There’s one word to describe celebrity fitness trainer and best-selling author Jorge Cruise: energy. When 24Life reached out to him at 8:30 a.m. on a sunny spring morning to learn more about “The Cruise Control Diet” (Ballantine Books, April 2019)—his latest book on The New York Times best-seller list—Cruise had already finished a workout and trained a client, and he was on the train heading to another appointment.
Never one to disappoint, Cruise is full of new ideas to keep us on track to our goals. “The Cruise Control Diet” focuses on the scientific basis for intermittent fasting and Cruise’s tips, workouts and recipes for success. We asked him for more insight into the book and what Cruise has found works for himself and his clients, especially when it comes to diet versus lifestyle.
Why intermittent fasting?
Cruise believes that you can transform your health without ever feeling hungry. “I’ve been a trainer for 25 years. I’ve written over 30 books, 12 of them on The New York Times best-seller list. And the key to [success] is keeping things simple,” he says.
Simplicity includes making lifestyle changes rather than complicated meal plans. Cruise explains that most people assume that fasting means extreme hunger, and that’s the last thing anyone wants to feel. Intermittent fasting, he says, is not about hunger or deprivation at all—it’s a change in pattern.
As Cruise entered his 40s, he noticed that despite being extremely fit and eating a healthy diet,
his exemplary lifestyle wasn’t enough. “I turned 40 eight years ago, and my body started to misbehave, if you will. … I was spending more and more time in the gym and not seeing results,” Cruise explains.
In “The Cruise Control Diet,” he points to scientific research indicating that fluctuations in hormones such as insulin, rather than calories, are what lead to weight gain and, in particular, stubborn belly fat. Cruise says fluctuations in insulin lead your cells to store glucose, which then turns into fat. When we synchronize calorie consumption and our metabolic cycles, we can stabilize or limit those fluctuations.
Fasting offers a way to manage those cycles. Cruise became acquainted with the practice through the work of Dr. Jason Fung, as well as the book “The Circadian Code” (Rodale Books, June 2018) by Satchin Panda, Ph.D. Both experts advocate not eating after sundown, just as our ancestors did. “No one was eating late at night and then at the crack of dawn, popping a Pop-Tart,” Cruise observes.