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The Closest I've Seen Yet. . . I've started recommending this book to almost all of my patients (I'm a physician who specializes in weight loss). Here's what works and what doesn't work about the book... What works: I've studied almost all of the diets (fad and ivory tower precipitants) that have been written over the past 50 years or so. One major flaw makes most of them unworkable: they take more effort or time than most people can afford. For example: if you want the most high performance diet on the planet, study all the Zone books; but, be ready to spend an hour per day planning and preparing food if you really want to do this one right (and you need fortitude and an IQ that's up there just to understand it). Anyway. . . back to The Abs Diet--when I finish trying out a diet (in my opinion you don't really know a diet until you live it a few weeks), and go back to living what works for me, this is the way I eat. "This" being the "way" Zinczenco attempts to describe in this book. No, I've never been overweight; but at 45-years-old, I still have the 6 pack. And the way I've stayed lean has been by eating the way he teaches. Yea, blah, blah, blah. . .you may be saying to a man who's never been overweight. But, the people I've helped drop 30, 60, or 100 pounds and KEEP IT OFF all did it by employing a few important elements in this book. First, buy a blender and use it the way Zinzenco describes. With a blender, I can prepare a delicious, nutritious, breakfast and feed my three sons and me in less than three minutes (and even the third grader likes it). Many of the people I know who are very busy and in very good physical condition past the age of 35 use a blender at least once a day. If you don't do anything else with this book, read and reread the section on blender recepies. Then make the shakes and drink them first thing in the morning and about 2.5 hours after supper (to avoid the nighttime munchies). Next, learn to spread calories over the entire day. Everyone who's obese (almost without exception) eats most of their calories in the evening (with very little food during the day). The really healthy eat small meals all day long. Zinczenko teaches an easy method for spreading calories over the entire day. One of the most powerful skills for spreading calories is the blender (because it's quick and produces filling low-calorie potions). Throw me in a room with a blender and a few basic ingredients and I'll have your pickiest first grader slurping down the last drop. The obese will be better with the pancake griddle (if they eat breakfast at all, which they rarely do). Their blender's gathering dust in the back of a cabinet. This is not a will power issue; it's a skill issue. Learn the blender skill and you won't need as much will power. Learn it well. It will do wonders for helping you spread your calories through the day. Zinczenko gives you blender potions and even tells you how to choose the best blender (this really is an art form as much as baking any bread). OK, I'm starting to bore myself. Bottom line, the book is medically and practically sound. Zinczenco is a real live healthy male who lives the life and knows the preventive health literature much better than most physicians I know. You won't count calories, you won't go hungry, you can eat real food, you won't spend all day in the kitchen. Now where the book is weak: You will probably not see the permanent weight change you want if you only follow his exercise plan. You might. But, most people seem to need more walking to enjoy lasting weight loss (by my experience and recent research). If you're already close to your normal weight and just want to trim off 15 pounds so you can see your abs, then his plan might work. If you've got more than 20 pounds to lose, tear out the exercise section of the book, throw it away and walk 20 miles a weeek (about 3 miles a day). Next, many of my women patients feel alienated. He seems to address men as if the women are out of the room for the moment (like the joke about something lasting about as long as you did on your prom night). But, the humor adds the refreshment of hearing someone with a Y chromosome actually breathe an occasional word (at a time when we're afraid to use "he" without balancing it with a "she") as if all men don't rise and fall on the opinion of the nearest woman. More importantly, the eating plan works for both sexes but only if the women can suffer through the jokes and ignore the exercise plan and go for a walk. Next flaw, there's a swamp of data and research to wade through in the beginning of the book (interesting if you're a physician and enjoy swamps); some of my patients just bore out around page 60 before thay make it to the part that gives results. Also, his explanation of why low-carb diets give results shows some lack of understanding (or perhaps recognition) of the power of ketosis when used therapeutically. Solution: just start on Chapter 7--that's where you strike gold. Read through (including) Chapter 10. You'd probably be better off throwing the rest of the book away and reading those four chapters about 10 times. Please, don't throw away the whole book. Actually, this may be the best diet book I've ever read because I know the eating plan will give long term weight loss (because most can happily live with it) and improved health with less effort than any other plan I've seen in print. This book is the closest I've seen yet to the way I actually eat. Again. . .it only works long term if you walk 15 to 20 miles per week and use your blender twice a day (and I'm not talking about marguiritas). If you want to supercharge your results, combine the diet with the techniques taught in the book "Anytime...for as Long as You Want."