Das Speck-weg Programm: So haben wir zusammen 60 Kilo abgenommen

by India Knight, Neris Thomas, Isabella Bruckmaier (Übersetzer)

Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet Knight, India and Thomas, Neris

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Food, Self Help, Reference

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

India Knight is a British journalist. Her novels have been translated into 28 languages.

Knight, a native French speaker, lived in Brussels until about the time she turned nine. After migrating to the United Kingdom, she was educated in London. She was awarded an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, where she read Modern Languages from 1984-1987, before starting her career in journalism.

In addition to writing for and contributing to major British magazines and newspapers, India Knight writes a prominent weekly column for The Sunday Times. She is also a regular guest on British radio and television.

After writing an article in The Sunday Times about her daughter's special needs - her youngest child has DiGeorge syndrome.

Knight lives in London with her three children.

Reviews

[Reb · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are a vegetarian like me do not bother buying this book as the diet revolves around meat, meat, fish and more meat. There are some interesting sections about why and how people overeat, but they also go on and on about how if you cock up even once you will have ruined the whole diet and have to start again. What a load of rubbish! I am also highly suspicious of Neris and India's 'after' photo in which they are both wearing M&S Magicwear dresses - basically the whole-body equivalent of the control girdle! THEY ARE STILL FATTIES!!!

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently my Anglophilia extends to reading diet books written by chatty middle-aged Brits, provided I see same on the NEW shelf at the library. I can't figure myself out sometimes.

Disclaimer: I am not a dieter, nor do I intend to be.

The tone of the book was convinced and evangelical regarding the Low Carb Way. The authors are also more than passing fond of stranglingly tight control knickers, the mere thought of which gives me the heebie-jeebies. That being said, I read the whole book. More for the chatty, girlfriendly tone than for the unsupported nutritional assertions.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing new here in terms of diet/food information. What is new is the refreshing "voice" of the authors -- both of whom were overweight.

There is less in-your-face bitchery than Skinny Bitch.

[Shelly Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a serial dieter for all my life (now 50) I have tried everything from drugs to starvation. I'm just completing the first week of this diet and I'm feeling really good about it. The book is easy to read and understandable, the advice clear and concise and it really does make me feel that I'm being supported by friends who want me to succeed. Check with me again when I've got to my target weight about what I think of this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a humorous recount of how Neris and India, 2 friends battling middle-age spread, followed a low-carb diet together and lost 5 stone each. I really liked the way it was written and I shared many thoughts, feelings and emotion around food with the authors. The diet is strict (and some say too harsh to be realistic) and it can seem to extreme - will I ever be able to eat cake again? - but when you are morbidly obese maybe you need something strict to keep you in line. I'm an all-or-nothing serial dieter so I enjoyed the challenge this diet set. I lost 5 and a half pounds in the first week and I enjoyed using the book as a daily companion to keep me on track and motivated.

"What we wanted was to find a way of eating that was on one hand very straightforward - no calorie counting, no points, no having to think too hard - and on the other hand incredibly detailed." Page 9

[Khushboo Sood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never did follow the diet - this WOE is ketogenic and not something i can subsist on. but the authors have been very frank and amusing in their tales of dieting. They are two normal people who actually went on a strict (for some) diet, and have given a day by day account of their experience. The wordplay truly is reminiscent of talking to your girlfriends about your weight issues and the continuing conversations to cheer you.
Would highly recommend as a self-help diet fiction :D

[Sarah-Jayne Windridge-France · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely relaxed approach to losing some timber.

Light hearted fun and ever so slightly ridiculous.

My Mum loved this book!

[Donna Ciriello · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. There were some good tips in here.

[Boadicea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this in 2008 and just rediscovered it. Did not age well.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read a lot of diet books. This is the first one written by someone who actually followed the diet. Neris and India are not dieticians, health experts, doctors, or any other expert on losing weight. What they are, is two women who were overweight and tried multiple diets until they found something that worked for them. What they came up with is basically a modified Atkins/South Beach diet that puts you through a heavy carb detox the first two weeks.

The language is frank – sometimes a little too frank (if you’re opposed to the “f” word, skip a couple pages), but you don’t doubt their sincerity. They are honest about their struggles and about how hard it is to lose weight. In the diet portion of the book, they are also honest about how they felt each day of the diet, including constipation, cravings, and generally feeling like crap. But they did lose weight – nearly 140 pounds between the two of them.

I have to admit reading this book was almost as entertaining as reading a novel. It is honest and pulls no punches. If I have any issues with it, they are because of the printing and some of the language. The language is noted above. Though realistic, it is disconcerting. The other issue is the colorization of the pages. The print is normal size black print but the pages are anything but normal white. They range from off white to dark gray. The darker the pages, the harder they are to read. Eyestrain is a definite possibility while attempting to read, especially when light is less than optimal. The publisher should pay less attention to cute marketing ploys and more attention to readability.

