Oprah’s Diet Experts Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen

Mehmet Oz is one of Oprah’s diet experts, possibly the most prominent among them.

Further, she has anointed him as a medical expert. He has been made “America’s Doctor” by Oprah.

As you will soon see, when it comes to diet and weight loss, he is “America’s Doctor” as Jack Kevorkian is “America’s Doctor.”

The only difference is that when you see Kevorkian coming, you have an idea of what is about to happen.

When you see Oz coming, thanks to Oprah, you are unaware that death, suffering and illness are part of his bargain.

He is like a stealth version of Jack, courtesy of Oprah Winfrey.

Despite the denial by Oprah’s experts, weight control is governed by the Laws of Thermodynamics. Follow the Laws and weight control is a certainty.

To succeed at dieting, one only has to voluntarily consume fewer Calories than are burned for a period of time sufficient to lose the weight.

That is all it takes.

However, when the diet program is a starvation diet, one cannot, or at least will not, voluntarily maintain it long enough to shed the pounds.

In other words, people quit.

This has consequences.

When it comes to starvation dieting, and subsequent diet failure, Oprah and her most vogue diet experts, Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, have hit a new low.

Starvation Dieting In The Extreme

Here is a spreadsheet showing the number of Calories humans were forced to consume under conditions generally intended to cause discomfort, suffering, illness and death.

Consider this excerpt from the book YOU: On A Diet written by Oprah’s experts Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen. Referring to their diet program: 

So let’s see how it works.

Say you want to weigh 150 pounds and do an average of 300 physical activity calories (sic) per day – about what you do on our plan (more on some days and fewer on others). That means:

Your basic calories (sic) used are 8 x 150 = 1,200
+ 200 = 1,400
+ 300 in activity = 1,700

So to maintain your desired weight, you’d need about 1,700 calories (sic) per day. To lose a pound a week, you’d need to decrease that by about 500 calories (sic) per day, or increase your physical activity by 500 calories (sic) a day, or a combination of the two. (From pp. 238-239)

To be more than fair, let's acknowledge that the language is a touch confusing. Are they suggesting that you first determine the amount “you want to weigh,” eat that amount of Calories and then decrease it from there or what?

However, this confusion will not affect the analysis significantly. As you will see, the recommended Calorie intake will be at a starvation level for a 150-pounder and an even worse starvation level for someone weighing more than 150 pounds who “want(s) to weigh 150 pounds.”

It is apparent that these experts of Oprah’s buy into the concept that you can “safely lose 1-2 pounds per week by decreasing daily caloric intake by 500 – 1000 Calories.”

Here is their math.

Let us first assume that you already weigh 150 pounds and want to “safely” lose one pound per week à la Oz and Roizen. This means that you will cut back their 500 Calories per day. Let us see what that looks like compared to the Wartime Diets and Rations from The Biology of Human Starvation by Ancel Keys, et al.

When you look at the spreadsheet, Column Three (Kcal/day) is the number of Calories one eats. On this expert diet of Oprah's, one consumes a mere 900 Calories to live on - about the same amount as Canadian POWs in a Japanese POW Camp Near Hong Kong were fed in January of 1942.

Now let us assume that you already weigh 150 pounds and want to “safely” lose two pounds per week à la Oz and Roizen. This means that you will cut back their 1000 Calories per day. Let us see what that looks like compared to the Wartime Diets and Rations from The Biology of Human Starvation by Ancel Keys, et al.

When you look at the spreadsheet, Column Three (Kcal/day) is the number of Calories one eats. On this expert diet of Oprah's, one consumes a mere 400 Calories to live on - about 25% less than the amount internees at the Dachau, Germany Concentration Camp. were fed in April of 1945.

More Impossible Numbers

Being math challenged appears to be the norm for these boys.

On page 133, they write:

An average person has about 112,000 calories (sic) stored as fat (that is, if you are at your ideal weight, you typically have about fourteen pounds of fat).

Let us assume they are saying the obvious, that the person at his or her "ideal weight" (whatever that means) carries 14 pounds of fat on his/her body. There are 3,500 Calories in a pound of fat. 14 times 3,500 equals 49,000. In my book, 49,000 does not equal 112,000.

If you divide 112,000 by 3,500 you get 32. This means that the average person has about 32 pounds of fat stored on their body. Well, which is it? Either way, they are wrong.

America, and the unfortunate rest of the world exposed to Oprah, these are your experts.

An Untruthful Assertion on Behalf of Another Oprah Expert

Here is a clearly untrue statement from "America's Doctor" in support of another of Oprah's experts, Jorge Cruise, who together with David Katz, yet another of Oprah's experts, wrote the 3-Hour Diet and misrepresented a Yale University endorsement among other things.

Two things are for sure:

1. You do not need to build muscle to lose weight. (Take a look at concentration camp internees, who ate more Calories than Mehmet recommends.)

2. It is not possible to build muscle without gaining weight. Since muscle has weight, to add muscle you must add weight, too.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Questions

Below are two images from the same amazon.com page selling Oprah's experts Oz's and Roizen's book You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty.

The book is copyrighted October 30, 2007.

Look at the image on the left. Now look at the one on the right.

Do these guys look as if they have stayed young?

Especially look at Roizen, the guy on the left. He is Oprah's "Longevity Expert."

Time does not appear to be treating these experts at "staying young" so kindly.

They do not appear to be "staying young." Nor do they appear to be making themselves "younger."

Oz was born on June 11, 1960 and is 48 years old.

Roizen was born on January 07, 1946. He is 62 years old. He, being the expert he is, apparently expects to have a lifespan of between 120 and 160 years. 

Roizen is also an AOL coach, just like Jorge Cruise.

One Pound Weight Loss Per Week (daily 500 Calories decrease)

Two Pounds Weight Loss Per Week (daily 1000 Calories decrease)