There are quite a few celebrities who sing the merits of the 5 Factor Diet.

To name a few, Katherine Heigl, Alicia Keys, Jessica Simpson, John Mayer, Eva Mendes, and also Kanye West. Why do you ask, are Hollywood celebrities so enamored by the 5 factor diet? Well, for starters the diet was made for them! Harley Pasternak, a trainer among celebrities, wrote the book, 5-Factor Fitness published in 2005 by Putnam. He then wrote the follow-up book, 5-Factor Diet that was published in 2006 by Meredith.

About the Diet:

The 5 in the 5 Factor diet refers to the number of elements each of your meals should include. The five elements are: protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, fat, and fluids. You are also supposed to eat five meals a day. The recipes you are to consume contain no more than five ingredients, or take no more than five minutes to prepare and five minutes to cook. Another five appears in the exercise that goes along with the diet plan. It is a (you guessed it) five-day exercise plan. The plan consists of five exercises you complete in five minutes.

The diet allows for one cheat day per week, in which you can eat anything you want! HMMMMM what happened to the number five?

Nutritionist, like Cathy Nonas, MS, RD, states that the plan is a healthy one in that it incorporates all the food categories in the correct proportions and that the corresponding exercise program is a combination of cardio and strength training, according to her review of the 5 Factor Diet for the American Dietetic Association.

Celebrities like the fact that the plan is uncomplicated. You get to have 3 meals and 2 snacks daily that consist of low-fat protein, fiber, healthy carbs and fats. You also are allowed to drink a sugar-free drink with each meal.

Harley created the diet because the celebrities he trained needed healthy meals that they cook prepare in a matter of minutes because of the short breaks on movie sets. They had to have simple ingredients that could fit into a mini fridge that most celebrities had access to on movie sets. They also had to be able to be prepared in a blender, or toaster oven.

The 5 Factor Diet Plan makes losing weight for the celebrities easy. The plan was designed so celebrities could see results in as little as five weeks (there is that five again).

Because the plan allows celebrities to eat five times a day, they do not get hungry as you normally do when dieting. The hundreds of recipes in the plan use only five ingredients and take only five minutes to prepare. No wonder celebrities love this diet plan!

Harley's workouts are 25-minutes long because he believes that shorter periods of working out are more effective than spending hours at the gym.

To further make dieting easy for his clients Harley provides a online site with many 5-Factor tools for weight-loss success including a daily meal planner, a personal recipe box, food log, a eating out guide, and a activity calculator, online journal, daily inspiration, and hundreds of recipes to choose from. It also has a shopping list tool, cooking shortcuts, custom fitness plan, weight tracker, an ideal weight calculator and message boards for further support.