The 5 Bite Diet is an extreme weight loss plan created by Dr. Alwin Lewis, a California-based physician. It gained attention following the release of his book Why Weight Around? and promises rapid weight loss. This diet, popularized by Dr. Alwin Lewis and featured on shows like Dr. Oz, has gained traction as a quick route to weight loss, but it's crucial to understand its implications.
What is the 5 Bite Diet?
The name of this diet is pretty much on the money. You’re only allowed to eat five bites of your meal - with a maximum of two meals a day, totaling 10 bites. You are allowed to have two extra bites of something snacky throughout the day, which brings us to the grand total of 12 bites offering an improvement on the original five. These bites can be of anything you want: ice cream, chocolate, cake, pizza, fries, burgers, you name it, it’s on the menu, just in teeny-tiny portions.
The premise of the 5 Bite Diet is that by learning to eat like a person who has undergone gastric bypass surgery, you’ll shed the weight without needing the procedure. The 5 Bite Diet is supposed to work like a gastric bypass without the surgery. This diet essentially attempts to mimic gastric-band surgery - minus the surgery.
Core Principles
The 5-bite diet has just a couple of simple rules based on counting the amount you eat instead of switching to healthier foods or exercising. The basic protocol includes:
- Skipping breakfast: Only black coffee or tea is allowed.
- Lunch and dinner: Eat just 5 bites of food per meal (10 bites total per day).
- Prioritizing protein: Each meal should begin with a bite of protein (meat, fish, eggs, or beans).
- Eating what you want: No food is off-limits, as long as only take 5 bites.
- Non-caloric drinks: Water, black coffee, and unsweetened tea are permitted throughout the day.
The Allure of Rapid Weight Loss
The diet suggests that followers can expect to lose as much as 15 pounds (6.8 kg) each week by limiting their food intake to just 5 bites per meal. The 5 Bite Diet is a very-low-calorie diet promising to help you lose a lot of weight in a very short time, without surgery, special diet foods, counting calories, or exercising.
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A Day in the Life: A Personal Experiment
One individual documented their experience on the 5 Bite Diet over five days, providing a glimpse into the realities of this restrictive eating plan.
Day 1: Initial hunger pangs were intense. Lunch consisted of five large mouthfuls of penne carbonara, followed by a bite of a Mars bar as an afternoon snack. Dinner was five bites of meatlover’s pizza.
Day 2: The day started with crankiness and a headache. Lunch was five bites of butter chicken with rice, and the afternoon snack was a bite of chocolate brownie. Dinner was five mouthfuls of spaghetti bolognaise, ending the day feeling exhausted and resentful.
Day 3: Breakfast was five bites of scrambled eggs with ham and tomato, plus coffee. Lunch was five bites of a mini chicken salad. Dinner involved watching the family eat chops and mashed potatoes, but feeling smug about resisting and having lost a kilo.
Day 4: Another half a kilo was lost overnight, leading to increased energy. The morning snack was a shared bite of a blueberry muffin. Lunch was five bites of a hamburger, and the afternoon snack was a bite of a pear. Dinner was just one bite of chicken schnitzel.
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Day 5: By the last day, appetite had shrunk, money was saved on lunches, two kilos were lost, and total rubbish was eaten. Breakfast was five bites of pancakes with maple syrup. The afternoon snack was a muesli bar, and dinner was four bites of ramen.
Reflections
The individual reflected on the experience, noting a new appreciation for eating a full meal and healthier foods, with the body craving nutrient-rich ingredients like vegetables. While it was fun to indulge in more sugar and fat for five days, there was no desire to continue eating that way.
Potential Benefits of the 5 Bite Diet
As with all low-calorie diets, the 5 Bite Diet is likely to help you lose weight - at least initially. By helping you lose weight, the 5 Bite Diet may reduce joint pain and lower your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
- Rapid Weight Loss: Limiting the amount of food you eat to a maximum of 10-12 bites each day will naturally cause you to eat fewer calories than your body requires.
- Simplicity: No calorie counting or complicated meal prep.
- Reduced Risk of Certain Diseases: Research shows that losing even as little as a 5-10% of your body weight can help reduce joint pain and your risk of type 2 diabetes. Studies further indicate that losing weight may lower risk factors for heart disease, such as triglyceride, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and blood pressure levels.
- Portion control training
Risks and Considerations
The 5 Bite Diet may promise fast results but at a serious cost. The promise that you'll be allowed to eat whatever you want (albeit in such small quantities) should not make you forget that nutrition is also important.
- Nutritional Deficiencies: It’s nearly impossible to meet daily requirements for protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals on such a limited intake. The restrictive structure can encourage obsessive or unhealthy behaviors around food. This can lead to side effects like fatigue, dizziness, constipation, and even loss of bone density.
- Unsustainability: Severe food restriction can lead to metabolic slowdown, nutritional deficiencies, and disregulated hunger hormones. Quick fixes like this don’t create lasting change which leads to binging. Most experts agree that this approach is unsafe and not viable for long-term health.
- Potential for Disordered Eating: The restrictive nature of the diet can promote unhealthy relationships with food and potentially trigger disordered eating patterns in susceptible individuals.
- Weight Regain: As with many crash diets, the likelihood of regaining the lost weight is high once normal eating resumes. Eighty percent of people who lose weight from dieting gain the weight back within a year.
- Health Risks: Dr. Oz believes the 5 Bite Diet makes you conscious about what you are eating, but his concern is that it can throw the body out of balance. This diet should only be followed under medical supervision.
Expert Opinions and Alternatives
One of Dr. Lewis' goals for his patients is to obtain a BMI of 18.5. This is not healthy for most people. Eating 5 bites per meal is just not enough to keep you alive.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP
The Need for a Holistic Approach
If you want to try a very low-calorie diet like this, it's always best to get a doctor involved. They can help you follow this diet more safely, or build a more holistic weight loss plan that also includes healthier eating and exercise.
Balanced Eating as a Sustainable Solution
Another healthier alternative to the 5-bite diet would be to follow the USDA's MyPlate program, simply fill half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables and fruits and divide the other half between whole grains and a lean protein source. A less extreme approach to smaller portion sizes, though, might help with long-term habits. Another approach is to increase the amount of healthy, low-energy-density foods in your diet.