Denise Austin is the star of two popular television shows devoted to exercise and the author of over forty books and tapes on exercise. This is her only diet book. Denise Austin promises that you’ll “drop a dress size in four weeks” if you follow her plan exactly.
She is for people who love carbs and have tried low-carb diets, only to grow fatter on them. “If you love carbs,” she writes, “How can you give them up? The answer is that you shouldn’t. No one needs to sacrifice so much to lose weight!” She believes that low-carb diets are bad for your health and do not work in the long-run. Austin asserts it is okay to eat carbohydrates as long as they are the right kind and in the right portions.
She ranks carbs by the Glycemic Index, which ranks how quickly the body breaks them down and converts them into sugar, and by Glycemic Load, a calculation based on a food’s Glycemic Index and its weight in grams. She wants you to keep your Glycemic Load below 80 per day. Nevertheless, she advises you to go ahead and eat any high-carbohydrate food, even chocolate, as long as you do it in moderation.
Her 28-day diet plan is a detailed list of meals broken down into about 50% carbohydrates, and between 20% and 30% protein and fat. These percentages vary from day to day. One day it may be 54% carbs, 19% protein and 27% fat; another may be 49% carbs, 23% protein and 29% fat, but the total is always about 1200 calories. Each meal is approximately 45 grams carbs, 3-4 ounces protein, and 1-2 servings fat. Every food must be measured, although she encourages dieters to use visual portion sizes, such as fruits the size of tennis balls and baked potatoes the size of computer mice. She includes almost a hundred pages of recipes in her 266-page book. Dieters should follow the plan down to the letter the first 28 days, and then start over and repeat it until you reach your target weight.
However, in Phase 2 or Day 29 and beyond, you can begin to mix and match your favorite meals from other days or substitute ingredients in recipes, such as changing chicken to fish.
Austin, Denise. Eat Carbs, Lose Weight. New York: Rodale Press, 2005.
Created:
2005
Categories:
Glycemic Index, Activity Emphasis
Website:
Meetings:
No
Books:
Yes
Sample Menu:
Here is Day 24 of the Austin Diet:
BREAKFAST
½-cup Kashi cereal, 8 oz. fat=free milk, ½ small banana
SNACK
l kiwifruit
LUNCH
2 slices multigrain bread
3 oz. lean ham
1 oz. Swiss cheese
2 tomato slices, lettuce
2 tsp. mustard
1 cup papaya
SNACK
1 slice banana nut bread
2 tsp. whipped butter
DINNER
1 Vegetable Frittata
1/8 avocado
½-cup raw mushrooms
1 slice Italian bread
2 tsp. light butter
1 Pear baked in Rum Cream Sauce
Recipes
Vegetable Frittata
1 tsp. olive oil
¼ med. onion
¼ med. red pepper
¼ zucchini
¼ cup frozen peas
½ egg
½ large egg white
½ T. water
½ T. grated Parmesan cheese
¼ T. fresh basil
Dash of salt and pepper
Cook vegetables in oil until tender. Beat egg and egg white with water, basil, salt and pepper and poor into skillet. Cook until edges are soft but center is soft, and then bake for a few minutes in a 375-degree oven. Top with cheese.
Pears baked in Rum Cream Sauce
1 tsp. cornstarch
3 tsp. brown sugar
¾-cup whole milk
1 egg, beaten
¾-tsp. rum extract
2 pears
Combine cornstarch and 2 teaspoons sugar in a saucepan. Mix milk, rum and egg in a cup, and gradually add egg mixture to saucepan, whisking over medium heat for about three minutes. Remove from heat. Put pears in a greased baking dish and cover with rum sauce. Bake for 15 minutes in a 425-degree oven. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Serving size: ½ pear.