Many of our reviews begin with incredulity at the ability of a diet program to actually help you lose weight… and then we stumbled upon The Chocolate Diet. A book written by Sally Ann Voak, The Chocolate Diet makes lofty promises of quick weight loss, all while eating our all-time favorite dessert? Our interest is piqued!

What’s in it?

Voak’s book, The Chocolate Diet, includes quite the complete diet program, actually created to help you get over your chocolate addiction. According to Voak, there are 6 “categories” of chocolate addicts, and each addiction category has a strict diet program to follow (so strict, in fact, that it limits your caloric intake to 1,100 calories, which may actually be too low for some customers wanting to diet).

At this point, The Chocolate Diet is sounding more like a 12-step program than a diet plan, but for some people, the two may not be far apart. However, The Chocolate Diet also includes guidance on exercise, meditation, and massage so you can approach your diet as a complete body transformation.

How does it work?

After you’ve kicked the chocolate habit – by following Voak’s carefully crafted plan – The Chocolate Diet allows you to re-incorporate your favorite treat into your diet as part of a balanced eating plan. In fact, The Chocolate Diet allows only 150 calories of chocolate per day, although after a week of living without, this may be a welcome change for those ex-addicts. Your chocolate intake comes in the form of regular chocolate shakes (recipes are included in The Chocolate Diet), which you can easily concoct yourself and use to replace your regular snacks.

Who does it work for?

Voax promises that you will lose 7 pounds in 1 week, which isn’t really a stretch if you’re able to cut your calories to 1,100 and implement the exercise program. However, we had difficulty tracking down any customer reviews, especially since the book appears to be out of print. There’s no question that cutting calories and exercising can help you lose weight, but we’re actually wondering if The Chocolate Diet is a bit too extreme.

Are there possible side effects?

As we already mentioned, cutting your caloric intake to 1,100 calories is quite drastic. For many people trying to lose weight (especially those with a great deal of weight to lose), this might be dangerously low, and could contribute to a number of health problems. In addition, there is evidence that taking in too few calories can actually hamper weight loss as it sends your body into starvation mode, actually slowing your metabolism.

Are there any “bonus” features?

Not only are there no bonus features offered with The Chocolate Diet, but it is currently out of stock from the publisher (and may be out of print). Although Voax promises to help you lose 7 pounds in as many days, it seems more like The Chocolate Diet’s title is simply a smokescreen for a meticulous low-calorie diet, which just happens to use a bit of chocolate as your reward.

There’s no question that the idea of implementing your favorite snack as a reward is a good idea, but it isn’t necessary for everyone to cut their caloric intake to this level (not to mention most doctors recommend losing 1-2 pounds a week, which puts 7 pounds a week in the “unhealthy” category). If you want to lose weight by counting calories, you probably want to cut about 500 calories below maintenance level for your weight, or it’s possible that you will further hinder a sluggish metabolism. So, while we support The Chocolate Diet’s emphasis on counting calories and exercising, we see the methods as a bit flawed.