Do you 'Dig' Dieting?  DietDig.com- your dieting and weight loss support squadron!

Dr. Phil's The Ultimate Weight Solution

Theory:  

The Ultimate Weight Solution is comprised up of Seven Keys to Weight Loss Freedom.  The actual diet plan is found Key Five: High-Response Cost, High-Yield Nutrition and is based on the idea that food has a behavioral effect and that certain foods keep bad habits alive. 

The diet divides foods into High-response cost foods, or Low-response cost foods:

High-response cost foods –

• Take considerable time and effort to fix
• Require a great deal of chewing and ingestion energy
• Cannot be eaten quickly
• Are not “convenience foods” in any sense of the word

Low-response cost foods –

• Are overly convenient and easily accessible – foods that are easy to grab and eat in no time flat
• Invite and promote fast, uncontrolled eating
• Need little or no preparation time
• Require little chewing or effort to eat. The food slides down your throat and you barely have to chew it
• Melt in your mouth
• Can be eaten too easily straight from a package or container

The diet also divides foods according to their nutritional yield:

High-yield foods – foods that supply a lot of nutrients relative to the amount of calories that they contain. They are not usually laced with added sugar, fat, additives, and other health-defeating ingredients.  High-yield food such as fruits and vegetables are colorful too, a sign that they are plentiful in important food factors that reduce your risk of skin disease.

Low-yield foods – foods that provide an excess of calories in relation to the nutrients they contain. Sugar and fats are examples.  They are engineered to be addictive – loaded with sugar, extra fat, calories, too much salt, and unhealthy additive – and of questionable nutritional value.  Low-yield foods are mostly low-response cost foods. 

The High-Response Cost, High-Yield Food Weight Loss Plan –

Weight loss through moderation across the board – moderate carbohydrates, moderate protein, and moderate fat.

Step 1 – Design your plate using the high-response cost, high-yield food lists

Mentally divided your dinner plate into four sections.  At each meal, fill one section with a protein, another section with a starch, and the remaining two sections with vegetables or a vegetable and a fruit.

Step 2 – Manage your portions

Picture portions of food relative to the size or the palm of your hand or to a tennis ball. 

Step 3 – Plan your meals

Make a food plan, then implement it.  Commit to paper exactly what you plan to eat each day, then eat only the foods on that list.

Step 4 – Stay real and stay flexible

While no food is really restricted, you must learn to refuse the foods you don’t handle well. Don’t obsess over what you eat.  Never let one treat turn into an excuse for blowing your entire food plan.

A Sample Meal Plan in the Ultimate Weight Solution

• Breakfast – Banana, oat bran (cooked), low-fat milk, coffee or tea

• Snack – Apple, meal replacement beverage

• Lunch – Tuna, vegetable soup, salad greens and sliced tomato, whole-wheat roll (medium), reduced-fat salad dressing

• Snack – Orange

• Dinner – Sirloin steak, baked potato with fat-free sour cream, broccoli, green beans

Dr. Phil McGraw. 2003. New York: Free Press.

Information provided on this website is not meant to replace the services of your physician, but only to act as an educational tool. The diet summaries are by no means a substitute for reading the actual diet programs, but rather are synopses of basic principles meant to pique your interest and help you select a diet. Be sure to consult your physician and read the entire diet book before beginning any weight loss program.