Skip Breakfast, Take a Cold Shower: The "Six Weeks to OMG" Diet That Sounds Crazy but Won Over London

No breakfast. A cool shower on an empty stomach. Black coffee instead of croissants. It sounds like a recipe for a miserable morning, yet this is exactly the routine that turned a self-published diet book into a bestseller. The diet is called Six Weeks to OMG, and "OMG" stands for the texting abbreviation for "oh my god." That is said to be the reaction people have to this unusual diet, and they have it twice. The first time comes when they hear the rules and can hardly believe the plan works at all. The second comes a few weeks later, when they step on the scale and are surprised by what they see. What is certain is that the plan was designed with modern, busy lifestyles in mind.

What a Hollywood Star Discovered About Skipping Breakfast

One of the best-known people to swap the traditional morning meal for a longer overnight fast is actor Hugh Jackman. While preparing to play Wolverine, he followed the 16:8 approach to eating, having all his food in an eight-hour window and fasting for the other 16 hours. He described his routine as eating from roughly 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening, and then nothing afterwards. In an interview with TRAIN magazine, he said the 16/8 approach "really works for me," with staples such as chicken, broccoli, spinach, lean steak, avocado and cauliflower. Jackman trained under professional supervision with a very specific goal, so his experience is not a template for everyone, but it shows why the idea of a later first meal has captured so much attention.

A similar experience comes from one of our readers, a mother of two who works in an office. She tried a lighter version of the OMG rules for a month: coffee without sugar in the morning, a brisk 30-minute walk to work and her first proper meal at around 11 a.m. "The first week was hard, especially around 10 o'clock," she says. "But after that, I stopped snacking in the afternoon, and I felt lighter. I didn't follow every rule, but the morning walk has stayed with me."

Who Is Behind the Diet?

The author of the diet is Venice A. Fulton, a personal fitness trainer from London. He says he observed his clients for years, advised them and recorded how they responded. Some followed his advice, while others didn't. Some of his recommendations worked, and others didn't. The book was first self-published and later released by Penguin in the UK and by Grand Central Publishing (Hachette Book Group) in the United States, where British newspapers such as The Times and the Daily Mail were quoted describing it as a publishing sensation.

It is worth knowing that independent reviewers such as FreeDieting have noted that Fulton's credentials are hard to verify and that some of his rules go against what research shows. The Six Weeks to OMG diet has six rules. It is simply a collection of recommendations Fulton says have proven effective in practice, even though each rule on its own may sound unbelievable. Below, we look at each rule as a nutritionist would.

1. Skip Breakfast

Although nutritionists, doctors, the media, retailers and many others emphasize the importance of breakfast, plenty of people skip it anyway. That is why Fulton suggests you should not worry about it too much. According to him, the morning is the best part of the day for losing weight, because the body, having processed the previous day's food overnight, starts relying more on stored fat, the very fat you want to get rid of. Fulton even says you should exercise in the morning and perhaps walk or run to work to support this process.

What science says: The "breakfast is essential for weight loss" rule is less clear-cut than many assume. In the Bath Breakfast Project, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, adults who ate breakfast did not have a lower daily energy intake than those who fasted until noon. A review of intermittent fasting in the New England Journal of Medicine describes how longer gaps between meals may encourage the body to switch toward using fat for fuel. However, skipping breakfast is not suitable for everyone. People with diabetes, those taking blood-sugar-lowering medication, pregnant or breastfeeding women, teenagers and anyone with a history of disordered eating should talk to their doctor first. If you do eat breakfast, choose wisely. Our article Why is it dangerous to eat these foods for breakfast explains which morning foods are best avoided, and if your day is physically demanding, see Breakfast for more energy before a physically demanding day.

2. Take a Cool Shower

According to Fulton, a cool morning shower has three effects. First, it wakes you up completely. Second, it is supposed to "wake up" your metabolism, and Fulton claims this effect can last for many hours. Third, and in his view most important, your body works to maintain its temperature, which means it has to produce heat and use energy. So, in theory, you burn a little extra under the cold shower, and Fulton says the effect is even better on an empty stomach.

Of course, don't overdo it under the shower. Fulton recommends water between 15 and 20 {-15696}C (59 to 68 {-15696}F), which is quite bearable, for no longer than 15 minutes and no less than 5 minutes.

What science says: Cold exposure does activate so-called brown fat, a type of tissue that produces heat. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found active brown fat in adults exposed to mild cold. However, the extra calories burned during a single shower are modest, and a cold shower is no substitute for balanced eating. There may be other benefits: in a large Dutch trial published in PLOS ONE, people who ended their daily shower with 30 to 90 seconds of cold water reported fewer sick days from work. A sensible approach is to start with a warm shower and finish with a short cool rinse. People with heart or circulation problems or high blood pressure should check with a doctor before trying cold showers.

