The Take-Out Diet: Six Steps in 12 Weeks

Chapter summary

Diets should be about health and a healthy lifestyle. They fail when they are only about weight.
Weight is a marker of health, not the whole picture. Fat or thin, anyone can have an unhealthy diet.
The 80/20 rule: taking out one or two foods works better than trying to add more. Most of the good food, you already eat.
Lasting change needs three things: biochemistry and hormones, your mind, and interaction with society (the “three-legged stool”).

Science is not contradictory. The book opens with: “Half of what we know is wrong, the purpose of science is to determine which half.”
The author says a good diet reduces risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis and metabolic syndrome. He claims chronic-illness risk factors can drop by 50% within 12 weeks and over 90% within a year.
He says a 15% weight loss is achievable and sustainable, and helps recovery from joint or other surgery.
Caution: These are the author’s projections, not guaranteed outcomes. Results vary, and the author advises not changing prescription medicines without a doctor.

1. Take out fructose. Avoid foods with more than 3% sugar (3g per 100g). No more than two pieces of fruit a day, and no fruit drinks or sugary drinks. Be wary of “Lite” or “healthy” labels.
2. Take out simple carbohydrates. Avoid flour, rice, potato and yam products. Complex carbohydrates are fine. Eat as much as you need and do not manage hunger with calorie restriction in the first weeks.
3. Take out a calorie-counter app and kitchen scales. Use them for at least two weeks to learn portions and avoid calorie-dense nuts and fats. Then stop.
4. Take out food for two days a week. Do a 5:2 pattern for 12 weeks, eating about 25% of daily calories on two non-consecutive days.
5. Take out low-sacrifice foods. Make a personal “food sacrifice list” and keep the foods you value most. Plan tactics to avoid “last supper” and “what the hell” binges.
6. Take out polyunsaturated oils. No canola, safflower, sunflower, rice bran or sesame oil. Use butter, olive oil or coconut oil instead.

Author’s position: Do not increase exercise, take vitamins or supplements, chase omega-3, or switch to organic or Paleo. These distract from the main changes.
Other views: Many health authorities recommend regular exercise, whole grains and limits on saturated fat, and view fasting, low-carbohydrate eating and seed oils as contested. Fruit and whole grains have strong evidence of benefit.
Safety: People with diabetes, kidney disease, pregnancy, or on medication should talk to their doctor before fasting or restricting carbohydrates.

At 20 days, sugar cravings should have passed, and the author estimates about 3 kg of loss.
At 12 weeks, 8 to 12 kg (20 to 30 lb) is likely, with benefits for liver, kidney, heart, pancreas, thyroid and microbiome.
The author lost 12 kg (26 lb) himself.
If you feel you cannot make the changes, the author says do not start.

Sources for each step are listed in the related chapter posts: Take Out Sugar, Eat Good Food, Intermittent Fasting and the 5:2 Diet, Stop Consuming Vegetable Oils, and the 80/20 Rule.
The Take Out Diet (2014 edition), final chapter.