CACA Winner – Jorge Cruise

REMEMBER: The CACA is all about what I/we don’t understand.  It does not suggest that the person, product or service is in any way dishonest, untruthful, scamming, etc.  It simply acknowledges that I/we do not understand how it is scientifically correct, honest, truthful, logical or legit.  By submitting someone or something for a CACA or awarding to someone or something a CACA, we are admitting our own shortcomings, not theirs. 

I cannot vouch for the current existence of any quotes or images I present in a CACA plea for help in understanding.  For example, websites change and people may remove things that are revealed to be wrong, mistaken, etc.  However, all images and quotes did exist at one time.

Jorge Cruise confuses me.  I do not understand what he is saying.  I am willing to admit that “the knowledge and credentials that he has gained from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Dartmouth College, the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE)” were so extensive as to be far beyond what I can comprehend until someone explains this stuff to me.  BTW, with all this education, why are there no credentials after his name?  (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=AboutUs)

According to himself, Jorge Cruise “is recognized as America’s leading weight loss expert for busy people.” (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=AboutUs)

Jorge is very busy.

“Jorge has also coached over 3 million online clients at JorgeCrusie.com and is the exclusive weight loss coach for AOL’s 23 million subscribers.”  He must not sleep much.  (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=AboutUs)

“Jorge Cruise launched his weight loss career in 1998.”  His website is copyrighted 1997.  Let’s assume it all began in 1997 and Jorge has “coached” merely 3 million people.  From January 01, 1997 until December 31, 2005, there have been 3,287 days (including two leap year days).  Each day has 24 hours, each hour 60 minutes, each minute 60 seconds.  From January 01, 1997 until December 31, 2005, 283,996,800 seconds will have passed.  Assuming only 3 million people and no sleep, it takes Jorge about 94.6 seconds to “coach” a client.  Once.  Possibly less since I was figuring from January 1997 through December 2005.  (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=AboutUs)

Or maybe Jorge is not that busy.  His book 8 Minutes in the Morning is copyrighted 2001.  According to the back cover, by then he had “helped more than 3 million people slim down via his website www.jorgecruise.com.”  Maybe no one else has used his services since 2001.  Admittedly, more than 3 million is an open number.  But even Mickey D, whose food Jorge seemingly promotes (their logo is on his website), is diligent enough to update its numbers.  Incidentally, if we go from 1997 to 2001, the average time spent “helping” a client is about 52.5 seconds. 

Some help.

Jorge does not always spell well.  Perhaps he is too busy to spell check, what with coaching somewhere between 3 million and 26 million people .  “NO counting calories, NO depravation, NO starvation…”  What is “depravation?” (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=AboutUs)

That’s okay.  I am sure that these details are left to others. 

But the “science” details.  The fact-checking details.  To whom are these left? 

Jorge’s current deal is a program where you basically eat every three hours.  When he claims that “this new way of thinking will make weight loss effortless” I assume he means eating every three hours.  (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=HIW4)

I fail to see where this is new.  Cliff Sheats in his book, Lean Bodies (copyright 1992, Warner Books) had you eating about every three hours.  And there are other old ones out there.  So where is the "new"? 

Now maybe the “new” part is the part where Jorge says,  “Lean muscle controls your resting metabolism.  Yep, lean muscle tissue controls how many calories you burn when doing nothing ...  When resting on the couch, driving your car , sitting at the computer or even when sleeping in your bed.”  Actually, this would be new.  And, so far as I know, wrong. 

As far as I understand the science, muscle does not “control” your metabolism at rest.  Not even close.  Lean muscle contributes a decided minority to the number of calories you burn while resting; 18% or less than one-fifth of the calories.  Here is a chart from a physiology textbook written by scholars, academics and probably real experts. 

Oxygen Consumption for Various Body Tissues At Rest

Source: McArdle WD, Katch FI, Katch VL; Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition and Human Performance (5^th ed.); Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 2001; p.192. 

This is a CACA and, by definition, confusion happens.  It certainly appears as if the liver and brain have the muscle beat when it comes to what “controls your resting metabolism.”  It is possible that neither Jorge’s liver nor his brain, in particular, has his muscles beat in resting metabolism.  Who is right?  I’m confused.  Someone help me understand.  (It is possible that neither my liver nor my brain, in particular, has my muscles beat in resting metabolism.)

Then there is this compelling image.  Below the image are Jorge's own words.  I assume he means magnetic resonance imaging.  "Magnetic imaging" is more like the toy WOOLY WILLIE (or HAIRY HARRY). 

"Muscle loss happens on most fad diets, as shown in this cross-sections of thighs (by magnetic imaging)."  (This is Jorge's caption.)

This, Jorge’s "Secret," quite definitely says that “muscle loss = obesity.”  According to my understanding of the science, this is about as incorrect as one can be.  I would be interested in seeing the data that proves Jorge's statement.  Personally, I am sure there is none.  Still I am open to being proven wrong because this is a CACA and it is awarded because I don’t get it.  Obesity is defined as a BMI of 30 or greater.  That’s it.  You can be obese with muscle gain, with muscle loss or with no change in your muscle.  Muscle loss does not equal obesity. 

The other striking feature of this image is the associated caption: “Muscle loss happens on most fad diets, as shown in this cross-sections of thighs.” (Many people, especially those educated beyond grammar school, would have phrased it as “these cross-sections.”) This states unequivocally that obesity is the result of “most fad diets,” whatever a “fad diet” is (see the arrowhead).  The visitor to Jorge’s website is led to believe that the picture on the right is what happened to someone following a “fad diet” and the picture on the left resulted from following Jorge’s 3-hour scheme. 

If you visit another of Jorge’s website pages, you will see the following compelling image and caption.  The caption below contains his words.  Again, I assume he means magnetic resonance imaging.

