I bought "Rapid Fat Loss Handbook" quite awhile back and it was very helpful to me - that said, I couldn't exactly stick to the 'plan' for more than a few days at time.

Meanwhile - despite not being able to stick to the Rapid Fat Loss plan, I was really impressed with the book overall - taught me a lot of useful things. The stuff I learned from reading "The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook" has proved invaluable to me in my continuing weight-loss journey.

He's got a few books available - and I was wondering what (in your opinion) is the best of the best, so to speak? I'm kind of leaning towards "Flexible Dieting", but wanted to know what people here think.

Truthfully I've been looking for more books to read lately. I've just switched from Atkins Maintenance to a semi-low carb low calorie diet because plainly stated I am SO BURNED OUT ON ATKINS. I became allergic to half the foods I was eating and it was just becoming impossible to stay on plan - I was constantly restarting Induction after a cheat. I've been on this 'new' plan for about a week and feel better even though I'm eating less. Hunger is an issue I'm having to deal with but at least I have choices now.

Anyhoo....all that said to say I'm curious to find out what others are reading.

I quite like Protein Power Life Plan - it's an excellent book. If someone were looking for a 'new' thing to read that wasn't Atkins, I'd recommend PPLP for sure.

I'm curious about Lyle's other books though because I really did learn a lot of very useful things in that Rapid Fat Loss book I bought awhile back. And even though I didn't follow that particular plan, I still refer to the book fairly often. Some very good stuff in there about making sure you take care of your metabolism and so on. Why 'cheat meals' aren't really 'cheats'. I mean, it was a book with a fairly strict sort of 'crash diet' in there, but a lot of what was in the book talked about NOT doing strict diets for too long at a stretch, and why. It was like a fat-loss guru's version of "What Not to Wear" or something. That book should have been called, "What Not to Do on a Diet".

About Protein Power Life Plan - it's a great low-carb book. The difference is that it's a more 'mature' sort of diet, in that you choose what to eat, much more so than on an Atkins-style plan. There's several chapters in the beginning dealing with all kinds of useful information about nutrition, supplements, exercise and so forth. The 'diet' part is way more flexible than Atkins is - yet, there's encouragement to choose wisely and healthfully. I would say that anyone with any kind of food intolerances/food sensitivities who wanted a good 'low-carb' plan to follow would be well-served with Protein Power Life Plan.

PPLP's "Intervention" phase is much more generous than Atkins (40 'net' carbs) - and yet, it seems MORE effective to me somehow. Overall - I think it's much better than Atkins, but Atkins is a good 'first book' for someone new to low-carb.

Hope that helps

I had limited success with Lyle's diet. The refeeds were setting me back a lot though, I only lost weight when I stopped doing it. And at that point, it's just a low calorie, low carb diet.

I never managed to get through more than a couple of days on that particular diet - so I never even got to the 're-feeds'. Too tough for me.

That said - there was some personally very useful information in that book for me: the concept that maybe it was a 'good thing' that I couldn't stick to a super-strict diet for too long at a stretch. It changed the way I felt about 'cheat meals' or going off any particularly strict regimen over a vacation - that it might be helpful, instead of harmful. This was better for me than the old 'kiss of death' kind of thinking I really bought into with the Atkins plan.

Citrus:

I am curious about the fast fat loss plan--can you give me a brief outline and why it didnt work for you?

Sno

Just that I wasn't quite tough enough to do the plan. I think it's probably very effective, and I love Lyle's work - just that I couldn't muster up the will/strength to stick to the particular book that I'd ordered.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to reading more of his books. That one book, "The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook" helped me a *lot* despite my not having the strength/willpower needed to stick to that one plan.

Brief outline?

An extremely well-designed crash diet. Backed up with lots of research and excellent safeguards put into place. Very low-carb, low-fat for the most part, but with 'free meals' and 're-feeds' at certain points - all designed to prevent the 'crash diet' from messing up one's metabolism. Designed for those who insist on crash dieting anyway - but his crash diet is way better than anyone else's crash diet - because it's done well.

Think: lean protein, low fat - but with certain checkpoints in there - the free meals, the 're-feeds' as well as making sure that his dieters are taking fish oil supplements and so on.

It's actually the best 'crash diet' I've ever come across, and even though I couldn't stick to it - I learned a lot - Lyle's stuff has helped me immensely in my weight loss journey. Even if I didn't stick to the actual diet (ie. Rapid Fat Loss Handbook), I'd still say it was one of the very best book purchases that I ever I made. Highly recommended.

