Recently I learned about a special type of diet that supports metabolic type. Unlike most diets, the metabolic-type diet is designed around your body’s unique needs – a sort of customized plan. If you’re sick of those look-alike diets diets, you may be in for a surprise with this unique diet plan. It may be just the thing you need to boost your weight loss for good.
Let’s first take a moment and look at traditional diets. Most of them fall into one of 3 categories – the low-fat diet, the high-protein diet, or the balanced, calorie-deficient diet. Nutritional experts have disagreed for some time regarding what diet is best, leaving many of us more confused than ever. Worse yet, scare tactics are often employed, leaving us fearing for our lives. Perhaps it’s time that we learned about the newly-discovered metabolic type diet, as an alternative to these plans.
If you look for the science behind this metabolic-type eating plans, you’d find that it began with dentist Weston Price. He was studying people of varying cultures while traveling abroad extensively, and discovered the link between modern eating habits and chronic degenerative diseases. He noticed a distinct correlation between those who ate a diet that their ancestors had and a high degree of health and fitness. But he also noticed a disturbing pattern amongst populations that migrated. These groups were shown to be ill-equipped to process this new variety of foods efficiently, and these populations often showed decreased signs of vitality. Today, with the quantities of processed foods that we consume, epidemic proportions of overweight, obesity, and a host of modern illnesses plague our society. Genetic and environmental variables show up in our metabolism, and we find it hard to lose weight unless we re-adapt to support our genetic needs.
How Does the Metabolic-Type Diet Work?
1. Your nervous system and how it functions. In other words, we conserve energy and digest food in the parasympathetic nervous system, whereas we burn energy in the sympathetic nervous system – where the “fight or flight” hormones lives. Scientists who support the metabolic-type diet believe that one of these systems tends to be stronger than the other, and that this equation is different for each individual.
2. The rate at which you burn calories. Some of us are slow oxidizers, who convert food into energy at a slower rate. In order to balance their systems, they do best if they focus on carbohydrates rather than protein and fat. Other people are fast oxidizers who convert food into energy very quickly. In order to balance their systems, fast oxidizers need to eat heavier proteins and fats to help them stabilize how quickly they burn their energy.
There are a few options if you want to learn your metabolic type. For most of us, however, a simple self-test that you take at home can often identify your metabolic type. One such test asks you a series of 15-20 questions surrounding your eating tendencies and patterns. For absolute accuracy, a trained health professional can provide a complete assessment, which often includes urine and blood tests.
Here are the metabolic types:
Protein types – Protein types are fast oxidizers. In other words they burn fuel quickly. They tend to be frequently hungry, crave fatty, salty foods, fail with low-calorie diets, and tend towards fatigue, anxiety, and nervousness. They are often lethargic or feel “wired”, “on edge”, with superficial energy while being tired underneath. People with this type should eat a diet that is more rich in fats, protein and oils, as well as organ meats or other quality proteins, while carbohydrate should be lower.
Carbo types – Carbo types are slow oxidizers, who burn fuel slowly. They generally have relatively weak appetites, a high tolerance for sweets, problems with weight management, “type A” personalities, and are often dependent on caffeine. People with this type should focus on foods that are high in carbohydrates and low in fats, proteins and oils.
Mixed types – Mixed types are somewhere in the middle of the other two types. They generally have average appetites, cravings for sweets and starchy foods, relatively little trouble with weight control, and tend towards fatigue, anxiety, and nervousness. People with this type should eat a mixture of high-fat, proteins, and eggs, cheese, yogurt, tofu, and nuts in equal amounts.
For many people, this unique diet has proven to solve the mystery to their weight loss needs. If you are frustrated because nothing seems to work for you, it might be worth your while to look further into the metabolic-type diet plan.
For a complete review of one such plan check out The Diet Solution Program.
