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Diets
Meal Based
QUICK FACTS
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BACKGROUND
PRO
CON
DIET and NUTRITION
EXERCISE
CONCLUSION
Common Misspellings
Whats better than
Smart for Life?
Diets
Meal Based
Smart for Life
A low calorie cookie diet supervised by a medical doctor.
Top Rated Diet Shakes of 2024QUICK FACTS
Start the Diet Now Advertisement
- Established: 2004
- Founder: Dr. Sasson Moulavi
- Headquarters: Boca Raton, Florida
- Accessibility: Centers and online
- Diet Type: Cookie diet, low-calorie
- Gender: Male and female
- Coupons: Get started by saving with these Smart for Life Coupons
Do You Know the Best Diet Shakes of 2024?
BACKGROUND
Eat decadent carbs like cookies and muffins and lose weight? Sounds great, doesn't it? That is the premise behind the Smart for Life diet. The program uses its own line of "no hunger" foods and its own interventions like vitamin injections that are used to correct any metabolic conditions. All of this is accomplished under the supervision of a medical doctor. Smart for Life promises to help you lose 12-15 pounds in one month as long as you adhere to their program.
The Smart for Life program is built on the premise that 25% of overweight or obese people have metabolic or hormonal conditions that prevent them from losing weight.
With a line of "no hunger" foods like muffins, cookies, soups, shakes and desserts, all of the foods are made with organic and natural ingredients and contain protein, fiber and amino acids. Most famous for the Smart cookie, the product line has expanded to include different flavors and products of their trademark line.
In the fall of 2010, Smart for Life introduced its first ever gluten-free product, a gluten-free Banana Chocolate Chip square. The square is low in calories and includes HeroFiber(TM), a super fiber, which includes ForteFiber(TM) Soluble Dietary Fiber, which helps to maintain cholesterol, glucose and insulin levels that are already within the normal range. By adding this new gluten-free product, the weight loss plan can now be followed by anyone who follows a gluten-free diet.
The program also includes education and motivation instruction to help you target the emotional and mental issues behind your cravings, binges and weight issues. As part of the program, you are teamed up with a physician who works one-on-one with you to customize a program and treat any underlying metabolic dysfunction that you may have.
Once you sign up, you undergo a comprehensive physical examination that includes blood work, an EKG, a Body Mass Index analysis and a discussion of the program vitamin and supplement component. In some cases, injections of Smart injections at done at specified Smart for Life Centers.
You work with the Smart for Life staff at the designated Smart for Life Centers each week to monitor your weight loss. Once you've reached your weight goal, you enter into Phase 2 of the program which is the maintenance stage. Constant contact with the trained health professionals is required until you feel confident enough to keep your weight under control on your own.
But the Smart for Life Medical program also requires that you receive an injection of hCG, a growth hormone that increases during pregnancy. hCG is a very controversial diet practice because its long-term health effects are not known and it is not accepted or approved of by the medical community. The Smart for Life Medical Weight Loss program recommends the dieter receive this Smart Injection, which is intended to kick-start your weight loss and gives you a serious boost in energy. Just how long you must receive the injections is not known.
Read also: hCG Diet
PRO
- There is medical supervision for the Smart for Life program
- Addresses underlying emotional issues of eating
- Teaches healthy eating habits that will allow you to maintain weight loss
- Food products are organic and all-natural
- Maintain healthy blood sugar levels and metabolism
CON
- No scientific proof that the metabolic and hormonal conditions cited as being dysfunctional in overweight people are in fact dysfunctional
- Eating the trademarked Smart for Life line of food is no magic bullet for losing weight
- Smart for Life food line may be more of a marketing hype than the real deal
- Extremely low calorie diet
- Uses hCG injections as a way to stimulate weight loss, a very controversial and potentially dangerous practice
DIET and NUTRITION
On the Smart for Life eating program (the program doesn't like using the word "diet") you consume seven balanced meals throughout the day, which are intended to keep you in the fat burning zone continuously.
