5-Factor Diet: Get the Body You Want in Just Five Weeks! [Hardcover]

This programme must be the most hyped diet and fitness programme of the moment with testimonies from Jessica Simpson (as per the much hailed front cover of US magazine), Halle Berry, Kanye West et al, there is plenty of evidence that it works. I have done Pasternak's programme for 3 weeks now and have lost half a stone with relatively little difficulty. I have to say that I have cheated more than his 1 day cheat allowance (which is great) because alcohol is not allowed and I have had the odd glass of wine here and there.

The diet programme looks really complicated (and the ingredient list is overwhelming) but I simplified it dramatically by creating a table and just ticking off when I have a portion of protein, starch, fruit etc. He does tell you how many of each to have a day. A sample day might be: Breakfast: Egg white omlette with smoked salmon on wholegrain toast and a piece of fruit. Mid-morning snack - berry protein shake. Lunch: Tofu and sweet potato curry. Mid afternoon - Cottage cheese on crackers and fruit. Dinner: Fish, veg, rice. So this is definitely no Atkins - he does believe in balance and in eating 5 times a day.

At first I stuck to his recipes and it was all-consuming shopping and planning-wise but you do learn how to adapt and simplify and just do a recipe every now and then (freezing extra portions). Everything is in 5's - so eat 5 times a day, work out 5 times a week for 25 minutes at a time etc. You only do 5 minutes cardio warm-up, 3 x 5 minute exercises (you need dumbbells and a bench/ball) and 5 minutes cardio again. That sounds like nothing but he relies on supersetting i.e. you do your cardio and then do exercise 1 and 2 back to back, 3 sets before moving on to the core exercise. He aims that you work at high intensity and do not cool down during it to maximise effort and metabolism. You also get specific rest times between exercises. At first I thought that 25 minutes would never be enough but, to be honest, although you eat a lot, it is not calorically very high, so when you do more, you feel a bit stretched energy-wise.

However, I have to say that I do feel a lot more energetic on the whole and it is definitely a life plan rather than a showbiz diet. One tip would be that I joined his website for a week (free trial) and the forums there are really helpful and consist of a lot of people in the same position, asking the same questions. It's fairly new as a site and there were a few blips but overall it is a very helpful extra to the book.

Another slight issue was trying to find things like fat free ricotta (even low fat ricotta I have yet to find) and fat free Cheddar but he does say at some point fat free or reduced fat so you learn to work with what you've got. I will definitely be sticking with this although it will take a little longer given the odd extra slip. BTW, the cheat day is great (you eat what you are missing/craving/want) and research says that occasional treats "reassure" your body into letting go of weight rather than going into famine mode. That definitely worked for me because 2 days after my cheat day, I suddenly went down 1kg after what seemed a slow first week. Would I recommend this book and plan - yes, definitely!!!

Bought this on the promise of getting simple, nutritionally balanced meal plans and overall am left very disappointed.

The 5-factor concept is OK as a framework, except for two huge problems. 1. This diet is meant to last 5 weeks. At that time, you should be able to notice a nicer physique and a reduction in body fat. That's reasonable, but living/being fit is a LONG-TERM effort. It's not like you're going to just drop 1 jeans size then call it quits, is it?

2. He claims these meals take 5 minutes to prepare. This is total rubbish. At best, nearly all the recipes here would take at least double/triple that; frankly quadruple or more. When he tells you to eat 5 times a day, this kind of prep time (unless you're a hollywood celeb with a personal slave/cook) is just hugely unrealistic and is my biggest let down.

He spends one whole chapter debunking fad diets like starvation diets, Atkins, et al, which can only be useful if you're clueless about basic nutrition. On the plus side, his basic principles are fine - eat smaller portions more frequently, eat a balanced diet of protein, carbs, (good) fats, fibre, a drink, do a combination of regular cardio and weights.

He doesn't like using pasta or rice much because of his adherence to restricting high GI foods, preferring tortillas (very American) and beans. I don't know about you, but personally I love pasta and rice and couldn't eat healthily without them. Tortillas and wraps are problematic because he also tends to favour lots of (cheese-free/lo-fat/etc) cheese, yoghurts, salsas, etc, and I prefer to just avoid such things rather than use substitutes to make up for taste! Put it this way, think of how much rice the Japanese eat and theirs is the best diet / lowest obesity nation on the planet.

He also just goes egg-white crazy, where again, it seems in America it's quite easy to get pasturised egg-whites / prepared liquid egg-whites like you were buying orange juice or milk. But it's not the same in the UK, so either you'll be left with many redundant recipes or your egg expenditure is going to increase by ten thousand percent!

I don't recommend visiting his website, as it just spams you to join/pay up and to be honest, you can get loads of great free diet and exercise information on the web for free.

Looks like his total daily calorie intake from food is about 1600-1800 with exercise sessions (5 times a week) burning about 350 calories each. Plus one free day where you can go nuts with any junk food and just laze around. All he's basically doing (as any weight loss diet would do) is cutting out high fat/sugar/junk food and creating a calorie defecit through less overall intake, but as his exercise regime is only meant to last 25 minutes, you're only going to be using up your glycogen (stored energy) reserve, which takes about 20 minutes to deplete from weight training, leaving you with a mere 5 minutes cardio or so which would use body fat. He also doesn't take into account your current weight/maintenance calorie requirements, which is the key to losing weight steadily and permanently.

Start with this number, change your diet, do regular cardio and weight training to create a defecit of -500 to -1000kcal per day, and you will lose 0.5-1 kilo per week. It's that simple.

Going into defecit of more than -1kcal per day could put your body into starvation mode, where your metabolism slows down and your body holds ferociously onto fat reserves to protect you, which means you might not lose any fat at all, will lose muscle instead, and won't be able to get stronger or leaner cause your muscles don't have the fuel reserves to grow/adapt to more challenging exercises. You need to eat MORE of the right foods to be able to exercise more to get a nice body. Absolute calorie value is not the issue. Just get a reasonable defecit going and you'll be on the right road for the rest of your life, not just 5 weeks.

Another reason is I bought is cause it's co-written by Myatt Murphy who wrote a really good exercise book called The Body You Want In The Time You Have, which I recommend highly, but it doesn't say much about nutrition. For a combined diet and exercise book, have a look at the Abs Diet or Eat Yourself Thin.

I can certainly see how this book would work, and some of the advice seems sound enough.

It is, however, geared towards an American audience and UK based dieters may find some of the recipes and ingredients hard to find.

I would advise people to stick to a more simple system. This would work if, like the A Listers, we had someone to prepare the meals and oversee our workouts. But that can be said of most diets!