Excerpt: 'The 3-Hour Diet'

ByABC News via logo
August 26, 2005, 1:31 PM

July 18, 2005 — -- "The 3-Hour Diet" emphasizes "when," not "what" you eat. According to author Jorge Cruise, eating at approximately three-hour intervals stimulates the body to lose weight, whereas spacing out meals beyond the three-hour mark sends the body into starvation mode and forces it to cling to stored fat. Cruise also emphasizes a lot of fruits, veggies and lean proteins in your diet, with just enough carbohydrates to liven up your meals.

Cruise started working with Linda McCreight and Tanya Pierre-Creer in mid-January, after they had gained back all the weight and then some after going off low-carb diets.

On Cruise's diet, Pierre-Creer has lost 24 pounds, 20 inches and six sizes, and said she and her husband have gained a romantic spark. McCreight lost 22 pounds.The women used two different techniques to obtain their goal.

McCreight is a 52-year-old grandmother and weighed 170 pounds at her heaviest. She lost the weight by planning her meals each night.

For breakfast she eats a Luna Bar (200 calories), a yogurt and a 100-calorie Nabisco Snack Pack. For lunch she eats a turkey sandwich on wheat with lettuce, tomato and mustard, an apple, a bottle of water and carrots. For dinner she eats any Healthy Choice-brand meal, a small side salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and fat-free dressing, a Diet Coke a and Mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Pierre-Creer is a deputy sheriff working the graveyard shift and does not have time to plan her meals. She relies on Cruise "On the Go" guide to make healthier fast-food choices. Among the food she eats is a small cheeseburger and a side salad from McDonalds, the "Subway Club" from Subway and a small Jamba Juice.

Cruise emphasizes that the most important part of the diet is portion control and timing.

You can read a chapter from the "The 3-hour Diet" below.

"Before I started Jorge's program, my weight was out of control. I looked in the mirror and saw a huge, short, fat person. I hated buying clothes. I was tired and had no energy. I started Jorge's plan and I have lost 56 pounds so far and dropped four sizes. This program has shown me that even with five kids and a busy schedule, I can succeed with weight loss. Best of all, I did not have to give up the foods that I like. This plan is simple to follow. Thanks, Jorge!"
    --Brenda Johnson -- Lost 56 Pounds

Today, 65 percent of all Americans are overweight. This isn't just an American problem. Half of the people who live in the U.K. are overweight, too. It's an epidemic. Despite the abundance of diet books, pills, and programs, people are getting fatter. Obviously, the current dieting regimens are not working. Consider these statistics:

So here's the question: "Why are you unable to successfully lose and keep the weight off?" I wanted to know the answer to this question. So I studied the effects of many different diets and questioned thousands of my most successful online clients.

This is what I learned. Do you want to know why YOU can't lose weight and keep it off? Well, you won't find the answer in a low-carbohydrate diet, a grapefruit diet, a cabbage soup diet, or any other fad diet. Yep, it's not there. In fact, these diets actually make you fatter in the long term. (You'll learn more about why and how in chapters 2 and 3.) Starving yourself and cutting out your favorite foods never works. If you've ever tried such deprivation diets, you know this already. With every fad diet you tried, you may have lost weight, only to hit a plateau and then gain it all back and more too.