3-Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin by Jorge Cruise, David L. Katz (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

Following the amazing success of his New York Times bestseller 8 Minutes in the Morning, America's #1 online weight loss specialist, Jorge Cruise, is back with a revolutionary diet book that keeps with his trademark hassle-free, time-friendly approach.

It's a fact: the low-carb craze is everywhere. Another fact: two-thirds of Americans are still overweight, and no one is getting thinner. Although low-carb diets produce short term weight loss, the results are not sustainable in the long term. Dieticians, fitness experts, and medical publications are slowly awakening to the fact that the low-carb diet isn't the answer to weight loss nor a solution to the obesity epidemic.

What is the solution? Jorge Cruise's The 3-Hour Diet reveals that timing is the revolutionary weight loss element that has been kept secret until now.

Finally -- a diet plan that lets you eat what you really want and that actually works long-term! Jorge Cruise introduces a revolutionary diet and lifestyle plan that will shed the pounds for good. The answer is not in a grapefruit diet, a cabbage-soup diet, and certainly not in a low-carb diet. Losing weight and keeping it off is not only about what you eat but when you eat. Knowing when to eat resets the body’s metabolism and turns off its “starvation protection mechanism,” ensuring that fat is released and fat-burning muscle preserved. So get ready to lose two pounds every week using The 3-Hour Diet™ -- with no carb counting, no calorie counting, no starvation, no deprivation, and no exercising. The 3-Hour Diet™ includes:

• A recipe guide with options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and delicious treats from a range of homemade, frozen, and fast-food choices
• A 28-day visual eating planner to promote organization and accountability in meal planning
• Tips and advice from Jorge’s clients on managing time and making meals on the go
• A sample mini-week of “8 Minute Moves®” for those who want to take health and fitness to the next level

Publishers Weekly

Cruise promises to help readers lose two pounds every week, without counting calories or depriving themselves of carbs. It's all about timing, says the USA Today fitness columnist, whose diet advice has been featured everywhere from O and Prevention to the Today show and Good Morning America. Cruise theorizes that if a person allows more than three hours to pass between eating, a body turns on its natural "starvation protection mechanism," which causes the body to consume muscle. When this happens, one's resting metabolism is adversely affected. In an attempt to eliminate his main competition, Cruise dedicates an entire chapter to debunking low-carb diets. He claims they actually cause people to gain more weight in the long run. Along with an explication of his recommended diet and exercise plans, Cruise provides readers with 30 "timelines," charts they should fill out every morning at breakfast. These visual aids include space to write down what time each meal (or snack) will take place that day and what each will consist of (every meal must contain a balance of carbohydrates, fat and proteins). To help readers determine which foods fall into which categories, and how much of them they must eat, Cruise, who is also AOL's weight loss coach, provides recipes and "The All New Cruise Down Plate," a twist on the food pyramid. Although Cruise tends to oversimplify, this is overall one of the best diet books to hit the market in recent years, brimming with success stories, photos and plenty of optimistic energy. Agent, Ben Gage. (Apr. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt

How to Successfully Do the 3-Hour Diet™

"Today, when I look in the mirror, I see a healthy, active person. My knees don't hurt like they did seven weeks ago. I really do feel healthier now. This is a big change for me-a change for the better. I want to enjoy my retirement. I thank Jorge for my success. I am now on the right path for an active lifestyle."
-Dona Buth-Lost 20 Pounds

Most of us pay close attention to the clock. We set an alarm to wake us in time for work. We strive to leave work by a particular time in order to beat rush-hour traffic. We structure our lives around the time we need to pick the kids up from day care, soccer practice, and play dates.

Yet too many of us seem to get out of sync when it comes to eating. Rather than having an eating schedule, many people tend to eat only when it occurs to them. They rush out the door in the morning, forgetting to eat breakfast or intentionally skipping it to save time and calories. They get swept up at work, and realize at two or three in the afternoon that they haven't eaten lunch-and for many people that is their first meal of the day. They complete errands and other tasks after work, only remembering to eat dinner when they are too hungry to stand it.

