Lose weight by eating every 13 minutes

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Sep 24th 2008 1:35PM

Many of the popular diets these days suggest snacking throughout the day to curb hunger and keep the metabolism going. But one diet plan in particular is taking this idea to the extreme -- The 13-Minute Diet recommends, as the title suggests, eating every 13 minutes. That's around four to five times an hour! And that's in addition to meals.

Sound crazy? Creator Norah Lane says it works, and can help you lose up to seven lbs in two weeks. Here are the details:

You eat three diet-approved meals a day (the meals are fairly low-cal).
Between meals, you snack on 'nibbles' (a piece of raw vegetable about the size of the tip of your little finger) or 'burns' (equally small pieces of lean protein.) Aim for every 13 minutes or 30 a day.
In addition to all this food, you need to have a glass of semi-skimmed milk and three pieces of fruit a day.
As for drinking, stay away from anything with calories -- stick to water, tea and diet drinks.

What do you think of this diet? Is it doable? Would you do it?

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Comments (21)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Brad 9-29-2008 @ 6:35AM

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Shelly 9-29-2008 @ 6:44AM

I know quite a few people who would do the 13 minute diet. There are more OCD people out there than anyone realizes!!

Jenna 9-29-2008 @ 7:12AM

I love the ida of being told that I need to eat every 13 minutes. I love to eat and being told I need to eat every 13 minutes would cause me to overindulge. It would make me think more about food than I do (which is a lot). I also besides raising 3 daughters work a 40 hour week. It is not practical to b shoving something into your mouth every few minutes and chomping on carrots in a business meeting.

I find the best bet in helping me with my weight battle is having a good breakfast.. It helps me to make sane decisions not stupid ones as I am ravenous.

I strive to eat healthy and lead by example for my daughters. I eat flax every morning for health and weight loss reasons. I have the same breakfast now every day. I recently lost 30 pounds following the weight watchers program http://www.weightwatchers.com and I now just
am more watchful every day of what I eat. I have a banana low fat yogurt with golden roasted flax for breakfast every day. It is filling, keeps me regular and tastes fabulous (kinda like sesame seeds). My Weight
Watchers leader recommended fitflax to me and it definitely helped the last 10 pounds to melt off. It is low carb and low cal. It is a flax and chia blend and I
think I read about it in O mag. They also listed a code to get 15% off. The site is http://www.smartthingz.com and the code for 15% off is FIT15

Reggy 9-29-2008 @ 7:42AM

Having been a former fat @#$, I know that eating just about anything in moderation is okay. It comes down to knowing when to stop. It is much easier to eat just a small portion of something than to try and lose the weight from overindulging. I know what it's like to try and lose weight. I lost 47 pounds in 6 weeks using the Rapidthin diet at www.rapidthin.com. Good luck to all. Use what works for you.

shelia kerr 9-29-2008 @ 8:25AM

this is stupid, and who has time todo it, much less watch the clock and stop what your doing to eat a morsel....just eat normal and stay away from the coke and make a meal normal size..in other words dont pig out.i am 52 and weigh about the same as i did in my 20"s

Pat 9-29-2008 @ 8:33AM

I agree uber-stupid! Eating every 13 minutes is crazy! I too am all about making sure I never get too hungry and baby carrots and 100 calorie packs are nice snacks.
I don't have the lifestyle that I can or want to eat every 13 minutes.

I love flax too after hearing Dr Oz talk about it. It has also improved my skin quality. Yea for Omega 3's!

Alice 9-29-2008 @ 9:06AM

Ok, maybe every 13 minutes is asking alot of someone (who has a life, job, kids, husband, etc!), but I eat "sort of" like this all the time. This "plan" helped me to lose my last 15 lbs! (For a total of 180 lbs lost!!)
I call it the "Grazer In Us All" Diet! *LOL*

I snack on "healthy" things throughout the day, ie; fruit, nuts, all natural peanut butter, homemade fruit and yogurt smoothies, fresh squeezed veggie juice, brown rice and beans, whole wheat pasta with garlic basil pesto with chopped sundried tomatoes. I'll have 1/2 whole wheat sandwich with low fat/low sodium turkey, chicken or roast beef. I also eat vegetable, bean or tomato soups. I'll do this anywhere from every 2-3 hours and I'm never hungry. I do this all week long and on the weekends I stay close to the same format, but will have larger meals out or at home with my husband and/or friends. I'll even have a margarita with dinner out and on Sundays, I will "splurge" with my all time favorite "junk food" and that's a small bag of Skittles (the little known 5th food group!!) *BG*
I never go up more than 2 lbs since eating this way, and I'm now a healthy 129lbs and a size 4.
No, maybe not every 13 minutes, but "grazing" during the day (on HEALTHY foods) does work!

Tony 9-29-2008 @ 9:16AM

I drink a beer every 13 minuyes. Does that count?

Tony 9-29-2008 @ 9:14AM

oops, minutes.

Frank 9-29-2008 @ 9:23AM

The reason many people are overweight is because they're concentrating too much on food. I've always thought that diet plans such as Weight Watchers, as great as some people do on it, defeats the purpose of making food less important in peoples' daily lives. With that diet plan, one must concentrate on what one can eat when. It makes food the focal point of the day, which is what got made many people overweight in the first place.

This 13 minute diet is even worse. Having to eat something every 13 minutes is insane, and it just reinforces in many people who are overweight and spend too much time thinking about (and eating) food that food is important all day, down to every 13 minutes.

When I learned to make meals the least important part of my existence is when I lost 53 pounds. I've kept it off because I eat to live, not live to eat. This may not work for everyone, but it does make sense that making food all-important is what got most overweight people in trouble in the first place.

Lee Leib 9-29-2008 @ 9:30AM

NO diet for routine weight loss needs to be so complicated that you've got to set a recurrent 13 minute timer and carry around a full complement of snacks and beverages wherever the day takes you. Even if it works metabolically for some people, it's another example of a crazy fad that preys on those who are either under-educated or desperate. There are enormously simpler ways to accomplish the same thing. This is just over-the-top ridiculous...but hey, if it floats your banana boat it won't cause bodily harm. While at it though, you might as well keep the bacteria count down and wash every 13 minutes too...as if anyone has the time to be so obsessed with these kinds of excessive lifestyle behaviors.

nASTY bOIL 9-29-2008 @ 9:50AM

Sounds great except the part of pooping every 26 minutes . OUch! Dickhead. ANything else I can ramp up ? Sex?Watching Football games ? Government bailouts ? Stupid blogs on AOL ? Dickhead .

Bob Plante 9-29-2008 @ 10:36AM

You people have to get away from soft drinks and sugars if you want to get a handle on your weight (No pun intended).

Ronn 9-29-2008 @ 11:03AM

I've got a less complicated diet plan

Here's what you do:
Hop a plane to Ethiopia with a return ticket set for a month from your arrival date, leaving your wallet and the rest of your belongings at home.

Wait for your return flight.

Weigh yourself.

Chynah 9-29-2008 @ 11:18AM

LOL! Ron, I think you have the best idea yet. I love it.

Abraxus 9-29-2008 @ 11:13AM

I love it when people make stupid references to OCD, and think they are being funny. Why not ask Howie Mandel how much fun it is? This is another example of a dumb a$$ diet scam that desperate people will fall for and it won't work long term because it isn't workable at all. The one and only way to lose weight long term is to follow the pyramid of food design - eat less of the sweet stuff, and more of the fiber and veggies and proteins in moderation and of course exercise a little - doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to get the metabolism back on track, you'll be able to do more as the weight comes off and you feel better about yourself emotionally (which also happens as the weight comes off). All of the best places use the same methods - Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, you name it - and they teach you to have a better relationship with food too to help emotional over eaters. This 13 minute diet is totally stupid - it will work at first for just about anyone, then it will fail and we all get to feel crumym about ourselves again!

Bobby G 9-29-2008 @ 11:39AM

All of these so-called diets talk about nothing but EATING: What to EAT, When to EAT, How to EAT, Where to EAT. They should be talking about how NOT TO EAT! I went back to the way I used to eat when I was a young adult and that is to skip breakfast and eat light and have a modest dinner with a few indulgences like desert a few times a week. I lost 16 pounds in 10 weeks and I'm still losing. All this BS about "Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day" is just to make you EAT MORE and buy MORE FOOD! You don't need breakfast. You can use up residual calories and burn off fat from the day before. The morning is the best time to fast and use up the reserves. It is a great way to LOSE WEIGHT! Eating every 13 minutes is the stupidest diet I have EVER heard of! If you can manage that trick, you need to get a real life!

Mitch 9-29-2008 @ 11:41AM

Anytime you must spend your day eating (or snacking) by a schedule you have little time to do anything else. I have no doubt that the 13 minute diet would work but there are other ways to insure you keep a high metabolism as well as satisfying hunger and losing weight.

Cyn 9-29-2008 @ 12:07PM

My hubby and I have trouble eating 4 - 5 times a day (3 meals and two snacks)... I can't imagine eating 30 times a day. I already get sick of food! I feel like I aconstantly having to think about food and plan my next meal or snack. It actually makes me less interested in food.