Idealogian

The Reuven Weiser Weight Loss Program™

The fundamental principle of weight loss is that in order to lose weight, one needs to burn more calories (energy) than one consumes. Let's start with a definition of the term - a calorie is "the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius." Thus, a gram of water that has been raised one degree in temperature has been infused with one calorie of heat energy. (I am being slightly imprecise here - it takes a different amount of energy to raise water from 0^o to 1^o than it does to raise it from 50^o to 51^o - but that's a minor detail.)

Continuing with this line of reasoning, taking a cup of water (approximately 236 grams) at the freezing point (0^o C) and raising it to the boiling point (100^o C) would mean infusing approximately 23,600 calories into that single glass of water. Inversely then, lowering a boiling cup of water to the freezing point would release that same amount of energy from the water.

"Hold on a second," I can almost hear you saying. "23,600 calories in a glass of water? That can't be! The recommended daily calorie intake is only 2000 calories!" Right you are, sharp-minded reader. The catch lies in ambiguous terminology. What we generally refer to as a "Calorie" (capital 'C') is actually a kilocalorie - 1000 calories. Thus, in our terminology, a cup of water at the boiling point has around 24 Calories more than one at the freezing point.

Regardless, now that we've got the background (and all the hard math) out of the way, let's get down to business. What we've just proven scientifically and mathematically is that cold food has fewer calories than hot food. The obvious secret to weight loss, then, is to consume all of your food as cold as possible. Instead of a hot coffee, have iced coffee. When you take that frozen TV dinner out of the freezer, don't microwave it; just down it as-is.

But most importantly, and this is the key to entire proposition, is a renewed emphasis on some of the coldest foods known to man - those belonging to the category known as "frozen desserts," including, but not limited to, ice cream, sorbet, ices, sherbet and frozen yogurt. In the Reuven Weiser Weight Loss Program™, these foods become the staple of a healthy diet, the new base of the food pyramid. Furthermore, it is preferable for the ice cream to have various chunks (e.g., nuts, chocolate, toffee) as they are more dense and therefore have a higher specific heat, making their frigid temperatures more calorically significant.

All I need now is a catchy name and this could be the next Atkins or South Beach! Any suggestions? ("Ice Cream Diet" is already taken by another plan.)

(Alternatively, if you don't have a freezer or find that you frequently suffer ice cream headaches, you can buy my book, "Limb Amputation: Weight Loss in One Easy Step.")