Dr. Sanford Siegal is a real medical doctor as well as the creator of the famed “cookie diet.” These specially formulated cookies, along with his shakes, are the basis of a meal replacement plan, much like Slimfast. Each day, you get to eat 6 special cookies, and one real meal (dinner.)

500,000 swear by his diet, including many celebrities. His special “cookies” use protein and fiber to keep you felling full, longer. He even has a special bakery to bake these cookies.

However, despite this program’s great success, there is a downside as well. These cookies and this diet stress the caloric intake of no more than 800-1000 calories per day. Also, Cookies and shakes might leave some people feeling satisfied, but not others. When that happens, you’ll be tempted to snack more, adding more calories to your diet. Diets that are very complicated or restrictive are difficult to follow.

Another drawback is that the program doesn’t cover permanent weight loss; there is no change in long-term eating habits, or focus on exercise. Unless you plan on eating these cookies for the rest of your life, you will eventually gain back the weight you lost when you return to your regular eating habits. This is the flaw in most diets. This is why ex-dieters usually gain back the weight they lost along with 10 extra pounds.

While this diet does help some people lose weight, and some celebrities love it, the cookie diet is not suitable for everyone. Specifically, this diet is not suitable for people with Hypothyroidism or Insulin Sensitivity. Both of these conditions are medical conditions that not only make it hard to lose weight, but can actually make a person gain weight as well. This is because the metabolism is much slower than it should be. Restrictive dieting with not enough calories causes this already slow metabolism to slow down even further. That means that this diet would actually be ineffective for people with these conditions.

Pros: Lots of people swear by this diet TV shows like Today, CNN and “The Morning Show” have featured the cookie diet. Ashlee Simpson, Denise Richards and the Kardashian sisters, are just a few of the celebrities who endorse this product. As far as snacks go, these cookies are one of the healthiest non-vegetable snacks you can eat

Cons: Very low calorie diet; 800-1000 calories Too restrictive; meals consist of 6 cookies a day and 1 healthy dinner. No weight maintenance program or exercise program recommended People who tried the cookies report that while they do control hunger, they are not the best tasting cookies. They are not sweet like regular cookies.

If you’re interested in learning more about these diet cookies, use the following link for a complete review of Dr Siegal’s Cookie Diet. Or, check out another cookie diet reviews.