Reverse Diet: Another View

 

You've surely heard the old advice "eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinner." Reverse Diet founder Tricia Cunningham is not a nutrition or fitness professional - she's just a gal who once weighed about 300 pounds and claims to have succeeded losing 172 pounds in nine months, by streamlining her diet to only healthy foods and - this is the hook - eating her meals in reverse.

Common sense dictates why consuming your volume of calories in reverse order works - your body is most active and burning most of its calories during the day, so a big breakfast will give you a boost and a foundation for both physical and mental activity. A good lunch will keep you going. You don't need a big dinner in the evening to fuel you because at night - your body slows down and you sleep.

Cunnigham and her co-author, nutritionist Heidi Skolnik, outline their diet as a three phase plan, each with its own food list. The recommended foods are what you'd expect - lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains - and you're instructed to avoid processed and high sodium foods, refined sugars, alcohol and caffeine. Basically: cut out the junk.
There is nothing at all new to this approach save the gimmicky spin the authors put on it - which is eating your dinner for breakfast and eating your breakfast for dinner. Seriously.

The meal plans provided suggest menus like Herbed Chicken with a Baked Potato and Steamed Carrots for breakfast, and Tex-Mex Scrambled Eggs for dinner. If your mornings are hectic with prepping for work, school, etc. - you're advised to prepare the big meal the night before. We'll leave it to you to determine how practical this scenario is in your world.
The authors address important issues like improving body image, goals and how to handle weight management stresses like the holidays. But there is no emphasis or guidance on exercise as a component of the plan, which is our first criticism. Our second criticism is that

The Reverse Diet Solution is just hokey. It's a gimmicky spin on basic good nutrition and common sense calorie consumption. The book is available through major outlets and the authors' website, which also features a support group, more recipes and the ability to hire Cunningham as a life coach for an hourly fee.