Suzanne Somers' Eat Great, Lose Weight: Eat All the Foods You Love in "Somersize" Combinations to Reprogram Your Metabolism, Shed Pounds for Good, and Have More Energy Than Ever Before

Everyone I know seems to be on this diet. My relatives are all dropping pounds and swear by "Somersizing." Suzanne Somers discovered this diet while seated in a garden in a medieval French village. That tells me it must be a great diet! I love France. After finishing a delicious dinner, she stood up and picked some cherries from a tree overhead. Her host told her that would cause indigestion and keep her up all night. It turned out to be true and she discovered the centuries-old theory of food combining. This dictates that certain foods must never be eaten together. This diet allows proteins and fats to be eaten together, but never with carbohydrates. Her plan is low in sugar and carbohydrates, but permits all sorts of fruits. Fruit must however be eaten on an empty stomach. Vegetables, bread, cereal and pasta may never be eaten with fats or proteins. She has tried all the other diets and finally found one that worked for her. When she hit 40, her metabolism slowed down and she was getting fewer and fewer results. She finally tried food combining and it worked. She lost 20 lbs. She believes sugar was the enemy. She recommends going cold turkey the first week you are on her diet. She also recommends exercise. One thing she says is that you should give yourself at least a few weeks to start seeing the results. Her plan includes: Eliminating sugar, starch, white flour, caffeine and alcohol. You must eat fruit alone on an empty stomach. Proteins can be eaten with cheese, butter and vegetables. Pasta may be eaten with veggies. You must wait three hours between meals if switching from a protein/fat meal to a carbohydrate meal or vice versa. Eat at least three meals a day and don't skip meals. It sounds simple until you have to give up your buttered toast with jam and tea! I am going to try the fruit idea for sure and try to incorporate more of her ideas. I already hardly eat sugar because I found Stevia, which tastes so much better than all those artificial sweeteners. So, give this diet a try. My uncle has lost quite a few pounds and swears by food combining. He also loves to eat! ~The Rebecca Review

Best diet still !!! All these years later. Still the easiest to follow and she will never die !!! Yo this day. I still use it when I gain a couple and got many more to lose weight. Did this 35 years ago. Lost 30. In 30 days. Now at my age. I’ll lose 15 in 30 days. Will not show. Keep doing. Don’t stop. One day you wake up and the weight is just gone !!! Like it melted overnight !!!!!!!

My sister-in-law recommended this book to me after she lost thirty pounds. A lot of the rules and concepts made sense and Suzanne thoroughly explained her research. I had tried many diets and knew I couldn't cut out carbs altogether, I also knew I couldn't starve myself. This book offered a realistic approach and it requires prep work but it's doable. The turkey meatloaf was my favorite recipe, I make it quite often. The only reason I gave 4 stars was a lot of the deserts call for Splenda and I'm not a fan of the taste.

