Eat More, Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish's Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly

by Dean Ornish

You really can eat more and weigh less -- if you know what to eat. As this groundbreaking book clearly shows, it's not just how much you eat, it's primarily what you eat. Most diets rely on small portion sizes to reduce calories sufficiently. You feel hungry and deprived. Dr. Ornish's program takes a new abundance rather than deprivation. If you change the type of food, you don't have to be as concerned about the amount of food. You can eat whenever you're hungry , eat more food -- and still lose weight and keep it off. Simply. Safely. Easily. In this book, you'll find 250 gourmet recipes from the country's most celebrated chefs. Unlike high-protein diets that may mortage your well-being, Dr. Ornish's diet and lifestyle program is scientifically proven to help you lose weight and gain health. People not only keep off the weight, they lower their cholestoral and reduce their chances for getting heart disease and such other illnesses as breast, prostate, and colon cancer; diabetes; osteoporosis; and hypertension. Dr. Ornish's program has given millions of people new hope and new choices.

Genres: Health, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food, Nutrition, Diets, Reference

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Dean Ornish is an American physician and researcher. He is the president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a well-known advocate for using a plant-based diet and healthy lifestyle changes to treat and prevent heart disease.

Dean Ornish earned a B.A. in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address. He received his M.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine, he was a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Reviews

[Thomas Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heart doctor prescribes ultra-low-fat diet to reverse coronary-artery disease. For those of us without blocked arteries on our hearts, ultralow-fat may not be the healthiest diet long term. I lost 30 lb. in 3 months on the diet in 1995, without intending to lose weight--but I didn't feel right. Just-add-boiling-water nonfat soups and rice cakes must lack something. (The author's recipes tend toward unrealistically gourmet.)

For the low-carb, intermittent-fasting approach, see the books by
Richard K. Bernstein
Jason Fung
Jeff Volek
Jacob Wilson
Gary Taubes
Ivor Cummins
Richard MacArness
Megan Ramos
Robert Atkins
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[ضحى الحداد · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept of this book is amazing .. since reading " The Starch Solution by Dr. John Mcdougall " and " The Secret to ultimate weight loss by Chef AJ " I went fat-free whole plant based vegan and my health is thanking me for it, I saw a couple of Dr. Ornish speeches in YouTube and for some reason I don't get convinced by his arguments until I hear someone else say them !!
the book itself is nice and I would try some of the recipes, and I liked the chapters about meditation and the importance of reaching out for love .. but maybe because the book is old ( it was published in the mid 80's ) the writing style didn't sit well with me
you can give it a try if you want but I would recommend other books above this one for a similar yet simpler approach

[Maryanne]

Eat More, Weigh Less will speak directly to all those folks who have been struggling to feel better, achieve a healthful weight and gain more energy while trying to sort through the conflicting, confusing onslaught of dietbook information. Dr. Dean Ornish suggests an eating lifestyle not a diet, based on whole, unprocessed grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes including soy, and nonfat dairy foods that is easy to follow, abundant in variety, and packed with nutrients. The book contains great recipes and cooking tips from nationaly known chefs, that are easy to follow and include nutrient information so that you know exactly what you are eating. While fat is not used in the recipes, wonderful flavor is created from the garlic, herbs, spices and combinations of ingredients. One is able to eat well and feel satisfied without indulging in high fat, high calorie foods, and without feeling deprived or hungry. The only limiting factor to enjoying this type of eating would be one's imagination! This is a wonderful resource for anyone who is pursuing good health, an increased sense of energy and well being, and an expanded repetoire of delicious recipes!

