What is the metabolic diet and why might it work for you?

New and different diets appear every day that promise “to shed the extra pounds without losing health” – that’s the slogan of most of them. But, you know, not every diet works.

Diane Kress, a nutritionist from the USA, worked on a new food system and wrote a best seller on the subject entitled The Metabolism Miracle, the so-called ‘metabolic diet’. In this post, we are going to talk about its advantages and disadvantages.

Diane has worked for many years in the treatment of patients with overweight and type 2 diabetes. Her book is based on this experience and the study of scientific facts and has not gone unnoticed by expert critics. In 2010, the newspaper daily mail granted to The Metabolism Miracle the title of “the diet book of the year”.

O awesome.club evaluated Diane’s work and researched interviews given by the author. And, in this post, I share with you information about the metabolic diet.

But, remember, always look for a specialist and a doctor before adopting any diet.

When losing weight, people often face a scientific fact demonstrated under the name of the “plateau effect”: the diet takes effect for a while and the person loses weight. But, after some time, weight loss ‘parks’ at a certain level (or plateau) no matter how much the regimen continues to be followed to the letter.🇧🇷

The reason for this difficulty is that our body works to save each of the calories ingested. Its main objective is to protect the body from hunger at any cost, in addition to considering that fat stores something positive – remember that our body was programmed in cave times, a period when our ancestors did not know when they would have their next meal. and therefore fat meant energy reserve. In common diets, by reducing the amount of food, the body starts to slow down the metabolism to save energy.

The purpose of the metabolic diet is a kind of restart of the proper work of some organs, namely the pancreas and liver. After resting, they enter a new working mode, which will match their new metabolism.

Diane Kress believes that there are 2 main types of metabolism: the normal one, called A metabolism, typical of thin people, and B metabolism, of overweight people. The body of overweight people is unable to use glucose properly; consequently, fat cells accumulate fat more intensively: these are the symptoms of metabolic syndrome.

It may seem that reducing calories will also lead to weight reduction. However, this is not the case. Our metabolism is heavily dependent on the hormone called insulin. It is responsible for decreasing the concentration of glucose in the blood. And excess insulin forces us to tolerate sweeter consumption more. In addition, it attracts glycogen from the liver, leading to an increase in blood glucose, causing fat cells to actively store fat.

This creates a vicious circle: we are more tolerant of sweets, which in turn raises the insulin level when we consume them and again we want something sweeter. And when we deprive ourselves of glucose, that is, sweets, excess insulin that has not been used causes a strong feeling of hunger. In fact, losing weight under such metabolic conditions is quite difficult.

Therefore, the metabolic diet aims to repair the mechanism of metabolism with the help of a special approach to food. It has 3 main stages, each with its own particularities.

Its goal is for the pancreas to stop producing a lot of insulin. Basically it’s a low carb diet.

The stage lasts 8 weeks. Each day you have to consume less than 25 grams of carbohydrates. and Diane Kress recommends dividing them into 5 meals, each weighing 5 grams. The author states that she is generally against long-term low-carbohydrate diets, but that a short-term carbohydrate withdrawal is the only drug-free method of returning to the normal insulin production process.

Diane claims that in the first 3 days of the diet, we will feel tired, weak, irritable, hungry and even feel slight weakness and dizziness. This is how the process of adapting to the new diet takes place, but on the fourth day, our mood will return to normal.

At this stage, you lose weight; so the time it takes to get rid of those extra pounds will be a little long. The main rules are: do not consume more than 60 grams of carbohydrates, with 11 grams to 20 grams per serving of food. In this case, the pancreas will already be rested and ready to perform its tasks, getting used to working in the right way.

The third stage will have to be preserved forever, but its rules are not so rigid.

To keep the weight at the ideal level, it is advisable to maintain the following particular feeding conditions. First, the author suggests that we calculate the amount of calories needed to maintain weight, considering gender, age and amount of physical activity, in addition to the fact that the body is prone to the wrong type of metabolism that we talked about at the beginning. .]

At this stage, the program allows the consume a portion of carbohydrates at each meal and eat 5 times a day, rejecting cakes but indulging in low-calorie desserts and fruit.

Either way, carbohydrate portions should be strictly controlled.

In the first stage, the author proposes not to ingest “fast” and “slow” carbohydrates, such as pasta, cereal and bread. The basis of the diet consists of proteins and vegetables and also low-carb versions of the aforementioned products. But allowed foods cannot be consumed in excess, as the author emphasizes the need to control portions.

Thus, the foundation of the first-step diet is made up of proteins such as lean, skinless meat, seafood, low-fat cheese such as ricotta and cottage cheese, eggs and non-sweet soy products. Fats should be light versions of oils, creams, margarine, mayonnaise, vegetable oils, olives, avocados, nuts and seeds. Vegetables allowed: artichokes, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, variety of peppers, peppers, radishes and tomatoes. Finally, the allowed sweets are: yogurts, juices, milkshakes and sugar-free puddings and also portions of products that contain less than 5 grams of sugar.

In the second step, all products that enter the first are allowed and the range of possibilities opens up a little more, with portions of grains, cereals, pasta, wholemeal bread, non-sweet fruits, in addition to Diane’s low-carb baked recipes. In the third step, after finishing the diet, you must continue to take care of the amount of carbohydrate servings, taking into account the calculated metabolism. Sweet fruits and berries are back on the menu, as are small desserts. But don’t forget to control the portions.

And do you think that to lose weight it is necessary to follow a certain type of diet or is it enough to have a correct and moderate diet? Share your opinion in the comments!