The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet: Review

By Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
WebMD Expert Review

Stuck in a food rut? Frustrated with your weight? Ready to overhaul your diet?

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet promises to reboot your body in just two weeks.

It’s not a fad diet. You just slash 100 calories a day, follow Oz's rules, exercise, and eat healthfully. Do it for a year, and you could lose 12 pounds, Oz says.
The plan is not just about weight loss. It's also about your waist size. The goal of Oz's plan is to lose weight to gain health benefits when you trim inches off your waist.
Your waist size, Oz says, should never be more than half your height. Women should strive for a waist size of less than 35 inches; men less than 40 inches, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet is a free program on the Dr. Oz web site. More information and details are found in You: On a Diet, which Oz wrote with Michael Roizen, MD

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet: Kitchen Purge

First, you must purge your kitchen according to Oz’s rule of 5.
Here's the rule of 5: Throw out food that has any of the following ingredients within the first five ingredients listed on the package:

1. Simple sugars - includes all kinds of sugars and sweeteners
2. Syrups - corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, and maple syrup
3. Enriched flours - any flour other than 100% whole grain
4. Saturated fats - animal fat, milk fat, butter, lard, and tropical oils
5. Trans fats - partially hydrogenated fats, hydrogenated vegetable oil blends, many margarines, and cooking blends

Although sugars and syrups are on the "dump" list, you can keep table sugar, honey, and maple syrup on hand for use in recipes.
Once you get rid of those foods, stock up on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, eggs, nuts, beans, yogurt, fish, and healthy fats. The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet includes a shopping list for that.
Does it work? “It is a very helpful approach to clean out your kitchen of low-nutrition foods and restock it with healthy and wholesome ones that are conveniently organized in the detailed grocery list,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet.
Still, overhauling your kitchen could be expensive, time-consuming, and some good foods may get tossed. For instance, it's confusing when Oz allows some sugar for recipes but not natural sugars in yogurt.
“Not all sugars are bad, especially natural sugars like lactose in dairy and fructose in fruit -- both are good for you and belong in your kitchen, not in the trash,” says Andrea Giancoli, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly called the American Dietetic Association).
Good nutrition is not as simple as dumping all foods that contain the specified five ingredients at the top of the plan's list. To make the best decision about which packaged foods to keep and toss, check the ingredients and the nutrition facts panel.

 

Rules of the Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet

After your kitchen makeover, Oz wants you to follow these rules for a week:

• Cut 100 calories. Skip a soda, a 100-calorie snack, or two cookies.
• Make it automatic. Eat the same meals to cut guesswork and curb temptations.
• Control portion sizes. Use smaller plates.
• Don’t eat after 8:30 p.m.
• Find a weight loss buddy to whom you can turn for support.
• Learn to cheat responsibly. Make foods flavorful with spices. Or distract yourself until the craving passes.
• Check in with your doctor.
• Walk 10,000 steps per day.
• Monitor your waistline and weight.
• Keep it up during the second week. And make the basics of healthy eating and activity part of your lifestyle for good.

Does it work? Focusing on cutting 100 calories or on one new habit each day throughout the week breaks up the tasks into small, manageable steps, Blatner says.

But eating the same foods over and over could become monotonous, Giancoli says.

Sample Meal Plan

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet features high-fiber foods to help you stay full longer (and keep you regular). The plan also allows a glass of wine and a little bit of chocolate.
Here is a sample meal plan from the diet:

• Breakfast : Egg-white omelet, juice, and coffee or tea.
• Morning Snack: Veggies with dip.
• Lunch: Healthy veggie burger with the works.
• Afternoon Snack: Yogurt with fruit.
• Dinner: Asian salmon with brown rice pilaf, and one glass of wine.
• Dessert: 1-ounce dark chocolate with a sliced orange (every other night).
• Drinks: Water, coffee, tea, etc.
• Evening Snack Choices: Popcorn

Do you work long shifts? The plan recommends that you eat six smaller meals throughout the day for steady energy.

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet: Experts' Views

Nutrition experts like that this is a plan without any magic bullets, with emphasis on establishing good habits, getting regular exercise, getting support, and consulting your doctor.
"This is a smart, basic-startup guide to getting healthy," Blatner says.
But many people may need individualized advice and more details on how to handle "tricky situations and temptations," Blatner says.
Giancoli agrees. "The advice is easy, sensible, doable, and for the most part, based on research," but is short on details, she says. Also, "It is somewhat convoluted and difficult to understand how to put it all together from the information on the web site."
"To be on the safe side, I would suggest [taking] a once-daily multivitamin with minerals that contains adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D, which may be lacking in the diet plan," Giancoli says.
She also recommends mixing the basic rules and tips from the Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet with help from www.myplate.gov, where you can check on calories and servings, and calculate your BMI.

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet: My Bottom Line

The Dr. Oz Ultimate Diet is a clean-sweep starting point if you want to learn about a healthier lifestyle or need useful advice or motivation to lose weight.

But to be successful at weight loss, most people need additional information that you can get by consulting a registered dietitian.