About Dr. Stillman Dr. Stillman practiced medicine for over 50 years with the following accreditations: consultant in Internal Medicine at Coney Island hospital, Brooklyn, N.Y., was attending physician in Medicine at Coney Island hospital, an attending physician in Medicine at Harbor hospital, a clinical instructor of Medicine at Long Island College Hospital, a Fellow of the American College of Angiology and a Fellow of the American Geriatric Society. It is irony that Stillman died of a heart attack in 1975 - after some 20 million people had been on his diet. (Even armed with this bit of information, I would not be one to contribute his heart attack to his diet.) I found more on the Doctor (this time cited reference yeah!) The Head Man: Irwin Maxwell Stillman (1896-1975) was a family doctor in Brooklyn for 45 years before retiring to Florida in 1960. In the course of treating some 10,000 overweight patients, he found the most expeditious means of losing weight to be a high-protein diet based on Dr. Eugene Dubois's concept of specific dynamic action, or "the cost of digestion." In other words, it takes an extra effort--up to 30% of the calories consumed--to break down protein. By increasing the amount of protein consumed up to 90% of the diet, the "fires of metabolism" are raised and fat is "melted out" of bodily storage centers at a rapid rate. Stillman, who himself lost 50 lb. on his high-protein prescription, wrote The Doctor's Quick Weight Loss Diet (1967) in collaboration with author Samm Sinclair Baker, another successful dieter. Their book also contains descriptions of a number of gimmick diets, including a 350-calorie "pilot's diet" and a 40-calorie lettuce and tomato diet. http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-and-benefit-of-stillman-diets.htm