For what it is worth, I hit 65 pounds lost and posted a picture of myself on my blog. I'm very pleased (obviously) with the Shangri-la diet.

Darn, make that 67 pounds lost.

Shangri-la Diet -- comments on it and my experiences
 

I read the review of the book, and I think the reviewer got parts of it confused, though that is probably as much the editor's fault as the reviewers.

I am an emotional eater. I gained about sixty pounds in the course of about six years as I buried three children, twenty pounds a funeral.

But, the Shangri-la Diet worked for me. No one I worked with was willing to really try it until I'd lost about sixty pounds. I now have two co-workers who it has also worked for, one who can finally wear his wedding ring after years of being too fat.

The hardest part is drinking the oil. I switched to a blend of extra light olive oil and Hain walnut oil. Pour three tablespoons of oil (any oil, my mother uses Canola oil and has lost more than twenty pounds, visiting me and seeing the changes convinced her to try) in a cup with a cup of hot water and one tablespoon of sugar. Swirl, and drink it down. The water kind of floats the oil in. Rinse your mouth out with water.

Don't drink, eat or taste anything (including gum, mints, cigarettes, coffee and diet coke) for an hour before or after. If it works for you, within a week or so you will notice that you feel differently about food, which will let you control how and when you eat.

If it works, just keep using the oil. You will notice smoother hair. If you take a high omega 3 oil, you will also sleep better. When you've lost as much weight as you want to lose, use less oil.

After a month or two, if the diet is working for you, buy the book.

This is the only diet I know of that you can start with whatever you have around the house, buy the book only if it works, and that you can use with other diets if you feel like it.

You've all read how calorie free soft drinks are correlated with gaining weight because they are thought to push your set point up. Flavor free calories seem to do the reverse, pushing your set point down, and your body follows.

Pretty easy to try for a week or so. At the worst, if you've used extra light (not extra virgin) olive oil or walnut oil the omega 3s will have pushed your HDL/LDLs in the right direction.

That's what I'd have said in the review and what I tell my co-workers and people at church who ask me about the diet.

Stephen, I'm curious about you :) I don't mean to be rude, but you've posted here 17 times since you joined in May, and every post except one has been to promote the Shangri-La diet. We are aware that there is a group of bloggers/posters whose goal to promote this book, and we wonder if you are part of it because you seem to have no other interest here. We've had an unusual number of new members show up to post once or twice about the virtues of this diet, and never be seen again.

Please don't misunderstand - I think it's GREAT that you have lost weight and improved your health! It's always an accomplishment, no matter what the circumstances. But our website is devoted to the bigger picture of good nutrition that comes with most weight loss diets. We talk about how to increase the whole grains in our diets, or which exercise videos are the best for obese women. Shangri-La barely touches on the subject.

I'm the one that wrote the review. I bought the book with high anticipation, due to the hype from the blogs. (Yes, I paid for the book, I'm not part of the blogosphere that was provided with free copies for promotion.) I didn't say anything particularly bad about the book, other than pointing out what the author thought of exercise. I just explained what the book promoted and what it didn't. If you want to see a BAD review, read this review by Megan Ogilvie. And this one by health expert Jonny Bowden.

I've posted to 3FC for a while a few months ago. I haven't posted in a while as I got caught up in exploring the internet through deli.cio.us. I read Robert's book and participate on his forums. I'm a SLDer and take about 3 tablespoons of extra light olive oil per day for the past two weeks. I will admit I haven't lost any weight in the past two weeks, but I also have a broken right ankle so I can't exercise. But I'm eating about 1400-1800 cals per day with the cals from the oil not added into the total.

I thins Robert's program assists any person who is in the process of losing weight. There are so many good books on nutrition, losing weight and just watching what you eat (counting calories) that I don't think that Seth could have added anything new to that area. If you just sit down with a diabetes exhange list and know how many calories per day you need to eat, etc then you can lose weight. Put in a sensible exercise program and over time the weight will come off.

The Shangri-la Diet had completely removed my sweet tooth. It is gone. This has been the greatest aspect of the program. I had a terrible craving for sweets all my life. This is one of the reasons why I was over 150 pounds overweight. Sweets now taste very bland to me, so they aren't any fun to eat.

Yes, my appetite is decreased so I'm not always thinking about food and my next meal. I'm not obsessed with food. I can go to a restaurant, only anything I want and know I won't be able to eat all of it. I take half my meal home and don't feel deprived.