When you eat is critical. As I mentioned in chapter 1, it's essential that you know that successfully losing weight and keeping it off is all about timing.
Yet most people use bad timing by eating sporadically. You eat sporadically anytime you allow more than 3 hours to pass between meals. This causes the body to switch from a fat-burning mode to a fat-preservation mode. Instead of fat, the body burns muscle tissue and your metabolism plummets as a result. This leads to fat gain.

So to get thin, you need to create a consistent eating schedule. That's the secret way to lose weight and keep it off. What exactly does this mean? You may be wondering again, "Is it just about eating every 3 hours? Is that all there is?" The answer is no. Although this program is very simple, there's a little bit more. You see, the key is that it must become automatic for you. Your eating schedule must become effortless and easy. It's all about learning how to use my Visual Timing™ formula.

The power of Visual Timing™ will free you from your past dieting failures. You will at last have an enjoyable and automatic way to eat everyday. Specifically, I promise that by following the 3-Hour Diet™ you will lose up to 2 pounds a week from your belly first and bring back the joy of eating!

The Power of Visual Timing™
The goal of Visual Timing™ is to make eating every 3 hours completely effortless and automatic. In this way, you will not only lose the weight, but keep it off long term. How will Visual Timing™ do this for you? Visual Timing™ involves two critical secrets.

Secret 1: The 3-Hour Timeline™
The first key is to learn when to eat. This involves learning when to start eating, how to keep going through the day, and when to stop. Chapter 5 will help you do all this, by uncovering my 3-Hour Timeline™ system. This simple visual planner will help ensure that eating on time (what I call cruise-time) becomes effortless and automatic for you. In this chapter, you will learn how to create your ideal eating schedule. This is very important because you will never have to worry again about when you should eat. You will know exactly when to eat every day. Automatically your life will become simpler and your mind will have one less thing to think about. It's all about one word: simplicity. The 3-Hour Timeline™ will make sure you start eating at the right time in the morning, keep eating on time throughout the day, and stop eating at the right time at the end of the day. You will love it.

Secret 2: The 3-Hour Plate™
In chapter 6 you will also learn how to eat anything with my visual all-new 3-Hour Plate™ system. This super-simple eating method will ensure you never again have to deprive yourself of carbohydrates, proteins, or fats. It will give you true freedom. Then, in chapters 12 and 13, you will find my all-new food lists and yummy meal ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All the meals you make-whether you follow my suggestions in chapter 13 or create your own with the guidance of my 3-Hour Plate™-will be healthy and delicious. You'll eat from all of the food groups: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. That's right. Carbs are not off-limits. Remember from chapter 2 what happens to lean muscle when you don't get enough carbohydrates? You lose up to 25 percent of your muscle mass. That will never happen again. You'll also never crave foods that are off-limits-because no foods are off-limits! Just imagine eating chocolate, bread, or fast food. You will never feel the need to cheat, sneak, or binge. Good eating will finally be yours to have!

Ensure your Success
Okay, so now I want to help motivate you to your success. This will ensure that you stay inspired to succeed. You see, sometimes we can have the best tools in front of us that could change our lives, but because we think we can't do it, we don't do it. What you must do right now is prove to yourself that you will achieve success with the 3-Hour Diet™.

How are new habits and ideas born? How do you become so certain that you can do it-that you will do it? You do so by changing your belief system about what you can and cannot do. Yep, because if you think you can, you will. And if you think you can't, you won't. If you are thinking right now that since you have failed at every other diet in the past, and odds are you will fail here too, then you have sealed your fate. You must not let that happen.

You will do this in two steps that help you break away from any negative thoughts and help you use positive thinking to meet your goals. By the time you are done with them, you will feel your confidence truly soar.