Six of those meals are Smart for Life cookies and one healthy, low fat dinner of chicken or fish with five cups of vegetables as outlined in your Program Guide included in your order.
The Smart for Life eating routine is built along the concept of mini-meals and retraining your body and mind to eat small and portion-controlled meals regularly throughout the day.
Daily caloric intake for Smart for Life is about 800 calories per day, eating seven meals and their food products, namely the Smart for Life cookies, and a healthy, low fat, high protein dinner.
Smart for Life cookies contain a proprietary blend of amino acids, fiber, and vitamins that are designed to quell cravings and give you the nutrition your body needs.
In addition, you can also use the cookies as a basis for certain Smart for Life recipes, like a Summer Parfait, which adds sugar-free preserves and chocolate dips to crumbled cookies.
There are also Smart Shakes, Smart Muffins and Smart Soups which can also be eaten as part of the Smart for Life program. One shake is the equivalent of two cookies and one soup or one muffin is the equivalent of one cookie.
The Smart for Life products contain HeroFiberTM, a super fiber blend, fish oil, plant sterols, inulin, flax seed, whole oats, and canola oil. There is also a gluten-free Smart for Life Banana Chocolate Chip Granola Square for those who cannot tolerate the protein gluten.
EXERCISE
On the Smart for Life diet, exercise is only a part of the maintenance of your weight loss. You will work with a Smart for Life health representative to work out an exercise plan that allows you to maintain your goal weight.
When you do start an exercise program on the Smart for Life program, you are encouraged to increase your intake of water and other clear and calorie-free liquids.
Once you have reached your goal weight, it is recommended that you exercise moderately for at least 3 hours per week.
CONCLUSION
The Smart for Life program is not that much different from other similar diet programs that have you consuming specific trademarked food in order to achieve weight loss. But a very stark red flag with the Smart for Life program is its requirement of hCG injections to jumpstart weight loss. This potentially dangerous and controversial weight loss practice has unknown health effects and is not accepted by the medical community.
The good news is that the Smart for Life program does incorporate such an eating plan with the addition of using their specific foods as well as an exercise plan once you reach your maintenance phase.Moreover, this program does instill in the dieter tools and knowledge for keeping weight off for good.
Even though the Smart for Life is under the supervision of medical doctors who can monitor your progress safely, you are strongly encouraged to exercise caution before spending any money on this weight loss program.
Rather, research on successful weight loss programs has shown us that long-term and immediate weight loss comes from a smart exercise program and an eating plan that includes a low calorie, low saturated fat diet.
Common Misspellings
Smart Four Life, Smart for Live, Smart Life, Soup and Cookie Diet, Cookie and Soup Diet, Smart Cookie Diet, Smart for Life Diet, Smart Life Diet, the cookiediet.com
How Does Smart for Life Compare?- Product Name
- User Rating
- Has Good Appetite Suppressant
- Has Only Natural Components
- Good Taste
- 18Shake
(Editor’s Choice) - 97/100
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User Feedback
(Page 3 of 11, 217 total comments)meghan
-i bought 5 weeks of the cookie diet and they will seriously last me like 5 years.
posted May 4th, 2010 11:42 ami MUST admit- the cookies work. one 100 calorie cookie eaten at 9 am kept me full until 2 pm! i would eat one for breakfast and then have a low fat subway sandwich meal (turkey) for lunch and i didn't even want dinner.
but the cookies were so nasty that i eventually just skipped breakfast and just ate lunch. so maybe i lost weight because i didn't even eat the cookies at all!
they feel like gravel in your mouth and have an aftertaste like melted plastic...