I know by eating right and exercising I will lose weight. There isn't any magic pill that will do this for me, but the Shangri-La diet is a very useful tool for me to use.

Christy K

Suzanne 3FC -- the question is more than fair. I came to the boards in response to someone else mentioning an SLD (Shangri la Diet) thread -- and that is most of my interest here.

Now, if you just want to know more about me, you can read about my girls at adrr.com/living or my blog at ethesis.blogspot.com -- just browsing those three locations will probably tell you more than enough to sate your curiousity.

I wasn't trying to say that the review was bad, but more that you had kind of missed the point about the diet, which is really a method for moving your set point, surrounded by diet like publisher's trappings. But it really isn't a typical diet and exercise regimine, it is a different approach.

I agree, whole heartedly, that SLD doesn't cover things like making sure you get enough protien, exercise routines (including stretching and balance work) or other things this site seems very good for. It is not a complete tool chest, it is only about a method to move your set point so your weight will follow.

But it has been fun to watch my friends and family follow the method in addition to the things they have been doing. Suddenly everything else works for them. And it is easy to try, one of the few things you can do without buying the book or spending money.

Which is why I've decided to spend some time supporting the concept. It seems to work more often or not (about 9 out of 10 times with the people I've been getting to start on it), it is easy to try without spending any money, and 2-3 days in, people suddenly start feeling different about food (yes, I know, some people have taken up to seven weeks, and others have had the reverse effect -- one mailed me his book) and it changes everything for them.

I've bought several batches of the book and given them away, because I keep meeting people who don't get the method from my explaining it.

Hope that answers your questions and clarifies things.

For what it is worth, for exercise, when I started, I had been walking a mile or so (that was what I could manage at my weight) and lifting weights. I've moved to meogenic lifting (once a week, slow repetitions), judo and walking longer distances. I eat what my wife calls a "heritage" diet that has a lot of yogurt and whole grain bread in it (I'm half Greek), that is aimed at getting enough protien so I do not have muscle mass loss.

I should stretch more. My current hobby is telling people about SLD.

I suspect that you've already guessed the last point, but it has been a life changing experience since November of last year.

I have been on SLD since 5/10 and have lost 8 pounds with little effort on my part. I take around 3 TBS. of Extra Light Olive Oil a day and am enjoying the lack of appetite.
It is hard to explain I have always been portion size challenged but on SLD it is if a switch has been turned off. I love food especially since I quit smoking everything tastes so good, but I am not tempted to over eat and if I do I feel too full and bloated.
I don't think the reveiwer could understand the freedom SLD gives you unless she had tried it. I have given it a real test I have been on almost every diet from Atkins to the Zone so am not new to the land diets.
The best thing about it for me is I don't want to snack anymore and that the lack of appetite allows me to eat what I want without over eating. I quickly learned not to force food just because it tasted good other wise I feel too full.
Pat S. (patsi)

Stephen, thanks for your reply :)

Patsi, my goal was to try the diet for one week before writing my review, as I usually try to do when reviewing diet books, so I can understand it better. I was recently asked my opinion about SLD (and other diets) for an interview, and I stated that I hadn't tried it. So in the interest of writing a review for our own site, I decided to give it a shot, which is why I bought the book. I didn't think my experience was worth mentioning in the article for several reasons. I didn't like the idea of sugar water because I agree with the World Health Organization's recommendation of 10% daily calories from sugar, and I'd rather spend them on something else. I tried the oil/water but I have a strong gag reflex and I didn't think it was worth it to continue since I wasn't seeing an effect. I kept having flashbacks of the time I was forced to drink a bottle of castor oil before a medical exam, and I vomited for a month. The thought of that alone was a good appetite supressant :lol: I really detest the feel of oil in my mouth, unless it's accompanied by a french fry :p I managed to drink the concoction for 3 days and quit because of the above. In those 3 days, I noticed no difference in appetite, other than when I had the yucky flashbacks. But the truth of the matter is that I'm rarely hungry anyway, so I didn't expect it to help. What DOES help me stay on track with my diet more than anything is regular exercise. It's a natural appetite suppressant, it's calorie free. I watch food portions because subconsciously, I don't want to undo any good that I did during my workout, plus I have a lot more positive energy. My mealtime goals are focused more on making sure I ate enough whole grains and green things, or making sure I excluded sat fats.

