The Metabolism Miracle Diet

The Metabolism Miracle claims to have found the answer to why 45% of the population only has to look a piece of cake and pile on the pounds whilst the other 55% doesn’t have this problem. Apparently it is not just our body type which determines our dress size it also our metabolism type. The author of the book and developer of the Metabolism Miracle diet and lifestyle program Diane Kress, RD, CDE. is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator with more than twenty five years' experience in medical nutrition therapy.

She developed the Metabolism Miracle program because after practicing as a dietitian for over fifteen years she realised that in spite of their determined efforts many of her patients were failing to lose and maintain their weight loss using the traditional dieting methods. She was herself also in this group and was not only struggling with her weight but with high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure combined with Diabetes,

Kress started to research the problem and discovered that many of these patients had large number of similarities, in their medical history, their family history, their weight problems and their lab data. She recognised that this group of people had a very different metabolism to those patients which responded well to traditional weight loss methods. She later categorised these two types of metabolism as Metabolism A and Metabolism B.

She then started to design a lifestyle and diet program for the patients with Metabolism B which would become the Metabolism Miracle. Kress believes that her program addresses what she considers to be the root of the problem – an over production of insulin – by reprogramming the pancreas. She also believes that her program allows the millions of people with Metabolism B to lose weight and not regain it and to improve their overall health in a number of areas lowering cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure and blood sugar.

The Metabolism Miracle is based on restricting carbohydrates like the New Atkins Diet and the Dukan Diet but Kress believes these diets are flawed as they do not address the problem of excess insulin production. They do not restrict the consumption of carbohydrates for the eight weeks she considers necessary to rest the pancreas and liver nor do they reprogram these two vital organs by adding back carbohydrates in the appropriate method or teach a lifestyle to keep a properly balanced metabolism.

Metabolism B is also known as metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance or syndrome X. It is an inherited condition where your body craves and over-processes carbohydrates and turns them into fat and your body releases too much insulin causing your blood sugar levels to yoyo. It causes you to gain weight around the waistline and can lead to you feeling anxious, tired and depressed.

This condition can switch itself on at anytime or it can be triggered in response to stress or illness or by hormonal changes.

Where a person with a normal metabolism skips a meal their body will release the right amount of glycogen to keep their body going - but if the person has Metabolism B, this doesn’t happen. Their body instead releases too much insulin which stimulates the glycogen from their liver to move from their bloodstream into their fat cells. So they actually put on weight because they didn’t eat and the ‘hyper insulin response will make them feel irritable and tired as their blood sugar levels are all over the place.

So how does the Metabolism Miracle program tackle this problem, it has a three step approach to treat your body’s hyper response to carbohydrates and train it to process carbohydrates normally

First Step – An eight week spring clean or detox where your intake of carbohydrates is severely restricted.

Second Step – Reprogramming where you carefully reintroduce small amounts of low impact carbohydrates back into your diet.

Third Step – Long term/ Lifetime maintenance where you increase the type and amount of carbohydrates you consume each day up to your Personal Carb Range.

This is an eight-week spring clean or rehab period which starts the reprogramming of your body’s ability to handle carbohydrates The Metabolism Miracle does this by restricting your carbohydrate intake to a very low level. This has the effect of preventing too much sugar entering your blood stream and helps your body stop releasing too much insulin. It also depletes your liver’s glycogen stores.

Kress makes it clear that this part of the diet is not nutritionally balanced but it is a necessary short term measure needed to reset your metabolism.

This part of the Metabolism Miracle program is very simple there are the foods you can eat and the foods you can’t eat. You can eat lean proteins, healthy fats and allowed vegetable but you must avoid carbohydrates. In any one five hour period you must eat less than five grams of carbohydrates. This is the “5 x 5” rule.

You have one main meal every five hours and must have meal or snack within an hour of waking up and going to bed. You also have to drink at least two liters of caffeine free fluids a day and exercise for 30 minutes five times a week.

This is the reprogramming stage of the Metabolism Miracle where you start to add back lots of small servings (11 to 20 grams) of carbohydrates which have at least 2 grams of fiber per portion while still eating lean proteins, healthy fats and allowed vegetable. The fiber content is important as it is this that ensures a slow release of energy.

If your meals are more than five hours apart you have a carbohydrate snack in between. You have to follow this part of the program for a minimum of eight weeks and it is important to eat carefully and on time so that your liver processes your food as it should. If you skip meals or space them out your new metabolic habit may be lost and your body could return to its old habit of over releasing insulin and the weight may pile back on again.

By eliminating virtually all carbohydrates from your diet in Step One your liver has been recuperating. When you begin Stage Two you reintroduce small amounts of low impact carbohydrate which enter your blood stream slowly allowing your liver to start processing again and your blood sugar levels will be stable and under control.

You have to eat a portion of low impact carbohydrate

• Prior to exercising if you exercise before breakfast
• For breakfast
• For lunch
• For dinner
• For any snack between meals which are more than five hours apart
• Immediately before going to bed at night

It is also recommended(but not a must!) that you have a portion if you wake in the middle of the night.

The timing of your meals is important because it prevents your liver from releasing glycogen which your body stores as fat but the amountof carbohydrate is also important – less than 11 grams and your liver will release glycogen – more than 20 grams and your pancreas will release extra insulin throwing your blood sugar levels into disarray.

You continue with Step Two until you reach your target weight.

This stage is the long term (life) maintenance program of the Metabolism Miracle where you eat a much wider range of carbohydrates in more generous size portions. You should eat mainly high fiber low impact carbs, eating high impact carbs such as a cake or brownie only as an occasional treat to prevent your metabolism from moving back out of kilter.What matters more is how and when you eat your carbohydrates.

An important part of this stage is identifiying your Personal Carb Range – to put it simply how much carbohydrate can you eat without gaining weight. See the tables for how to work out your PCR.

To keep your blood sugar levels balanced you must have at least one serving of carbs every five hours. You mustn’t skip meals and you must have a small carb snack before you go to bed.

You have to eat at least one but not more than four servings of carbs of your choice at every meal or snack you during the day but you mustn’t exceed your Personal Carb Range for the day.

This article is one of a series that I've written reviewing some of the more popular weight loss and lifestyle programs.  If you found this article interesting you may enjoy reading the others in the series which are

• The Dukan Diet
• The New Atkins Diet
• The Blood Type Diet