A diet you can live with…
The diet isn’t the only factor that you have to know about to boost your metabolism and slim down. We have seen that there are many factors that lower the metabolism (dehydration, medications, the candida albicans yeast, stress and others).
However, the diet that we follow is an important factor and is also a deciding factor of whether we are going to succeed or fail in our attempt to slim down. Therefore, it makes sense to have a clear idea of which diet would be best to increase your metabolism. The ideal diet would be the one in which we don’t feel we are on a diet. Furthermore, it would also be nice if the type of diet we choose could be turned into a permanent lifestyle that allows us to maintain a slender and healthy body once we have successfully slimmed down. In other words, a diet that doesn’t lead to the famous “bounce”, that happens to the majority of people that do diets where they generally gain back the weight they lost and then some.
I have developed a diet system that doesn’t forbid anything and can be easy to follow if you have a general idea of which foods allow you to slim down and which foods make you fat. One key point is that your body can only gain weight when it produces enough insulin so the goal of a diet should be to decrease your insulin production. Insulin is the hormone that transports glucose (blood sugar) and also transports the fat that we eat to our body fat. In other words, it is insulin, or the excess of it brought about by an excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates, that creates weight and obesity problems.
For the purpose of simplifying things, we can divide foods into groups according to how much insulin they stimulate the body to create when we eat them. The foods that cause a small insulin reaction in your body are the ones that MAKE YOU SLIM DOWN. On the contrary, the foods that stimulate a large production of insulin in your body are the foods that MAKE YOU FAT. The basic principle is that we want to utilize a type of diet that helps us slim down and thus, for our purposes at that there are only two types of foods:
If we choose as part of our diet more foods of those that cause a small insulin reaction (TYPE S) and less of those that cause a large insulin reaction (TYPE F), we will begin to lose weight. Any diet that lowers the body’s production of insulin will lower your body fat. In other words, slim down.
The system that I recommend is one in which you won’t spend a lot of time measuring portions, weighing food or counting calories or carbohydrates – it is a VISUAL SYSTEM of FOOD PORTIONS. You choose the portions that you are going to eat of each type of food (S or F) and you picture them on your plate.
I call this system the “2×1 DIET©” or “3×1 DIET©”. The “2×1” stands for having 2 type S (slimming) foods for every 1 portion of type F (fattening) food that you eat. In other words, 2 portions of those foods make you slim down (S) and only 1 portion of the type (F). Your plate would look something like this:
A way to understand it better is to look at the next photo of a plate of fried chicken (type S), salad (type S) and French fries (type F). So, it’s 2×1.
In the above photo, perhaps you notice that there isn’t very much food in the plate and you might think that you would still be hungry afterward. Just for the photo we put just a little bit of food on the plate so that you could clearly see the difference between the 3 types of foods. However, in the 2×1 diet you can eat enough of each one of these foods until you are fully satisfied. In fact if you go hungry your metabolism reduces so we wouldn’t recommend that you ever go hungry.
When you start the 2×1 diet© you’ll notice that your hunger will go away. Your hunger goes away when you are on the 2×1 diet because in eating less portions of type F foods, your body produces less insulin. Insulin is the hormone that increases your hunger. In producing less insulin, you will have less feelings of hunger and you will feel full much easier and with less food.
For this diet system to work, you must consider EVERYTHING that you eat on this plate at the same time. In other words, if you decide to eat a good portion of the serving of bread before you have your main course, you don’t then have the right to eat potatoes, which are type F foods, because you already ate your portion of type F foods in eating the bread. So, you choose what you want to eat, but make sure that the type F foods are never more than a third of what you eat in whole. This is how you reduce the production of insulin in your body and start to slim down.
If in place of potatoes or bread you want to have a dessert, don’t eat the bread or potatoes so that you can leave your type F portion for dessert. Then you’ll eat meat, salad and dessert, a 2×1 proportion between type S (slimming) foods and type F (fattening) foods.
In this 2×1 Diet© system you don’t have to refuse anything. If you want, you can combine the type F foods portion by eating only one slice of bread, a little bit of the potatoes and half of a dessert. The idea is that the sum of all of the type F foods, which are really what make you fat from the high production of insulin that they cause, are never more than a third of what you consume in total. So, two portions of type S (slimming) foods for one portion of a type F food (fattening) is a “2×1”.
The fat that is contained in the meat or protein will never make you fat if you make sure that your body’s insulin production is low. You can achieve this by consuming controlled portions of the type F foods. Without the help of insulin, the fat that you eat can’t make you fat. It is the insulin that allows the fat that you consume to be used to produce more body fat. Without insulin, the fat that you eat simply can’t make you fat. The trick is to control your body’s production of insulin by managing your portions of type F foods.
