Weight Loss Fads: The Five Bite Diet
February 7, 2023 Ashley 0 Comments
I remember all sorts of strange fad diets when I was growing up.
From peppered lemon juice to the “Clueless” technique of cutting steak at an angle to cut calories…
I’ve heard it all.
So, when the “Five Bite Diet” popped into my feed, I was shocked I hadn’t heard about it before.
After all, the video I was shared about it was over a decade old (which means the fad itself long predates said posting). However, I kept seeing comments (because the first thing I do is scroll down on a video to see what testimonials people have to share) championing this diet. People were saying it worked. They’d lost a ton of weight. They’d kept it off. So, my question was: is this bias? Did people just adhere better to this diet because some charismatic doctor who looked like he belonged on a daytime soap opera was touting it on talk shows? Or did it really work? Also, is it healthy? Sustainable?
Well, let’s look deeper by actually outlining the diet. First, the diet is stupid simple. (It’s not necessarily easy, mind you; but it’s simple as far as the rules go.) You skip breakfast and are allowed lunch, dinner, and two snacks. Caveat? For lunch and dinner, you’re only allowed to have five bites of whatever you’re consuming at each of those meals. No more. For snacks, you only get one bite of whatever you’re having. That’s it. Is the name a little misleading? Yes. It probably should have been called the twelve bite diet. But, considering this was being marketed to the same country of people who couldn’t understand that a 1/3 pounder burger was a better bargain than a quarter pounder for the same amount of money, they might have mistakenly had twelve bites at every meal.
Okay, so that’s the diet. We’re probably all ready to malign it; and I will too, right along with you, in just a moment. That’s right after we analyze the positive aspects of a diet like this. Yes, there are plenty of horrible things about this advice that will backfire if you’re working toward weight loss goals. However, the upside is that it does generate mindfulness. If you know you’re an overeater, counting your bites for a period of time might help you stay conscious of just how much you eat and how far past satiety you’re doing it. When you limit your bites to a certain amount, you tend to chew each morsel more slowly, savoring it, and giving your last one a chance to process so your brain can catch up and say, “Yeah, we’re full.” Doing this, you’ll get fewer calories than the excess you’d been eating unnecessarily and enjoy your meal.
However, there are so many things wrong with the way five bite goes about doing this. The first? While some limitation might be good, five bites is far too few. On this level of restriction, experts say you’d only be getting about 800 calories or so (depending on what it is you’re munching). And, speaking to the quality, that itself is crucial for weight loss; this diet doesn’t say anything about balancing macros or how to meet your micronutrient needs. (The only requirement is that you get some protein, a multivitamin, and that your beverages have no calories.)
It also doesn’t tell you that you need to nix the Twix bars to lose weight, either. (So, I guess you don’t have to cancel that order of V-day chocolates you sent yourself at work. #anyonegetthereference?) You could literally be having 11 bites of candy a day with one bite of scrambled eggs – and the diet still doesn’t disallow it. Oh, and it also doesn’t even ask you to exercise. So, basically, it’s every lazy person’s dream: you don’t have to exercise if you don’t eat.
To be fair, the diet doesn’t claim to be healthy.
It only says it’ll help you lose weight. So, technically, it’s not dishonest.
Even so, I think I’d rather eat Cher’s angled angus beef and work it off later, thanks…