but, if you are really serious about losing weight fast they DO work... *gag*
Kay
Okay, so I have to let the readers on this blog know this. I was on this diet for 7 weeks and lost a total of 18 lbs. When I started the diet I noticed a change in my eyes. Blurry, couldn't focus on the words had to refocus my eyes on any words or computer. would get a double vision type thing going on even went to the pharmacy to try the lowest on the readers as I have perfect vision normally. Well, I didn't connect the dots till today. I stopped eating the cookies 2 weeks ago and the symptoms went away, not thinking that it could be the cookies doing this eye thing, I thought well, I will have a day or two and eat cookies and then maintain and eat healthy other days. Then Bam again today I had 5 cookies and my eyes started getting all blurry and double vision.. so anywho I won't be eating these again, doesn't happen in everyone I know but everyone is different so I figured I would post it just in case others have had this happen and didn't connect the two together. My body must not like something or I may be allergic to something in the ingredients either way, just wanted to get the word out. Hope this helps anyone. Too bad to because I liked the ease of just grabbing a cookie. Please feel free to comment on this if anyone has had any symptoms like this or any for that matter.
posted Apr 30th, 2010 8:57 pmdoing well
Josh, you sound very bitter. Hope YOUR weight loss program is working for you. It's all about will power and changing your way of living and how you view food. Happy eating.
posted Apr 19th, 2010 1:45 amHeather
+I have been on it since March 6th and I think I have done pretty good. I just think being HONEST with yourself and what you put in your mouth is the key to weightloss. I have a thyroid condition that makes weight come off hard and the first week 13 1/2 pounds came off... I was being honest with myself and deserved that weight off! I started a facebook page you can find me on HeatherLaFrenier at hotmail, add me there are two people on there now and support is a GREAT help!!! Good Luck to you all!
posted Apr 13th, 2010 8:35 pmLoriBenton
-I actually GAINED weight on this diet. Tried it for over a month, followed all of the rules. Ended up selling the rest of it cheap on ebay. Good riddance.
posted Apr 10th, 2010 12:25 amAnastasia
-I agree with Josh.....I have read about this SCAM! Like all others but if if works for you then it works. OK.......Low calorie and exercise lets see I can do that on my own. That is what the plan is and your paying alot of money for that.
posted Apr 8th, 2010 2:35 pmBonnie
+Very tasty! I lost 17 lbs in 5 weeks; not too shabby.
posted Apr 8th, 2010 12:36 pmSam
+Hey Josh - do have a clue or a concept about the diet? I would imagine you are overweight and that is why you are here. You see a doctor when you do the 800 calorie diet. The cookies are designed to keep your insulin level stable throughout the day. The cookies are nutritional squares. Just because you have no will power, don't put your jibber jabber out there about a diet that you know nothing about. People want to lose weight and with Smart For Life they will. Listening to you, they will remain overweight, just as you do. Ignorance is something you can change, try it - you might even lose some weight!
posted Apr 2nd, 2010 9:55 am
+Susan Robin Gordon Stone
I feel that this is the first time that my thyroid condition was addressed properly - the range for tsh is "supposed to be 0.6 - 4.6 but in fact Thyroid doesn't work well past 2.0 but mine is 4.1 - so they are addressing that issue and I am losing weight where I had trouble losing anything without constant exercise with weight watchers, jenny craig, optifast and nutrisystem. I do in fact exercise twice a week on this diet - which shows that the no exercise in the commentary is not true. I am on the 800 calorie diet - and they let me exercise from day 1. I lost 28 1/2 lbs. the first month.
posted Apr 2nd, 2010 9:43 amSogo
+Have lost thirteen pounds in one month ! I am loving this diet. I actually eat some low Glycemic foods with the diet, and exercise. I did feel that the calorie count was to low for working out. So, I feel great and am losing at a slower rate. What I noticed though is that I am not hungry, and I am not having cravings....That is what has caused failure in the past. So, people can say what they want, success is what works for you. Thank you God for Smart for Life.
posted Apr 1st, 2010 5:08 pmjosh
-Its a starvation diet. You run to the bathroom for days on end. You get light headed and dizzy... and you know the doctor who promoted it on the DOCTORS tv show is being paid to push their product he is on their websight as a spoke person... he's getting paid as a DOCTOR to push a starvation diet?? God, Americans we fall for anything. Eat cat poop and lose six pounds a week... someone would actually do it. Eating less. Moving more. Does it. This diet can cause muscle loss... heart attack... a drop in Blood pressure... weakness... exhaustion... bowel discomfort... the backdoor trots... think people eat 120. calories for breakfast a snack at 10 and lunch and you should get the same results. Good luck I know we'll hear someone died on this eventually.
