Shangri La Diet Plan

The Shangri-La Diet is based on personal experience of Seth Roberts, PhD, a psychologist. He discovered that he lost weight when he was drinking sugar-water and light olive oil between meals as he felt full all the time----and hence ate less. He termed this diet plan the Shangri-La diet as it helps you to make peace with food. In this diet you control your appetite with calories taken in the form of sugar water or extra-light olive oil. The diet decreases or rather resets your body's hunger level

The Shangri-La Diet: How It Works

According to Roberts everyone has an internal "set point" that decides the weight your body wants to be. Drinking small quantities of sugar water or light olive oil during the day helps to reset the internal "set point" to a lower level. The Shangri-La Diet believes that flavorful foods raise your set point and make you feel hungry and consequently result in weight gain.

So if you eat bland foods your craving for food is decreased and you lose weight.

The Shangri-La Diet: Game Plan

The Shangri-La Diet does not give you a menu. You take about 300 calories in the form of light olive oil or sugar-water in between meals and for meals you can take light healthy bland food. For snacks prefer fruits.

The rules for the Shangri-La Diet are as follows

• Take sugar-water one hour before or after a meal
• To lose about 20 pounds, use one tablespoon of sugar in your water.
• To lose 20 to 40 pounds, use two tablespoons of sugar with water.
• To lose more than 40 pounds, use three tablespoons of sugar with water.
• Besides the sugar drink take up to four tablespoons of light olive oil as required during day time to control hunger.

The Shangri-La Diet: Pros and Cons

Drinking sugar water and taking olive oil definitely decreases the appetite and will make you feel full. In addition as there are no forbidden foods and the total calorie intake is not significantly limited--- the diet can be made nutritionally balanced. The best part is that the diet will not add much expense to your budget.

However some experts say that the results of the diet are not encouraging unless an overall balanced diet is followed as the diet does not give nutritional education.

Some other limitations of the Shangri-La diet include

• As the diet is meant to be bland and tasteless it can be difficult to follow for long
• Exercise which should be part of any weight-loss plan is not recommended
• There is no evidence which suggests that sugar water or olive oil is better than other low- calorie, between-meal snacks

The Shangri-La Diet: Short-Term and Long-Term Effects

In short term bland and tasteless food with sugar water or olive oil to control hunger pangs may work. But it can be difficult to follow in the long term. The diet provides not nutritional education so you may find it difficult to reach your target weight and there after maintain your weight. Some experts say that rather than following the Shangri-La Diet eat a well-balanced, healthy diet and follow healthy lifestyle to maintain healthy weight.