Weight-loss myth busters ‎

 - low calories, no carbs, high-intensity exercise - sets dieters up for failure. Villacorta, a registered dietitian with a weight-loss practice in San Francisco, offers a new way of looking at eating.

"Not only are we sorely overweight as a nation, but we are also sorely misinformed," he says. "Most of the methods touted for weight loss in recent years are based on denial and personal hardship - something contrary to everything the science of nutrition tells us (and contrary to our very human nature). We need to eat. We want to eat. We should eat. And yet, everything in our culture tells us eating is like a dirty secret, a guilty pleasure that tempts us day in and day out."

GM Diet

Villacorta has done research on a little-known hormone, ghrelin, which controls hunger, drives appetite and works to manage metabolism and the ability to burn fat. To keep ghrelin and its power to provoke cravings in check, he advocates eating (beginning with breakfast) within an hour after waking and then every three to four hours. He also advocates getting enough sleep (six to eight hours a night) and welcoming carbs, a nutrient that is needed to control ghrelin spikes.

Negative Calorie

He's had an 84 per cent success rate among his clients by encouraging them to eat 45 per cent carbs, 30 per cent protein and 25 per cent fat, and to watch portion sizes.