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very, very restricted diet, yet very much not a fad diet. It's actually backed by science, and Doctor Ornish actually is well known in the medical community for being able to reverse blockages to the heart using diet, instead of surgery or drugs. So this actually isn't snake oil, but rooted in science, and the focus of the diet isn't actually losing weight, but getting healthy. The down side? Well, this diet bans meat, poultry, fish and seafood--which may be fine for vegetarians, but hard on the rest of us. He also bans avocados and nuts and seeds--which would also be hard on vegetarians. And is arguably unnecessary, because as noted in a review of the diet on WebMD:

Frank Hu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health, is critical of how severely fat is limited on the diet. "The data from numerous studies show that it is the type of fat, rather than the total amount, which is related to cardiovascular health," he says. "Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils actually protect against cardiovascular incidents." For example, Hu says, Ornish advocates limiting the consumption of fish and nuts, and Hu adds, "There is strong evidence that the fat in them is protective against coronary heart disease in both epidemiological studies and clinical trials."

Translation--salmon and walnuts and avocados are good for you! Still, this is much, much healthier than most diets out there, it doesn't require calorie counting, and even if you decide not to rigidly follow it, this book offers tasty and healthy recipes for Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Main Courses and Side Dishes, Pasta, Pizza, Bread, Rice and other grain dishes and Desserts. So recommended, even if with a grain of the proverbial salt.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life Choice Program:
Food to eat: beans and legumes, fruits, grains, and vegetables.
Food to eat in moderation: nonfat dairy products and nonfat commercially produced products.
Food to eat rarely: meat, oils, avocados, olives, nuts/seeds, high/low-fat dairy, sugar, and alcohol. Alcohol is high in calories and your body turns it into simple sugars. Also, alcohol reduces your body's ability to burn fat by one third. Reduce salt intake (to help reduce water retention). Limit caffeine. Diet soda reinforces your taste for fat, sweet, and greasy foods.

Exercising:
Short and intense workouts use carbohydrates for fuel, and some studies show that these workouts may actually decrease your metabolism because when you exercise intensely, you burn up calories so quickly that your body tries to conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism. Long and slow exercise burns body fat for fuel, and it also increases metabolism. Don't yo-yo exercise; make sure you do things that are easy for you to maintain. You should aim to walk for 30-60 minutes each day and do moderate resistance training. By losing fat and gaining muscle, you will increase your metabolism. Make sure it's fun, otherwise you won't continue to do it.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

If the ingredients list for each recipe in this book didn't have 15-20 ingredients or they weren't expensive foods, or if it didn't look like you'd spend literally all your spare time in the kitchen making these healthy meals, it might have been easier for me to be interested in this program; after all, the author has a lot of great points, and really most of it seems like common sense. But I don't have lots of money or lots of time. So I will have to look for something a little more practical for the few pounds it would be nice if I could shed.

[Jeanette (Ms. Feisty) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my introduction to the idea of lowfat/high bulk eating, and for that I will always be grateful. The text portion of the book is easy to read and understand.

Unfortunately, you'd have to have a full-time cook and lots of money to get much use out of the recipes!

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read, but some information is a bit outdated. Overall a pretty rational book on health and nutrition.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

We knew even back then!
From p. 3:
"There is a strong tendency to regain weight, with as much as two-thirds of the weight loss regained within one year of completing the program and almost all by five years. Only 3 percent of those who take off weight keep it off for at least five years. Worse, the 'yo-yo' pattern of going on a diet, losing some weight, and then gaining it back may be more harmful to your health than not going on a diet in the first place."

The rest of this book is exactly what you expect from a diet book written in the early 90s.
Low fat (fat should be 10% of total calories)
Avoid meat, regular fat dairy, etc.
Exercise moderately.
You won't have to count calories if you do the above...
And there are a TON of low-fat recipes included. I haven't tried any of them, so I can't comment much on those.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published when cardiologists were studying the effects of extreme low fat diets on heart disease patients. Ornish was one of the leaders in applying this idea to real people, and he had great success. Hence, the cookbook. A large portion of the book deals with what the research brought to light and the results on real people.