My personal opinion, based on many reviews I've read elsewhere from people that tried SLD, is that more than anything, the ability of SLD to help weight loss is simply based on the will of the person that tries it. Like hypnosis - if you want it to work and you put yourself into that mindset, then it will work. We can talk ourselves into virtually anything, even eating less :lol: There is no scientific basis for oil or sugar to do what Roberts suggests. The only reasonable explanation, in my opinion, is personal will, which is not a bad thing. The suggestions in the book are not harmful (though the sugar water is questionable) and if it helps encourage personal will in this manner, then by all means do it :)

Suzanne, you make some interesting comments.

I've tried a lot of things, I'd be very surprised if suddenly, this was the magic key to unlocking personal will, especially since I'm completely unaware of using will power, but rather cooperating with it these days.

But I appreciate your perspective and where it comes from, that makes a lot of sense.

This has probably been asked a million times, i dont understand how it works, by drinking light olive oil you can lose weight?

Sorry but just the thought of drinking sugar water and olive oil makes me feel ill.

the theory is that taking in up to 400 calories of tasteless calories (flavorless oils and/or sugar--which by itself the body registers as flavorless) will drive down your body's setpoint thereby suppressing appetite.

and it works. i take in around 400 flavorless calories and i'm eating around 800-900 food calories which totals 1200 cals a day. it is an effortless method since i'm nowhere near as hungry as before and when i do eat i eat a lot less.

i'm taking 2 T of extra light olive oil + 1 T of sugar in water in the morning and then sometimes another T of ELOO and another T of sugar midafternoon.

the author's method is just so different, it is worth exploring.

Everything in life is worth exploring, chrianna :) We never said otherwise, and we didn't give the book a bad review. I'm not sure why it has elicited such a defensive response from the sethroberts membership. :?: I still think good nutrition and exercise is the way to go, but everyone needs to find what works for them.

:)

I'm confused. Is this an 800 calorie diet? It sounds extreme to me.

with tons of due respect, suzanne, suggesting that SLD would only work for 6% of dieters isn't a good review.

plus, i don't see it as seth roberts vs. good nutrition and exercise. someone who wants to lose weight can use SLD and good nutrition/exercise. more of an "and" situation rather than an "or" one. ;)

Welcome back carnie! I visited your blog recently, you look fantastic! Weight Watchers has been very, very good to you :lol:

No, this isn't an 800 calorie diet, so that confused me a little, too. 1200 calories isn't a magic number just because it's 1200 calories. It's usually considered the lowest amount of food you should eat and still get in all of the important nutrients you need which are provided by a balanced diet. When you reduce to 800 food calories, it's considered a 'very low calorie' diet and medical supervision is usually suggested. It's also much easier to regain the weight later. Are you a Weight Watchers lifetime member now? My mother still goes to her weekly meetings, even though she reached goal ages ago. She just enjoys the support and friendships she made. She should probably put on a couple of pounds :lol:

Okay, in my personal experience olive oil (light or otherwise) has a taste to it.

And I have tasted oil and water together and it is really unpleasant and leaves a horrible feel in your mouth. :p

Not only that - I did South Beach Diet and it killed my sugar and carb cravings and that was over 2 years ago and I still don't have those cravings eating real, unprocessed and satisfying foods. And before you argue about diet plans with me - I did a combo of Weight Watchers and SBD before WW came out with their core plan and I lost 30 lbs and kept it off for some time. I regained 10lbs through not exercising but have lost 5 of that by doing yoga and bellydancing.

I know different plans work for different people but this Shangri-la diet sounds a bit far fetched to me.

I just don't see the point of consuming "flavourless calories" when I can enjoy nutrititious whole foods instead. :shrug:

I will however do some research on it to satisfy my own curiousity. :)

We polled over 10,000 dieters to learn why they overate and only 6% overate from appetite problems. The rest overeat from stress or boredom without hunger. Most experts agree that this type of overeating is unfortunately common, and the real solution is to deal with the problems that cause the stress or boredom, such as finding a new hobby, or learning relaxation techniques.


Our members are free to try any diet plan they want, unless it's illegal, of course :lol: And if we have members that choose this technique, then more power to them :) But obvious trolling from another forum community isn't doing anyone any good, so this thread will be closed.