Metabolism revolution
Can simply shifting your calories every day “confuse” your metabolism into burning fat faster? Yes!
Defy your set point and drop 7 pounds a week!
Talk about dieting frustration! You think you’re doing everything right—big salads for lunch, skipping dessert, turning down that second glass of wine when you’re out with the girls…but for some reason, the pounds refuse to budge. If you’ve ever wondered if your metabolism is simply broken, you’re not alone, says Haylie Pomroy, a nutritionist with more than 20 years of clinical experience. “When women come into my office, they have often tried everything they can think of—from extreme to slow-and-steady diets,” says Pomroy, who’s helped celebrities including Cher, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lopez get into red-carpet shape. “The most common thing they tell me is that they believe they have a ‘set point’ and won’t be able to get below it. Some tell me they think they must have permanently damaged their metabolism.
“You can speed up metabolism while
providing the body with what it needs to achieve glowing health.”
—Haylie Pomroy
I say nonsense. Your metabolism is not preprogrammed with a default number.” So why do so many of us struggle?
Breakthrough science from the National Institutes of Health reveals that strict dieting slows metabolism, making it two times harder to slim. The problem stems from the fact that many structured programs prescribe significant calorie restriction with a set list of “acceptable” foods—and these rigid rules push the body into a rut. Weight-loss expert Mike Moreno, M.D., explains, “If the body sees the same foods and the same calorie count day in, day out, it becomes efficient at utilizing incoming calories.” Knowing exactly how much energy it needs to perform its daily functions, the body burns just enough calories to keep its systems going and stores the rest as fat for a possible emergency. What’s more, it takes only 21 days of a regimented routine for the body to adapt in this way. “We tend to think of efficiency as a good thing,” says Dr. Moreno, “but in metabolism, it can hurt you by making calorie burn less optimal.”
Compounding the problem:
When stubborn pounds won’t budge, many of us cut calories even more. “Low-calorie diets are stressful for the body—they drive up the production of cortisol and end up packing on fat,” explains Pomroy. “I know from experience that taking away food to lose weight simply doesn’t work.” Indeed, this deprivation pulls us deeper into the vicious cycle of stress and weight gain. “It creates a negative spiral of metabolic dysfunction,” Pomroy says. “You experience it as weight gain and low energy.”
To help women break free from this fat trap, Pomroy dug into the latest metabolic science and zeroed in on a novel strategy. Her twopronged approach floods the body with abundance to provide slimming nutrients that may have been missed during restrictive dieting. “I’m always looking toward food as the way to heal the metabolism,” she says. In tandem, she suggests shifting macronutrient ratios throughout the week so some days are higher in carbs while others are higher in protein or fat. Dr. Moreno explains why this is so effective: “When the body is stuck at a plateau, you have to challenge it, physically and metabolically. You have to confuse it to lose it.” That’s because when the body has no idea when or what the next meal is, it can’t run metabolism efficiently; it has to burn everything in case more food is coming in soon. This sets the stage for effortless weight loss.
The plan works fast—and the slimming results get better with time. “You’ll blow past historical ‘set points’ to vanquish those stubborn pounds,” promises Pomroy. Women following Pomroy’s plan lose up to a pound every day—and the impressive results are amplified over the long-term. “Once we shake up your metabolism, it will burn hotter and stronger,” she explains. This effect helped women FIRST spoke to lose weight in record time—and keep it off for years! To reboot your metabolism, take the quiz at right, then read on for the strategies that slim.