There are many interesting recipes and the ones I tried were all successful. I feel that many might be a bit complicated for everyday meals but part of the study was helping people to re-learn their shopping & cooking habits. Few people have the luxury of that kind of re-training.

[Elise Ardizzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I really enjoyed this book! I’ve lost 10 pounds since reading it and that was simply by altering my diet just a little. 1 month later and I was shocked!

I don’t however like the recipes too much. They ask for a lot of ingredients and spices that aren’t so common or accessible.

Overall, it taught me to eat as many veggies as I want, with any grain, and replace oil for vegetable broth and 0% fat plain yogurt instead of mayo for a creamy base.

Still gunna attempt some recipes!! Found this gem at a value village too 🤘

[Räech Parra · Rating 2 out of 5]

El libro es 3/4 partes recetas y 1/4 bases teóricas.
No envejeció bien y mucho de lo que se relata en semejante libro ya es obsoleto y se ha demostrado de que se ha equivocado en mucho de lo que asevera.
Vale la pena leerla? En base a referencia para algún trabajo (tarea) si, para algún refrigero de media tarde?

[Jbussen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Judy]

A diet book whose main thrust is to eliminate meat and fish. He also presents that benefits of meditation as well as the importance of a good support system.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE PHYSICIAN SUGGESTS IT'S NOT HOW MUCH YOU EAT, BUT WHAT YOU EAT

Dean Michael Ornish (born 1953) is a physician and president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, as well as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He has written other books such as 'The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer, Lose Weight, and Gain Health,' 'Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease,' 'Love and Survival,' etc.

He wrote in the Foreword, "It is true that one can lose weight on just about any diet if calories are restricted and/or energy expenditure is increased (i.e., exercise). There are three major ways of eating fewer calories: 1. Eat fewer calories by eating less food. Count calories, restrict portion sizes, etc. Sooner or later, most people get tired of feeling hungry and deprived, get off the diet, gain the weight back, and blame themselves... 2. Eat foods that are less dense in calories (i.e., lower fat) and higher in fiber (i.e., avoid sugar and other simple carbohydrates... 3. Eat less sugar. When you eat a lot of sugar and other simple carbohydrates, you consume a lot of calories without feeling full." (Pg. xiii-xiv)

He adds, "I wrote [the book] as a doorway for helping people make changes in the name of losing weight that also will help improve health in many other ways. Unfortunately, there has been a resurgence of interest in diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates ... that have the opposite effect... they may mortgage their health in the process... To the best of my knowledge, none of the high-protein diet authors has ever published any studies in any peer-reviewed journals documenting that their approach can help people lose weight safely and keep it off. In contrast, my colleagues and I at the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute have." (Pg. xx-xxi)

He begins the first chapter with the statement, "This book challenges the conventional wisdom. In it, I will present new scientific evidence that you really can eat more and weight less---if you know what to eat. And that it's easier to make big changes in diet than moderate ones---if you know what changes to make." (Pg. 3) He explains, "if you change the TYPE of food, you don't have to reduce the AMOUNT of food. To lose weight, you have to reduce intake of calories. The laws of physics and thermodynamics still apply." (Pg. xxv)

He states, "The diet I recommend is simple: Eat foods that are very low in fat, high in complex carbohydrates, and high in fiber. Avoid foods from animals, which are very high in fat, very low in complex carbohydrates, and very low in fiber... Food from plants... are very low in fat, high in complex carbohydrates, and high in fiber. Because of this, this diet is a low-fat vegetarian way of eating. If you don't want to be a vegetarian and don't have heart disease, then add moderate amounts of fish to your diet." (Pg. 41-42)

He concludes, "In the final analysis, this is a book as much about transformation as on weight loss. Being overweight is not just a physical problem, so it needs to be addressed in a broader context. If you are overweight, then you know what it means to be in emotional pain... we are finding that when people address their emotional and spiritual aspects, then they are more likely to make and to maintain lifestyle choices that are life-enhancing rather than ones that are self-destructive." (Pg. 87)

