Let's cut to the bottom line -- there is one thing I can say about the Pritikin diet that I can't say about all the others: It works!Probably the best book of its kind This is probably the best book of its kind because it is one of the only books I've seen out there that is scientific, practical and non-gimmicky. In an industry where there are more weight loss gimmicks coming out everyday this book rises to the top and is a great relief in a world of silly weight loss gimmicks. Here are just some of the great and practical ideas Pritikin proposes: -Don't just cut back on calories, the metabolism slows down and our willpower gives out eventually when we feel deprived, better to eat in a high fiber/low fat filling manner that satisifies you completely without any starving. -Once we cut back on a lot of fatty foods and excessive meat and substitute it with high fiber and complex carb eating, we lose the craving for those bad foods. -Excercise helps keep up our desire for these healthy foods. Those are the main ideas of his system. They are very practical and don't mislead people into some silly way of eating. One of the absolutely outstanding things about this system is that the hardest part is getting yourself used to eating a lot of fruits and vegetables. Believe it or not, that is the hardest part of this system. Once you get past that and develop a taste for fruits & vegetables, this "diet" just pretty easily flows from there. It's hard to believe, but this "diet" really does legitamately eliminate the need for calorie counting because if you really just watch the fat/sugar intake and keep your fiber intake high, your calories can't help but stay quite low (except perhaps for those that have compulsive eating disorders)because vegetables/fruits/fiber really do fill you up much more than the average high fat manner of eating. With this sytem, you can very EASILY trim 300-400 calories a day with just minor changes and no starving at all. One other great bonus about this "diet" is that it's very economical. You can eat a healthy meal for .70 cents if you wanted to. Weigh that up against these low carb diets that have you spending $2.50 just for a low carb bar that you practically need to keep those diets going. Not to mention all these other low carb products out now (has anyone wondered how absurd it is to think that the low carb people think man can create better foods than nature has provided for us!) and the cost of large quantities of meat etc. It's about 3-4X the cost of eating the Pritikin way. This system works and you can maintain it for life. One of the criticisms that this "diet" receives is that the low fat recommedations are excessive and impractical, what I've learned is that you can actually slighly exceed the low fat recommendations Pritikin makes and you will still be able to maintain an extremely reasonable calorie intake. So I would ignore that criticism because even if you only follow 85% of the strictest recommendations, you will get outstanding results! Even only following the Pritikin recommendations about 80-85% of the time, I still lost weight! One tip I would add: Even though as Pritikin proposes in his book, you will lose weight if you follow his moderate excercise instructions, if you really want to see quicker results in weight loss, I would suggest doing more exercise than this book recommends. 3-5 days of vigorous exercise will make a HUGE difference in your results.
The book tends a lot toward the theoretical side, and less toward the practical side, but I enjoyed that. Many of the suggested recipes have lots of ingredients and aren't what you'd make for an average meal after a long day at work, but other than that, I really enjoyed the book! I might just have to buy my own copy, when this book becomes due at the library.
This book does a great job of motivating the reader, explaining why the Pritikin program is necessary, and it gives new information about the behaviors necessary for dieting. However, "Breakthrough" does not give a detailed explanation of what the Pritikin diet and exercise program is. The Program is explained in one short chapter with a brief description of exercise methods earlier in the book.
I strongly recommend that anyone interested in the Pritikin program also purchase the book "The New Pritikin Program", which spends over 400 pages discussing things which "Breakthrough" just mentions in passing. Even though "Breakthrough" is the newer book, "The New Pritikin Program" remains the definitive explanation of what the Pritikin Program is.
