3-Hour Diet

By Wendy Anderson

Is the 3-hour diet a miracle? No, you won't be losing significant amounts of weight in three hours. The name of this diet is deceptive, but the principles on which it works are not. This diet, developed by Jorge Cruise, is actually a fairly well-balanced and workable plan for weight loss -- and it allows you to eat anything you like in reasonable portions.

Three Hours?

The premise of the diet is that you must eat every three hours, at least five times per day. These meals and snacks must be precisely planned according to the guidelines Cruise outlines in his book. By eating this frequently, Cruise says, you keep the body from going into starvation mode, in which it retains fat and burns muscle. Eating more frequently also lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which tends to cause the body to retain abdominal fat. Finally, according to Cruise, frequent eating also teaches the body to reset its metabolic reactions, speeding up the metabolism and aiding fat-burning.

How Are 3-Hour Diet Meals and Snacks Planned?

The meals must be approximately 400 calories, and must contain four things: an amount of carbohydrate roughly the size of a Rubik's cube, an amount of protein approximately the size of a pack of cards, an amount of fat equivalent to about the size of a bottle cap, and an amount of fruit or vegetables the size of three DVD cases. Snacks should be about 100 calories, and may include such things as a Nabisco snack pack, fruit, cheese, health bar -- anything that's about 100 calories. There is also a once-a-day treat, which is to be about 50 calories.

Is It Safe?

The total daily calorie intake on the 3-hour diet plan is 1450 calories, making it a restricted-calorie diet, but not a dangerous one. Cruise also makes allowance for those who are significantly overweight, saying they will need to double or triple the calories in their snacks to provide sufficient energy for their bodies; those who are very small (under 5'3" and 140 pounds or less) should cut their breakfast in half so they are not eating too much. With sufficient caloric intake and a fairly well-balanced nutritive content, the diet is safe if followed as written.

What About Exercise?

While Cruise is best known for his simple, approachable exercise regimens, exercise is not emphasized in this book. In an online chat session with WebMD, Cruise explains that exercise can be difficult and even damaging to the severely obese, so his goal in the 3-Hour Diet book is to help people lose enough weight in order to eventually exercise safely and comfortably. Once weight is down to a manageable level, he recommends incorporating strength training and walking to tone and strengthen the body, and to speed weight loss.