A diet that is tailored to your metabolism – can it work? And how suitable is it for everyday use?
Metabolic Balance is not a diet in the conventional sense but a nutritional concept that is tailored to the individual metabolism.
The best way to lose weight is an individual diet plan that depends on personal preferences, dislikes, illnesses or intolerances, and various blood values.
Metabolic Balance: Solution for the insulin problem?
Like other nutrition and weight loss concepts, it is based primarily on the insulin problem: because too many carbohydrates are consumed in our culture, blood glucose levels frequently fluctuate, shoot up and then drop again, which can trigger cravings and promote weight gain.
When you eat carbohydrates, the body converts them into a type of sugar called glucose. The pancreas then secretes insulin to bring the sugar into the cells and use it as energy.
With a constant oversupply, the cells no longer turn to fat as a source of energy. So the body doesn’t break down and store it.
This is how diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood fat levels.
The principle of Metabolic Balance
According to certain blood values and personal information on likes, dislikes, illnesses, and intolerances, you can create your individual nutrition plan.
The data is used to select foods intended to help restore the individual hormone balance and metabolism.
The Four Phases Of Metabolic Balance Diet
- Phase 1: Relief phase
- Phase 2: Strict conversion phase (with or without oil)
- Phase 3: Relaxed conversion phase
- Phase 4: Maintenance phase
Phase 1: You need two days of preparation for this new diet. You start with fasting to clean the intestines and avoid possible cravings.
Besides you eat only light food to eat, for example in the morning only half breakfast, at noon a vegetable soup and an apple and in the evening raw, steamed or cooked vegetable. Or you can eat only one food for a whole day, such as potatoes, vegetables or rice.
Phase 2: The strict conversion phase.
It lasts at least two weeks and requires a lot of discipline. During this period, the eight dietary rules apply, which specify, among other things, how many meals should be eaten, when, and at what intervals.
Besides, it would be best if you stick to the foods specified in the individual diet plan. For example, cottage cheese and mangoes are allowed for one person, whereas another may reach for feta cheese and blackberries.
Per day you should eat three carbohydrate-poor and protein-rich meals in the form of fish, eggs, milk products, and lean meat.
Vegetables are served as a side dish instead of the typical filling side dishes such as pasta, rice, or potatoes.
Phase 3: the relaxed conversion phase.
In this phase, you test how you react to certain foods. And at one of the three meals per day, more carbohydrates such as pasta or rice are now allowed again.
Also, you can ignore the strict quantity requirement on so-called cheat days. Wine and beer are then also allowed. From now on, exercise is also recommended.
Phase 4: The Maintenance phase.
The main goal of it is to preserve the success achieved so far: The duration of this phase is not limited.
If you gain some pounds at some point, you can simply return to the “strict phase” for a few days.
Metabolic Balance rules
In addition to individual food choices, there are eight simple rules to follow, and they apply from the second phase onwards.
Rule 1: Exactly three meals per day
Rule 2: Five hours between meals because snacks and meals in between would disturb metabolic processes and causes cravings.
Rule 3: A meal should not last longer than 60 minutes.
Rule 4: Each meal should start with one or two bites of protein.
Rule 5: Only one type of protein is allowed at each meal, and it should be a different type of protein at each of the three meals a day.
Rule 6: Nothing is eaten after 9 pm.
Rule 7: you should drinks a certain amount of water every day – 35 milliliters per kilogram of body weight throughout the day.
Which is a lot, even for normal-weight people, two to three liters come together. Tea and coffee are only consumed at mealtimes or shortly after meals.
Rule 8: An apple a day is mandatory.
Metabolic Balance in practice
The food varies in the different phases: In the second phase, for example, you can eat 200 grams of natural yogurt and an apple in the morning and balance 125 grams of poultry with 130 grams of spinach at lunchtime. You may eat 135 grams of cod and 140 grams of fennel land on the plate for dinner.
Conclusion
In principle, Metabolic Balance is a calorie-reduced mixed diet with increased protein and reduced carbohydrate content.
It is certainly possible to lose weight with this diet, as other approaches have also shown. However, this form of nutrition is often difficult to implement in everyday life: The long breaks between meals cause trouble for many participants.
