Martin Katahn | Martin, Phd Katahn
1 The Easiest Way to Lose Weight and Get Healthy
I read this book back in 1992, but in light of all the Atkins-hype, I felt compelled to share my success with the plan in this book and give credit where it is due. What I got out of it is if one performed at least 40 minutes of cardiovascular exercises at least 4 times a week (which includes something as affordable and low impact as brisk walking, which the Dr. highly encourages in his book) and watched their fat intake (which was 20-40 grams of fat per day for women and 30 to 60 grams of fat per day for mean I believe) that one got down to and maintained their ideal, healthy weight. It worked, and wasn't restrictive because I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I stayed in the 20-24 g range. I didn't even try to count calories. I was one of those individuals who struggled with her weight since childhood, teetering around a size 14 as an adult, which isn't enormous, but isn't healthy for someone only 5'3", and I got down to a size 8 in 2-3 months. Also, I was a vegetarian, so I ate MOSTLY carbohydrates. Therefore, I find it confusing how the current trend is anti-carb and potentially high-fat when I achieved such success on a high carb, low-fat diet. This book is worth the read. Hope this has helped some of you out there who are looking for a "doable" weight loss plan. Good luck.
2 Recommended
The book was recommended to me by my doctor to lower cholesterol in 1990. I stuck to the routine for a full year, lost twenty pounds and lowered my cholesterol from 250 to 160. Felt great the entire time. I still have the book and still use many of the recipes and menus. The menus make it easy. The recipes are easy and great tasting. It really just sets up a common sense approach to eating.
3 Don't buy it--go to a bookstore and flip through it
and you will be able to pick up everything worthwhile in two minutes. If I had done that instead of [buying it], I would be a few dollars richer.
I ordered this book after reading the hype in Men's Fitness or whatever magazine employs these folks. A diet that helped maximize testosterone without supplements, etc. sounded like a good thing--and it may be, except that the whole diet is in two pages. First, you figure out your maintenance calorie level then you add or subtract depending on whether you want to gain or lose weight. Then you subtract the amount of calories that 2 gm of protein per kg of bodyweight provides and split the rest with fat and carbs. That's it. Does it work? I'll see. It will be exactly the same amount of protein I have been eating with slightly higher total calories and quite a bit more fat.
Another thing I learned is that cardio is dangerous. If you don't run, you won't have a heart attack while running or get hit by a car. Good points. Should one do a little postworkout cardio or some on off days? The book is silent, but says that lifting is all that is necessary. The lifting in the book is essentially cardio--especially for the first two weeks when it is three circuits of about ten exercises with 20 reps. That will get the lactic acid building up as well as running hills and keeping good form for that many reps is about as boring as a treadmill.
Will it work? Who knows (even the authors don't seem to know--they admit that their wonder testosterone diet is based on a test with no control group in which they didn't even measure testosterone levels)but the results of the people in the book don't seem too impressive. All the guys they showed droped some weight and look better but are by no means huge or cut. They improved their chin up ability slightly for what that is worth, but no news on body fat percentage, etc. In fairness, the authors did not use the Body For Life trick of taking very muscular but fat guys and showing them all ripped, oiled and shaved after 12 weeks of dropping fat.
All that said, I'm going to give the diet and workout a fair shot for a little variety, if nothing else. It could turn out to be the best program ever. The book certainly isn't, however.
4 It Works
I was able to lose 20 pounds on this diet. The book is very helpful in learning the correct way to eat and how to monitor your calorie intake to maintain your weight. I have kept the weight off and Iam enjoy my new look. Should you like more information on how I was able to do it, pls E-mail me at: lewis3K@cs.com
5 Good, sound advice! Forget the anti-carb phobia!
Dr. Katahn's book is a sound answer to weight loss in the face of all of the anti-carb mania running around. Once the reader learns that complex carbs--those recommended by the book--require up to 25 - 30 calories per 100grams consumed just for digestion alone vs. 3 kcal for 100g of fat, one can see why T-Factor works very quickly. Further, the authors acknowledge the need for healthy fats in the diet--something that wasn't emphasized in their first book.
Carbs--whether they are in the form of starches, fruits or vegetables--also have another added benefit that this diet helps augment. Unless you severely overeat complex carbs--which its tough to do--you'll rarely store them as fat. So, the vegetables, natural grains, etc., recommended will fill you up, not out. (Note: the reviewer who commented "sugars are lipids that can form fat" needs to review their biochemistry books. The molecular structure of carbohydrates vs. saturated or MUFAs is different.)
