Colorado Diet Review
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By CANDICE GREY ConsumersCompare.org Update: Jul 09, 2024 |
- Phase 1 – Reigniting the participant’s metabolism: You must eat a lean protein at every meal, you should pair that protein with a recommended carbohydrate at every meal, you may have healthy fats at no more than two meals a day, you should eat breakfast within an hour of waking up, and measure portions don’t count calories.*
- Phase 2 – Rebuilding the metabolism: There are foods that are reintroduced back into the diet after phase 1, including: avocados, olives, fruit, pork, whole eggs, brown rice, rice cakes, sweet potatoes, beans, and pistachios to name a few.*
- Phase 3 – Reinforcing the metabolism: Your exercise regime will go up to 70 minutes per day during this final phase. More foods are slowly introduced back into the diet, but with extreme moderation.*
They make a bold claim, to say if you follow this program for 12-weeks at 100 percent, you can lose a large amount of weight.* The book can be purchased for around $20.00 on Amazon, and through their personal website. They promote activity every day; even if you have a jam-packed schedule, they help you find ways to fit in your workout. Finally, the diet calls for the elimination of certain food groups by phase. While the diet promotes healthy eating and exercise, it is simply a book and will not do the work for you.
Do Dieters Lose Weight On The Colorado Diet?
Because the diet eliminates many foods in the first two weeks of the diet, on top of rigorous daily activity, weight loss is to be expected. Doctors who have scientifically proven that a healthy diet and exercise will aid in a person losing weight wrote the overall idea of the book. The program is rather long and tedious with many food restrictions, so it may leave one losing an unhealthy amount of weight only to gain it all back once they are off of the 12-week program.*
When looking into testimonials about the program, there were many reviews that said the book provided a smart diet plan with healthy clean eating, but there was not an extensive list of meal plans to follow. Another review read that there were no pictures, and not really any inspiration behind the text; rather, it was just an experiment project written in boring black typed letters.* On another note, there were some customers who said the overall concept of the book made sense to them, and they were trying to follow it the best they could.
Is The Colorado Diet Easy To Follow?
No. Any time you are forced to eliminate a lot of different foods completely out of your diet for extended periods of time, it is going to be challenging. This program is three months long, and requires full cooperation to eat clean and exercise. If you do not follow this regimen, the program will simply not work for you. It is easy to read a book, but the challenge lies in actually applying the information to your life. They authors of the Colorado Diet are not reinventing the wheel with the information they provide; they just put common knowledge in the form of a book and renamed it “The Colorado Diet.”
Like any elimination diet, your body will experience side effects from eliminating favorite foods like sugars, salts, and carbs. Many side effects have been noted as having little to no energy, feeling nauseous, getting frequent headaches, and being irritable.
Conclusion
The basic take-home message from this diet is that it has a good nature behind it. The idea that they make a person reach their weight loss goals through proper diet and exercise can’t be frowned upon. Does this mean it is the magic solution to all of your weight loss needs? No. Everyone requires different things when setting personal goals for their weight loss journey, so it may not be a one-size-fits-all diet. They do offer support groups on their website that can help the process of losing weight, instead of going through it alone. In these support groups, you will read the book together and schedule workouts together to keep one another accountable. There is no harm in reading this book, as it may work for some people, but as stated above, it may not be for everyone. Always consult your doctor before jumping into rigorous activity, as your body may not be used to it right away.*
My wife an I have been on the Colorado Diet for 4 weeks now. She has lost 15 lbs and I have lost 25. We are both in our early 60s. The program is easy to follow and while the foods you can eat are limited in the first few weeks, the results are amazing and the food isn’t that bad. It just seems restrictive because it’s not what you’ve been eating all your life. My wife and I bought the book, but have been doing the diet on our own. We are walking and riding bikes (hardly rigorous) and eating healthy (always a good thing). Through the diet we are trying new foods and feeling great. We are in Phase 2 so have ‘earned’ a free meal and had pizza last week and Shepard’s Pie and fish and chips this week and we are still losing weight. Is the plan right for everyone, likely not. But don’t let the review above keep you from making up your own mind.
I have been vegan for 2 years, but put on weight. I wondered if I put it on because all of the legumes may be high carb. The State of Slim Diet program is being offered to all employees in the school district where I work in Colorado. They say that normally it is an $800 program, but the school insurance is covering $600 and we pay $200. Last night, I went to the first class where we had a cheerleader type of “coach-teacher” who made all kinds of promises and had us buddy up with another person. The diet reminds me of the Curves Diet which had the same concept of changing metabolism in phases. Curves offered a high protein type of program or another program which you choose based on your metabolism. The SOS Diet has only the high protein type of diet and in each phase you add other carbs. It reminds me a bit of the S. Beach Diet, too. Are you familiar with any of these diets? I asked if they have a longitudinal study to see how long the pounds stay off and they said that at this time, they do not have one, but are gathering the data now. I continue to be a skeptic about all diets, but I do need to lose weight. Thoughts?
This is the only diet I have been truly successful on and have mostly kept the weight off. It was formulated by doctors who have dedicated their life to weight loss and you will get out of it what you put in. I did the in person 16-week course with about 16 other people and I think the support and accountability of a small group like this is key. Yes, the first week or two is hard, but my body has changed and I know I can get back on track if I gain a few pounds back. I have formally done WW, Jenny Craig and some random things and this is the only one where I have kept the weight off, which I believe is because of the brain training and mindfulness that they teach. I disagree with the comment that this diet isn’t easy to follow. No diet is easy to follow; you must sustain the changes you learn otherwise, you are just dieting all the time. This diet was the easiest to follow for me of any that I have tried.
The diet works to some degree but not at the rate it purports. I think one guy in our class lost weight rapidly but he was training for a marathon.
I was probably an average person in terms of weight loss – about 20 pounds in 4 months. In hindsight, I probably could’ve lost that on Weight Watchers, and not gone through the restrictions and rigorous eating rules (6 meals daily, eating every 2-4 hours). That being said, I learned some habits that have stuck with me.
The group support started out being helpful but many of the exercises seemed juvenile over time – like being asked to carry around a bag of candy for a week without eating any. It felt like the author of the diet ran out of ideas.
My biggest criticism, however, revolved around the diet coach. Most of the participants came to class with severe challenges and traumas. The diet coach, who I thought would be a doctor or at least a nutritionist, given that that was a hospital-based program, was a young “life coach,” with little emotional intelligence or empathy. Participants often were crying, overwhelmed by life experiences that resulted in weight gain.
Really what’s needed is a doctor and a psychologist – if not hosting every week, at least on a visiting basis. The life coach was ill-equipped to handle the issues faced by the participants. And, for the large price tag of this program, we all deserved more.