A new book, The Marie Antoinette Diet, claims that you can eat cake and lose weight too. Basically you should eat like Marie Antoinette, who had cake and hot chocolate for breakfast.

The logic is that if you have a normal amount of what you really want, your cravings will be kept in check, and you won't end up overindulging after.

Keri Gans, R.D., author of The Small Change Diet, says part of the Marie Antoinette Diet work, and some parts don't.

“It’s totally fine to incorporate sweets like cake into your diet as long as you don’t have too much of them. Deprivation does not work. It’s much better to have a little and be satisfied than to cut yourself off entirely because you’ll end up bingeing later.”  

When it comes to having cake in the morning, “A calorie is a calorie no matter when you eat it,” says Gans. “But the bigger issue is that what you eat during one meal can impact what you eat at the next meal.”

Cakes have loads of sugar, and it doesn't keep you full for long. "Cake spikes your blood sugar so that you quickly crash and are hungry again sooner,” says Gans. “The result is that you could end up taking in more calories throughout the day than if you’d started with a healthier breakfast packed with fiber and protein, which keeps you fuller for longer.”

So if you want to emulate Marie Antoinette's diet, do so with a careful daily calorie budget. It sounds way easier to stick to fiber and protein.