5-Day Miracle Diet

Devilishly handsome actor Ralph Feinnes, who packed on pounds for his role in Schindler's List, followed this plan and said it helped him keep his energy level high enough to survive his grueling, eight-times-a-week performances of Hamlet. The word "diet" in the title may be a bit misleading, as it's more of a blood sugar-regulating eating schedule; once blood sugar is normalized, says author Adele Puhn, cravings soon dissipate, and that helps excess pounds fall off almost by themselves. It's not a five-day diet, either, as the title implies; rather, that's the amount of time it takes to get your blood sugar fully normalized.

Puhn, who has a master's degree in medical biology and has been certified as a nutritional specialist by the American College of Nutrition, has 20 years of experience working with this diet. She says that timing is the key. Each day, there's a mandatory snack within two hours of breakfast, and two more snacks in the afternoon. There are a few no-no foods that would cause a rush of blood sugar (no pasta for lunch, no plain bagels for breakfast, no grapes for snacks), but other than that, the program is remarkably simple. Puhn says that losing weight is 75 percent physiological (cravings sabotaging your efforts) and 25 percent psychological, such as when your inner "fathead" says you have to have that piece of chocolate birthday cake or you'll hurt Aunt Fanny's feelings. The 5 Day Miracle Diet shows you how to conquer both of these forces, leading to weight loss, improvements in energy, and decreases in blood pressure and cholesterol levels. While its advice may be unusual (vegetables or turkey get the okay for breakfast), its message is clearly sane. It's "not about never eating certain things again. It's about learning how to live harmoniously with your food."