3. Drink Black Coffee

There's nothing better than a cup of strong coffee. After a morning workout, a cool shower and a brisk walk to work, coffee is undoubtedly a welcome reward. Fulton points out that a fuller stomach can help keep hunger at bay. The coffee must be black: no milk, no sugar or other sweeteners, and of course no biscuits, cream or other extras. According to Fulton, this helps avoid an insulin response, which slows the use of stored fat.

What science says: Caffeine can slightly increase energy use and may temporarily reduce appetite, but Scientific American reports that regular coffee drinking does not lead to significant weight loss, although unsweetened coffee has been linked to slightly less weight gain over time. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers up to about 400 mg of caffeine a day (roughly four to five cups of brewed coffee) generally safe for healthy adults. "Lots of coffee" should therefore mean a few cups, not a whole pot, and on a sensitive empty stomach coffee may cause discomfort. Remember to drink water too.

4. Keep Moving

After your coffee, you can sit for 20 minutes (or less), but after that another round of physical activity is highly recommended. You don't need to go back to the gym; even a walk around the shops will do. The important thing, according to Fulton, is to move actively for at least 30 minutes. If you get in the car during this time, he says, you'll undo all your morning effort, because you shouldn't slow down the metabolism you worked so hard to get going.

What science says: This is the rule with the strongest support. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week for adults, which is roughly 30 minutes on most days. A daily brisk walk is one of the simplest habits you can keep for life, long after any six-week plan ends.

5. Three Meals a Day

Of course, you can't get through the day on exercise, showers and coffee alone. You still need food. Fulton recommends three meals, but he suggests replacing the traditional heavy meals with lighter ones: a light meal instead of lunch, another instead of dinner. Fulton even says constant nibbling doesn't help. Eat three times a day, with the first meal being the largest, the second smaller, and the third only about a third of the largest. In addition, the last meal should be eaten at least two hours before bedtime.

What science says: Research on meal frequency is mixed. A study of men on a weight-loss diet, published in the journal Obesity, found that eating six times a day instead of three did not reduce daily hunger. In other words, frequent snacking isn't automatically the key to success. Finishing your last meal a couple of hours before bed is also sensible because it may support better sleep, and good sleep matters for your waistline, as we explain in When you sleep too little, your belly grows.

6. Count Your Carbohydrates

This is the toughest rule, and you may be surprised by how small the meals are. Fulton recommends that each meal consist of about 50% protein and that you eat no more than 120 grams of carbohydrates per day.

Protein is an important part of a healthy diet and helps reduce appetite. It is abundant in poultry, fish, eggs, full-fat yogurt, nuts and more. Research supports this point: a small study in the Journal of Dairy Science, summarized by Harvard Health Publishing, found that people who had more protein in the morning had fewer cravings later in the day. Just don't overdo it in the other direction; read 3 mistakes when consuming protein to learn how much protein you really need.

Once you realize you can eat practically unlimited amounts of vegetables (except potatoes, corn, carrots and peas, which Fulton limits), things get a little easier. Still, Fulton advises eating only three kinds of vegetables per day, because he believes mixing too many isn't good. This is his personal rule rather than an established nutritional guideline; most nutritionists encourage a colorful variety of vegetables.

Fulton is especially strict with fruit, which contains fructose. He argues that fructose interferes with leptin, the hormone that tells the brain when you're full, so that you feel hungry more often. There is some research behind this: a study in rats, published in the American Journal of Physiology, linked a high-fructose diet to leptin resistance. However, these results came from animals fed large amounts of fructose, not people eating whole fruit. Leptin itself is not found in food; it is produced by the body's fat tissue. Fruits Fulton considers more acceptable include avocado, blueberries, grapefruit, pineapple, plums, strawberries and tomatoes. Whole fruit also provides fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, so for most people the real concern is fruit juices, smoothies and added sugars rather than an apple a day. For more on hidden diet saboteurs, see Hello, and Fattening: Foods that Sabotage Your Diet.

A Nutritionist's Verdict

Some of the OMG rules hold up well: moving every day, choosing black coffee over sugary drinks, eating enough protein, stopping mindless snacking and limiting refined carbohydrates. Others, such as strict limits on fruit and only three types of vegetables a day, are personal views of the author rather than widely accepted advice. Any quick weight loss in the first weeks is often partly water, which is why a steady pace matters more than a dramatic start. If you'd like to understand why many diets don't last, read 10 reasons why every weight loss diet fails, and for a gentler approach, see Diet without dieting and 2 kg less per week.

One more thing: the diet is also used by men. Whoever you are, before making big changes to your eating habits, especially if you have a health condition or take medication, it's a good idea to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian.