For the past few weeks, the hashtag #ThreeBiterule has won on Tiktok with more than 20.5 million publications. Behind this appellation, a simple practice: eat only three bites of a dish or three sips of a drink before stopping and throwing the rest. Popularized by Angela Renee, the designer of the concept ensures that this method helps her to maintain her weight loss of 40 kg. Alexandra Murcier, dietician-nutritionist, sheds light on this trend.
Between calories and food control
The idea is based on a psychological notion called “specific sensory satiety”: taste pleasure reaches its peak after a few bites before declining. But in fact, the “rule cock” is more like a voluntary restriction than a conscious diet.
Presented as a solution to keep control, this trend is criticized for its perverse effects. Systematically reducing your diet to three bites amounts to ignoring hunger signals, nutritional needs and the social context of meals: “This cuts us off from our food sensations, especially satiety which is one of the only natural mechanisms of weight regulation“Explains Alexandra Murcier. She can also accentuate frustration, a recognized factor in the disruption of metabolism and weight recovery.
The method also generates an additional problem: food waste. Viral videos often show dishes started and then thrown after only a few bites, a gesture that is difficult to justify in a context of economic and social crisis.
Alexandra Murcier alerts the dangers of the trend
Faced with this new fashion, Alexandra Murcier is categorical: “I don’t really see any benefits“”.
According to her, practice is particularly risky for people with eating disorders: “For people with eating disorders, it is dangerous because for this can strengthen anorexic behavior and for someone with bulimia or hyperphagia it shows that we do not know pathology at all, because it is simply impossible to follow in this case“.
On nutritional balance, the expert is just as categorical: “In terms of food balance, it is also a disaster because it suggests that if you eat anything in small quantities it is OK, when it is not at all the case, you risk deflecting strongly by doing this“.
His advice for healthier food
For Alexandra Murcier, it is essential to distinguish approaches: “I think that it is not necessary to confuse intuitive diet and conscious diet: eating in conscience, respecting your satiety, eating slowly, without screen, is a much better technique for losing weight in the long term than intuitive food“.
It is necessary to adopt a balanced diet, something that the “threebiterle” cannot offer. Indeed, it is not in three bites that you will obtain the nutrients necessary for the proper functioning of your body, and your digestion.