THE CHOOSE TO LOSE DIET: A Food Lover's Guide to Permanent Weight Loss

In Eater's Choice, Ron and Nancy Goor presented a plan for lowering cholesterol by limiting saturated fat intake. Here, they turn the plan into a weight-loss diet by extending the limit from ""sat-fat"" to all fat. The idea is to choose a desired weight (using a chart provided), calculate how many calories you can eat daily to maintain that weight, allow 15 to 20 percent of that in fat, and then choose foods that keep you within that ""fat budget."" The choice comes in the flexibility of being able to ""save up"" for a ""splurge."" This isn't much different from anyone's low-calorie diet, except that here only fat calories are watched. The authors claim that carbohydrates burn off more easily, but don't explain this. In fact, there is no citing of studies or explanation of concepts in the book. What is provided, under the heading ""Where's the Fat,"" is a sample list of fast foods and frozen foods, including diet brands, with counts of their fat calories (all high compared with plain fish or chicken breast, for example). There are also sample meal plans; decent, ungimmicky low-fat recipes; and more tables (about 100 pages) listing total calories and fat calories for various foods. Overall: a simplistic scheme with a kernel of truth.