Special Diets: the fast metabolism diet three distinct phases, one powerful week

Phase 1—Unwind Stress and Calm the Adrenals

Days 1 and 2

Phase 2—Unlock Stored Fat and Build Muscle

Days 3 and 4

Phase 3—Unleash the Burn—Hormones, Heart, and Heat

Days 5 to 7

Let’s consider how the three phases of the Fast Metabolism Diet coax your body to burn fat, build muscle, balance hormones, and lay the foundation for a healthier you. Our bodies require variety from our diets in order to get all of the nutrients necessary to perform all biological, physiological, and neurochemical functions. That’s just what the three phases of Fast Metabolism give you. You need complex carbohydrates, natural sugars, protein, fat, and even salt to maintain normal body chemistry. At times you need very high therapeutic levels of these elements, especially when you’ve been depriving yourself for too long. Including these fuels, but not all at the same time, helps you to rebuild, restore, enrich, and replenish your depleted body and your burnt-out metabolism.

Each phase only lasts for a short time so you don’t exhaust any one system or part of yourself. Doing any phase for too long is like asking you to clean your whole house when you didn’t get any sleep the night before; you’ll be exhausted and you won’t do as good a job of it. We’re going to clean your house (your body) room by room, a little at a time, until it’s sparkling.

For four weeks, you will follow a three-phase rotation. Each phase is strategically designed to work and rest different body systems, and each has a chance to work during every week of your body’s natural 28-day cycle. By segmenting out the work in this way, your body will get all the attention and support and high expectations it needs, one phase, or a couple of days, at a time.

When you move through to the next phase, the systems and organs you engaged in the previous phase get to relax, rest, and restore. A healthy metabolism wants to do three things.

1. Take your food and turn it into energy

2. Release stored fat

3. Turn newly released stored fat into energy

Each of the three phases accomplishes these steps when done in order

Before you can use your food for energy, you first need to calm your adrenals. And that’s what the first phase is all about: unwinding.

PHASE 1—UNWIND STRESS

YOUR POCKET GUIDE

THE BASICS

This is the high-glycemic, moderate-protein, low-fat phase.

High in carbohydrate-rich foods such as:

Brown rice Brown rice pasta

Oatmeal Spelt or brown rice tortillas

Quinoa Rice milk

Wild rice  

High in natural sugars such as

Mangos Pears

Apples Pineapples

Figs Strawberries

Peaches Watermelon

High in B and C vitamins such as:

Lean beef Oranges

Turkey Guavas

Oatmeal Kiwis

Lentils Lemons and limes

Contain moderate amounts of protein

Low in fat

HOW TO EAT

You don’t have to start Phase 1 on a Monday, but I find this is the easiest way to stay organized. From the Master Food List for this phase, you will eat:

• Three carb-rich, moderate-protein, low-fat meals

• Two fruit snacks

Your day will look like this

BREAKFAST SNACK LUNCH SNACK DINNER

Grain Fruit Grain Fruit Grain

Fruit Protein Protein

Fruit Veggie

Veggie

PHASE 1 EXERCISE

Do at least one day of vigorous cardio, like running, the elliptical trainer, or an upbeat aerobic-based exercise class during Phase 1. Cardio is perfectly suited for high-carb Phase 1.

In this phase, if you are a carb-lover, you get all the good stuff you love and crave—fruit and pasta, rice and crackers, toast and pretzels. These high-carb, moderate-protein, low-fat foods nourish the adrenals and soothe physiologic stress. I really want the body to fall in love with food during this phase, so it feels good and easy and fun to be in Phase 1.

Sweet fruits and whole grains stimulate the endorphins in the brain and flood the body with very easily accessible nutrients, making Phase 1 seductive and nurturing all at the same time.

Biologically, the goal of this phase is to really flood the body with nutrients, which stimulates the activity of the five major players in digestion and metabolism that we talked about earlier: the liver, the adrenals, the thyroid, the pituitary, and the tissues of the body. The adrenals are particularly nourished by the high but steady rate of natural-sugar delivery, making everything calm down and start to work better. The adrenals respond to blood sugar peaks and valleys by creating stress hormones that specialize in storing fat. But when blood sugar remains more stable (even if elevated at a healthy level), the adrenals calm down and begin to metabolize fat more efficiently. This balancing of the sugars is crucial in an individual who has become diabetic, insulin resistant, hypoglycemic, has had aggressive weight gain, or has elevated triglycerides.

Phase 1 foods are also designed to be rich in nutrients that stimulate the metabolism. Specifically, they are rich in B vitamins and vitamin C. The B vitamins are found in beans, meats, and whole grains, and they stimulate the thyroid, igniting the thermogenic (fat-burn) effect that revs up the metabolism. Those B vitamins are crucial in the metabolism of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Vitamin C in fruits like oranges and strawberries, as well as in vegetables like broccoli and sweet potatoes, helps the body convert glucose into energy, one of the primary goals of Phase 1. They help shuttle that glucose into the mitochondria—your cells’ own little fat furnaces—to be broken down and converted to energy instead of being stored as fat. The abundant B vitamins you’ll be getting during this phase also help support the adrenals in stimulating fat metabolism and lean muscle development.

Phase 1, Unwind, gently persuades your metabolism that it is no longer in an emergency situation. It’s okay to actually digest the food you are eating again, to use the energy and nutrients from that food, rather than storing it as fat to guard against future starvation or nutritional deprivation. For the first two days, we are reteaching your body how to turn the food you eat into energy rather than storing it as fat. We’re telling it, “Shh, shh, it’s going to be okay.” And with the foods you’ll eat here, your body will believe it.

Your body starts to feel like everything really might be okay again. This is the first step in the three-step process.

