The 3-Hour Diet: How Low-Carb Diets Make You Fat and Timing Makes You Thin (Hardcover)

by Jorge Cruise (Author), David L. Katz (Author) "I want to welcome you to The 3-Hour Diet!..." (more)
Key Phrases: triple snack, inner support team, starvation protection mechanism, Custom Meal, Premade Meal, Timing Tip (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Stepping around the low-fat versus low-carb debate, Jorge Cruise (Eight Minutes in the Morning) suggests that losing weight isn't in what you eat, but rather, when you eat it. The core idea behind The Three-Hour Diet is that by timing your meals and snacks every day, the pounds will come off. No restrictions, no exercise.

While reality is rarely that simple, the advice offered here is nutritionally sound, emphasizing plenty of fruits and vegetables, and filling in with lean proteins, healthy fats, and just enough carbs to keep meals interesting. Following Cruise’s guidelines for portion control, you’ll eat an average of 1,400 calories per day, filling half your plate with fruits or vegetables, and dividing the other half between the rest of the food groups. Healthy meals from fast-food joints and freezer cases are included, and a substantial recipe section offers everything from a bacon and cheese omelet to rosemary lamb chops. A month-long journal is also provided, giving you space to plan each meal in advance (a key part of the diet), along with daily motivational hints and visualization exercises. A few pages cover basic exercises--but the emphasis is definitely on the diet, which Cruise asserts will work, regardless of whether you choose to work out.

Cruise’s straightforward, no-excuses encouragement works well with the simple formula the plan is based upon, and the clever Three-Hour Plate™ makes it easy to keep portion sizes in check. Still, closely monitoring meal time might seem like a challenge to some of the "busy people" for whom the program claims to be specifically designed. If counting calories or net carbs sounds daunting—but keeping a close eye on the clock doesn’t—you might just find weight loss success in these pages. —Jill Lightner

Amazon.com exclusive content

Tired of fad diets and their lack of results? That's just how Jorge Cruise, author of The Three-Hour Diet, wants you to feel. Cruise's guidelines encourage sensible portion control and plenty of vegetables, but--perhaps more importantly--they encourage dieters to feel good about themselves by teaching self-acceptance and positive visualization. Stressing an easy-to-follow visual food plan that insists on incorporating snacks and treats into your day, he contends that carb-bashing is a highly ineffective means of maintaining a healthy weight. How can you sort out weight-loss fact from fiction? Amazon.com contributor Jill Lightner got some straight answers from Cruise.

Watch Jorge Cruise introduce The Three-Hour Diet.

Read our interview with Cruise.

From 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)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (March 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060792299
• ISBN-13: 978-0060792299
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #104,882 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

144 of 149 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bottom Line - It Works!, May 12, 2005

By	G. Collins "nostalgiaguru" (Central KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've always hated the thought of buying diet books - if you want to diet, it just takes discipline. Who needs a book? But, when I saw this guy on TV, it seemed like it made so much more sense that any of the other diets out there.

So, I bought the book. It looks for a 2-lb loss per week without exercise. I try to walk each evening between 2-5 miles. I started at 201 lbs, lost 5 pounds in week 1, 4 pounds in week 2, and 3 pounds in week 3. I'll be much more than satisfied if I can lose 2 pounds in each of the next four weeks, to lose 20 total. I've lost 1 inch off my waist, but 4 inches off of my belly.

I feel better, I get full quicker, and now, I just can't believe the eating habits I used to have. I eat everything I enjoy, in moderation, and I'm the talk of my office and my friends. I think I've sold a few books.

This is the only diet book that makes any sense. Plus, lots of fast food choices, and specific frozen meal suggestions, as well as recipes if you have the time. I jokingly refer to the book as my Egg McMuffin diet - once a week, I'll have an Egg McMuffin, milk, and fruit for breakfast.

You gotta buy this book!

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars losing with 3 hour diet, April 10, 2005

By	MeriRae Frye - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I started the 3 Hour Diet 12 weeks ago and in those weeks I have lost 30 pounds and 2 dress sizes. It has been the best thing to ever happen to me. It has given me a way to lose weight and still eat anything I want. I have not once felt deprived and once my body got use to the schedule of eating every 3 hours I'm no longer hungry. Best of all for me was the fact that I like to have my glass of wine at night and with this diet I can still do that. To me that was amazing for a diet!! Diet isn't even the right word for this.....it's a life style change, and an easy one at that. This is truely the easiet diet I've ever been on!! And just a note....I lost that 30 pounds with out excersizing. But now I have added that to my routine and I can't wait to see what the result will be.
I've tried lots of diets and I can't recommmend this one enough!!

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It Works, May 9, 2005

By	Richard (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews

It may be a copy of The Zone or something else, and it may be simple common sense, but the bottom line is that it actually works. I have lost three pounds every week and have never once counted calories. I guess some of us know what we should be eating, but need some sort of aid to push us in the right direction. This "diet" is actually a way to change your eating habits for life, and I guess if you find something else well-balanced that works, go for it.

That said:
* It is quite interesting that so many wildly enthusiastic posts about the book are from Jorge's hometown of San Diego. And JAnderson who has posted exactly one Amazon review -- could it be Jenn Anderson from Jorge's staff?
* The book itself is way, way, way padded. The actual eating plan could have been published in a 50-page pamphlet. Too much space is spent bashing other diets, and the daily journal of pretty much blank pages takes up a lot of the book, as do testimonials from people who have found success with the plan.
* Even if you buy the book and find success with Jorge's plan, be wary of "joining" the website. The things Jorge promises you'll find there are not there at all. The most you get is a forum to share with other "cruisers," which for some people is actually quite helpful. But not much else is there.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I give the book four stars because the eating plan does work, and it is sensible, well-balanced eating. He provides food lists, so you are not dependent on frozen meals or fast foods, as an earlier poster claimed (although he provides those options as well). If you can't create your own menu from the foods listed, I feel sorry for you. And if you can't commit to eating every three hours, perhaps you are not really committed to losing weight -- or perhaps another diet would work better for you.