The Plan diet book, written by Lyn Genet, was a New York Times bestseller, and was written to educate people on why they actually are gaining weight. The author claims it is not from the typical foods you would expect, like carbohydrates and too large of portions overall, but from certain foods that have been labeled as healthy. This includes turkey, eggs, tomatoes, cauliflower, and beans. Because everyone’s body chemistry is different, they are going to gain weight with different foods. Health issues with weight gain are inflammation, digestive distress, premature aging, depression, and joint pain. [1] This book has been translated into eight different languages for people all over the globe to enjoy. 

The program is twenty days long in total and it gives you detailed meal plans, advice, and recipes to follow while you are going through the book. The author claims the reader can lose up to a half of a pound each day throughout the twenty days, all while enjoying foods you like to eat. This might be a large and far fetched claim, especially because many people enjoy processed and fatty foods that will not help them with losing weight. While reading through the book, it is said that you will be able to easily identify what your trigger foods are and identify the symptoms that cause your weight gain. Finally, the book supposedly teaches you how to create a personalized healthy snack list, which will make you feel less sluggish and bloated overall. 

Author Lyn Genet Recitas believes weight gain is nothing more than your body’s chemical reaction to food once it is digested. Foods are not considered “good” or “bad”, rather they are considered “friendly” or “reactive.” Even the time of day you are eating might have an effect on weight loss, so there are many moving parts when looking into the nuts and bolts of this program. There are three different phases you go through when reading this diet book, and I will explain them and break them down below.  

About The Phases of The Plan

The Plan diet is indeed a diet, as there are many different tests and restrictive foods you must adhere to when going through your 20+ days. It is recommended that you aim for at least 10 grams of protein at breakfast, 15-40 grams at lunch, and then 70 at dinner time. It is not recommended that you cut out calories, but the testing as you will see below is the most important part of the book. [2] 

Phase 1

This is the 3 day detox phase where you will create a set baseline for your body to start the diet from. You will be testing your body the second and third day, but not the first, when it comes to different foods.

According to Chewfo,  

“You start out with flax seeds, blueberries, coconut milk or rice milk, carrots, zucchini, onion, beets, kale, shiitake mushrooms, butternut squash, broccoli, mixed greens, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, broccoli with orange oil and lemon juice, pear, apple, citrus zest (orange oil or lemon oil), 1 teaspoon of brown sugar / honey / agave nectar per serving. Day 2:  Almonds and rice. Test raw, unsalted almonds (a handful), and brown rice (a cup for women, 1 ½ cups for men). Day 3: Chickpeas, chicken, roasted vegetables. Test low-sodium chickpeas (1/2 cup), baked chicken without salt (2-3 ounces for women, 4 ounces for men), and roasted vegetables (1 cup for women, 2 cups for men).” [2]  

Phase 2

This phase is best known as the testing phase where you will figure out whether certain foods are friendly or reactive to your weight loss. It lasts for 17 days, in which the 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, and 20th day you will not test anything out but let your body reset. Some examples of testing days would be to test a new restaurant, vegetable, protein, or even meal for breakfast to see how your body reacts to the foods.  

Phase 3

This is simply testing on your own and it goes past the 20 day mark. By this point in time you should have a variety of friendly foods you know your body agrees with, as well as know the reactive foods that sets your body off. You can still test new foods out in as much or as little as you need to in order to maintain the weight loss, or to keep on losing weight.  

For all of the phases, it is really important you stay hydrated and use only approved spices from the diet plan. It is also good to mention that sweets and treats are always tests, no matter what phase you are completing. While the book says you can indulge in whatever foods you want, there are still a ton of rules and guidelines to follow. For example, it is not recommended that you eat more than 1 serving a day of dense carbs and you have to limit fresh fruit to only 1 serving per day. As you can see, there are rules to follow, and the book’s advertisements do not make that apparent to the reader up front.  

Word On The Street About The Plan

The whole goal behind this diet book is to teach people how to create eating plans for themselves, and still maintain their weight or lose weight. It is not recommended that a dieter exercise more than 30 minutes a day on this program, and the type of exercise you do also needs to be “tested.” So what did actual customers have to say about how well this plan worked for their weight loss and overall health? Planning food intake each day can be time consuming, let alone having to do different tests for almost three weeks time. Is it doable? Lyn Recitas wrote this book with a no mess around mentality, and expects her customers to approach the eating plan the same way.  

Krista (2017, 3 star),  

“Great book in theory. Maybe if I was single and had time to cook just for me. So many recipes! Spent all day in the kitchen making myself foods and then foods for my kids because they really didn't like the foods. I thought they were okay and I like the ideas of the book. I do take time to listen to my body after eating foods. I didn't lose weight but maybe it's because I was more stressed with the family cooking then just being able to focus.” [3]  

Krit (2015, 3 star),  

“If you want to find out what foods may be irritating an inflammatory condition, and you tried everything else, you may find this helpful. If you want to lose a few pounds the 8 glasses of water, fresh greens, raw cooked veggies each lunch and dinner and 75 grams of fiber daily she recommends will work for you without all the “testing”.” [4]  

Robert (2013, 1 star),  

“I purchased ALL the ingredients and prepared ALL the food, the food is AWFUL!!!!!! I eat plenty of healthy food so I am no stranger to the taste of different foods but these recipes are awful. I know that you are supposed to be hungry but I was hungry all the time. Too bad I was hoping it would help with my thyroid condition.” [5]  

The Bottom Line: Is The Plan Worth A Read?

Yes. This book has a lot of good points you can take and run with, but it will take some work, that is for sure. For those who liked the diet program, they felt like the meal plans were truly customizable to their personal needs. For those who did not like the diet program, it was clear that the rules were too strict, it was too time consuming to test, and it was not family friendly, which can be hard if you are in charge of cooking for multiple people. Because everyone’s bodies are different, this could pose a hang up if you are taking care of more people than just yourself. There were no huge red flags that made this book seem dangerous by any means, so overall there is not a real risk involved in trying it out.