The Cookie Diet?!?

How We Did It is unique because it pairs weight loss success stories -- as you might find in magazines -- with information about specific weight loss plans -- as you might find on each plan's website.

Now, the magazine U.S. News & World Report has picked up on the information angle of weight loss. In an article earlier this week, the magazine rated weight loss plans by nutritional merit. Included in the article is an assessment of 29 different weight loss plans, both the popular ones and ones you might not have heard about. The Cookie Diet?!? That's new to me! No surprise that it's not found in many weight loss books!

Most of the plans in the list overlap with those in How We Did It. But to be honest, although some of the plans are great plans, I just couldn't find anyone who had succeeded on them. And that's an important factor! For example, the Volumetrics diet has been rated by Consumer Reports as its top diet. I found and interviewed a woman who had lost 200 pounds using Volumetrics, but before the book released she had begun gaining her weight back. It was important to me to include people who could lose and maintain their weight loss.

Other weight loss plans on the list may be equally valid, but they just don't have the superpower public relations push that less valid diet plans do. U.S. News rated the government-endorsed TLC diet highly, but I'd never heard of it. But if you read through the plan's requirements, you see that it's very similar to the Ornish diet, which I do include in the book.

Anyway, here's U.S. News list of diet plans . Have a good browse!