A celebrity trainer says this diet is 'better than keto' and achieves the same results

Surprise, surprise. It’s another week, which means another round of keto news.

But instead of a new study or celebrity touting the health benefits of the high-fat low-carb diet, this week’s instalment is doing the complete opposite – shaming it. And people, we are rejoicing.

According to Jorge Cruise – the trainer responsible for transforming the lives of millions of people including celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lopez, Khloe Kardashian and Miley Cyrus – the keto diet is utter BS and in actual fact, is ruining your body.

“Keto after 90 days can cause fatty liver damage,” Cruise explains in an interview with PEOPLE. “If you do straight keto, you literally look like a stick. You’ll be rail-thin, but you’ll have a fatty liver and liver disease. It makes no sense to do keto long-term.”

What he suggests is a more effective and healthy alternative is his “Cruise Control” diet, which is similar to the 16:8 intermittent fasting diet. Instead of fasting for 16 hours and eating your meals in between the remaining eight hour window, the “Cruise Control” diet splits the day into two zones – a 16-hour evening and overnight “burn zone” (semi-fasting) followed by an eight-hour “boost zone” (normal eating).

But what makes Cruise’s approach extremely different to any other fad diet is the fact that no foods are off limits (although sugar is kept to a bare minimum), simply because he doesn’t believe in counting calories.

“We eat an anti-inflammatory diet, but you can eat carbs on this plan every day! Pizza, pasta, wine, tequila… you can eat normally,” Cruise adds.

In his book The Cruise Control Diet, he offers recipes such as zoodle spaghetti and meatballs, almond butter cookies and portobello pizzas, which can all be eaten during the “boost zone”.

Food isn’t entirely off-limits during the “no-sugar burn-zone” either, with a double chocolate fudge mousse or vanilla chai tea latte on the menu to satiate a dieter’s appetite.

“When my clients are hungry, we’ll suppress the appetite with healthy fats,” the 48-year-old says. “You will not gain weight, you won’t break the fast and you’ll lose a pound of belly fat [a week].”

It goes beyond cutting out an entire food group (carbs, in the case of the keto diet), and focuses on the timing of when you consume each group, which ultimately leads to long-term sustainable weight loss.

“The only macro-nutrients that break the fast are carbohydrates and protein. Those raise insulin, and that’s what this whole diet is about. It’s about bio-hacking and cheating insulin so you can turn off hunger.”

However, this doesn’t give you permission to go rogue during the “boost zone” – Cruise emphasises the fact that “100 per cent you cannot out-train a poor diet.”

“I don’t care if you have 10 hours a day at the gym. You can sit down and have a pizza, a Snickers bar, ice cream and you’re at 20,000 pounds. It’s so hard on your body. You’ve got to avoid sugar.”

But then again, wine and pizza is allowed, so life is still good, peeps.