Thanks for the summary--I was looking for the book the other day and I could only find it for $35 which seemed a lot for a 95 page book. Still, I would like to try it--I feel like doing a short crash to take of 10 lbs and give myself a little motivation.

Cheers!

Sno

It's a very good book, and I'm always referring to it, even though I didn't manage to stick to the plan outlined in the one book. Got me taking my fish oil, and realizing that there is such a thing as being 'flexible'. Made me see that occasional upticks in carb intake are a *good thing*, with respect to upregulation of one's thryoid hormones.

I've bought lots of other diet books, low-carb books - things that I didn't really learn a whole lot from. Lyle's work is in whole different class (imo). His book is in my 'top three' - out of something like a dozen diet books I've read.

If you're looking for a 'crash' type of diet - then I would highly recommend The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook. It'll teach you how to do it properly, effectively and safely.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but when I ordered the book from Body Recomposition dot com - the book was available in both hard cover and as an e-book. There was a 'deal' in which you could get both for a better price.

Thing is - I *think* he may have stopped the e-book part - not sure. I like having the hard cover, personally. I can read it out in my back yard, highlight it, go back and fold over corners and such - without needing to be at my computer and without having to go off and have it printed up somewhere. If given a choice - go for a printed copy.

I've only read the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook and parts of The Ketogenic Diet, so I can't really give a recommendation for his best book. Both that I have read, though, have been extremely helpful; I ended up using a PSMF for a while with good results. If a person can stick with it, I think that Lyle's version of the PSMF is probably the most effective diet plan around.

I don't think the Rapid Fat Loss plan is designed to stay on for a long time anyway. I've done it for a few months just to jump start. I like his brutally honest way of writing!

Hi PB:

I am excited that you have tried the plan. I just ordered the book and would like to know a little about your experience with the plan. I know it is low calorie and I wonder if you feel that you still kept your metabolism going. Also, what your weight loss was like and anything else you want to share!

Sno

I've read Rapid Fat Loss, Flexible Dieting, and The Ketogenic Diet book. And I've done the RFL diet and I currently incorporate a lot of what I've learned in Flexible Dieting into my regular way of life.

Rapid Fat Loss is exactly as Citruskiss outlined, a great crash diet.

Flexible Dieting is a good look at dieting, but not coming so much from "what to eat" but more about "how to diet" if that makes sense. He talks about research data that shows that people that incorporate flexiblility (that is not needing to be perfect) into their dieting have better success with long term compliance. He also talks more about the hormones (leptin, ghrelin and others) involved in dieting, how dieting affects them. He puts that together and explains how to use planned diet breaks, refeeds and free meals to structure a better diet.

The Ketogenic Diet book is exceptionally informative explaining in lots of sciency nerdness how ketogenic diets work, why they work and how to adapt them for your own needs.

He's got other books, the two I can think of is the Protein Book and Stubborn Fat Loss. The Protein book is all about protein, how much you need, how your body uses it, etc, etc. I haven't read it, but if you want to learn about protein & the body, I'm sure it's great.

Stubborn Fat Loss sounds good, but it's not about regular fat loss, it's about losing the *last* of the fat. Not the last 20 lbs, but the last 3-4 lbs, when you are about to enter a fitness or body building competition and are looking to lose those stubborn pockets of fat on the thighs or love handles. He says it's not suitable unless you are already at a very low body fat percentage.

Oh, yes, there is UD 2.0, Ultimate Diet 2.0. Again, for people already fairly lean, certainly already in the low-normal BMI range. This book is about body recomposition, changing your body from soft to hard & muscular. It may involve some weight loss, but it's more about losing fat and building muscle within a fairly narrow range of bodyweight.

From what I understand from his forums, everyone buys the RFL book looking for fast weight loss. The better book is Flexible Dieting, it will help you design a diet you can live with, will take the weight off, and you'll learn how to stay sane while dieting.

For what it's worth, I've done the RFL diet, and yes, I lost weight, but it's very restrictive and hard, very low-calorie and the refeeds are tough to manage especially if you have a hard time controlling your carb intake (refeeds are high carb). I'm dieting now, counting calories, incorporating some of what he suggests in Flexible Dieting like free meals and I'm actually losing weight almost as quickly as I was with RFL because I could never get the refeeds & free meals controlled with RFL.