Joel Marion's "Cheat to lose diet"

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The above mentioned book is being hyped by various BB websites - do you think it is any good?

I should add that I am neither interested in losing lots of weight, nor in cramming in all kinds of crap food. I am looking for a way to combine the best of low-fat and low-carb lifestyles for maintenance, and carb cycling seems a promising way to go in that respect.

Up to now I haven't found any non-technical book on this issue (I'm not obsessive enough for counting cals or grams of different nutrients - the metabolic diet comes to mind), and this could be the one.

Living in Germany, I haven't got any chance to scan the book at a local bookstore, I'd have to order at amazon. As there are a lot of recipes included (which I'm not interested in), I wonder whether the general outline of the system justifies the expense.

Have any of you read the book - what do you think? Also, I'd be grateful for any other resources on carb cycling - books or, even better, free online articles.
 
In a t-mag interview, Marion says that after your weekly cheat day, you start with low carbs, and then gradually raise carbs until the next cheat day one week later. Doesn't that count as cc?

Of course a whole day of pigging out is a unique selling point, but six out of seven days will be spent quite differently.

Supposedly, Marion's concept is backed up by hard science (over 300 studies cited), yet I wonder whether he isn't just spicing up a generally clean diet which is far from revolutionary by the prospect of pre-planned cheat days, which won't hurt progress as long as the big picture is followed.

If that was true, the only difference between Marion's diet and the other stuff out there would be that in his case, cheat meals are scheduled in advance and don't happen spontaneously.
 
Why not just go with one of Lyle's books? Marion gets owned constantly online, which means he must be a moron. Do you want to buy a book from a moron? If someone can't win any arguments online having to do with their ideas/theories/etc then I find it very hard to put faith in any of their ideas/theories/etc.

And no, I don't get paid for pimping out Lyle's books unfortunately.
 
totentanz, thanks for your input (BTW: being German, I'm naturally curious what made you choose that nick).

Up to now, I was under the impression that Lyle's stuff is far too sophisticated for the modest amount of effort I'm willing to make... my main instrument of dietary intervention is food choice. I even struggle with nutrient timing, often I'm unable to structure my day in a way which allows for sensible pre and post-WO nutrition.

It's clear then that I cannot expect the results of somebody who is 100% committed, but I'm hopeful that the 80/20 principle can be applied to nutrition, too.

Marion appears very young and inexperienced, and somehow it seems unlikely that he has discovered a way of manipulating leptin that was totally unknown before. Therefore I'd be very interested in hearing what the authorities of the field have to say about his basic idea.

Your reference to online debates shows that some doubt may be in order. But on the other hand, verbosity and not competence is what is required most to look good in a heated argument. In the gym, the biggest guy always has the last word. On the internet, it may be an obese arm chair expert instead (which is not necessarily worse, just not any better either).
 
Lyle was one of the firsts going on about leptin years ago. He has preetty much gone past this as the goal of refeeding due to the minimal impact refeeding has on it.

Magic not found has he
 
<div>
(flow @ Aug. 23 2007,15:39)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Up to now, I was under the impression that Lyle's stuff is far too sophisticated for the modest amount of effort I'm willing to make... my main instrument of dietary intervention is food choice. I even struggle with nutrient timing, often I'm unable to structure my day in a way which allows for sensible pre and post-WO nutrition.</div>
His UD2.0 does require a lot of discipline, but check out his other books - flexible dieting, for example.


Re: my nickname - I've been using this since back in the 90s when I used to play Quake online. That was the name I went by while I was running around places like Ziggurat Vertigo fragging all the newbies with my rocket launcher.
It just kind of stuck with me all these years. And no, I'm not a video game nerd anymore.
 
<div>
(Totentanz @ Aug. 24 2007,23:37)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Re: my nickname - I've been using this since back in the 90s when I used to play Quake online. That was the name I went by while I was running around places like Ziggurat Vertigo fragging all the newbies with my rocket launcher.
It just kind of stuck with me all these years.</div>
Quake III Arena with rails -- nothing but chunks!
cool.gif
 
quadancer, thanks for the link - I'll check it out right now.

totentanz, thanks for pointing me to one of Lyle's books, and the explanation for your nickname.
 
I found this thread on jpfitnessforums, which gives a more detailed discussion of Marion's diet:
link

As some diet e-books have been brought up, what do you think about Alan Aragon's &quot;girth control&quot; (link)? Anybody read it yet?
 
Sorry for the triple post... too much time on my hands.

The following link provides the core layout of the TNT diet, which is also based on carb cycling. I've just skimmed over the whole thing, but I think it will keep me from buying anything on that issue for now.

TNT Diet
 
For the last 2 months or so I have been restricting my carbs to:
1)Fruits and vegetables
2)Simple sugars during and after workout
3)Rice or Bread at one meal about an hour after pwo shake.

My other calories come from meat and fish oil and protein bars and shakes.

I have been allowing myself one cheat day a week to eat pizza, ice cream, etc. And I have been steadily losing about a pound per week while maintaining strength. I started doing this before i read the t-nation interview about the cheat diet and leptin.

I suspect it's not the leptin so much as the cheat day makes it psychologically possible for me to pass on junk food and simple carbs throughout the week. Either way it has worked well.
 
<div>
(Aaron_F @ Aug. 24 2007,11:42)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Lyle was one of the firsts going on about leptin years ago.  He has preetty much gone past this as the goal of refeeding due to the minimal impact refeeding has on it.

Magic not found has he</div>
Yoda-speak cool is
smile.gif
 
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