To be honest it appears to be just another one in a long list of fad diet books, here today, gone tomorrow if 3 TBS of olive oil per day is what it’s based upon.

Sure, you may initially lose some weight only to have it return. Eating a well balanced diet high in plant material and low in refined carbohydrates combined with exercise doesn’t sound nearly as sexxy and doesn’t have a “gimmick” But it will produce more stable and lasting results.

But it doesn’t sell nearly as many books.

I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Roberts didn’t change his eating habits. The whole point of the diet is to lower one’s set point (the amount of excess stored energy—aka fat—that one’s body thinks it needs) by consuming “flavorless” foods (which is what Roberts calls foods that do not raise the body’s set point) in isolation (that is, with one hour windows on either side of their consumption). The process acts as an indirect appetite suppressant, but one that is more or less painless once the body is used to it. Furthermore, Roberts goes out of his way to describe the diet as a lifestyle change and not something temporary (even if one can eventually get away with not doing it every single day).

In any case, I know several people who have had a lot of success using the diet. Most of them have used the sugar version rather than the oil version, but the people who used the oil version did just as well. Understand, however, that you are committing yourself to very different eating habits. The diet works by suppressing your appetite, so attempting to eat the same amount of food while also adding the calories of the “flavorless” food will do nothing. You have to let the suppressant work, thereby restricting your calorie intake. The idea, though, is that doing so should be more or less painless because the diet makes it so that you don’t even want to eat.

@Buttonstc I understand your skepticism, but I recommend looking at the book rather than just going off the description in the OP. Seth Roberts was a very well respected scientist who was also a pioneer in self-experimentation. His book is interesting even for those who have no plans to use his diet.