Sonja Bakker Review

What You Should Know

Sonja Bakker is a Dutch personality best known for her diet books Bereik je Ideale Gewicht! (Reach Your Ideal Weight) and Bereik én Behoud je Ideale Gewicht! (How to Maintain Your Ideal Weight), which are both bestselling books in both The Netherlands and Germany. Although Bakker is not a nutritionist herself (nor does she hold a degree in any nutrition-related field), she claims she is an expert on healthy, maintainable dieting due to her own experience with diets. Her books are currently only available in Germany and The Netherlands, but it is rumored she may seek an American audience in the future.

Sonja Bakker’s prescribed diet is very straightforward and may look similar to other fad diets, however, and limits dieters to three, pre-planned meals per day, which she outlines in Reach Your Ideal Weight. She does not claim to help dieters lose exorbitant amounts of weight; instead, she says dieters will fall into their natural weight range by eating her portion contorted meal plans and exercising every day. Her diet may not look astonishing to American dieters, but in The Netherlands she has gained national fame because dieters say they did legitimately lose weight with her diet. Experts are very critical of Bakker, however, and they say her diet is nothing more than a glamorized starvation diet.

Ingredients

Sonja Bakker prescribes dieters a shopping list of products to purchase for the diet, which include low caloric breads, vegetables, fruits, and low caloric sweets.

Product Features

Sonja Bakker’s diet is simple. Follow the diet according to her diet plan and weight loss may be expected. Three meals are eaten throughout the day, which feature simple, vegetable rich foods. Dieters are not allowed to deviate from the program or include other products. The food included tends to be organic or sugar free, and may be ideal for diabetics as well. The meals are extremely limited, however, and may not even include the proper amount of calories needed to function, qualifying it as a VLCD (very low calorie diet). This has caused outrage from experts, who say this is not a safe or nutritionally sound diet.

Further evidence seems to support this. Numerous experts, including physicians and nutritionists, say her diet does not include enough nutrients for healthy function. Others also criticize her for not actually being a qualified nutritionist, despite claims she is a nutritionist. Dieters who have tried her plan seem to have differing opinions. Most have stated quick weight loss (10lbs or more within a month) but say this often did not provide lasting, long term results. She has released a book that address this problem, called How to Maintain Your Ideal Weight, but dieters are still complaining about this issue.

Advantages

• May offer an ideal plans for dieters with specific conditions, such as diabetes.
• There is an emphasis on consuming organic products.

Disadvantages

• Diet is extremely limited, and dieters are not allowed to deviate from the plan.
• Some state it is a modified VLCD diet.
• A major complaint is that it does not offer enough nutrients to supplement a healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

Sonja Bakker is a trusted name in The Netherlands for her bestselling book, Reach Your Ideal Weight, but many experts criticize her diet for lacking essential nutrients and enough calories. Many consumers do state some weight loss due to her diet, however, and may offer options ideal to diabetic dieters.