My Experience with The Fast Metabolism Diet

You may have seen or heard about a new book The Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy.  She was recently on the Dr. Oz show and is a celebrity nutritionist to stars like Reese Witherspoon (Do you know who I am?!), Jennifer Lopez and Robert Downey Jr. The book claims that you can lose up to 20 pounds in 28 days...without starving, without counting calories, and without crazy exercise.  The cover says 'eat more food, lose more weight'.

  Fact or Fiction?

Welllll....it's true that you do not have to count calories, you do not have to workout everyday, and you do eat 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.  {But}You also must go without caffeine (she doesn't even want you to have decaf coffee and tea since it contains a little caffeine.  She suggests water and naturally decaffeinated herbal teas), wheat, sugar (except from fruit) and dairy - and no artificial sweeteners either, except for stevia.  You need to drink lots and lots of water too.

(Tuna and apple salad. Recipe from book)

You eat real food, all day, every day...but they must be the correct portions.  I learned that my concept of portions is very wrong. You must make sure that you are having 1/2 to 1 cup of grains (depending on the phase you are in), 4 ounces of meat or 6 ounces of fish, 1/4 cup nuts or 2 T. almond butter on Phase 3....these all seemed normal to me. No problem.  Except when I actually started to measure stuff out.  4 ounces of meat....not very much.  2 T. of almond butter?  Scant.  NO caffeine? Lord help me.

The phases I am referring too...the diet is broken down into 3 phases.  Phase 1 last for 2 days and consists of mainly carbohydrates from fruits and whole grains (brown rice/quinoa/steel cut oats etc.). Phase 2 is also for 2 days, and is low carb and low fat. This was definitely the hardest phase for me. You have to eat lean proteins (egg whites, lean meats) and lots of veggies.  Phase 3 is the best, and it lasts for 3 days. During Phase 3, you get to have carbs, whole grains, and healthy fats (think avocado and nuts!). Here again, portion control is key.

So how did I fair?  The diet is a 28 day program.  Honestly, I lasted 9 days.  I blame it on Mother Nature. Not PMS, but the stupid weather! It turned cold and rainy, after being 80's and sunny, and on the 3rd day of rain and grey skies...I broke.  I was cold and miserable and had a cup of coffee.  Now, that shouldn't have totally derailed me, but I have that mentality of...'well, I already screwed up by drinking that coffee, I guess I will have some crackers.' Then later in the evening, I was like 'well, I've really messed up now, so I might as well have some chocolate too.'  And just like that....I was off the wagon.  And now I am kicking myself for being so weak! In the first week, I lost 6 POUNDS! I was losing a POUND A DAY for the first week, but then it slowed down.  I knew it would, but when the scale was only decreasing by .2 for 3 days, that also led to my destruction.  Again, stupid on my part...I should have stuck with it.  The scale was going down, even if in small amounts.  Here are my stats for the 9 days...

6 lbs lost
Inches lost - 
1/4" loss on arm
1 1/2" from belly
1" from butt
1/2" from thigh
1/4" from calf

That's in just 9 days! I can't believe I quit.  SO...my plan is to start again. I've already loaned the book to my sister, but there is a great app that I used on my iPad everyday. (It was offered free of charge by SheSpeaks, but I had already purchased it on my own.)

Fabulous blueberry oatmeal smoothie with avocado!

It is great for planning your meals, tracking your food and water, and planning is the KEY to success with this.

(steel cut oats with blueberries and cherries)

The more meals you have prepped and planned for, the greater the likelihood to succeed.  I would recommend getting some meals in the freezer before ever starting the diet (frozen oatmeal, however, not so good!), and stock up on your favorite veggies. If you like vegetables, you will probably do great with this. If you prefer wine, cheese and chocolate like me...well, it's going to take will power! I would say this diet is similar to the Whole 30 diet, except there are specific phases that you follow.

Basically, it's no miracle - you eat real food, in the correct amounts, drink water, and exercise at least 3 days a week. Even though there is the app, I would still recommend reading the book before starting.  The book goes into what to expect each week, mentally and physically.  She is pretty dead on with what you will experience, and backs up her plan with facts that made a lot of sense.

I also learned a lot, just in the brief time I followed the plan.  One, I definitely need to keep drinking water. I can tell a difference in my {gross!}cellulite on the back of my thighs - it was very much improved and I think the weight loss helped, but the water I think was a large part of it too.  Two, I need to continue incorporating whole foods into my diet and stay away from the processed junk!! I am continuing with the sprouted wheat bread that Haylie recommends, and found that I really like gluten free rice crackers.  My dairy weakness is cheese and yogurt, but I have decreased my families consumption of cheese.  I was already drinking almond milk, and I will continue with that.  Hopefully, when I tackle this program again, I will be more organized and ready for it.  The whole point of following the plan for the full 28 days is to "re-set" your metabolism, and turn your body into a fat burning machine :-) That's exactly what I need!

Learn more by checking out The Fast Metabolism website, following on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I've also got a Fast Metabolism Diet Pinterest board if you want to check out some of the recipes I've got pinned.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/FastMetabolismDiet. I received the book free of charge to review. All content is my own.

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