Ice Cream Diet: Comprehensive Review

Another delectable sounding weight loss fix from the author of "The Peanut Butter Diet", Prevention Magazine's nutrition editor Holly McCord. But don't get your hopes up, just like "Peanut Butter Diet", "The Ice Cream Diet" is not quite as advertised - and you must bear in mind that author McCord is, after all, a registered dietitian. So what we have here is in fact a nutritionally balanced, fiber and nutrient-enriched, low calorie affair with an emphasis on the nutritional benefit - and proven effectiveness in aiding weight loss - of calcium.

The nitty-gritty: 1500 calories per day max for women, 2000 calories per day max for men, and that includes one serving (1 cup for women, 1.5 cups for men) of ice cream per day "as a treat." You're not instructed to stick with lower-fat or sugar-free ice creams, but obviously those will have a lower calorie count - and as such will make it easier for you to stick to your calories per day max.

As we noted above, studies have shown conclusively that adequate calcium in the diet does indeed bear on the body's fat burning capability and ability to keep weight off. People whose diets lack calcium present more body fat, wider waistlines and higher bad cholesterol levels. People placed on adequate to high calcium intake diets have consistently shown a reduction in body fat that scientists attribute to the calcium - the theory is that the more calcium there is in a fat cell, the more fat it will burn.

Will you lose weight on the Ice Cream Diet? Of course. 1500 calories a day (for women) is a very low calorie diet which should contribute to weight loss on its own, and if you combine the eating plan with exercise - you'll lose even more. That calcium is a key factor in this diet is an excellent thing - adequate calcium in the diet is necessary for a whole host of reasons (bone health, cardiovascular health, etc.) - but whether you get it from ice cream or yogurt or skim milk or supplement pills is largely irrelevant. (Studies show that intake from the actual dairy foods, as opposed to supplements, result is nominally higher percentages of fat loss. But if you can't get the necessary dairy servings in your diet, for whatever reasons, the supplements are perfectly acceptable.) This is a good diet for weight loss - though most people will be unable to sustain 1500 calories per day for the long term, so you must learn to adapt your eating habits to keeping the weight off. Our only criticism of this plan - the same criticism we have for Peanut Butter Diet - is the gimmicky, bait-and-switch way in which it's marketed. This is not an "ice cream diet". It's a standard very low calorie diet that recommends a scoop of ice cream for both the calcium and psychological boost it affords.