The front cover of the Fast Metabolism Diet book claims you can eat more and lose up to 20 pounds in 28 days. But does it really work the way it’s advertised?
The answer is yes and no. There are a lot of misconceptions about this plan you need to know of before you try it and that’s exactly what you’ll find here.
The Fast Metabolism Diet explained:
There are 3 phases to this diet which you go through every single week, for 4 weeks straight. Each phase involves eating in a different way which is meant to trick your metabolism into rising. This is known as interval eating to some, cyclical eating to other. You get to eat 5 meals a day: Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack & supper.
How much can you actually eat on this plan?
Picking apart hype from truth: However, even though the author of this book, Haylie Pomroy claims you can eat more and lose weight through her plan, in reality this diet may be very restrictive on how many calories you can consume everyday, something that everyone considering trying this diet should be aware of.
Even though you can lose weight with this diet, it’s got nothing to do with what’s written on the front cover.
Breaking it down: How it REALLY works:
The diet lasts for 4 weeks (28 days).
Each day that you are on this diet, you will be allowed to eat 5 times.
Each week, you go through 3 eating phases. Each phase allows for a limited amount of calories to be eaten. Here’s how each phase looks broken down:
Phase 1:
This lasts for the first 2 days of the week. Within this phase, you are only allowed to eat 800 calories a day. Here is a sample list of foods you’re allowed to eat during phase 1:
Protein: Lean meat, chicken, beef, buffalo meat, turkey, foul, sausages, turkey bacon, eggs.
Fruits: Apples, guava, mulberries, oranges, peaches, pears, kiwis, watermelon, limes, lemons, figs.
Vegetables: Beans, broccoli, spinach, peppers, peas, sweet potatoes, turnips, pumpkin, celery, carrots.
Drinks: Only water. It is recommended to only drink half your body weight (in ounces) a day.
Phase 1 sample menu plan (for 1 day):
Breakfast: Eggs sunny side up and turkey bacon.
Snack: 1 apple.
Lunch: Chicken breast, sweet potatoes and beans.
Snack: A bag of baby carrots.
Supper: Sausage with eggs, peppers and broccoli.
You can repeat a similar meal plan for day 2. Remember to keep the total calories under 800 during phase 1.
Phase 2:
This phase lasts for the next 2 days. The food list here is the same as for phase 1, but the focus during phase 2 is more high protein, low carb foods. The rule for this phase is that your total daily calorie intake can’t go over 700 calories.
Phase 3:
The last phase will go on for 3 days. Here things are a bit more flexible and you can eat in anyway you want from the food list above. The total caloric consumption can’t go over 1,200 each day.
Putting it together:
- Phase 1: Lasts 2 days, eat 5 meals a day, low carb foods, no more than 800 calories total.
- Phase 2: Lasts 2 days, eat 5 meals a day, low carb, high protein foods, no more than 700 calories total.
- Phase 3: Lasts for 3 days, eat 5 meals, mix up meals anyway you want, no more than 1,200 calories total.
- Repeat Phases 1-3 for another 3 weeks.
- Total length of diet: 4 weeks.
Can you really lose 20 pounds in 28 days with this plan?
Yes it’s possible. But it’s for 2 main reasons:
1. Low calorie intake each day. Again this isn’t written on the cover, but there is nothing in this diet that will let you eat more. It’s a very low calorie diet as you saw above. This will help with the initial weight loss.
2. Changing your eating routines every few days. This is basically a form of interval eating, a method of eating where by mixing up your eating routines every few days, you can trick your metabolism into increasing, losing more weight and never hitting a plateau.
The good news is that in the Fast Metabolism Diet, calorie shifting is used and does work.
The bad news is that not only is interval eating not utilized to it’s full potential, but it’s also inhibited due to the restrictive eating regimes. In interval eating, you should be allowed to eat more and there shouldn’t be that many food restrictions. This makes it work and if done correctly, it can help you lose even more weight than with the Fast Metabolism Diet.
Pros:
- You can lose 20 pounds in 28 days with this diet.
- Utilizes calorie shifting, a great way to lose weight without hitting a plateau, but not to it’s full potential.
Cons:
- VERY restrictive diet. 800, 700, 1,200 calories a day may be difficult for most to handle.
- Not sustainable. It’s very difficult to stay on this diet after you finish it, thus results are likely to come back.
- Disingenuous. Says you can eat more and lose weight, but doesn’t do it in the book.
Fast Metabolism Diet Score:
2 stars out of 5. Good weight loss results, but pretty restrictive and doesn’t in my opinion do exactly what it says on the cover.
Should you try this diet?
The cons out weight the pros in my opinion. It does work and you can lose weight, but the work it takes to get there is just not worth it, not to mention the maintenance needed after you finish it a lot of people may find issues with.
The only good thing about this diet is that it somewhat utilizes calorie shifting, an uncommon yet VERY powerful method of weight loss. Unfortunately the Fast Metabolism Diet does NOT utilize calorie shifting to it’s full potential.
In calorie shifting like it was mentioned before, you aren’t as restricted. There’s short/long term results and you can still lose more weight under real calorie shifting than under the Fast Metabolism’s version of it. If you are looking to get faster weight loss results with much less restrictions, try this free eBook on getting rid of fat fast which does exactly that:
In truth, the Fast Metabolism diet comes close to finding that ideal solution to fast weight loss, but it still inhibits itself by sticking to the traditional, low calorie, low-carb approach to dieting which is why it got 2 stars.
I personally feel any diet based on deprivation is just not a smart way to lose weight, but that’s my personal opinion. If you agree/disagree, I’d like to hear what you have to say.