The Secret to Skinny: How Salt Makes You Fat and the 4-Week Plan to Drop a Size and Get Healthier with Simple Low-Sodium Swaps »

Lyssie Lakatos, R.D., alongside her sister, Tammy Lakatos Shames, R.D., have been featured on the cover of Woman's World, and have appeared in publications including Cosmopolitan, Self, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, InStyle, Parents, First for Women, Glamour, O Magazine, and Family Circle. The Nutrition Twins developed a Wellness Planner and a weight management planner for Day-Timer, which they featured several times on QVC in 2009.

Tammy Lakatos Shames, R.D., and her sister, Lyssie Lakatos, own a nutrition counseling practice and are the exclusive nutritionists for NBC's celebrities and employees at Rockefeller Plaza as well as for Juva Health and Wellness, an upscale, full-service Manhattan boutique featuring top physicians, all of whom teach at Mt. Sinai Medical Center. The Nutrition Twins have been featured regularly as the nutrition experts on The Discovery Health Channel, Fox News Channel, NBC, Bravo, WABC-TV, WPIX-TV, CBS, The Learning Channel, FitTV, Oxygen Network, Life and Style, Court TV, Fox & Friends, The Daily Health Feed and Fox 5's Good Day New York.

Discover the Most Common Diet De-Railer and Blast the Bloat for Good

You eat right. You exercise. But still your scale won't budge. Despite your good intentions and all the stomach crunches you can stand, you could be unknowingly be sabotaging your efforts every day by eating one ingredient that is guaranteed to plug you up, bloat you out, and pack on the pounds. What is this dreaded diet saboteur? Salt.

Salt is everywhere--especially in the very 'diet' foods we eat to lose weight--and it's devastating to our health and our waistlines. In fact, as the Nutrition Twins explain, if you drop the salt you will drop a size—or more!—on their four-week salt-slashing plan.

Think you can't imagine eating food without the salt and flavor? Think again. The Secret to Skinny provides palette-pleasing meals and snacks that will fill you up without filling you out while you enjoy the side benefits of going lo-sodium: improved blood pressure, heart function, skin tone, and overall energy level. You'll learn how to incorporate key foods—the Anti-Bloaters, Flushers, and Slimmers—foods that get and keep you lean by ridding your body of excess salt and revving your metabolism for maximum fat burning. You'll also discover the Bloaters, Pluggers, Chubbers, and Flabbers—the everyday foods that are derailing your best efforts.

The Secret to Skinny also includes:

• Simple 'salternatives' and food swaps that subtract pounds and add years to your life


• Tips that trick your taste buds to crave less salt


• 14 days of menu plans, plus delicious low-sodium recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks


• Quick-fix cures for a 'salt hangover' and the bloat that goes with it


• The 10-Day Jumpstart Plan that drops pounds fast

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 What's Salt Got to Do with Your Weight and Health? More Than You Think 1

Chapter 2 Your Jumpstart to Skinny: Meet the Green Light Foods-Slimmers, Anti-Bloaters, and Flushers 9

Chapter 3 Ten Days of Jumpstart Plan Menus 47

Chapter 4 Becoming Salt-Savvy: Salt-Slashing and Sleuthing in the Real World 67

Chapter 5 Tools to Keep You On Track: The Rule of the Hand and the Food Log 87

Chapter 6 Phase 2: The Maintenance Plan 95

Chapter 7 Two Weeks of Maintenance Plan Menus 117

Chapter 8 Red Light Foods: Pluggers, Bloaters, Chubbers, and Flabbers 143

Chapter 9 Move It and Lose It 161

Chapter 10 The Nutrition Twins Favorite Skinny Recipes 175

Appendix I The Jumpstart Plant Food Lists (Brand-Name Green Light Foods 229

Appendix II The Maintenance Plan Food Lists (Brand-Name Green Light and Yellow Light Foods) 243

Appendix III Brand-Name Red Light Foods 271

Appendix IV Your Skinny Measurement: Track Your Progress 283

Appendix V The Food Log 285

References 287

Index 289