It’s the stimulation of digestive enzymes that helps accomplish this process in Phase 1. When you flood your body with so many nutrients and so much energy, it can actually start breaking down the foods you’re consuming and releasing the nutrients embedded in these nutrient-dense foods. We want digestion to be as effortless as possible, which is why we keep protein moderate and fat very low. Fat and protein are harder to digest than carbohydrates like grains and fruits, so by keeping these low, the body is soothed and encouraged. Digestive enzymes release the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients from the food you eat, and the metabolism begins to recover from its starvation state. Phase 1 foods are specifically designed to be easy on your body. You’re ditching all those things that physically stress you, those metabolism crushers like wheat, dairy, and caffeine, that cause irritation or inflammation in the GI tract and can slow your bowels and create insulin resistance. Those things are all out of the game for now. Phase 1 will calm down your adrenal glands, reducing the release of stress hormones that are keeping you fat. Your blood sugar stabilizes and your body suddenly feels like it’s out of the danger zone.

Phase 1 is kind to your body and kind to you. The sweeter tastes and comfort foods ease you, physically and also emotionally, into the plan. A lot of dieters haven’t been able to touch these foods with a ten-foot pole for months, even years. It’s time to normalize again. Phase 1 feels normal, not like a diet at all.

Low-carb dieters tend to panic when they see the list of foods for this first phase because they’ve been taught to believe carbs are bad. Carbs are not bad, food is not bad—if you choose healthy sources. Fruits, brown rice, oatmeal, alternative grains like quinoa and amaranth, lentils, beans—they are all good. The carbs you won’t be eating during this phase are refined sugars, wheat, or corn. These carb sources are much harder on your body, and most people have ingested way too much of them over their lifetimes.

But if you’re not a low-carb dieter and you’re used to eating a lot of refined sugars and processed foods that don’t require much digestive work, your body’s going to have to gear up for the job, too. Foods high in refined sugar make the pancreas, adrenals, thyroid, liver, and gallbladder get lazy. It’s like you’ve been plodding away on the elliptical trainer at a slow pace that barely distracts you from watching the Today show on the gym TV, and then you get a personal trainer who steps in and shows you a more efficient way to exercise. But this isn’t boot camp. This is a kinder, gentler trainer who helps you condition in a way that doesn’t exhaust you, but instead gives you more energy and stamina.

We’re pampering and nourishing now, not abusing. We’re breaking old patterns, not indulging them. The B vitamins in this phase will help modify a natural sense of panic your body may.

designed to be easy on your body. You’re ditching all those things that physically stress you, those metabolism crushers like wheat, dairy, and caffeine, that cause irritation or inflammation in the GI tract and can slow your bowels and create insulin resistance. Those things are all out of the game for now. Phase 1 will calm down your adrenal glands, reducing the release of stress hormones that are keeping you fat. Your blood sugar stabilizes and your body suddenly feels like it’s out of the danger zone.

Phase 1 is kind to your body and kind to you. The sweeter tastes and comfort foods ease you, physically and also emotionally, into the plan. A lot of dieters haven’t been able to touch these foods with a ten-foot pole for months, even years. It’s time to normalize again. Phase 1 feels normal, not like a diet at all.

Low-carb dieters tend to panic when they see the list of foods for this first phase because they’ve been taught to believe carbs are bad. Carbs are not bad, food is not bad—if you choose healthy sources. Fruits, brown rice, oatmeal, alternative grains like quinoa and amaranth, lentils, beans—they are all good. The carbs you won’t be eating during this phase are refined sugars, wheat, or corn. These carb sources are much harder on your body, and most people have ingested way too much of them over their lifetimes.

But if you’re not a low-carb dieter and you’re used to eating a lot of refined sugars and processed foods that don’t require much digestive work, your body’s going to have to gear up for the job, too. Foods high in refined sugar make the pancreas, adrenals, thyroid, liver, and gallbladder get lazy. It’s like you’ve been plodding away on the elliptical trainer at a slow pace that barely distracts you from watching the Today show on the gym TV, and then you get a personal trainer who steps in and shows you a more efficient way to exercise. But this isn’t boot camp. This is a kinder, gentler trainer who helps you condition in a way that doesn’t exhaust you, but instead gives you more energy and stamina.

We’re pampering and nourishing now, not abusing. We’re breaking old patterns, not indulging them. The B vitamins in this phase will help modify a natural sense of panic your body may temporarily feel from being without habit-forming refined sugars and white flour.

What else can you expect during this phase? No more feelings of starvation! You won’t be eating any refined sugar, juice, or dried fruit in this phase—that’s making things too easy and allows the metabolism to get sluggish and lazy. But juicy apples and pears, pineapples and strawberries, watermelon and oranges? Fruit smoothies and spelt pretzels and brown rice pasta and oatmeal? Go for it.

In addition to the fruit and whole grains in Phase 1, you’ll also be eating high-quality proteins like organic chicken, organic turkey, and even buffalo, as well as herbs and spices like parsley and cilantro that will help stimulate digestive enzymes, so you’re getting plenty of protein your body can easily digest. Everything you eat will be nutrient-dense because nutrient-dense foods require a greater caloric expenditure from the body to extract their nutrients. This wakes up the body’s organs and digestive enzymes and basically signals: Hop to it, fellas, we’ve got some work to do! My clients love this phase for all the wonderful comfort foods that don’t make them feel like they are dieting. Another benefit of Phase 1 is that good carbs boost your mood, help you with crazy sugar cravings, and even ease you out of your caffeine funk, if you are (as I will strongly recommend) purging caffeine from your body during the next 28 days. These Phase 1 foods help head off that “crash” feeling. So does the frequency of eating—you’ll be eating five, sometimes even six times per day, so get used to it.