Intermittent Fasting via 5-Bites

I frequently experiment with various “Diets”, “Lifestyles”, and “Ways-of-Eating”.  I do this randomly, depending on what catches my interest at the time, or what I think will benefit me most at the time.

While I am participating in such an experiment,  I sometimes share small bits of my own current eating experiences, but I do not share anything about other participants.  Also, I don’t make any kind of in-depth analysis while data is coming in…. which means not until long after an experiment has been completed.

As part of my involvement with any specific diet plan, I try to keep an open mind, and I work to suspend my Judgments on the pros, the cons, and the effectiveness of the overall diet.

This past fall, I did quite a bit of experimentation with various forms of water fasting.  Although I had some minor success with alternate day 24 hour fasts; several long-term fasts, including some 3 day fasts, and one 6 day fast, I did not care for it. 

At the start of this year I decided to commit to an experiment of 90 days of some sort of consistent, Intermittent Fasting.

After a week or so, I saw that I would need to drastically change my eating plan in order to succeed at this. 

After trying a few alternatives, I decided to work at strictly following the 5-bite diet again. Eating only 2 meals a day spaced 4 to 5 hours apart, results in an 18 to 19 hour daily fast. Furthermore, the entire 5-bite diet plan is actually a “controlled fast”.  In many ways it is similar to the way I ate for the first 7 months after my weight loss surgery 24 years ago.

I first experimented briefly with the 5-bite diet in the spring of 2009, and found it interesting, but was not fond of it.  In March, 2014, I again experimented with that diet for a six month period, and continued to find it interesting, but, for various reasons, found it unsustainable for me at that time.

So,  after having made the decision to resume my 5-bite diet experiment, I began following that diet plan. I also rejoined, and paid for, a monthly membership at Dr. Lewis’ website, and am currently participating there.  

This is actually my 3rd experiment with this particular diet, and my goal this time is to do better at suspending my negative judgments while working to follow that plan exactly; while paying attention to how my body feels.  I am interested in learning what kind of weight-loss I will receive at this current time, as a result of following that eating behavior.

The 5-bite diet is  based on Dr. Alwin Lewis’ book, “Why Weight Around”. 


The 5-bite rules are simple:

1. Do not eat breakfast
2. Do not snack
3. Eat five bites of food for lunch
4. Eat five bites of food for dinner (4-5 hours apart)
5. Eat at least one bite of protein a day
6. Take a multivitamin every day.
7. Drink only water, black coffee, or black tea, diet soda, or other non-caloric drinks.

One thing I’m doing differently this time around is working to actually follow Dr. Lewis’ instructions regarding only 5 bites. 

My personal preference is to estimate out what 5 bites for me would be; serve myself that exact small portion; and then eat all of my “5-bite” serving while having lots of tiny bites until I’ve finished it.

However, Dr. Lewis’ instructions are: 

Eat any kind of food you want, ignore calories.  Only take 5 normal or small size bites each meal.  “Your hand goes to your mouth five times and you are done.”  One bite should equal about 1 swallow.  Always throw food away. 

He says that people who estimate their food portion ahead of time, instead of just actually taking 5 bites, wind up eating a lot more food. 

Failing to take only 5-bites per meal from a regular size serving, and throwing the rest away, also prevents a person from receiving the training that is needed for weight-loss maintenance.  This is because - in our present culture, servings everywhere are far too large - and people need to become accustomed to always throwing most of their food serving away.  It needs to become the normal practice of every meal.

So, this is what I’m working on as my current plan.  How long will I do it?
I don’t know.   Ideally, for the rest of my 90 day commitment to Intermittent Fasting, but for ME: it’s always one-day-at-a-time.  All I really know is that I’m going to do my best to follow that 5-bite eating plan for the rest of Today.

Here’s something some of you might find interesting.  I’ve been taking BEFORE and AFTER pictures of my 5-bite meals, and I decided to post copies of them here on DietHobby.  I’m linking them here, but you can easily find them at any time by looking under the DietHobby Heading: RESOURCES, then Photo Gallery, then 5-bite Meals.


No matter what food plan I am experimenting with, I continue to record my daily food intake in a computer food journal.  I’ve been doing this now every day for the past 11 years. 

During my past 5-bite experiments, I have found recording many tiny amounts of daily food to be tedious and time-consuming. 

This time, I have opted to create a food entry called “5-bite food”, and have assigned to it a 300 calorie value.  From what I’ve learned about the size of my normal bites, I know that this is a good estimation, and that frequently my actual total daily food intake will be lower than that amount.  So, each day on the 5-bite diet, I make that one entry.  If I eat other food, in addition to my 5-bites of food each meal, then I will individually record those extra foods as well.