For example, if you eat a pork chop with salad, the fat from the meat can’t be used by your body since the salad caused a very small insulin reaction. But, if you make the mistake of eating a pork chop with a large portion of mashed potatoes, you are definitely going to gain fat. The mashed potatoes, being a starch that easily converts to glucose, will stimulate your body to produce a large amount of insulin and that is a sure way to become fatter. Insulin is the “shopping cart” that picks up the fat and glucose that then converts into new body fat. If you control your consumption of type F foods you won’t have problems with eating any type of fatty meat or other protein (cheese, eggs).
If you have a lot of fat to lose, or if you are in a rush to slim down, or if you are a diabetic then use the 3×1 Diet©. In the 3×1, you make sure that the type F foods are never more than a fourth of that your total consumption. An example would be a meal that starts with a shrimp cocktail and chicken breast with baked vegetables and a slice of bread.
This above would be a 3×1©. So, 3 portions of type S foods for every portion of type F foods.
The 3×1 diet produces less insulin in your body than the 2×1 for obvious reasons; it has a smaller portion of the type F foods. For diabetics the 3×1 is perfect because it controls glucose levels and helps them control their diabetes. The 3×1 also reduces the need for insulin for those diabetics that give themselves injections. Diabetics that measure their glucose regularly will see a huge reduction in their glucose levels when they use the 3×1 diet.
Be careful that you don’t kid yourself with breaded foods. Breaded meats for example are covered in flour, in other words, bread. If you order breaded shrimps you have to take into account that the breading on the shrimp is a type F food and counts as a portion. You have to take into consideration the breading as a type F food if you don’t want to break your 2×1 or 3×1 diet©. You also shouldn’t kid yourself by ignoring the VOLUME (space that they take up) of the foods. If you got an extra large portion of fried potatoes and they, when spread out, take about ⅔ of the plate you should consider them 2 portions of F foods when taking into account their VOLUME. You have to use your common sense for this diet to work and not kid yourself.
In the case of a tasty baked potato, what I do is divide it in two and eat half along with a nice salad and some meat. That way I don’t have to suffer from denying myself something and I don’t break my 2×1 diet©. Naturally, if I am going to have a baked potato, I already know that I have to avoid the slice of bread that I always love to have. At times, what I do is order an appetizer that is high in protein like a shrimp or seafood cocktail, oysters or even cheese and I ask the waiter not to bring any bread so that I’m not tempted.
With sandwiches and hamburgers the problem is that the majority of them, by proportion, and by VOLUME, are mostly bread. A hamburger, when you look at it on a plate and place the two pieces of bread in the proportions that they actually occupy on the plate, it looks like this:
The amount of salad that they put on a hamburger is so small in comparison with the bread that you can’t even consider it as your portion of type S food. Sandwiches and hamburgers are not going to help you slim down because the bread that they have produces too much insulin. That’s why fast food restaurants have had such a negative impact of the general health of the population. As if these foods, that are high in refined carbohydrates like bread weren’t doing enough damage, fast food restaurants offer these hamburgers as combination meal promotions or “combo meals” with French fries (type F) and soda (type F).
Within the group of foods that are considered refined carbohydrates, like bread, there are different levels of quality. The reality is that white bread is digested very quickly. This allows your body to turn it into glucose very easily and later quickly into fat. You can always choose a whole wheat bread that is high in fiber and that will make it easier to boost your metabolism and slim down. That’s why a sandwich is always less damaging when it is eaten with whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread. Bread, whether it is wheat or white, continues being a type F by the amount of insulin production that it provokes in your body. But, if you have the opportunity to choose whole wheat bread over white, you will have more points in your favor.
On the subject of fruit, I can say that if the fruit has a sweet taste, this indicates that it is also high in carbohydrates and is a type F food that makes us fat and it must be controlled. Fruits that are very sweet like bananas, mangoes, melons, pineapples and oranges, are all type F foods. However, there are fruits that are not so sweet, like strawberries and apples, that are considered type S that make you slim down. In general if the fruit is sweet it is a type F food and if it isn’t very sweet it is type S.
If your situation has gotten to the point where you are very overweight or obese, think about it and you’ll realize that you have been eating 5 to 8 times more of type F foods (fattening) than foods that are type S (slimming).
A dinner that starts with a slice of garlic bread that continues on to an appetizer of corn fritters and that consists of 12 ounce steak with a large baked potato along with corn on the cob, that you put down with a Coca-Cola® and finish off with a sugary dessert (cheesecake, ice cream) is like a 1×6 proportion between type S foods and type F foods. This would be disastrous for your metabolism.
So, choose a 2×1 or 3×1 diet© according to what you need and what your goals are at the time. You can also start with the 3×1 diet so that you will get results that motivate you or even achieve your goal first and later use the 2×1 diet© as a diet to stay slim. Whatever you choose to do, if you lower your consumption of type F foods and increase your type S foods you will see your fat disappear and your metabolism increase.
The 2×1 combinations are endless. Here are a few that you might enjoy:
A 2×1© BREAKFAST: EGGS, BACON AND POTATOES
A 2×1© LUNCH OR DINNER: MEAT, SALAD AND MASHED POTATOES
A 2×1© GRILLED SALMON OVER RICE WITH VEGETABLES