The Shangri-La Diet – Review and Video Documentary

The Shangri La Diet is possibly one of the most absurd diets around. Yet there are endless reports of remarkable results. The eating plan of this diet is very unusual and author and creator Seth Roberts presents his radical ideas without any drama or even hype, just straight forward ideas neatly presented in his diet book, The Shangri La Diet, which you can purchase at Amazon for a low price:

Basic Techniques and Strategy of the Diet:

There is no counting of calories, fats or carbs with the Shangri-La Diet. No foods to monitor, no exercise. No depriving yourself of any foods, no restrictions, you can eat whatever you like. This diet entails just two steps that promise great weight loss:

1. Consume 100-400 calories of sugar water and/or flavorless edible oil daily, extra light olive oil is recommended because it lacks flavor. (I’m not kidding!)

2. The sugar water concoction as well as the oil needs to be drank well after meals about an hour after.

The sugar water (a mix of white sugar and water) or oil should be consumed slowly (over half an hour).

The Set Point Theory
Seth Roberts believes that weight is regulated by a system with a ‘set point’. Once weight falls below your set point, then you will feel hunger, or more hungry and you will require more food to feel full.

He also believes that it’s possible to change your set point, and the basis of the Shangri La Diet is that the set point can be lowered by eating food that has little or no flavor, but still has calories. This is where the flavorless sugar water and oil come in!

Overall this diet is a way to trick your body into less hunger, so you eat less and lose weight. An intriguing fact to consider is that once we eat less over time and lose weight our stomachs do shrink and so technically this method of dieting can be permanent and long term, as long as we do not return to overeating as a result of psychological reasons, even with smaller stomachs that feel like they are gonna burst if we eat another crumb. (This does often happen with dieters)

Got Science?
Roberts backs up his claims in teh book with some detail as to the science behind his diet. He also includes his own experiments, and various testimonials of people who have had weight loss success with this diet.

Simply put, this diet is all about eating less with little effort from the dieter. This makes this diet different from the others, such as low calorie diets, where willpower and hunger can be an issue. With this diet the actual eating less is facilitated by the sugar water and/or oil and so its incidental.

Concerns with the Shankri-La Diet

Sugar
I for one am not convinced that this diet is the best solution for weight loss. First, I am not a fan of sugar, being an Atkins Diet fan myself. I have never felt better in my life since quitting sugar and so I could not imagine consuming so much sugar on a daily basis. How about diabetes?

Affect on Metabolism
Another concern is how does this diet affect metabolism? Eating less is great, but there are ways to eat less and still boost metabolism. If this diet makes you eat only twice a day then metabolism will surely suffer.

Cholesterol
Other health issues such as triglycerides or LDL cholesterol come to mind with this diet plan.

The following video is a CBC mini-documentary by Sarah Kapoor all about this diet, check it out! Please comment your ideas about this diet and if you’ve ever tried or ever would we’d love to hear your opinions!