Annoying Features: Here’s the list.
- The preachy tone.
- The constant references to the New York way of doing things.
- The 1980s-era workout program.
- The micromanagement of your eating life.
- Emphasis on body weight.
- Confusing appearance – such as having a “perky butt” – with health.
- Kirsch’s constant negative references to food and his obsession with exercise; almost everything is “bad” for you and you really should exercise 90 minutes a day, every day.
- The boringness of the book.
Most Outrageous Claim: Kirsch is of the opinion that people need to exercise 45-90 minutes a day, every day. This is nonsense. This obsession with exercise is unhealthy and unproductive. Working out this much sacrifices quality for quantity and guarantees that you get the least out of your exercise. For those folks who don’t have this block of time to devote to exercise, Kirsch recommends performing several ten minute workouts during the day. This kind of approach results in people obsessing over exercise.
Say Something Nice: On page 25 Kirsch provides a good summary of why low-fat diets wound up making a lot of people fatter.
Bottom Line: Reading the Ultimate New York Diet was a joyless, mind-numbingly dull experience. Trying to implement this program would be just as boring, but with the added misery of being ravenous during every waking moment. This program would have the effect of replacing the addiction to over-eating with the compulsion to exercise and the obsession with every morsel of food that a person puts in their mouth; neither is good. Life is too short to live this way.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
2 - Carrie
David makes it very clear that this should only be done for two weeks. Since you read so much of the book, you should have read that as well. It's just a quick fix. No one said to live by this book for the rest of your life. People,,,,,,,,,,it works!!!