The Stubborn Fat Fix: Eat Right to Lose Weight and Cure Metabolic Burnout without Hunger or Exercise - Hardcover

Berkowitz, Keith; Berkowitz, Valerie; Bowman, Alisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159486828X ISBN 13: 9781594868283

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2009

Synopsis

The Stubborn Fat Fix WINS THE "BEST BOOKS 2010" AWARD for Health: Diet/Weight Loss Category

Do you feel tired all the time? Do you feel hungry between meals, even if you've just eaten? Do you crave candy, soda, or coffee, especially in the mid-afternoon?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may have a metabolic disadvantage. Most diet plans fail because they don't address the underlying metabolic conditions that contribute to increased hunger and weight gain. In fact, they often worsen the problem by cutting calories and prompting food cravings. This further stresses your metabolism and leaves you hungrier―and heavier―than ever.

The Stubborn Fat Fix remedies this by identifying and treating metabolic imbalances. Based on the results of simple quizzes, you'll choose between two eating plans that prescribe the ideal foods needed to repair your metabolic disorder and turn off faulty hunger signals. On both plans, you'll lose weight by doing something that seems counterintuitive―eat more, move less―in order to heal your metabolism. You can even incorporate "luxury" foods―indulging in ice cream, salty snacks, bread, wine or beer, or even chocolate―to stay on track without feeling deprived. A tailored supplement program, carefully controlled exercise, and stress-reduction techniques complete the metabolic cure.

Even better, once your metabolism is in balance, you will not only permanently drop pounds but also improve your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and energy levels for overall better health. Hundreds of the Berkowitzes' patients, like those profiled in the book, have successfully lost up to 70 pounds with this plan.

With The Stubborn Fat Fix―featuring more than 30 delicious recipes and the exclusive Fiber Ratio tool created by Valerie to help you get the most out of your favorite foods―you, too, can lose that stubborn fat forever.

About this title

About the Author:

KEITH BERKOWITZ, MD, is founder and medical director of the Center for Balanced Health in New York City and a former medical director of the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine. He lives in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
VALERIE BERKOWITZ, MS, RD, is the director of nutrition at the Center for Balanced Health. Formerly a nutritionist at the Atkins Center, she also serves as a nutrition consultant to Prevention and Men's Health magazines. She lives in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

1

THE OVERSPENT BODY

We wrote this book for the multitudes of people whose physicians have told them to lose weight "or else."

Or else you'll need blood pressure, blood sugar, or blood cholesterol medication.

Or else you'll need bypass surgery.

Or else your diabetes will result in blindness, amputated limbs, or organ failure.

Or else you'll die.

Or else. We don't use those words in our practice. We don't because we understand that you have been trying for many years to lose weight. We believe you. We also know all too well just how many physicians, friends, and spouses have already said those words. We know that the words or else do not motivate people to lose weight.

You don't need to hear these words because you already know them. Michael certainly did. When he came to our practice for the first time, he was more than 20 £ds overweight, diabetic, and terrorized by "or else." "In the past six years, I've gone from doctor to doctor," he told us. "Each one prescribed me a different batch of drugs, none of which worked." By the time Michael came to us, he was taking $400 worth of prescription medications every single month, was fed up with doctors, and was terrified. "I'm afraid that I'm going to die," he said.

He wanted to see his children grow up, attend college, get married, and have children of their own. He desperately wanted to lose weight. What was stopping him? His body was bankrupt, and his physicians were trying to pull him out of that bankruptcy by getting him to stress his body even more-- more in the way of exercise, more in the way of effort, more in the way of fear. Sure, various physicians had suggested he eat less. They hadn't, however, shown him how to eat less in the midst of everyday crises such as hunger, cravings, and fatigue.

Once we outlined our nutritional and supplement plan and gave Michael the tools he needed to stick to it, Michael started losing easily. His blood sugar evened out. Without the peaks and valleys in blood sugar, his cravings diminished. His hunger transformed into satisfaction. His energy levels normalized. His metabolism improved. He cut his monthly drug bill by 75 percent. He regained his confidence, and his life. Oh, and he also lost 20 £ds. You can read the details of how Michael did it on page 8, and we'll offer more stories of patients who lost anywhere from 10 to 70 £ds just by following our simple, sustainable plan. Keep reading to find out how you can get the same great results.

WEIGHT LOSS THAT WORKS

Over the years, we've helped hundreds of people just like Michael. We enable weight loss by encouraging our patients to do something that at first seems extremely counterintuitive: Eat more. Move less. That's right. Eat more. Move less.

