Cookie Diet

ImageEnvision a diet where one can snack on cookies for all day long and still lose weight. There is a weight-loss program that calls for just that, but we are not talking about Chips Ahoy or Pepperidge Farm cookies. Dr. Sanford Siegel, who is in charge of the Siegel Medical Group, has come up with a diet on which patients eat six cookies made of amino acids and one low-calorie meal a day. Patients must first go through a health screening which costs well over $200.

The total calorie intake is only 800 each day, with 500 of those calories going directly from the high-protein cookies. The protein in the diet cookies, which are made in Siegel's bakery, acts as an appetite suppressant, which staves off hunger. Some of the ingredients include whole-wheat flour, oats and rice. Dinner consists of a lean protein like chicken or turkey and a salad.

By following the Cookie Diet, patients usually shed an average of 15 pounds a month.

However, it is not by cookies alone that followers lose. More than half of Siegel's patients are prescribed appetite suppressants. An additional 25 percent are put on thyroid hormones to speed up metabolism. In addition, you will fork out $7 a day in cookie costs, along with a monthly fee of $125.

An 800-calorie a day diet is not particularly healthy. While you will lose weight, it is highly unlikely you will be able to maintain such a loss or the eating habits it requires.