 

"Muscle loss can begin after age 20, as shown in cross-sections of thighs (by magnetic imaging).  Only resistance training can restore youthful fat-burning muscle tissue."   (This is Jorge's caption.)

Is it me, or it this the same image as before?  Only this time it is being used to show muscle loss allegedly due to growing older.  Well which one is it?  Is the thigh on the right an allegedly obese one from following a “fad diet” (see above) or is it a thigh from being “age 40+” and having lost muscle from aging?  Is the thigh on the left from some "3-hour diet" (see above) or from being “age 20”?  

Jorge says, “Each pound of muscle burns approximately 50 calories every day just doing nothing.”

In the book Ultimate Fitness, Gina Kolata, wrote that the metabolic rate of resting muscle is very low.  "Skeletal muscle burns about 13 calories per kilogram of body weight over twenty-four hours when a person is at rest," citing researcher Claude Bouchard.  Dr.  Bouchard thus places the number of calories a pound of resting muscle burns at 5.9 per day, about 900% less than Jorge.  By the way, Dr.  Bouchard’s work can be found in PubMed.  Jorge’s does not appear to be.  “PubMed is the free public interface to MEDLINE.  MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences.  MEDLINE contains citations from the 1950's to present.  There are currently over 14 million records in the database.  MEDLINE collects from an array of over 4,500 biomedical journals published in the United States and internationally.” (http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/workshops/biomed/pubmed/whatisPubMed.html)

Jorge says, “Each pound of lean muscle loss causes a 5 pound fat gain.“

Where is this coming from?  One pound of lean muscle loss causes one pound of lean muscle loss, that is it.  There is no obligatory fat gain from muscle loss.  Fat gain is a function of a positive caloric balance, i.e., you take in more calories than you use.  If you lose a pound of muscle, so what?  There will be no weight gain in the absence of overeating for your activity level and current condition.  There is just the one pound loss.  And this statement is based on the possibly flawed notion that one pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day (see above). 

Jorge says, “The science behind the Jorge Cruise diet is simple.  A slim body is determined by timing.”  I don’t get this one, either. 

If there were a list of factors that determine the slim appearance of one’s body, you can bet that “timing” wouldn’t be on it, except as a near to last placeholder.  Prove it to yourself.  A rule of thumb for determining the amount of calories your body needs at rest is to multiply your weight in pounds by 15.  Take your weight.  Multiply your weight in pounds by 15 and eat that number of calories in three meals for one week.  Weigh yourself again.  Now eat triple that number of calories in 5 meals with one meal every three hours.  Do this for one week.  Weigh yourself.  Check the mirror to see if you appear slimmer.  See.  “Timing” did not prevent you from gaining weight and becoming less slim.  Timing does not determine a slim body.  I do not think it is the science that is simple.  Although it is possible that Jorge is.  Or that I am.

Jorge promotes his latest weight loss scheme as "The Yale University endorsed 3-Hour Diet™..."  (http://www.jorgecruise.com/home/index.php?page=HIW3).  I was unable to find any endorsement from Yale University.  There is a foreword written by an MD from Yale.  Whether this represents an endorsement from Yale or from a private individual who works at Yale University is uncertain.  I personally suspect it is the latter.  If you read the “Commercial Use” section of the “Licensing Program” information for Yale University at http://www.yale.edu/licensing/other.html, you would find that it states, in part, that “Yale University does not endorse products or services.  Therefore, permission will not be granted for use of the name or trademarks of the University in a manner that may be misunderstood as an endorsement.”  Mr.  Cruise’s website would either seem to indicate a different policy, as the name of the University is clearly used in a manner that can only be understood as an endorsement, or something else.  You decide.  Whatever, it all just serves to further confuse me and reinforce why Jorge was awarded a CACA.

Oh, yeah.  I almost forgot.  I thought that I would seek a clarification from Yale University just in case the Yale website was mistaken, out-of-date, etc.  So I wrote a letter of inquiry.  This was the response:

I am so confused.

Jorge says: "So many times 'belly bulge' is made up of not only fat, but also old incrusted feces (poop).  Not a pretty picture! So to remove the bulge, Jorge's secret weapon is his Saturday meal replacement PSYLIUM (sic) SHAKE.  The Psyllium Shake is a type of high powered fiber powdered similar to Metamucil for good colon health.  The Saturday only Psyllium shake is simply an 8oz glass of water with 1 teaspoon of the psyllium husk powder.  You are NOT to eat anything else for breakfast that Saturday.  Think of it as a cleanse.  If you are still hungry you may have one piece of fruit, like a small banana.  Click here for the brand of Psyllium that Jorge personally uses and recommends."

What interests me is the concept of “incrusted feces.”  Huh?  A Google search yielded one reference to “incrusted feces” – Jorge’s website.  But Google was only “searching 8,058,044,651 web pages” at the time.  To be complete, I did a PubMed search for “incrusted feces.”  No luck.  However, since PubMed only “includes over 15 million citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's,” maybe it missed Jorge’s substantiating data (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi).  BTW, why is this guru letting his constipated, not pretty pictured incrusted stool followers go without relief for a entire week?  Maybe these poor folk would experience the relief of not incrusted feces if they ate more fiber, followed a better diet than the one Jorge is pushing or took psyllium twice a week instead of anguishing for once weekly relief.  And how much does he get for promoting a particular brand of otherwise generic bulk laxative?  Which, by the way, is “psyllium,” not “psylium.” (remember Jorge has a spelling problem)  I am confused.  You'd think, or at least I would think, that this MD who is apparently helping to push this product would double-check the incrusted feces diagnosis and save these unfortunate souls from the 3-hour diet-induced colon back-up problem.

If someone out there can explain all this to me, I'd be grateful.