Eat Less, Live Longer: Your Practical Guide to Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition

by Anca Ioviţă

• You found out about the calorie restriction experiments on many animal species and you wonder whether it would work in humans too.
• You made up your mind to safely try restricting your daily calories for a possible slowing of aging and a longer lifespan.
• You understand the importance of getting an appropriate quantity of nutrients, yet you have no idea how to make good choices in food stores and restaurants.
• You may have a chronic disease or you may be in a certain stage of your life like childhood, pregnancy, breastfeeding and you wonder whether it is safe to try calorie restriction at all.
• You are more interested in nutritional principles than in counting calories, vitamins, proteins or in following rigid recipes and set menus.
• You wonder whether dietary supplements are necessary at all.
• You wonder whether a magic pill could mimic the effects of calorie restriction.

There is a fine line separating calorie restriction with optimal nutrition from starvation. Don't cross it. Read this book instead.

Genres: Health

132 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2015

About the author

Anca Ioviță is the author of the “Diamond Dust (Poems From the Black Sea)” 5-volume photo book series, as well as three other books on gerontology. Going from arts to humanities to engineering to medicine, this polymath still reads career guides during adulthood, not so much to find the perfect career – which is different at each life stage anyway – but just to get inspired on new things to try and create.

Visit longevityletter.com and sign up for updates on her gerontology books and courses.
Or you can visit marineikebana.com and sign up if you'd like to keep up with what she's working on!

Reviews

[Chikamso Efobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book which came to me at a time when I was already working on making healthy eating choices. It is clear from the book that Anca knows what she is talking about, particularly with regards to calorie counting. While she offers her tips on eating, buying food stuff and even the consumption/relatively restricted consumption of alcohol as personal suggestions backed with research, she is careful to point out that one should not embark on calorie restriction without first making sure they are healthy enough to do so by visiting a doctor and carrying out a basic full body work up.

I will be referring to this book from time to time and highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to start and adopt a commonsense approach to a healthy and conscious lifestyle without the madness that are calorie counting and all the other yo-yo diet plans out there.

[Joseph Hogue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been a healthy person. I exercise quite a bit but have never really been able to shape the body I wanted. I know it’s because I eat just about anything so I’ve looked for books on smart eating and dieting. Most of the books I’ve read have fallen short but Anca’s “Eat Less, Live Longer” had some great information on an idea I had never heard of.

Anca starts off with referencing studies that were started in 1935 that show calorie restriction in lab results increased average lifespan by as much as a third in some animals. Now, I picked up the book on the hope of finally getting my diet right and feeling healthier but living an extra few years would be pretty nice too.

The rest of the book is dedicated to guiding you through what you need to know about calorie restriction and how to set up your own program. Each chapter is finalized with an action step to take, making the process easier to manage and actually follow to the end. She also covers some alternative plans to calorie restriction like fasting and chemical inhibitors.

If there’s one criticism that I have, it’s that there are no images or graphics in the book. The chapters/sections are short at about a page or two each so it doesn’t matter as much in other books where you need something to break up the reading. It just would have been nice to see more pictures of the ideas and tips.

As a personal finance blogger and just plain frugal kind of guy, it’s an added bonus that calorie restriction is great for the budget-restricted as well. Full disclosure, I haven’t worked calorie restriction into my diet for long enough to see how it will turn out but I definitely have the tools now.

[Dheeraj Sankar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A practical book on how to shop for healthy food than about calorie restriction.
A little detail on calorie deficit and how much deficit is healthier would've made this book even more useful.

[Sherilyn Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anca Iovita uses a wide variety of studies and very compelling arguments to show how healthy restriction of calories can not only help with longevity but also helping to prevent age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease or cancer.

She offers extensive information on the types of nutritionally dense foods, how to find them and how to choose the best of them. She challenges readers to expand their food choices and offers ideas for less-known items and how to incorporate them into their daily diets.

This is a realistic look at how to maintain a life-style, not a fad-diet that puts the reader in the yo-yo state of weight loss/weight gain, from someone who is living it and has studied it.

The book combines a mix of complex medical explanations and very easy to follow food choice and preparation, along with practical application suggestions. The complexity will appeal to some, but others may want to have a dictionary close at hand. Personally, I love the challenge to look further into the types of testing Anca suggests for helping to monitor progress and why it is necessary.

I was provided a free copy for my honest review and I believe I can say without bias this book and the information in it deserves the rating I've given it, if not more.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was informative but I was expecting more from it. It is worth reading.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Stella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book doesn't really tell you how to restric your caloroes and how much. It just lists healthy foods and throws in a few recepies. Disappointing.