The Daniel Plan is a book and weight loss program that was designed and written by Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen, and Dr. Mark Hyman. It is a plan that was created to follow what they claim to be directions that are “God’s instruction for living.” It is not necessarily meant to be followed by one individual as much as by a group as a community.

What is the Daniel Plan?

The description of the book claims that it provides support for healthy eating and exercising, but also mental and spiritual health. Rick Warren is a pastor who, he claims, decided that it was time to make a change after having baptized more than 800 people. He spoke to his congregation about his own need to lose weight and asked them if anyone else wanted to sign up. He expected around 200 to join him, but by the close of the first year, there were 15,000 people making up his community and working to lose weight. The book claims that the total pounds lost by all of them was more than 260,000 pounds in the first year.

That group proceeded with the assistance of fitness and medical experts and based on what happened, Rick Warren created the Daniel Plan. The goal is overall physical, mental, and spiritual health that results from a group of people working together to live better lives as, he says, God intended it.

When looking at the customer reviews that have been posted on reputable websites that sell this book, it definitely is a mixed bag. There are many people who are more than happy with this program, but at the same time, there are those who found it “iffy” at best, who didn’t find it helpful at all, and even people who were offended by what they feel is a complete misinterpretation of the word of God.

Many reviews suggested that the daily devotionals were inspiring but that as a diet program, it was far too vague and the recipes and instructions that were provided were not very useful at all. The consensus among those who were dissatisfied by the book as a whole appears to be that when it comes to actually eating in a healthy and weight loss friendly way, the essential information was lacking, disappointing, or even misleading. At the same time that many found this diet to be unique and refreshing in this market, others went on to provide quotes from their bible to refute many of the statements in The Daniel Plan.