There are presently at least three diets sharing use of the term ‘cookie diet’. As everyone knows that the Hollywood Cookie Diet is not the originator of the term, the battle for the rights to use the term is waged between Dr. Sanford Siegal and Smart for Life.

How the Siegal Cookie Diet Works

Like other fad diets, Siegal’s Cookie Diet makes an interesting claim: a person can lose approximately fifteen pounds every month with the help of a special cookie recipe. It sounds great, yes, but can it convert its claims to actual results? It’s possible…but it could come at a cost to your health.

Siegal’s Cookie Diet is actually just another fancy term for a fancy version of a low-calorie diet. With the Cookie Diet, you’re only allowed to eat one meal and it’s not breakfast or lunch but dinner. Yes, it’s only at the end of the day that you’re allowed to eat an actual meal but the challenge doesn’t end there. Your meal will also have to consist of nothing but six – count that, six – ounces of lean meat like seafood, turkey, or chicken together with a cup of vegetables.

As for the rest of the day, you’re only allowed to eat cookies – at least six – every time you’re hungry. Siegal makes it clear that cookies are not meant to be consumed like they’re substitutes for breakfast or lunch. They’re there simply to help you get by when you’re hungry but without making you gain weight. The cookies come in flavors of chocolate, raisin, and coconut but don’t taste as delicious as those produced by Mrs. Fields or Oreo. In contrast, the cookie flavors offered by Smart for Life Weight Management sound more flavorful with choices like garden pizza, cinnamon oatmeal raisin, maine blueberry, banana, and pina colada.

You are also asked to consume at least eight glasses of water a day including tea and coffee.

Possible Problems with the Cookie Diet

A number of experts have expressed doubts about the safety and effectiveness of using the Cookie Diet to lose weight.

For one, the total calories the diet provides you with – pegged at eight hundred – isn’t adequate to give the body the energy it needs. It also lacks inclusion of key ingredients like vitamins and minerals as well as fruits and vegetables.

The Battle between Siegal and Smart for Life Weight Management

Few people are aware that Smart for Life Weight Management was once a franchisee of Sanford Siegal’s company. They parted ways, however, when Sanford Siegal focused more and more on launching his cookie products online while Smart for Life Weight Management decided to continue its physician supervised approach to weight loss. Both diet companies sell cookies to help individuals lose weight.

The absence of carbohydrates has also been criticized. The total carbohydrate intake provided by the Cookie Diet is around seventy grams per day, a figure that’s certainly below the advised minimum of 100 grams of calorie intake per day. While Siegal’s Cookie Diet can shed pounds, it doesn’t change body fat contents which will allow weight problems to persist.

Verdict for Siegal’s Cookie Diet?

As even Siegal himself admits that his dietary approach isn’t safe to use for ‘long periods of time’, the Cookie Diet is safe to try for emergency weight loss needs, but it’s definitely not one you can stick to for the rest of your life!