So, if you want a realistic book based on low or no-carb diet and you’ve got excellent eyesight, this is a definite book for you. It will tell you what’s going on and help you through the worst days to a new you. But as

[Angela Mcclanahan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book not very helpful for me. I would say it may be helpful if you are planning on doing an atkins diet as they want you to cut out all carbs for your first two weeks and then ease them back in. Then you gradually move to an organic diet filled with healthy foods in moderation. I can see that the intial 2 weeks may help "jump start" your weight loss but I have never heard this to be a healthy option.

The authors state they give you help on dressing but they mostly just repeatedly told you to where Spanks, so you can go down a size right away and not to wear black. I found the black comments odd as 90% of their photo's are all in black. More frustrating I found that about 75% of the photo's are all "before" photos. I don't want to see them fat, I know what is like to be fat. I want to see what you look like now. I want to see how I should dress by examples of what you are wearing. Honestly I think my favorite was on page 198 that shows you 4 pics of what not to wear including turtlenecks, black, "mary-poppins" clothes (whatever that means,) and COLOR. I don't understand. I am not supposed to wear black but you want me to "break up with color" what exactly would I wear then? Unfortunately the book does not help with this.

The first 60 pages are slightly helpful. They have you write down what you like about yourself and think about why you are fat and how to overcome these things. But anything past page 60 is a waste of time.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a wonderfully informal books which started off really well, addressing emotional eating and other topics that other diet books skim over. Then it revealed itself to be an atkins/south beach style diet with very expensive eating options. A normal Brit living on minimum wage cannot afford that amount of organic produce, that much meat and all those supplements.
Then there is the dubious nature of the results.
India and Neris, for all their amazing chatty open writing and brutal honesty, don't really seem to be telling the truth. Their picture in the book for example - I couldn't really tell which were the before and which were the after. The 'after' photos show them in figure hugging dresses which could easily be hiding various types of fat pants designed to suck you in. Their photographs were taken at weird angles which seemed to make their faces slimmer but without direct side by side comparisions of before and after, it was so difficult to see more than a tiny bit of difference between the two - and as I said, fat pants make that much difference. Another thing - they tired their hair back in the fat photos but had their hair styled around their faces in the 'after' shots. Again, clever photo trickery to give the illusion of weightloss.
I enjoyed reading it, but don't think I will be following their plan. Too expensive and not enough evidence of the results.
Even those readers before and after shots on their website (frompigtotwig.com) don't seem that different.

[Lynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This means I have to actually start the diet now, right?!

**Update** I never did. I decided not to bother as the diet is VERY restrictive for the first fortnight, and I'd been suffering from some (still as yet!) unexplained health issues for quite a while and thought I'd better not do anything as severe as this until I was better. It's a very middle class type of diet, free range and organic ingredients are seen as essential! I also didn't like the way some of it made the feminist in me angry, yes I'm overweight and that's bad for me in general, but it seemed quite judgemental sometimes, although it was obviously trying soooooo hard not to be! In the end, the sub-title of the book, 'from pig to twig' really pissed me off. I don't want to be a twig! Most 'normal' (what is normal anyway?!) women are not twigs, and just because someone is overweight doesn't automatically mean they are a pig...health issues anyone?

I read this book thoroughly from cover to cover, and was pretty determined I was going to give it a go, but I'm glad I didn't! YES I am still overweight but that's my issue, nobody else's! I'm more interested in finding sensible meals and solutions than going to extremes to try and be 'a twig'.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's basically a no-carb diet, starting off like Atkins, South Beach, etc. They claim upfront that they know nothing about nutrition (though they did get their cholesterol, etc checked and it actually went down), which is one reason I wouldn't follow this to a T. They also state that most people who write diet books don't know what it's like to be fat or have issues with food; while there are tons of books out there, I have read several written by recovering fatties and people with real food issues.

What I did like about the book was the tone - it was very girlfriendy and pleasant. I wanted to hear more about Neris' struggles and cheating; what made her finally stop? They do give you advice for dealing with tempting/difficult situations, and I thought that their advice for dealing with food issues was head-on. I don't know if you can lose weight long-term without dealing with that.

The diet was fairly easy to follow, but I'd recommend this as a companion to a more medically-based, better researched eating plan. Also, I thought they dealt with excercise a little late in the book, and they didn't give as much fashion/appearance advice as they seemed to promise.

[Abbey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically this book is a story about how these women did the Atkins diet and lost like 70 pounds. But, I actually loved the book for any woman on a diet. Dieting is very alienating. As soon as you tell even your closest friend that you are on a diet its like you moved to a foreign country. This book is a kind of "girlfriends guide." You really feel like India is your friend (she seems to write most of the book). She is honest and loving. The first 70 pages are about how they got fat and stayed fat in the first place. It's like getting counseling for your own fat problems. I found myself saying, "I say the exact thing to myself!!" Or, "I never really thought about it like that." Plus, the book is pink and it looks like a diary. It even has one of those strings that keep your place in the book... like a diary... or The Bible... lol... I recommend anyone with weight issues to read the book. It was actually fun (and dieting and fun rarely fall into the same category).

