And back we are! Busting the ever-so-horrible diet culture and all its stupid concepts that are trying to mimic healthy eating in the worst possible way.
The Five Bite Diet is yet another fad diet, which is trying to sell the idea of starving yourself to thinness, disguised as “Portion Control”.
The idea comes from the book, Why Weight Around? by Dr Alwin Lewis. How ironic!
As you might have already guessed from the name, this diet involves eating 5 bites of food in leiu of a meal. The goal is to consume minimum amounts of food and a very restricted amount of calories. This naturally will result in a drastic weight loss within a few days.
In fact, the diet claims to reduce 6.5 kg a week which is way more than a healthy figure to lose in a week’s time.
How it Works:
Like most other fad diets, this diet also works by limiting your calorie intake, except that they have upscaled it to a whole different level, as the diet claims to be a non-surgical alternative to gastric-bypass surgery.
So just like in gastric bypass surgery, the goal of this diet also is to shrink your stomach size so that you become accustomed to eating very less food.
For that, the meal plan is designed in a way that you consume a minimal amount of your meals (lunch and dinner) i.e, only 5-6 bites each. By doing so for a couple of days your stomach will automatically shrink in size, hence reducing your hunger.
The regular meal plans involve snacking on 1 bite of any food between the two main meals. You have to skip breakfast and are only allowed to drink black coffee to start your day.
As for lunch or dinner, you can eat 5-6 bites of whatever food you want, can be a hamburger, 5 bites of fish and chips, or 5-6 spoons of mac and cheese.
You are only allowed to do low-intensity workouts which is understandable because with such a restricted diet, you likely won’t have the strength for anything more high-intensity.
Is the Five-Bite Diet Safe?
This is a severely calorie-restricted diet, which might help you shed those extra pounds in a matter of days but there is hardly any health benefit associated with this diet and such quick and extreme weight loss.
So our 1-word answer would be, No.
Following any such fad diet that promotes limiting your food intake to such an extent is a huge No for us.
Don’t be fooled by their claim to teach you portion control.
Portion control is a very healthy practice where you learn how to eat a reasonable amount of a healthy balanced meal, without over or under-eating. Whereas, the idea of eating just 10-12 bites of any kind of food per day is more akin to the days leading up to the Donner Party’s fateful turn.
Malnourished Body:
Eating such a limited amount of calories will leave you severely malnourished and exhausted. Most people prefer eating five bites of desserts rich in sugar or greasy and fatty junk food which exacerbates an already bad situation.
Requires You to eat Multi-Vitamin Pills:
Another major con of this diet is that because the food portions and quality cannot cope with the vitamin and mineral requirements of your body, you are required to consume multi-vitamin pills before your meals, this is a major red flag of this diet.
Having multivitamins on an empty stomach is not good for you and can induce vomiting, diarrhoea, bloating and sometimes headaches.
Weight Regain:
Here is the worst part, the pounds you shed following this starvation practice will quickly bounce back onto your body as soon as you start eating normally again, which you will eventually inevitably do, because such a ridiculous diet simply isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Conclusion:
The Five-Bite Diet is a stupid and ridiculously insane idea of shedding those extra pounds you have on your body.
The point to consider here is that you gained those extra pounds over the course of months and years. It didn’t happen overnight or over a week. This means the safe way to let those pounds go away is also not overnight.
Don’t let these crazy fad diets fat-shame you and bully you into losing weight.
Here is your call to step up and take the lead on your own weight loss journey, realize the factors that made you gain weight and start working to change them.
Start slow, stay consistent, love your body, and make sure that whatever you do is providing you with nourishment and is bringing you one step closer to a healthy body.
Remember!
When we talk about the human body, Change comes with continuous and persistent effort. There is no shortcut to health.