Metabolic Diet – Finding your Fat Burning Point

The basis of the diet is to intake alot of protein and fiber to satiate hunger and aid metabolism, while supplying just enough carbohydrates to steady blood sugar levels. Blood sugar being too low is just as bad as being too high, as your body will release a muscle burning hormone to raise blood sugar levels. Your body does what it has to in order be energetic. There are 3 things you need to monitor to make sure you are close to your optimal fat burning zone.

Hunger

The whole point of the Metabolic Diet is to reduce your hunger and cravings, which are both hormonal responses to not eating enough in your meals. So my first point will be to tell you if you feel like snacking between meals (which should be about 5 a day), you may need to raise your intake from the “lots of” category. Lots of fibre keeps your stomach full, stopping your endocrine system from releasing ghrelin, a hormone that makes you hungry.

Energy

If you feel like you need to snack because you feel low on energy, this is a sign that you may need to gradually increase carbs (in “less of” foods) for breakfast, lunch etc, until the energy dip subsides. You need to balance blood sugar by taking in carbs at key points, such as morning and before/after training. Aslong as you follow the diet, you can be sure that whatever signals your body is sending you is correct. You will usually always feel like carbs in the morning (this is due to low blood sugar), so having your granola or oatmeal etc helps raise and steady blood sugar. Be careful though, too much carbs will raise blood sugar too high which shuts down fat burning.

Cravings

Cravings are usually directly related to stress. So check your sleep (aim for 8 hours) and make sure you aren’t over training. If you are drinking too much caffeine or consuming artificial sweeteners, they’ve got to go. They too cause stress, which leads to cortisol, which leads to cravings. Try to find peace and relaxation wherever you can in your life.

Moderating and Fine tuning

Checking and moderating these key signs will help you find your optimal fat burning point. If all these elements are in check and you are not losing weight, you are eating too much. Check your inatke of the “less of” category. If you are tired, all these elements are off, and you are not losing weight, you need to eat more! Thats what this meal plan is all about. :)

Metabolic Meal Plan – Overcoming Initial Problems

Over – coming your instincts

This post is a reply to a client (I’ll let him/her decide to come forward or not) when I gave them the Metabolic Meal Plan. I found out they they instinctively reverted back to their old opinion on what “healthy” is.

“Hi ______

Just in what you said you were eating. Im not sure if you just didnt include meats and the major cruciferous greens in what you said you ate. That looks like a relatively normal “healthy diet”, not the specific fat burning diet. It would be ok if you had fish, loads of chicken and a rake of brocolli and cabbage with it,, Im just not sure if you left all that out.

You have to remember the WHOLE thing about ths diet is taking in vast quantities of very certain foods that contin alot of fibre, few calories, and spark metabolism. Imagine this. If you took what you told me there, put it in a blender and condensed it you would have a smoothie that would be relatively thick with a moderate amount of calories in it. Now imagine you got 2 chicken breasts, a head of brocolli and a lot of cabbage. If you blended this you would have an even bigger smoothie (in terms of quantity) than your last one, which would also have alot less calories in it. This smoothie would also stimulate your metabolism more, and reduce cravings.

You have to remember the golden rule: 2 thirds of your plate must be from the “lots of” category.

You will lose weight with what your eating ____, but you wont be getting the same positive hormonal effects as from eating the vast quantities of lean meats and cruciferous veg. The salted peanuts have to go too Im afraid.

No Salt Allowed!”

End of message

You must be careful not to stray back into a regular chicken and veg diet. That is a healthy diet, but not a fat burning diet. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

The Metabolic Energy Diet

I would highly recommend this meal plan with 3 Underground Classes a week.

I will be releasing a new diet to class members in the coming weeks. This diet was created primarily to kick start the metabolisms of those who may have been dieting a bit too hard, and had their metabolism slow down. Saying this, this is the prefect nutritional plan for anyone. It has the following benefits

–  Burns Fat while building metabolism       –  Doesn’t plateau

–  Elimintaes hunger and cravings                 –  Aids sleep and healthy function

–  Cleanses the gut and removes toxins       –  Eat lots of food

–  No calorie counting or small plates.

What you’re eating and why

The bulk of your plate will be fish, lean meats and cruciferous greens (broccoli, cabbage, spinach). It doesn’t sound great but you can flavour it up, and the beauty of it is you can eat as much as you want. You can then take in other foods, as long as you’ve filled with those main three.

This will trick your body into thinking you are eating vast amounts of food (and you will be), but you won’t be taking in vast amounts of calories. A lot of protein will be consumed to spur muscle growth, but a large amount will be fibre. Your body will keep revving while your stomach is full, but there will still be a calorie shortage. With your energy still running strong your hormones will be in a state of fat burning, which is where all this excess energy will come from.

Remember that when starving yourself or eating the wrong foods, your metabolism will drop. That’s why you plateau and lose progress. With this diet your metabolism stays strong, so you really can lose a significant amount of weight with it.

