This is the one I am proudest of. The Steve Harvey Show put me head to head with my dear friend Lacey Stone, the West Hollywood celebrity trainer, in a live weight-loss face-off. Her team and my team. Real people, not models, all of them from Chicago — and I flew out there week after week to coach mine in person. Eight weeks later #TeamJorge walked onto Steve's stage holding $10,000 checks each, $50,000 in total, because every single one of them transformed.
The method was simple and it is the same method that became the heart of my 40th book, MORE TIME PROTOCOL. Certain plant foods are enormously high in volume and almost nothing in calories — the fruit bowls, the vegetables, the squash, the greens. You fill the plate with those first, then you add lean protein and healthy fat. Your stomach stretches, your hunger signal shuts off, and the calorie deficit happens without willpower. Every winner below says the same sentence in their own words: I was never hungry. Not once in eight weeks.
Today I would add one more piece: Zero Hunger Water — sodium, magnesium glycinate and potassium — so the fasting window in the morning is effortless instead of white-knuckled. High-volume plants until lunch, minerals in your water, protein and fat when you eat. That is the whole thing. Watch each of these five interviews below. They are the best proof I have that a midlife body will change fast when the food is right.
Meet the winners
Five interviews, in their own words
Alisha · Lost 65 lbs in 8 weeks
More than a pound a day — and she never finished her plate
Alisha is the headline of the whole challenge: 65 pounds in eight weeks. More than a pound a day. When I asked her what did it, she did not say the workouts. She said the food. Vegan until lunch reset her body — pea protein smoothies, fruit bowls, coconut — and then real lunches and dinners built on high-volume plants with protein on top.
Her honest complaint was the one I love hearing: it was a struggle to eat enough calories. Spaghetti, pizza, ice cream in their high-volume versions, and she still had leftovers most nights. That is what volume does. It fills the stomach before it fills the calorie budget.
What she says at the end of the interview is the part that has nothing to do with a scale. Eight weeks earlier she was sad, depressed, and letting people treat her as less than she was. She finished the challenge planning a move to Los Angeles.
“I was never hungry. Not once in eight weeks. And that is an accomplishment.”
Suresh · Lost 55 lbs in 8 weeks
He could not keep up on the basketball court. Now he can.
Suresh started the challenge unable to keep up with his friends at the park — winded, slow, feeling like he was letting his team down. Eight weeks and 55 pounds later he is running faster, jumping higher and playing a full game without gassing out.
His food was chia seed pudding with fruit in the morning, spaghetti squash instead of pasta, and the high-volume recipes out of the book adapted into his own. He kept using the word full: it keeps me full, which he called the most important part of any diet.
The other change he mentions is the one men rarely say out loud — walking into a store and buying clothes he actually likes instead of leaving the big-and-tall section defeated.
“I don't feel hungry, and that is a weird feeling. Being full and not just waiting until the next meal is life-changing.”
Jenn · Lost 46 lbs in 8 weeks
Down 46 pounds walking into her wedding dress fitting
Jenn averaged nearly six pounds a week on a plan designed for two or three. She was engaged, from a tight-knit South Side of Chicago community where everyone knows everyone, and the reaction when she walked into a room changed within weeks.
The line that made the whole studio laugh was about being hangry. Every previous diet made her miserable and her fiancé knew it within a day. On this one she ate everything from pizza to ice cream in their high-volume forms and never once got hungry — so her mood, her posture and her confidence went up while the weight came off.
That is the point I keep making to people in midlife: a plan you can stay pleasant on is a plan you will still be doing in a year.
“The plan is insane — I got to eat everything from pizza to ice cream. Totally satisfying, and I never felt hungry.”
Emily · Lost 45 lbs in 8 weeks
From 265 pounds in college to a wedding dress in October
Emily hit her breaking point on graduation day, at 265 pounds, in a gown that would not close. Eight weeks on the plan took 45 pounds off before her October wedding, and she swapped the fitness-model photo on her phone for a picture of herself.
She is a cook, so the recipes were her lever — smoothies, breakfast bowls, almond and coconut milk, powdered peanut butter. She was nervous about being vegan until lunch and it ended up being her favorite part of the day. Adding animal protein back at lunch is what kept her full for hours.
Her little brother asked her at a family dinner, who are you, you are a supermodel. Eight weeks. That is the timeline people do not believe until they see five of them in a row.
“It may have only been eight weeks, but it has 100% changed my life completely.”
Alisha — the moment · The minute that says it all
"I'm not that girl anymore."
One more minute of Alisha, because this is the real reason I run challenges. No numbers, no before-and-after. Just what happens inside a person when their body finally matches how hard they have been working.
“I am so grateful for the body I have right now, because it is getting me so far.”
Featuring Steve Harvey · Lacey Stone · Jorge Cruise
Want the protocol behind it?
The two-hour method from my 40th book, MORE TIME PROTOCOL — belly goes first. Apply by November 2; the free six-week challenge for 100 people begins November 9.
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