People who can't afford to fork out upwards of $10,000 on the Duke Diet & Fitness Center's residential program are in luck. Two of the center's top brass have put together the next best thing, a book that captures the exclusive month-long experience and helps those people struggling to take the weight off for good. Program director Howard Eisenson, M.D. and behavioral program director Martin Binks, Ph.D. are the men behind the groundbreaking weight-loss guide The Duke Diet (Ballantine Books, April 2007).

With so many new diet books hitting the shelves every day, it's often difficult to differentiate one from the next. Dr. Eisenson says what makes The Duke Diet stand out is that, well, it's not really a diet. Instead it's a strategic plan for healthier living with a focus on weight control. While people typically go on and off diets, The Duke Diet is a program that can be sustained for life... and that's just the point. Many dieters follow a program for a certain amount of time, only to return to the unhealthy habits that pack on the pounds.

The Duke Diet & Fitness Center isn't about temporary changes. Instead, it's about modifying your habits and creating behaviors that can be maintained for a lifetime, Dr. Eisenson says. And the experts running the show speak from experience. Collectively, they've been helping people get control of their weight for more than 40 years.

"Unlike so many so-called diet books out there, many of which have good things to say, this has been written by medical professionals who've worked in the field a long time," Dr. Eisenson says. "We do this on a daily basis. Many of the people have weight problems that are associated with medical problems. This isn't simply a theory or a nicely packaged diet. It's what we do here.

"Our dogma is that we try to bring forward to people practical information that's culled from the best available scientific evidence and tailor it so that it's useful to individuals on a personal level."