There is never a shortage of fad diets. People have tried everything and anything to lose weight. From grapefruit-only diets, to liquid diets, to low carb, low fat, or low calorie diets, there is something for everyone when it comes to losing weight.

But the newest diet plan and subsequent book, The Overnight Diet: The Proven Plan for Fast, Permanent Weight Loss, has sparked interest and controversy and has people talking about what some may say are the extremes of dieting.

The Overnight Diet was written by Dr. Caroline Apovian, an obesity doctor with substantial expertise in the medical field of managing obesity. She is an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, the director of the Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at Boston Medical Center, as well as their director of Clinical Research at the Obesity Research Center.

Apovian was even a nutrition consultant to NASA and an appointed member of the federal government's panel on the evaluation and treatment of overweight adults. Clearly, her background is stellar. Dr. Apovian used her impressive resume to help research and write this book.

The Overnight Diet claims to help people lose weight while they sleep. Basically the regime consists of six days of a high protein diet plus one day of a liquid diet.

Apovian claims that followers of this plan will lose up to two pounds overnight after completing the One Day Power Up jumpstart program and up to nine pounds the first week, if they follow the eating plan and get the appropriate amount of sleep.

The Overnight Diet says that it keeps the dieter's body in fat-burning and weight-loss mode while making no food off limits. Even hamburgers, peanut butter, and chocolate are included in the food options for this plan. Unlike other high protein diets, fruits and vegetables are encouraged and dieters can eat all they want of them.

But not everyone is impressed with this concept, or believes the rather grandiose claims.

Keith Ayoob, the director of the nutrition clinic at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Rose F. Kennedy Center in New York, told Good Morning America that it was possible for someone to lose two pounds overnight, but qualified that answer by saying that the weight loss wouldn't be fat, but mostly water.

Ayoob believes there is no possible way to lose two pounds of body fat in one night. "In order to lose two pounds of body fat overnight you'd have to burn up about six or seven thousand calories and there's just no way to do that by sleeping," Ayoob said.

The Overnight Diet is another weight loss tool that for some is easier, but it won't take the place of what has worked for ages. For many, the tried and true method for weight loss has always been, and will always be, to eat less and move more.

Sources:

GMA.yahoo.com. Web. 8 April 2013. "Overnight diet promises weight loss while you sleep".
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/overnight-diet-promises-weight-loss-while-sleep-140908175--abc-news-health.html

Amazon.com. Web. 8 April 2013. "The Overnight Diet: Proven and Permanent Weight Loss."
http://www.amazon.com/The-Overnight-Diet-Proven-Permanent/dp/1455516910

Reviewed April 9, 2013
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith