5 meals a day

Looking for a new diet? Diet season is almost upon us, and as silly as it seems, January is the month where people go and buy diet books. Publishers know this and hold back releases until January.

The 5 Factor World Diet is on its way. It follows on from 5 Factor Fitness and the 5 Factor Diet (I guess it follows that you keep writing sequels every few years to hit all the repeat dieters).

Say it ain't so! The accepted conventional wisdom of eating several smaller meals throughout the day to shed pounds is being challenged at almost every turn. A recent article has gone so far as calling extra meals a "faddish dieting trend" (gasps in horror).

The Eat-Clean Diet, by Tosca Reno, is physically beautiful... every page seems to leap up at you with an explosion of glossy pictures, colorful sidebars and pull quotes.

The information is laid out in a very reader-friendly way and speaks in a basic language that most will easily comprehend. Beyond the book's exceptional appearance though, I found the content rather unexceptional.

The Cheat To Lose Diet is a new book from Body-for-Life Grand Champion Joel Marion.

Body-for-Life (started around 1996) in many ways marked a change in traditional dieting principles. It advocated plenty of aerobic and strength training, along with frequent higher-protein smaller meals, and - of course - the "free" or "cheat" day.

Mr Marion has delved considerably deeper into these concepts - using his own experiences to come up with the "Cheat to Lose" concept.

Five Factor Diet, by Harley Pasternak, has been growing in popularity - due to celebrities like Jessica Simpson and John Mayer using the plan.

What is it about, and is it a good program?

Fitness 'expert' Jim Karas has written a diet book claiming that cardio is a complete waste of time. The Cardio-Free Diet advises us to ditch the cardio: "it kills your time, your energy, your joints, and your motivation"

Call me cynical - but this reeks of sensationalism as a marketing tool.

Jorge Cruise has just published the . Mr Cruise is well-known for his series "8 minutes in the morning". His new diet book has jumped to #10 in the Amazon bestseller lists.

Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is a 340 page ebook written by natural bodybuilder Tom Venuto. I got hold of the ebook some time ago, and have read it a number of times. During my fat loss phase I probably referred to the book once a week.

Apparently it's been one of the top-selling weight loss ebooks for over a year now, so I thought I'd give my spin on it.