Finally, three more reasons to consider this book:
1. Science continues to prove over & over again the link between illnesses such as cancer, gallstones, heart disease, kidney failure, etc., and diets higher in protein, therefore, the long term risk along with the high cost of meats (! ) isn't worth it.
2. Also, with our meats loaded with hormones and antibiotics, is the unnecessary consumption of these chemicals worth the long term risk?
3. Do you want to consume animal proteins loaded not only with chemicals and saturated fats, but served feed comprised of feces and rendered parts of diseased animals?
High carb diets deserve a reasonable and honest look. As a commercial option, this is one of the better ones available.
Similar books worth reading:
1. Food for Life by Dr. Neal Barnard. 2. Bodyfueling by Robin Landis. 3. Low Fat Living by Dr. Robert Cooper. 4. Mad Cowboy.
6 Carb addicts, hypoglycemics--BEWARE!
Katahn's premise that eating fat makes you fat and that anything fat-free is the "be all, end all" of weight loss is wrong, wrong, WRONG! First, starches and sugars are lipids that can form fat as easily as a hot poker through a chunk of lard. Second, a high carb diet such as Katahn's can trigger strong biochemical cravings for starches and sugars. Either Katahn is clueless about biochemical common knowledge, or he is a thoughtless self-promoter who could care less about the 80% of people who will probably gain weight on his diet. The only thing this diet is good for is lowering cholesterol.
7 Great tool for weight loss and motivation!
I tried the T-Factor in 1996 and lost 70 pounds. It is mechanically sound and if followed properly it will yield results. I really enjoyed the writers input about his own relation with food, and his honest approach to his own problem which put this book in motion. Again, great book.
8 IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT, LOOK ELSEWHERE
This may be a good resource for keeping track of your fat intake and lowering your cholesterol, but I wouldn't recommend it if your sole purpose is to lose weight. I tried this diet twice and lost nothing--in fact I actually gained 5 pounds the second try! Truth is, there's no such thing as an enjoyable, satisfying diet (as this one claims to be). The idea of eating basically everything you want as long as it's not fat may sound good in theory--at least the way it's presented in the book--but I'm living proof that it just doesn't work. The only tried and true methods for losing weight continue to be EXERCISE, MODERATION and WILLPOWER.
9 IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT, LOOK ELSEWHERE
This may be a good resource for keeping track of your fat intake and lowering your cholesterol, but I wouldn't recommend it if your sole purpose is to lose weight. I tried this diet twice and lost nothing--in fact I actually gained 5 pounds the second try! Truth is, there's no such thing as an enjoyable, satisfying diet (as this one claims to be). The idea of eating basically everything you want as long as it's not fat may sound good in theory--at least the way it's presented in the book--but I'm living proof that it just doesn't work. The only tried and true methods for losing weight continue to be EXERCISE, MODERATION and WILLPOWER.
10 Dr. Katahn presents the simplest solution to weight control.
What if someone offered you an easy-to-follow, painless, good-tasting and satisfying diet that would help you lose weight and lower your serum cholesterol level? Sound too good to be true? Not at all. In fact, the T-Factor Diet does this and more. While most dietary programs spend much time showing you how control your willpower and modify your behavior, Dr. Katahn explains how to reach a higher level of eating enjoyment and nutritional health by limiting your intake of fat. Rather than focusing on calorie counting, like so many other programs, Dr. Katahn's program is based on replacing most of the unnecessary fat we consume each day (often three to four times what we need) with good tasting, nutritious foods. Dr. Katahn's program is so much easier than others because it is so simple to understand and implement. One needs not analyze everything he consumes, but simply to identify fatty foods and avoid them. Rather than use non-fat substitutes of fat-laden foods, Dr. Katahn suggests other good tasting foods, such as leaner meats, fish, grains, legumes, fruits and a variety of vegetables, that contain much more of the nutrients and energy one needs without the high fat content. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of Dr. Katahn's T-Factor Diet is in its success rate and Dr. Katahn has the figures to prove that the T-Factor Diet outperforms most others. With over 2 million copies sold, there is no doubt as to this book's success, and for good reason - it presents a program that works. Medical Scientists may explain the success of the T-Factor Diet by describing its sound principles of nutrition, but there is a better explanation: If one enjoys a change in his diet, he will stick to it, and that is the essential element for a successful program.
