What a metabolic diet is like and why it really works

There are hundreds of diets in the world and those who wish to lose weight have many options to choose from. However, not all methods are good for your health and equally effective. Diane Kress, a certified nutritionist from the US, developed a new nutritional system and wrote a bookcalled The Metabolism Miracle. In this article, we are going to tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of this diet.

Diane Kress has worked with a lot of patients helping them fight obesity and treat their type II diabetes. Her book is based on her personal experience, scientific findings, and medical facts which helped it get noticed. In 2010, Daily Mail awarded The Metabolism Miracle with the award for ’Dietary Book of the Year.’

HOW IT WORKS

When on a “diet” people often encounter a scientifically proven method called the plateau effect — which means that being on the diet doesn’t help them lose weight in the long term.

When dieting, our body functions in survival mode where it tries to save every single calorie. Its main goal is to prevent our body from dying of hunger at any cost, that’s why it considers fat reserves a benefit. So, when we reduce the amount of food consumed, our body then reduces its metabolism to save energy.

The goal of the metabolic diet is to reset certain organs like the pancreas and liver. Afterward, they will start working in a new way, which will even out our metabolism and bring it to a normal state.

2 TYPES OF METABOLISM

In her book The Metabolism Miracle, Diane Kress distinguishes 2 main types of metabolism.Regular (metabolism A) — the one that slim and fit people have, and lazy (metabolism B) — the one that overweight people have. The body of people with excess weight is unable to properly dispose of glucose, and as a result their fat cells accumulate fat with increased intensity — these are the signs of metabolic syndrome.

It seems that reducing calories should lead to reducing weight but this is not true. Our metabolism greatly depends on the hormone insulin. It is responsible for reducing the concentration of glucose in the blood. An excessive amount of insulin makes us eat more sugar. It also takes glycogen out of the liver, which leads to an increase of glucose in the blood making fat cells start to actively store fat.

Therefore, a vicious circle is formed: we eat sweets to increase the level of insulin, which results in a bigger desire to eat sweets. At the same time, if we refuse consuming sweets or glucose, then the excess of unspent insulin causes a strong feeling of hunger. So it becomes really difficult to lose weight with this metabolism.

3 STAGES

The metabolic diet is designed to restart the malfunctioning metabolic mechanism through a special approach to nutrition. It includes 3 main stages, each of which has its own specific regimen.

THE FIRST STAGE IS THE MOST DIFFICULT.

It is aimed at making the pancreas stop producing an incredible amount of insulin. In fact, it is a low-carbohydrate diet.

This stage is divided into 8 weeks. Each day you should consume no more than 25 g of carbohydrates and Kress recommends dividing them into 5 equal parts: 5 g of carbohydrates with each meal. The author says that she basically opposes long-term low-carb diets but short-term carbohydrate abstinence is the only non-medical way to normalize the processes of insulin production.

Kress confesses that you’ll feel tired, broken, irritated, and hungry during the first 3 days of the diet, you might even feel weakness and vertigo. That’s how the adaptation process for a new diet goes; on the 4th day, your mood and state of health will improve.

STAGE 2 IS THE STAGE OF WEIGHT LOSS.

At this stage, you will be losing weight which is why it should last as long as you need so you can get rid of the extra pounds. The main rules are: not consuming more than 60 g of carbohydrates per day, you should divide this amount into 11-20 g per meal. That’s how your rested pancreas will slowly start working in a new and correct way.

STAGE 3 STAYS WITH YOU FOR YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.

The third stage should be followed for the rest of your life, but its rules are not that strict.

To maintain weight at the desired level, you should stick to the following basic nutrition rules. First of all, the author suggests calculating the number of calories needed to maintain your desired weight. You should take into account the gender, age, physical activity, and the fact that your body is prone to the wrong type of metabolism, which we talked about at the beginning.

It is further assumed that a person will consume a limited portion of carbohydrates with each meal and eat 5 times a day, refusing baked goods but allowing themselves to have zero-calorie desserts and sweet fruits. In any case, the amount of consumed carbohydrates should be strictly controlled.

THE SPECIFICS OF THE DIET

• During the first stage, the author suggests cutting out fast and slow carbs like pasta, groats, and bread. The basics of the diet are proteins and vegetables, as well as, low-carb versions of the products mentioned above. Also, you will need to control the portion size of the allowed products.The basics of the diet in the first stage are proteins (skinless lean meat, seafood, low-fat cheese and cottage cheese, eggs, unsweetened soy products), fats (light versions of butter, sour cream, margarine, mayonnaise, vegetable oils, olives, avocados, nuts, seeds), vegetables (artichokes, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, mushrooms, varieties of peppers, radishes, tomatoes), and allowed carbohydrates (yogurts, juices, milkshakes, sugarless puddings, and portions of other products that contain no more than 5 g of carbohydrates).
• The second stage allows all products from the first stage. Also, the diet can be enriched by cereal products, groats, pasta, plain bread, other unsweet fruits, and recipes for low-carb baking from Diane Kress.
• During the third stage, after the diet is over, it’s still necessary to watch the amount of carbohydrates based on your calculated metabolism. You can add back sweet fruits and berries, as well as, small portions of desserts to the menu always remembering to control the size of your portions.

Do you think it’s important to stay on a special diet in order to lose weight or is proper and moderate eating enough? Please share your opinion in the comments!