 

Body Composition

With this diet, you get your hormones working for. This can almost seem like you are changing on a genetic level.

Let’s take an overweight person with a round frame. If they simply reduced calories their bodies would pull fat from everywhere, until finally their metabolism would slow down. They would be left with the same shape, and their progress would halt.

With this metabolic plan, the same person would finally switch on their hormones to work on their behalf (the fact that they were overweight was likely because hormones were working against them). Properly balancing hormones can help strip fat from problem areas, essentially changing this person over all shape. They’ll finally have the shape and metabolism they thought was beyond their reach.

 

I will be handing out the diet in the classes, so be sure to pick one up. If you don’t want to follow one yet don’t worry. I can print for anyone who wants it in time. This is not one to miss though, the old form of dieting is dead and buried, this is what will give you the consistent results you’re after.

Best of luck, Im here to answer any questions you may have.

Reconditioning For Women – “I’m not losing weight!”

This is for the women in the class who tell me they are not losing weight.

Many women when starting the class say this to me, and my reply is always the same: “well are you noticing any changes?” They seem broken like the last week or two has been in vain, like the scales has placed them in fitness purgatory, then they reply “Well no I’m not losing any weight, but I seem to be toning up”…

Hhhhmmmm…

When most women come through my doors what they hope to achieve with me is to lose fat, or as they call it “lose weight”. They can become fixated on seeing a drop on that scales. They might be misinformed that a drop in body fat while toning up will have a direct reduction in their body weight. Honestly, this is because this is because how they have been educated; incorrectly. Special K, Weight Watchers and all these short term solutions have you dropping weight, but their results won’t last. Radically dropping calories without training will result in a breakdown of muscle tissue, which is where most of the weight lost will be seen.

In the Underground System we do a lot of high intensity training, using a lot of resistance. Resistance training (weights etc.) stimulates muscle to grow when fed the right nutrients, namely Protein. Muscle weighs more than fat, so as you build small amounts of muscle, this is off-set by the body fat you are losing. This is more prevalent in the early stages of the class as you put on muscle quicker when adopting resistance training for the first time (or if it has been a while).

All’s not lost… Yet!

As your body builds more muscle your metabolism will raise. An extra pound of muscle can burn an extra 40-60 calories a day by just being there. This combined with the fact that as you get fitter you can perform more intensely in the class, will result in a great increase in your metabolism. As your muscle and aerobic fitness grows so will your calorie expenditure. When your muscles build to a certain size its development will slow down somewhat, but your fat burning will remain increased. This is why many women tone up in the first couple of weeks in the class (really burning body fat), but their weight will only start to drop after this time. This balance of muscle gained and fat lost will tip more towards the latter.

This is called Reconditioning, and it is by far the healthiest way to lose weight, because it means your new metabolism will help you keep the weight off. Forget the fads and the crappy money driven Special K diets (hilarious this is even legal), you must train to build muscle and develop a strong and efficient metabolism, one that will really keep you in that red dress for years to come.

The Honest Way to Cheat

 

It would be a good idea to read the article below (2 below) on Metabolic Consistency as this post develops on it.

A cheat meal is a way for you to reward yourself at the end of a hard week eating well. We all like our food, and to deny ourselves of the foods we enjoy completely could lead to burning out or simply dropping your healthy meal plan. Complete restriction is not for most.

If you are on an eating plan where you to take certain days or meals off, there are a few things you must consider to lessen their negative effects.

Many people will set a day when they will indulge, usually over the weekend. But is setting a day in advance for your cheat a good idea? Okay, if you feel that you enjoy your Sundays off and have a habit of strolling down to The People’s park in Dun Laoghaire for some feasting, maybe picking that day works well. It’s the most rewarding for you.

What happens though if your birthday falls on a Tuesday, or you’re out for a business dinner and want a few drinks on a Thursday? I believe cheat meals are better stored for when you need them most, like a get out of jail free card. There is another reason why holding off is a good idea.

The answer is hormones. Hormones regulate your body’s ability to burn or store fat. Of course hormones are massively controlled by the food you eat, but hormones are also affected by your emotions. Eating when stressed will lead to a higher level of fat storage (see Cortisol – http://yourfitness.ie/blog/?p=229).  This is why you should never eat when depressed or upset about something. There is the typical scenario of a woman going for chocolate ice cream after some man trouble (they’re not worth it girls), but this will result in fat storage and perpetuate a negative cycle.

I explained hormones because if you set your meal to a Sunday for example, you cannot be sure if you’ll be in a good place, or if you’ll even be in the mood for good food. I believe your cheats are best held onto for enjoyable times when you are relaxed and just want to enjoy yourself. This is the best way to integrate a healthy eating plan into your life while still having fun. Enjoy your food when you’re having fun and you’re less likely to store, as well as more likely to enjoy your time.