hello Salisbury Steak at least once a week.2.) Swapped recipes that we found difficult or time-consuming for simpler recipes we didn't mind regularly eating. Example: while the Green Monkey is delicious, the prep and clean-up time are astronomically higher than cheese & apples, or broccoli & humus.3.) Swapped recipes with expensive or hard-to-find ingredients with recipes with common/inexpensive ingredients. I can't think of a specific example at this second, but this really made shopping a lot faster and cheaper. Our weekly grocery bill was cut in half and our total shopping trip time was down to less than an hour (plus we could get away with going to only one store).4.) Swapped expensive ingredients with cheaper ingredients. Sliced turkey from the deli case is roughly $12/lb where we shop, but a roast chicken @ Costco is $5 and yields roughly 30oz of meat. And frankly, I think the roast chicken tastes much better. Another example was swapping the mango (in the "rice pudding" for whatever fruit was in-season / on-sale).5.) Swapped in recipes that could be doubled. We couldn't find a small enough bok choy for a half portion of the Turkey Stir-fry recipe, and we hate wasting food. So every other week, we make a normal portion (which counts as double if only 2 people are eating), and save the other 2 servings for a night of the week that we both work. The tea is another great example (since I find zesting half a lemon annoying). My wife also does this with several of the lunch soups and salads as she feels that a double portion is about as easy to make as a normal portion.6.) Pencil in the right amounts on each page. My wife took a few minutes after we got the book and penciled in the correct ingredient amounts for 2 people. It took her less than an hour (converting from fractions of a Tablespoon to Teaspoon is not always clear), but we don't screw the recipes up anymore.... granted, we are now eating less variety, but identifying our favorite, easy dishes and having them once a week (or twice a week in case of left-overs from the double-up trick) makes this diet a lot less time- and $$$-intensive. In order to keep the calorie count accurate, we ranked our favorite meals and then matched them with compatible snacks and desserts that fit within the daily calorie targets. We wrote the ingredients on the back and use them to quickly create the shopping list for the week.So yes, this isn't a magic cure or a perfect, effortless solution. But no diet is, and anything worth doing will take some effort. Also, can you really put a price tag on getting your health/figure back?If you are serious about weight loss and enjoy cooking, you really need to at least give this a try for 2 weeks.

I was more than ready to embrace this book. I had just seen a segment on THE VIEW and was impressed with the weight loss of Sherri Shepard and her husband. The meals looked great, especially the smoothies. I do remember that Sherri made sure to add that Rocco supplied and prepared all the food. After reading the book, I now know why. I bought the book and started reading it immediately. My first shock was the incredible laundry list of food needed the first week. I looked up some of the ingredients and check on Amazon to get some idea of what some of the more exotic items like Monk Fruit in the Raw cost. In addition, I was trying to figure out how I was going to have enough room in my pantry and refrigerator for all the ingredients on his list for the week! It might be a wonderful program, but just to prepare to set it all up and to follow it is overwhelming as well as expensive. I was looking forward to making some of the smoothies, but was stopped in my tracks when I found the they all had sugar-free instant puddings in them (I don't use artificial sweetners). As someone said in another review, I am the only one that would be on this program and everything is for 2 to 4 people.This may be a great program for someone whose whole family would be on it, has the capacity to get all the ingredients and has the money to pay for it all. Some of the recipes are great and I will certainly make use of adding them to a program that fits my life better. Unfortunately, I will have to continue my search.

I've been on the "Pound a Day Diet" for about a month, and I've lost about 12 lbs. So, it's not really a pound a day after the first week, but if you read the introduction, he does say that. I've gotten a lot out of the book. Some great finds include:1.) The shirataki noodles, which are a no-carb, high-fiber asian vegetable noodle. These are super helpful when added to soups and stirfries.2.) He also got me way more into kale, which is a terrific food. He offers a lot of different ways to cook ingredients so the flavors and textures complement each other. I now find myself chopping up kale and ading it to all sorts of things and really enjoying it.3.) I thought I didn't like grapefruit. You'll be eating it every day on the diet and it's another huge help for getting vitamins, hydration, and feeling of fullness between meals and only 28 calories per whole fruit. Get the ruby grapefruit, It tastes sweeter and is more nutritious than the lighter model. This item is one I would buy at a Whole Foods.Once you go through all the recipes, you start to understand how foods can be easily combined to create new dishes, and you get a much better idea of how to control your caloric intake, while keeping up the nutritional content of the food.The first week is daunting, because the shopping list seems enormous, and a lot of the things on the list may be unfamiliar to you (they certainly were to me.) Please be aware that the shopping lists are actually enough for four people, although he states they're for two. So if you're doing the diet alone (like me) then only buy 1/4 of what's on the list, and make sure you get the bulk of it at a more inexpensive grocery store. If you shopfor it all at Whole Foods or its equivalent, you'll have a very large bill at the end of your shopping trip.I will also point out that you will be drinking a chocolate protein shake every morning for the first month. A lot of the unfamiliar items, e.g. psyllium husks, triple fiber, monk fruit extract, are used in this recipe. Don't be daunted. The shake really helps you stay full to snack time. It's one of the best finds in the diet.I'm not crazy about the fake sugar, but in the beginning, if you're a sweets eater, these snacks and desserts can really get you over the hump. You can always swap out a more vegetable-based snack for these and get even more nutrition.I really recommend this diet. It will give you a lot of tools once you're off it and if you're like me, getting those inital few pounds off quickly is a real motivator.

All I am going to say is I wish I hadn't bought this... It tells me a whole lot of common sense things everyone already knows...

I haven't used this book as expected because the recipes are too specific with fussy or hard to find ingredients.

Not good for uk recipes , returned the book for a refund

Great book with some good ideas however some of the recipes are a bit complicated. It's difficult to find alternative ingredients in the UK for most of the USA brands which throws out the 850 and 1200 calorie goals a bit. Even with exercise the rate of weight loss can be slower.

Good book