Smart for Life Cookies- Review
It's understandable if you confuse the Smart for Life Cookie Diet with its competitor, Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet - given that the founder of Smart for Life, Dr. Sasson Moulavi, and Dr. Siegal used to work together, and when that partnership split up Dr. Moulavi set up his own diet shop. Fundamentally, the programs are the same - eat cookies and lose weight. They both offer a medically-supervised diet as well as an at-home cookie/meal replacement plan that promises you can lose up to 15 pounds in a month by eliminating hunger with their proprietary food items. The differences? Smart for Life offers a wider range of food options - along with cookies there are muffins, bagels, shakes, soups, desserts, jams, salad dressings and coffee creamer, all of which are primarily made with organic and natural ingredients. Smart for Life states that its cookies are 60% organic, while the Siegal product is not at all. Furthermore, conventional wisdom (and a significant percentage of internet commentary) posits that the Smart for Life cookies simply....taste a lot better.
The details? "The Healthy Way to Put Hunger on Hold!", is Smart for Life's tagline, and its mission is a comprehensive approach to weight loss and improved health with meal replacements - the cookies, shakes, etc. - as the tool. The medically supervised program is centered around the theory that 25% of overweight or obese people have metabolic or hormonal conditions that prevent them from losing weight, and Smart for Life recommends (though does not require) that if it's geographically possible for you, you should visit one of their diet centers (in 12 U.S. states, D.C. and Canada) for a comprehensive evaluation by one of their on-site doctors. A diet center evaluation involves a physical, bloodwork, recording your medical history, an EKG, and a BMI analysis to determine if you have a physiological (metabolic or hormonal) problem that needs medical treatment. The medically supervised plan also includes in-person counseling, behavior and nutrition education, motivation instruction, vitamin injections (if you choose) and ongoing medical supervision of your weight loss journey. Your other option is the Lifestyle Program, which can be done at-home with acess to phone support, or via a diet center (weekly visits a'la Weight Watchers) where you'll have support, weigh-ins, etc.
Both Smart for Life program options are two phases - the weight loss/diet phase and the maintenance phase. The diet phase is extremely low in calories - 800 per day - but that number increases to a reasonable level once you reach the maintenance phase. Because of the low caloric level of the diet phase, regular exercise is not required until you begin the maintenance phase - at which point it is considered an elemental part of the plan going forward, because now you have increased your caloric intake, and will be eating regular food for the rest of your life. If you do choose a medically supervised plan, you can remain under supervision of the diet center staff while in the maintenance phase until you feel confident enough that you can keep your weight under control on your own.
Regardless of whether you choose to do a medically supervised or an at-home/Lifestyle program, you'll be replacing your breakfast and dinner with the Smart for Life foods of your choice, and following it up with a light, no-carb, low-fat dinner. All of the Smart for Life products - particularly the cookies - are nutritionally balanced and quite high in fiber, making them filling enough to curb your hunger and get you through the day. The foods can be purchased online or at a physical diet center location.
Does it sound too good to be true? In a way, yes. But Smart for Life says that their diet works because the meal replacing cookies eliminate hunger, and if people see themselves rapidly dropping weight week after week, they get - and stay - highly motivated for a healthier lifestyle. There are downsides, of course: you may grow weary of eating the same thing every day, so you must stay committed - and for some it will be expensive. Still, there is no arguing the upside of a jump-start on a weight loss program. The reason that so many dieters fall off the wagon is that they lose heart - motivation, will-power, etc. - feeling like they're just spinning their wheels when they fail to see results from their efforts. Smart for Life is on to something here - though the cookie phase is not a total walk in the park, it is manageable, and shows the dieter "the money", so to speak, with noticeable results in a short period of time. And Smart for Life knows that nobody can (or should) live on cookies forever, so all the while they offer the support and resources necessary to transition into a healthier lifestyle that will keep that weight you lost in the jump-start off of you for good.