Low-Calorie Weight Loss Cookbook: The 28-Day Plan to Take Control of Your Health and Weight

All the positive reviews are written by people who received the book for free. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! It’s hard to explain all the things wrong with this book, but I’ll give it a shot.1) The recipes are unnecessarily complex. Example: A breakfast parfait takes 45 minutes to prepare per his instructions.2) The recipes and shopping lists are wasteful. Example: The same parfait sauce makes about 2 cups, but you only need two tablespoons. You throw the rest away. It also requires an orange peel, but there’s no use for the orange. You throw that away also.3) The meals are impractical unless you work from home. Example: Most people can’t access a stove during the workday to make a panini.4) The shopping list for ingredients are incomplete. You wind up missing items you need for the week’s recipes. Example: One recipe requires basil. It’s not on the list. Another calls for applesauce. It’s not on the list either.5) The shopping list and recipes are wasteful. Example: You’re asked specifically to buy a 7oz bag of dried figs. There is exactly one recipe that requires exactly one dried fig from the 7oz bag.The recipes are mediocre at best and not at all filling. There are dozens of other low calorie meal plans that taste better, are simpler to prepare, cost less, and are more filling. I strongly advise you find another book.

A must buy! Manuel is amazing. The program works. The recipes are delicious. If you buy this and follow this, you don’t need any excuses. You will get results and, more importantly, improve your health and enjoy life.

This low-calorie weight loss cookbook could be used as a weight loss guide in general. This book separates itself into two parts: 1. Low-Calorie Living (about 20% of the book), and 2. Low-Calorie Recipes (about 75% of the book). Part 1 outlines the best practices and tips in leading a low-calorie lifestyle. How does weight loss happen? The difference between good and bad fats? How can exercise be integrated in a low-calorie lifestyle? Does a low-calorie lifestyle mean starving yourself and sacrificing part of your regular eating routine (certainly not, according to Villacorta). These questions are answered in decent detail in the first part.Part 2 of the book outlines meal plan weeks, weekly ingredient lists to use in the recipes, and the recipes themselves. Recipes lack pictures, but it should be easy to visualize the results when reading the recipes. Recipes are neatly separated into breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks/desserts, and dressings/sauces.Overall, I'm glad to call this book a guide and a recipe book to leading a low-calorie lifestyle in general.

exercise, diet information and recipes to support it.Author, Manuel Villacorta, is a well known and respected registered dietitian and nutritionist. Unlike other cookbooks, this one has the strong presence of movement and exercise. Villacorta also provides good information about low calorie eating, nutrition and food types. He suggests ways to stock your pantry, foods that will make life easier and cooking methods to support it.A very helpful feature of the book is the 4 week meal plan with its supporting shopping list. The plan includes 3 meals and a snack with calorie counts for each; a great addition! Each recipe takes about 30 minutes from start to finish and includes nutritional values. There are no pictures so the user will need to be good with directions or have some experience or access to someone with it if they have difficulty. Villacorta does provide a few helpful suggestions along the way and none of the recipes are too difficult.All things considered, a good book to start your healthy adventures with📚

I was a bit disappointed with the recipes in this book. I can usually judge a recipe pretty accurately by simply reading it, and these look like they would need a little imagination applied to them. Not exactly bland, but not as interestingly flavored as they could be.I also noticed that there aren't very many photos of the finished recipes. This is something that can help make a recipe nook more interesting. If the photos look good, it makes you want to try to recipes. However, if the recipes are presented well otherwise, photos aren't necessary. I found another book on whole food recipes that also doesn't have many photos, but its recipes look to be much more tasty!The book is mostly a book about how to diet by eating fewer calories. It gives a suggested eating plan and the provides recipes to go along with the eating plan. The book just didn't make me want to try any of the meals or recipes.From what I could see, I think that following the guidance in this book will help the readader to lose weight, but I would prefer to use other recipes.

The principles in this book aren't new and Villacorta's approach isn't revolutionary. Even his SMART Goals have been set out before: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. Where he shines is as a friendly, encouraging, personable coach. When he discusses Portion Sizes, he uses the "Talk to Your Hand" rule -- Fist, Palm Thumb, Three Fingers (see page 7) to estimate serving sizes. He discusses "Fitness Myths" along with "Fueling Your Body Well" in his section on movement and exercises. He includes a Sample Workout Plan and a Week by Week Meal Plan and Shopping Guide in the first 50 pages. The rest of the book is 100 pages of recipes for the Meal Plans, plus References and an Index. My favorite thing about this book is that he starts you from where you are and helps you make changes in how you think about what you're eating: "It's often thought that the rich flavors from your favorite comfort foods are a thing of memory...But not this time, and not in this book." Even if your never make one of the recipes in this book, reading the first 50 pages will inspire you to start making changes in your eating without making you feel intimidated and hopeless about the process. His gift is the ability be so LIKABLE while he helps you see that you CAN do this -- and it won't hurt near as much as you thought it would!