[Saritha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was scouting books on Change Management and thought the best place to look would be a book on weightloss. This one popped up at the library and turned out to be darned good research material.

Basically, this is a low carb diet and has been written in a sort of join-the-dots manner where if you do everything the authors tell you to do,and you do it exactly the way they tell you, you're bound to lose weight and look fabulous. This proceeds initially day-by-day, then a weekly guide comes in once the momentum has been built.

It's a good 'how-to' written in an interesting voice that basically tells you, 'Been there, done that, here are the learnings.' That tone alone - a friendly mixture of big sis and best friend - is worth reading as it's balanced perfectly, sounding neither condescending, nor particularly cautious.

A lot of the resources listed are UK-centric, but the advice is pretty universal.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have never done the low carb diet, so when I saw this book it looked like a great way to get some weight off, try to kick my addiction to sugar, and have a good laugh reading the frequent witty comments found throughout. Well I had a good laugh. I've followed their instructions to a tee for two weeks now and I have lost a few pounds AND inches, which is great. The not so great part is that it has played havoc with my blood sugar and I find myself thinking I'm going to tip over half the time. Their statement that after day five you'll feel better than you ever have is subject to interpretation apparently. They have good ideas, and have had success with their efforts, but I think I'll do some modifying of my own of this diet. If you want a fun read, go for it. Other than that I would say it's questionable.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the author's voice in this book - the British sense of humor came through loud and clear - and frequently caused me to laugh-out-loud. However, it's greatest asset was the manner in which it addressed common food issues and reasons why people overeat - and gave much more attention to this subject than any other "diet" book I've ever read/browsed/glanced at. I would have appreciated a bit more scientific explanation behind their reasons for "eat these foods during this phase", other than the fact that they studied many diets and pieced together the best aspects of all of them to create the perfect diet.
Overall, the diet itself is working well for me, and even better for my significant other.

[Gina Boyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's the thing: I have no idea whether I have the stones (or the money, frankly--because if I'm doing it, I'm going local/organic/grass-fed all the way) to try any version of a low-carb diet, but if I *were* to try one, this would be it. Why? Because Knight is a funny writer. She's foul-mouthed and over forty, and I like that in someone who wants me to share something. Plus, even though both women look fantastic now [they've lost (and kept off) a total of 140 pounds], neither one of the women is a stick. They look healthy and fit and confident and wonderful, and who doesn't want to look like that?

Even if I never go a day without toast, I'm glad I read this book.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was amused by all of the cute British terms and the light writing and the whole style of the book. Then I got to some of the rules, which they said they cherry picked from other weight loss programs for themselves. Great idea, but they weren't for me. I'm a Weight Watchers believer, so I'm not much for the never drink anything but coffee, tea, or water again. That would never do. Some good all-around tips in the book, but I wouldn't even attempt to follow it to the letter. I don't think one size really fits all for weight loss.

[Lucy Nickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the (unintentionally) funniest books around. Eat cheese with a side of cheese. People at funerals may look at you oddly whilst you are scooping out just the centres of quiche. You can still eat out, go to pizza express but only eat the cheese topping. India Knight herself has since said she's grown up and this was all a load of rubbish and she now eats normally. 3 stars for the humour not the actual diet.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haven't finished the whole book, but I've read enough. This is a good, interesting take on diets. Rarely does a book on dieting call you "fat". Yes, it might be true, but most authors don't go out of the way to say so and then ask how you got that way. There was lots of sharing and some tough love as

[Juliette Morris Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Common sense stuff written with honesty and a lot of humour. Think of Edina writing this while Patsy sits at the counter with champagne. I'm not one to read diet books, but after reading another of Knight's books I thought I'd give it a try. And I'm actually going to give the plan a try as well. :)

[Spook Sulek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't expect much from the reviews, intro, and fact that the pages were multi-colored, but actually got some good ideas from this one that I think will stick with me. The stuff (lies) we tell ourselves and are encouraged to believe by advertisers about how 'fun' food is, the fat friend myths, the friendly diet saboteurs...gleaned much from this silly book!

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just another low-carb diet book, and the authors admittedly know squat about nutrition. Don't waste your money or your time. And a note to the authors: losing weight IS as easy as eat less and exercise more.

[Brendon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book, not necessarily for the specific diet that they recommend, but for the way they talk about weight loss and all the mental/emotional things that go with it. They have good days and bad days; they cheat and get back on track; and they tell us all about it.

[Amy Matthes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish more diet or food books were written this way. I truly enjoyed reading this book, and the author's voices were fresh and interesting. It was a good jump-start read for me to get back to eating right!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading this: cheeky British humo(u)r and witty illustrations. Have yet to put plan into action, but still: a fun read.

[Pauline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is just a slight variation of the Atkins or Southbeach plan. I am a vegetarian and it will not work for me to eat all the meat they suggest... blheck

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book pretty easy to follow and love that you use real full calorie foods and love the sarcasm of the authors.