Of course, you've heard you should do the opposite. You hear it all the time: eat less, move more, right? Yet this may be the worst advice to follow, because cutting back on food while ratcheting up your exercise can trigger sudden drops in blood sugar that increase cravings, decrease energy, and leave you hungrier than ever. This either gets you nowhere or gets you even heavier than you were before. These are your body's cries for help. There is an underlying cause of your hunger, preoccupation with food, and lack of energy.

On this program, by eating more and moving less, you will recharge your metabolism so you can finally, once and for all, lose weight. You'll do it without the deprivation associated with most diets, too. We don't expect 100 percent adherence to our plan--in fact, we "build in" opportunities to indulge. We've included luxuries such as ice cream, chocolate, and a glass of wine with dinner. You'll be able to enjoy the foods you love, and keep right on losing. More important, we'll show you how to have these foods without suffering extreme spikes and valleys in blood sugar. You'll learn how to eat to bring your body into balance.

A LITTLE ABOUT US

In 1999, we met Dr. Robert Atkins, tried his diet, and lost 20 £ds. Of course, we'd read the news stories and heard the experts claiming that the diet raised the risk for heart disease, so we made sure to monitor our health with regular blood work. You know what? Neither of us experienced a rise in blood cholesterol, blood pressure, or blood sugar. That experience won us over to the merits of low-carb diets and was the primary reason we signed on to work at the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine. We believed Dr. Atkin's approach was truly revolutionary.

We eventually went out on our own, founding our private practice, the Center for Balanced Health in Manhattan. We set about creating a plan that would enable the most resistant body to shed fat in the real world. We wanted people to reap all of the dramatic weight loss of lower-carb, higher- protein, higher-fat diets, sure. But we also wanted to make sure they got enough other important nutrients--most critically, the fiber and wholesome foods such as fruits and vegetables that they weren't getting before. We also wanted to bring their bodies into balance. We wanted to find a more moderate approach that most people could stick with long term. While we worked and tinkered and fine-tuned, we stumbled onto perhaps the biggest secret to our success.

What was it, you ask?

We devised a way for people to continue to indulge in their favorite high- carbohydrate foods and still lose weight. When most people diet, they temporarily stop buying and eating foods such as ice cream, chocolate, bread, and fruit. Yet you can only deny yourself such delicious foods for so long. When you forgo all of your favorite high-carbohydrate foods, you end up wanting them all the more--and eventually you find yourself eating them all the more. Despite withstanding lots of deprivation, you end up overeating anyway, and gaining weight rather than losing. How frustrating! We knew that deprivation was the Achilles' heel of every low-carb plan, so we built in safety valves. No longer would a low-carb diet equal a no-fun lifestyle. No more all-or-nothing, if-I-touch-a-carb-it's-all-over deprivation. We'd created a successful, healthful, delicious diet plan that works long term--even in real life.

By following the program in this book, you'll lose up to 10 £ds in the first 2 weeks and up to 10 £ds a month after that until you reach your goal. You can succeed. You can lose weight. Read on to find out how.

THE NO-HUNGER DIET PLAN

To allow you to lose weight without hunger, we use an individualized five- pronged approach that includes:

A whole foods diet: Based on your health, weight, and eating habits, you'll choose from two eating plans that vary in their amounts of recommended carbohydrate foods. These eating plans feature whole foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat, fish, eggs, and cheese) that are free of weight-gain-promoting additives such as added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, refined flour, trans fats, and refined soy.

You'll slowly add in more carbs as your body allows. You will not, however, have to eliminate your favorite whole foods forever. We include healthful, fiber-rich carbohydrate foods such as avocados, nuts, berries, and olives early in the plan. Yes, low-carbohydrate eating does not have to equal no- carbohydrate eating!

The food lover's pressure valve: You'll prevent that do-or-die moment--when low-carb dieters usually start fantasizing about belly flops into heaping plates of pasta--with regular servings of indulgence foods. These treats do away with deprivation altogether. You can enjoy regular small servings of dessert (yes, you heard right, we're talking chocolate and other sweet treats), fruit, and yes, even bread(!), and still lose weight. A lot of weight. We'll show you how, and we'll show you how to get and stay in control, too.

Supplements that heal your metabolism: You'll couple your whole foods diet and regular cheats with a supplement plan specially tailored to your individual body chemistry. These supplements have been shown to balance hormones, reduce cravings, dampen down appetite, and increase your energy and sense of well-being. They'll help restore your metabolism and greatly enhance your weight loss results.

Rest and relaxation: Lack of sleep and high amounts of stress burn out your body. They bring hormones out of balance and increase appetite, both of which cause you to gain weight. We'll show you a simple yet effective plan for reining in stress and improving sleep, so you can reboot your body's healthy hormonal balance and lose weight without hunger or cravings.

