According to "The Metabolic Typing Diet" by William Linz Wolcott and Trish Fahey, everyone's metabolism is unique. This uniqueness means that while some foods are good for one person, they may not be so good for another. This diet is not a weight loss plan but is designed to deliver optimal health and prevent disease. Wolcott and Fahey suggest that by aligning your food intake with your metabolic type, your body will optimize your metabolism so that you lose weight without calorie restriction.
Advantages
"The Metabolic Diet" customizes your food intake to your specific body chemistry and metabolism. Instead of being a one-size-fits-all weight loss plan, "The Metabolic Diet" is, say the authors, an individualized plan that will provide you with exactly the right foods you need to maintain vibrant health while identifying foods that are not good for you. The majority of diets, including those more concerned with health than weight loss, tend to be designed for populations rather than individuals. "The Metabolic Diet" works on the assumption that everyone is different and has different nutritional needs.
Establishing Your Metabolic Type
The Metabolic Typing Diet uses a series of 65 questions to establish what sorts of foods you are best suited to. Questions cover a broad number of subjects including energy levels after eating certain foods, how eating effects your mood, what activities you enjoy and also your geographic background and ethnic origins. Once you have completed the questionnaire, you will discover your metabolic type.
About the Metabolic Types
There are three metabolic types: protein, carbohydrate and mixed. According to Wolcott and Fahey, each metabolic type thrives on a particular ratio of macro nutrients. If you are a protein type, you are advised to consume a diet that's 40 percent protein, 30 percent fat and 30 percent carbs. Carbohydrate types should consume 60 percent carbs, 25 percent protein and 15 percent fat. The mixed type should consume 50 percent carbs, 30 percent protein and 20 percent fat. Each metabolic type also has specific foods that should be avoided or included to enhance health.
Fine Tuning
Once you have established your metabolic type, Wolcott and Fahey suggest periodically repeating the questionnaire to fine-tune the diet. This is because your metabolism is in a contstant state of flux, and your eating habits should change to reflect this. The authors suggest that once you have aligned your eating patterns to your metabolic type, your internal body chemistry will change how you react to certain foods, and this may require that you to add or eliminate foods from time to time.
Disadvantages
Establishing your metabolic type can be time consuming, and some of the questions can be ambiguous and hard to answer, as they ask you to explain how you feel after eating specific types of foods. The questions use multiple choice answers, and there may well be more than one answer that you want to select. Once you have established your metabolic type, the prescribed diet is very rigid, and you may find that some of your favorite foods are excluded.
References
- "The Metabolic Typing Diet"; William Linz Wolcott and Trish Fahey; 2000
- Holistic Trainer: What is metabolic typing?
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