Q: Mike i saw on a Raisin Bran cereal box that said you could lose weight by replacing 2 of your meals with a bowl of bran cereal. What do you think of that? It sounds like it would work.

A: That is not a very good weight loss plan for most people. Raisin bran is a fairly mediocre food when trying to lose weight (plain bran flakes without raisins would be somewhat better and plain old-fashioned oatmeal would be better still). So the only way this idea would even remotely work is if you replace even worse foods with raisin bran -- like say if your current diet consists of 2 pizzas and 2 cheeseburgers per day and you replace 2 of those meals with raisin bran, that would clearly be an improvement.

If you want to have a very simple diet plan, like substituting 2 meals per day with some specific food, you'd do best by substituting them with a big bowl of green salad with a tiny bit of olive oil and herb to taste. That's a MUCH better choice of food than raisin bran. Of course you can do far better with a more complete balanced diet and exercise -- fill out Mike's Fitness Guide specifying 'Lose Weight' as your goal for a complete customized nutrition and exercise prescription.