The right amount of movement at the right time: On this plan, you exercise only once you feel ready. For many people, that's only after losing a considerable amount of weight. Trying to force your body through intense cardio or weight lifting routines from the very beginning of a diet usually backfires. Why? In the beginning, with your metabolism out of balance, exercise just causes even more imbalance by keeping you in a burned-out state. It taxes your body at a time when you need rest. Plus, you feel tired. Who wants to exercise when they're tired? It's much better to change your eating first and then slowly add in exercise once you feel more energetic.

Most important, we'll support you every step of the way. Based on the hundreds of patients we've counseled over the years, we have a pretty good idea of the varied challenges, excuses, and roadblocks that stand between your current body size and your ideal weight. We'll show you what to eat to reduce nighttime cravings for sweets. We'll help you deal with interference from family and friends. We'll talk you through eating out, holidays, and vacations. We'll help you overcome emotional eating, stress eating, and mindless overeating. We'll even help you break addictions to sugar, caffeine, and starch, dependencies that make weight loss all but impossible.

We're here for you. We are because we've been there. We've not only helped people lose weight, but we've also done it ourselves.

Successful weight loss is about food, of course. But it's also about your spouse, your kids, your friends, your hobbies, your career, and your sleep habits. It's about how often you watch TV, and even about what you watch. It's about how long you sit in front of the computer each day. It's about preservatives and additives lurking in your food. It's about your mind-set, and about whether you are a perfectionist or a more easygoing person. It's about what you can live without, and what you can't. Successful weight loss is about hunger and about cravings. It's about learning how to deal with both, and finding ways to overcome them.

Throughout the pages of this book, we're going to teach you about success. First and foremost, we're going to help you become successful biologically. Our diet and low-stress lifestyle plan will help you balance a complex set of appetite signals that trigger you to eat, overeat, and gain weight. Have you suspected that an overactive hunger switch or sluggish metabolism may be the cause of your weight problem? You're probably right.

Second, we're going to help you become successful psychologically. Have you tried low-carb diets before only to fall off the program when cravings for crunchy, sweet, or savory foods overpowered your ability to say no? We'll help you deal with those cravings by allowing indulgences early in the plan and by showing you how to stay in control when you have them. Unlike other low-carb diets that deny you anything remotely resembling a treat for weeks upon weeks, our plan recognizes that some people--many people--simply need a hint of sweetness to get them through some rough patches in the early days. Once you're past the initial phase, you can choose to indulge in ice cream, salty snacks, chocolate, wine or beer, and even bread--so you'll be able to have the foods you love when you want them most. These appetite- suppressing, satisfaction-promoting options will help you stay on track without feeling deprived.

Third, we're going to help you become successful socially. Your family and friends play a huge role in your ability to stick with your dietary approach. You'll learn what to do about the family member who suggests that late-night ice cream run--and how to put those indulgences on your schedule, not his. You'll learn how to handle the coworker who tempts you with her candy jar--so you can choose the higher quality chocolate that really satisfies.

That's what makes this plan different from others you may have tried. We give you the tools you need to make your dietary changes last a lifetime. We help you fire up your motivation and commitment from day one, and we stick with you every day of your weight-loss journey, offering solutions for common problems you will likely face along the way. We help you understand why your body fights against every single dietary change, and we enable you to circumvent your body and, at times, your mind so you can be successful. Once you lose all the weight you want, we make sure the results of your hard efforts last.

BETTER HEALTH, BETTER WELL-BEING

We'll help you not only drop £ds but also do it in a way that restores total body health and well-being. Throughout this book, you will read the amazing stories of patient after patient who overcame extremely high cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. We've seen patients halve or even stop taking medications for blood pressure, asthma, and many other diseases and disorders. That's how much healthier they got with our nutritional, supplement, and stress-reducing plans.

Thanks to the wealth of nutrient-rich whole foods and health-promoting supplements, you can expect to see the following health benefits, some of which may take effect within days of starting the plan:

* Sleeping all night long, whereas now you may wake frequently

* Relief of gas and bloating

* Improved mood

* Increased energy

* Improved overall health

* Improved blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure

* Improved endurance during exercise

Your sex life will also perk up and joint pain will disappear. You'll also be happier and more confident.

Let's talk about some basic physiology. It will help you understand why past diets have not worked and why ours will.

Our stomach, intestines, fat cells, and organs are all linked to our brains through a complex set of appetite signals, and this appetite system is designed to encourage us to gain weight at every opportunity. Why? Our bodies are designed for famine. Not many hundreds of years ago, we humans could survive only if our bodies encouraged us to eat at every opportunity and to eat more than we needed at any given moment. We survived only if our bodies directed us to rest at every resting opportunity, and to move only when the movement helped us to eat or stay out of danger.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 159486828X
• ISBN 13: 9781594868283
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288