It's January and It's Raining Diet Experts...

This is the week when TV programming bursts its seams with diet experts and diet advice. Pretty much every news cast, every news variety program and most of the talk shows are highlighting this year's no-fail ways to keep that weight loss resolution.

I make resolutions to lose weight, monthly, weekly, daily, but the January resolution is the big guns resolve. January first is the quintessential clean slate, and it one cannot resist planning for that big change to start now. I'm sure I'm not alone and all that advice is being sucked up by an avid audience looking for their final weight loss solution too.

I've been watching this stuff all week. I have that feeling that if I don't tune into all the shows focused on weight loss that I will surely miss that crucial secret-the thing or combination of things that will unlock it for me this time. Surely when Dr. Phil gets his 17 day diet teams started, and the newest biggest losers huff and puff their way through their first challenge, and when Dr. Oz unveils his new can't fail plan with its panel of expert consultants, there will be the motivation and the inspiration I need to succeed.

Today I was jogging on my mini-tramp (resolution 1-I will exercise every day!) and watching Dr. Phil get his teams started with this new 17 day diet he is promoting. I've been wondering why he is suddenly so gung-ho for this guy's plan when he has his own 'can't fail' book for losing weight that advises against the drastic calorie reduction this diet espouses. He was so positive about it that I'd decided to go online and buy it as soon as the holidays settled down so I could have it for the new year diet start. As always, I researched it first to see what was being said about it in reviews. One reviewer gave a sample of menus for the different levels and I ran them through my diet program to see what the calorie counts were. The starting cycle day's menu added up to 700 calories a day. I'm thinking, "How in the world would I eat 700 calories for three (make that one day!) days, let alone 17!"

In the end I decided not to buy the book. The book was written for dealing with holiday weight gain and avoiding plateaus, but and may be very good for both, but I don't see myself holding for over two weeks at a time to calorie levels as low as these.