Hollywood Cookie Diet

**The Diet: **

One cookie for breakfast, midmorning snack, lunch, and midafternoon snack. Eat a sensible dinner.

The website says 800 calories or less for the dinner. The cookies are 150 calories each, so 1400 total calories per day.

In terms of structure this diet is exactly the same as Slim Fast, it just uses cookies instead of shakes and meal bars.

The Experience:

When I read the description of the diet, I imagined that the cookies were engineered to have the maximum amount of sustenance per calorie. I really expected the cookies to be large, not great tasting, but quite filling. Oh the disappointment, I was only right on one account.

The Size and Filling: The cookies are no larger than normal cookies you might buy in the store. They have more protein and less sugar than normal cookies, but they are will insufficent. Calling them a meal replacement is a sick joke, that is like saying air is also a good meal replacement, take several deep breathes and try to imagine you aren't hungry anymore.

You will always be hungry, the box says "this may be the last diet you will ever need." The hidden subtext is that it is because you are wasting away, and will soon be dead.

The Taste: The box also says "the first delicious way to lose weight." I suspect they are using the "delicious" as in "deliciously sinister," because not only do these cookies not excite the mouth, they severely anger the stomach. I had a continuous stomach ache throughout the whole week. This was not hunger pains, but "you are eating poison" pains. This pain does not go away even after a good dinner.

A box of cookies is $19.99 (for 3 days), so I had to purchase 2. You will immediately discover that lots of things which have better nutritional stats and are more filling are available for a cheaper price.

Exercise is recommended as it is "good for your heart and good for your figure." I did a normal amount of aerobic activities, but I haven't lifted weights in a couple of weeks. I don't care for that blow against my figure though.

*The Result:**

I did lose 3 pounds this week. This means after being stagnate for months, I've started losing weight again, and my total weight loss is 45 pounds now. On the other hand, I fear not lifting weights means my body is just canabalizing muscle. Does that even make sense? Are there other animals which shed muscle instead of fat first, even though they need muscle to survive?