The 3-Hour Diet Weight Loss Plan: Eat Small Meals Every Three Hours

Although The 3-Hour Diet sounds like a quick weight-loss scheme, it's actually a long-term plan - your results come in weeks and months, not hours. You get to eat small meals and snacks every three hours, with a calorie maximum for each. For those of you who just groaned at the thought of calorie counting, Jorge Cruise has created a visual "3-Hour Plate" to help estimate how much food to eat. No food is forbidden, but you have to stay within the low calorie limits. Cruise claims that eating frequently keeps your metabolism "turned on" and will result in slow, steady weight loss.

What makes The 3-Hour Diet a different Weight Loss Plan?

This is a calorie-counting and planning diet with an emphasis on scheduling your meals in order to jump start your fat burning. It will appeal to planners and control freaks, as well as anyone who wants to eat a variety of foods.

All food groups are allowed, the catch is that you can include anything as long as the entire meal or snack does not measure above the allowed calories. Exercise isn't mandatory, but Cruise's 8-Minute exercise plans are encouraged to increase weight loss.

What is The 3-Hour Diet?

The 3-Hour Diet weight loss plan says you will lose weight by eating every three hours, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks, and a nighttime treat. The idea is that this eating timeline will help keep your metabolism working and help you trim down. You start eating within one hour of waking and then every three hours after, making sure not to eat within three hours of bedtime. All food groups are allowed, but the plan does prefer whole grains such as oatmeal and brown rice, lean protein such as egg whites, legumes, fish, and low-fat yogurt, and "omega fats" such as flaxseed oil.

The 3-Hour Diet weight loss plan allows a maximum of 400 calories at each meal (say, half a chicken breast, some broccoli, and a half-cup of brown rice), 100 calories for each snack (a handful of almonds or a large cup of blueberries), and 50 calories for a "treat" for those dieters under 200 pounds. If you weigh more than 200 pounds, additional calories are added to each snack or meal. Weigh-ins are on Sundays.

Once you've hit your weight loss plan goal, each week you get to increase your two snacks by 100 calories and then weigh in on Sunday to determine if you are still losing weight. So, the first week of maintenance, you are consuming two 200-calorie snacks each day. If you weigh in and see that you are still losing weight, you then increase each snack to 300 calories, and then 400 calories the following week until you are no longer losing weight. Once you find the right number of calories for your snacks, you continue to weigh yourself weekly on Sundays. If you gain weight, you go back to eating both snacks at the calorie level of the previous week.

Not up for all that calorie-counting? Cruise has developed a helpful visual tool, called the "3-Hour Plate." The 9-inch plate demonstrates the proper portion sizes of everything from carbohydrates to protein. For example, you'll see that the proper portion of chicken should be equivalent to a deck of cards. If you buy the book, you'll also get recipes and tips on how to eat fast foods and frozen foods.

What are the weight loss expectations?

The 3-Hour Diet weight loss plan promises weight loss of up to two pounds per week.

Is exercise promoted?

Exercise is not an essential part of this diet, but it's recommended to help burn more calories. It even provides an illustrated program called "8 Minute Moves." Cruise suggests walking as a good form of exercise and recommends different types of equipment to help you create a home gym.

Are supplements recommended on the 3-Hour Diet?

Supplements are not required on this weight loss plan, but it does recommend flaxseed oil, ground flaxseed, whey protein powder, vitamin C powder, Greens Super Foods, a multi-vitamin, and green tea to help with weight loss.