A Weight-y Topic: The Five Bite Diet

The article that brought this issue to my attention can be found here.
The website for the diet in question can be found here.
The 'As Seen on Extra' video can be found here.
The 'Mike and Juliet' video can be found here.

A bit of background/personal perspective first:  I'm 23 years old, 5 ft. 4 in., and weigh about 140.  I say 'about' 140 because my weight tends to go up or down 10 lbs. depending on the time of year, how I'm feeling, what my schedule is, etc.  If it's on the high side I tend to watch my intake a bit more, try to get a little more exercise, but nothing too specific.  If it's on the low side I wear my skinny jeans.  All in all, I am not particularly concerned about my weight.  This is why it pains me to see absurd diets plastered all over the internet, 'news' shows, etc.  I know that not everyone can have the same attitude towards weight that I do, and I've seen it personally, but this is a new level of absurdity.  I'm going to bullet point this as much as possible to avoid a big, angry wall of text.

The basics are as follows:

• You may drink anything you want as long as it doesn't have calories (i.e. water, diet soda, and... that's about it).
• You may have five bites of any food at lunch.
• You may have five bites of any food at dinner.
• You should take one multivitamin per day.
• You should average a bite of 'quality' protein per day.
• Great big bites are not allowed, your overall intake should be the volume of 'two regular-sized Snickers bars.'

The reasoning behind this is that you will reset your body's expectations of portion and intake, much like if you were getting a gastric bypass or lap band procedure, but without the icky surgery part.

Let's look at a few of the things I, as a Jane Notadoctor, find grossly wrong with this diet.

• In the 'Mike and Juliet' interview, Dr. Lewis says 'I actually recommend skipping breakfast.'  When questioned about this, he changes the subject back to gastric bypass.  Since I have no desire to drop $22.45 + shipping to buy a copy of the book, and there aren't many specifics on the website (other than the link to buy the book), this will remain one of my largest concerns with the diet as a whole.  Almost every week you see something new about how important breakfast is.  The Mayo Clinic has something to say about it. A Google Scholar search for 'importance of breakfast' brings up about 140,000 hits.  Speaking from experience, I feel like crap if I don't have at least a little something for breakfast.  When questioned about the lack of breakfast in the interview, Dr. Lewis' only response is that Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine states that an obese person could survive a year without food.
• In the second part of the 'Mike and Juliet' interview, an internist (Robert R. Segal M.D. of NYU) and a registered dietician (couldn't catch her name because of the applause, it sounded like Terri Gands or something similar) basically voice every concern I have over this thing with professional voice and the proof to back it up, including but not limited to the scary lack of nutrients and the plethora of health problems that could stem from following this kind of plan.  What boggles my mind is that the interview is featured on the diet plan's website, as if it's supposed to be some sort of positive support.  Maybe they think people following the plan will be too weak from lack of nutrients to make it past the first part of the video with the doctor touting the benefits of the diet to the second part of the video where the nutritionist and internist throw a fit.
• While the doctor keeps touting this diet as the non-surgical answer to gastric bypass, that in and of itself is only supposed to be used in situations of extreme or health-endangering obesity.  While some of the before-and-after photos on the site show people who may have legitimately needed to lose weight, others, in particular the first one, look as though they may have been at a perfectly healthy weight to begin with, and nowhere near the BMI of 35 or higher that would begin to qualify someone for gastric bypass.

And finally, some thoughts for comparison.
WebMD has a BMI calculator that will also tell you how many calories you need to cut to lose weight. A normal caloric intake is 2000 calories.  At my height and weight, if I wanted to average a 2-pound-per week weight loss, I should still be ingesting 1200 calories a day.  If the 'two Snickers bars' worth of food you ingest on the diet each day was comprised of actual Snickers bars, you'd only be consuming a total of 560 calories and 28 grams of fat. And you thought candy bars weren't a health food!  If you consumed nothing but butter, and figured the 2-Snickers equivalent at 1 and 1/2 sticks per day, you'd be consuming 1200 calories.  So apparently butter can be your ticket to weight loss!

In all seriousness, food is great.  It's delicious, it's nutritious, and it helps our bodies do the things we need to do each day.  This video, concerning another questionably safe diet, echoes my sentiments pretty clearly. (The language in this video is a bit peppery, so if anyone's actually reading this and you're at work or around small children, you've been fairly warned)



There are plenty of healthy options for weight loss, some that will even make you a good deal healthier than you were before.  The USDA food pyramid site is a good place to start.  Our First Lady also has a good deal to say about healthy eating -- in case you've been living in a cave for the past year, it's her primary platform.  Let's Move.gov is the website, and it's got lots more links.