Not unlike the famous Subway diet, a US librarian claims to have lost 34 kg (76 lbs) by eating nearly all her meals from Starbucks.
American media have already coined it the "Starbucks diet" after Christine Hall, 66, of Virginia revealed that she trimmed down from 190 lbs (86 kg) to a trim 114 lbs (52 kg) following a steady two-year regime that involved getting almost all of her food from her nearby Starbucks store.
A typical day would start out with a cup of oatmeal and a black coffee, while lunch and dinner would be either a Panini sandwich or Bistro Box like the Chipotle Chicken Wrap, she said in an interview with US broadcaster NBC News.
As a law librarian who holds down two jobs, she said Starbucks served as a convenient dining option and ended up being her one and only weight loss tool.
It’s a lot of calorie counting, she says, but given that the nutritional information is displayed on the packaging, Hall -- who stands 5-foot, 4-inches (162 cm) -- said keeping tabs on her caloric intake is easy.
Meanwhile, her fastidious calorie counting props up the findings of a new study published in the journal Agricultural Economics which found that women who read the labels on food packaging are nearly 4 kg lighter than those who don’t.
Fast food giant McDonald’s likewise announced it will begin posting nutritional information at its more than 14,000 US restaurants and drive-thru windows as of next week.
For years, sandwich chain Subway used the weight loss success of devout customer Jared Fogle to promote the brand. Fogle became a spokesperson for the company after he lost a whopping 245 lbs (111 kg) on a diet of low-calorie Subway sandwiches.
Experts, warn, however, that a diet which restricts food intake to one restaurant or food type is likely to be nutritionally unbalanced.
