The Hollywood Diet: Replace Meals with a Cookie?
Can you really lose weight following the trendy Hollywood diet?
Like many short term weight fixes, the Hollywood diet sounds too good to be true. Also known as the Hollywood cookie diet, this plan replaces two meals a day with special cookies. You then eat a sensible dinner and lose weight. So: does it work, is it healthy, and should you take a look at it?
The Pros
The Hollywood diet uses diet cookies as meal replacements, and most people find the cookie diet pretty appealing. The cookies are surprisingly tasty and give you the sense of eating a treat, which can make dieting a whole lot easier.
A lot of people raise their eyebrows at the idea of replacing meals with cookies, but these diet cookies are a little healthier than most. They contain protein, whole grains, and primarily natural ingredients, so you're not eating a bunch of weird stuff, but you're also not just replacing meals with sugar.
Most people find the cookie diet quite effective. Many celebrities endorse the Hollywood diet (hence the name), and many people like the idea of an easy weight loss solution.
The Cons
Obviously, the Hollywood cookie diet is not a long term solution to maintaining weight loss. It absolutely can get you started on the way, but you can't spend the rest of your life eating cookies in place of meals -- it's neither healthy nor practical. You may also miss out on some vitamins and nutrients while on this diet, making a multivitamin a good idea.
Cost is also an issue. The diet cookies come in 12 packs for $19.99, and you're supposed to eat 4 a day. That means a twenty dollar box of cookies will last three days.
The Verdict
If you can afford it -- and it's not really that much more expensive than other popular diets -- the Hollywood cookie diet does exactly what it promises: offers a way to quickly lose pounds while enjoying treats. If you need to lose a massive amount of weight this probably isn't a healthy way to do it, but if you just want to lose ten pounds, or you just want to jumpstart your weight loss, many people find it very effective.
In the end, the Hollywood diet is a good way to drop a few pounds as long as you don't consider it a long term, sustainable solution!