posted Mar 28th, 2010 7:13 amHappy
+Smart For Life cookies are natural and organic with no preservatives. They have the perfect balance of protein, carbs, amino acids, etc., and that is what curbs your hunger. If you eat each cookie with at least 8 ounces of water, you will not be hungry. If you do not drink enough fluid, you will be hungry. Dr Seigel cookies have a preservative called Microcrystilline Cellulose in them and that's a filler, a filler that is only digestible by termites and other small critters (as stated at Forbes.com).
posted Mar 26th, 2010 10:13 amheather
+Hello everyone, I like to start off with I totally agree with Christine! If your not losing weight you to analyze and seriously be honest with yourself! So I started this diet March 6th and have lost so far a total of 14 pounds! I do have a day of leisure which is Saturday and I have that becasue honestly I think I would of gave up if I didnt have something to look forward to. I dont go to extremes on Saturday and I still have my cookies but I have what I want for dinner and if we go to the movies Ill eat popcorn! It a lifestyle change so Im making it a bit realistic! The diet is great if you follow it you lose weight the first three days I was STARVING it eased after the week was through! But now I have alot of energy, I wasnt able to workout due to a recent surgery till recently like three days ago I started going back to the gym and I feel great! I have a shake in the morning which is 2 cookies and 3 cookies throughout the day and a choclate muffin after dinner to kick that craving for sugar! I also chew gum alot so Im not tempted to put something in my mouth!
posted Mar 23rd, 2010 2:22 pmWell good luck everyone!
Heather
Sogo
+I have lost 10 pounds in 1 week. Of course I am active, so it continues to go this fast, I will need to increase my calorie intake. Maybe eating low GI foods like yogurt and cottage. Anyone have any other suggestions, please feedback ?
posted Mar 20th, 2010 3:30 pmpenny
I have been on the diet for 3 weeks now and have lost 6.5 lbs. I do feel a bit tired though. My husband and I split the 5 weeks, and ran out of the Smart for Life cookies. There is a GNC store near us and he bought the Dr. Siegal's cookies. I actually like them better, as they do not have the aftertaste I disliked in the Smart for Life cookies. Also for some reason they keep me feeling fuller. I am going to continue the cookies, but with Dr. Siegals. I hope to get to 130-135 lbs.
posted Mar 14th, 2010 2:12 pmSogo
+Started 3 days ago...unbelievable. I am not hungry or tired. I was a little nervous when hearing others were tired..I am a busy person. I have plently of energy, and not experiencing cravings or hunger.
posted Mar 12th, 2010 6:29 pmNat
+I've been on the smartforlife weight loss program now for a month and a half and have lost 21 lbs. I absolutely love it and recommend the program. I go to the St. Lucie location and the staff is absolutely supportive and are focused on your success.
posted Mar 10th, 2010 12:00 ampenny
-Actually I am on the fence. Have been on it for a week and a half. I will weigh myself on Sunday. The thing that really bothers me is that I am often hungry on this diet...really hungry. And I am definitely more tired than usual. The cookies are edible but that is it. I started at 148 lbs, 5 feet 4 inches, so you would not think I would be so hungry. I was on Weight Watchers once before and lost weight but was never hungry or tired. This is a real negative for me.
posted Mar 4th, 2010 7:13 pmchata2297
Hi Guys! I'm debating on doing the Smart for Life diet vs. Dr. Siegal's Cookie DIet.....how do they compare to each other?? If someone could please let me know....thanks!
posted Feb 28th, 2010 12:19 amJanice
Michelle, I drink about 3 litres a day, Pretty close to the 100oz.. So after 2 weeks of dedication, I had slow results. Last week was a complete "off" week, but I tried to at least make smart choices with my food. Today I am back on the horse. I haven't weighed myself in a few days, will update soon.
posted Feb 23rd, 2010 9:43 am