I bought this book over 11 years ago. I have tried many, many diet and exercize plans in my life. This way of eating is not as easy as some, but it makes you feel great and lose weight. At times, I have gone off the diet for long a short periods of time. I never feel as good as when I am on it. Before trying the diet, and each time that I have gone off it, I have had this painful and embarassing problem. When I eat starches mixed with proteins and fat in one meal, (a no no on this diet,) I get terribly bloated and full of gas in the late afternoons and evenings. It's hard to look your best when you look 5 months pregnant and have horrible gas pains! The diet is based upon the way that some of the French eat. We think that they go crazy on starches because they have bread every day, but in fact, they eat very little starches. In America, we have been taught to have starches at every meal--either pasta, rice, bread, or potatoes. In France, they eat meat or seafood and vegetables. They eat potatoes, but certainly not every day. They eat rice, but not as the main part of the meal, usually. They eat pasta, but usually not the main part of the meal, unless perhaps if they are eating Italian. I just recently went off it for a few months. It's summer and I wanted my German Potato Salad and pasta and macaroni salads. Well, I have suffered! Some nights I have to stay up until 2 AM to get rid of all the unwanted gas that eating that way produces. You see, if you mix proteins and fats with starches and sugar, your body can't digest the mixture easily. Each of the two types of foods, proteins and fats, AND starches and sugars, are treated differently by the digestive system. Acids are used for one type of food and bases(alkalines) for the other. I can never remember which is which. Well, when you mix acids and alkalines together, they neutralize each other. So, you are left with a system full of undigested food that has the time to decay in your body, giving you gas a bloating. As in the diet, fruit should only be eaten on an empty stomach. It digests so quickly that way. If you mix it with any other food, it will keep the entire mass in the body too long (because the other foods take a much longer time to digest than fruit) which will cause really bad bloating and gas. Do you really think that being bloated with gas and having terrible indigestion is what we are supposed to have every day? Mixing proteins and fats with starches and sugars and eating fruit combined with other foods will cause stomach troubles. Yes, a sandwich tastes good, so does pizza, but suffering for it later is not good. There are alternatives. Sandwiches can be eaten with lettuce leaves taking the place of the bread. I have eaten tuna salad, egg salad, meat, BLT's, and Steak-ums with this way. It is a bit messy, but very good and good for you. In another of her diet books, Suzanne has a delicious pizza recipe. The "crust" is made with cream cheese, parmesan cheese, and eggs. I have had many people try it and I have had to demand that they leave some for me! I even have found some recipes for cake using no flour! They use whipped egg whites instead. And they aren't diet recipes, either. I have found that if I eat meat, cheese, eggs, and non-starchy vegetables, I can eat all I want, all day long as often as I want, and lose weight.

Suzanne writes with great enthusiasm and has some tasty recipes; but like any diet that is built on food combining, you really have to watch your step! Being allowed proteins + fats at some meals (no carbs) and carbs only at other meals can lead to abuse, especially when she says eat until you are satisfied! I made a quick start with 3 lbs. off the first week, and then plateaued (my fault, I know, from eating too many cheese during my proteins + fats meals). The upside is, she recommends and has lots of recipes for veggies, plus her stricture to eliminate all refined foods assures very few spikes in blood sugar levels. Many doctors are now touting the necessity to avoid sugars and refined foods as a means of dealing with insulin resistance, and Suzanne's diet did that years ago! So it's a good idea, but very dependent on the dieter's discipline.

It's a good plan and if you stick to it, you do lose weight and it's also healthy... I don't ever get feeling bloated or tired when I eat the way described in this book.

Love Love Love. This book and Suzzane Somers.. Thank you sooooooo much..

I bought this book after seeing Suzanne on a daytime TV show. She gave a demonstration of a recipe, and it looked pretty good - Turkey with a rich wine and butter sauce. I had look at her web site and read some reviews of the books, most of which were positive (a couple of which weren't) and thought "Why not?". I started on 03 September 2001, by 25th November I have lost almost 40lbs without having to starve myself. I do miss some of the 'funky' baddies - potatoes, risotto, alcohol, coffee/tea; but it is a small price to pay for such astounding results. I now weigh less than I have in 8 years and great side effects of eating so much fresh salad and veggies have been better skin (spots and dry patches are a thing of the past) and increased energy levels. I agree with Somers' take on this not being to much a 'diet' as an 'eating plan'. If you're ready to take control of your eating habits I recommend this as an ideal way to start. The really great features are: great food, plenty of it and no measuring. It is easy to eat out or at home without having to worry about counting points, calories, or carbs or having to have a 'special' meal whilst the rest of the family eats something decent. Essentially a reduced carb diet, it may not be for everyone, but without sounding like I'm on Somers' payroll - I say "Go on! Try it. All you have to lose is the blubber."

best recipes, bought this book as replacement to same book due to water damage, use it all the time

Brilliant book, read it years ago but couldn’t track down my copy. Best eating plan to lose weight!! Very well written in friendly manner. Good recipes too. Recommended