He also recommends meditation "in whatever form appeals to you" (Pg. 100), and advises, "We don't need more willpower; we need more understanding. You can experience the essence of this understanding... Some call it God, others Self, Allah, Jehovah, Christ, Buddha, Tao, and countless other names." (Pg. 104-105)

[Kathy (McDowell) Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably would have rated this book higher if it wasn't for the most part, a cookbook (250 pages of recipes). Then again, maybe not. I used to be a meat-eater and then suddenly after reading "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman, I went vegan--just like that! I still eat the occasional meal with cheese or fish because it's extremely difficult to go out to eat without eating ANYthing animal-related, and vegan cheese is just gross! But I'm at least 90% vegan and feeling much healthier for doing so.

This book reads like a fad diet book, not a life choice. It started out on a good note, sounding like a vegan-promoting book. However, Dean Ornish's plan for losing weight is to eat NO meat, NO oils, NO fish, and to avoid avocados, nuts, dairy, egg yolks, all sugar, flour, and alcohol as much as possible. That doesn't leave much for the average person to eat. Even a vegan needs to have their nuts, oils and avocados to get the necessary nutrients.

I don't think much, if any, of this book is based on scientific evidence. The only study I noted in the entire book was done on 102 sedentary women, noting that the slow walkers lost more weight than the fast walkers.

Dean does have some good tips to alter your current recipes to cut fat and calories, which is a good idea for all of us. He gets one star for that. Out of the 250 pages of recipes in the book, I saved 9 recipes.

If you love tofu and you want to lose weight on a fad diet, this may be the book for you, but "safely" and "life choice" should not be part of the title.

[Carol Drufke-Zeller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it is a serious life style change to adopt this program, but so far it has more or less been quite advantageous! I have lost 3 lbs in 2 weeks, and inches as well, which I have recorded each week, and will continue to do so. I have pledged 30 lbs to Biggest Loser's Feed America food bank program. I truly feel Dr. Ornish has nothing but wonderful and helpful information in this book. It is a matter of choosing a new lifestyle and adapting to it. Some take to it right away and love it. A bit more difficult for me, but we are learning and adding new dishes as we go along. It is hard with a very thin teen and a husband who can maintain his weight without much difficulty, because we all need different fat and calorie amounts, and my son and husband aren't into it taking control over their health. So, the burden falls to me, and it also takes away from what I'm doing. But I'm doing the best I can. This way of eating has addresses many moral, medical and modern society issues, it opens your mind to where we are as a culture, and how we can help ourselves and the environment at the same time.

[Lyvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable book with a lot of good information, but almost every recipe is a gourmet creation requiring lots of ingredients, some very obscure, and lots of prep time. Still, the few recipes I tried were healthy and delicious, and many are easily adapted for vegans, though some recipes do include non-fat dairy products and egg whites.

[Lei Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book 2 years ago. I hadn't had a chance to write back to Dr. Ornish to give him a feedback, but the steps I took really did take a long time as he said he would. Watching what I eat, how much I've eaten and knowing full well what I'm eating has certainly made a significant difference. I've not gained a lot of weight but I've certainly kept the weight I needed it to be.

[Ricki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun read, surprisingly enough! I learned a lot about eating habits, how they are formed and how they can be improved to live more healthfully. He also has some really good recipes, although they can be a little involved.

[Bronwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

will try some of the recipes. liked the recipes and menu ideas.

[Will Craighead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the book that showed me how to cook without fat. It saved me after I spent a week in the hospital with a gallbladder attack.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to his other books this book was exactly what I needed.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

used paperback library book

[scarlet]

This eating program will not only help you lose weight but it will bring down your cholesterol numbers!

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a re-read

[Sundry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it and lived by it for about 5 years.

[Janel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems a little out of date, especially the no fat school of thought.

[HappyRuth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying books written by this author. I read this book on Kindle.