Last Updated on June, 2023
Despite all my good intentions, my road to a healthy lifestyle ends as soon as I hear ANY fitness jargon.
Oh, you say the Dukan Diet, The Hormone Reset Diet and the Adrenal Reset Diet? Nope, a cheeseburger sounds easier.
This article is just the place for you to spend the next few minutes if;
- You’re DYING to get your life back on track,
- You’ve heard about the Metabolism Reset Diet and want to try it out,
- Except you have NO clue what it’s all about.
Your fitness journey doesn’t have to end abruptly like mine often does because, if you read on, you’ll soon have a clear idea of what precisely the reset diet is and how to follow it. Lucky you!
What is Metabolism Anyway?
But first, what in heaven is metabolism?!
In simple terms, metabolism is how food and drink are converted into energy. (1)
Calories are joined with oxygen to produce energy. This process happens even when you’re at rest since your body needs energy for hidden functions like breathing, growing and repairing cells, circulating blood and hormone regulation.
The number of calories needed to carry out these functions is known as your basal metabolic rate or metabolism.
But what does metabolism have to do with weight gain and weight loss?
If you burn more calories for your body to perform these essential functions, you have a high metabolism. Having a high metabolism means that you need to consume more calories than those with a slower metabolism to maintain your weight. (2)
And this is why you have that one friend who eats as much as they want and never finds themselves gaining weight!
On the other hand, those with a slower metabolism burn fewer calories for the body’s functions, and they need to consume less calories to prevent excess weight gain.
Now, What is the Metabolism Reset Diet?
Like many other diets, the goal of the metabolism reset diet is to promote weight loss and fat loss by tricking your metabolism into speeding up.
Thought you would be stuck with a slow metabolism forever? Not with the Metabolism Reset Diet, you won’t!
There are many diet versions, with the most popular one being the diet promoted by former NFL player Steve Weatherford.
Weatherford’s diet involves a food plan, 10 minutes of daily HIIT training, and dietary supplements.
The diet involves focusing on certain foods and cutting others out of your diet to create a caloric deficit.
A calorie deficit is a situation where you either provide your body with fewer calories than it needs, or you increase your energy expenditure beyond what the calories you consume can support.
Either way, if you maintain a calorie deficit consistently for long enough, you can successfully lose weight, and this is what the metabolism reset diet hinges upon.
How Does the Metabolism Reset Diet Work?
Your metabolism is dependent on a multitude of factors, from muscle mass to age to genetics.
But the food you eat can also influence your metabolism to a certain extent. For 17 foods that boost metabolism plus other tips for maintaining a healthy metabolism, check out our article here!
This diet attempts to ‘reset’ your metabolism to a faster pace.
The metabolism reset diet cuts down on whole grains, fruit and dairy to restrict calorie intake and instead focuses on increasing protein intake.
It takes on carb cycling, a dietary practice where carb intake is adjusted either daily, weekly or monthly. (3)
The diet can be between one to two months long, depending on the specific metabolism reset diet you choose.
Worth reading: Burn 360 Susan Ohtake’s 21-Day Metabolic Reset Review
What Food Can I Eat on This Diet?
To give you an idea of what food you can and can’t eat when on the diet, let’s look at Weatherford’s dietary plan for weight loss.
When eating breakfast, you can have;
- Three egg whites
- 2.25 oz of chicken sausage
- 4 oz of sweet potatoes
Lunch involves;
- 2 oz of ground turkey
- 5 cups of jasmine or brown rice
- And 1 cup of black beans
Dinner;
- 2 oz of flank steak
- And ten asparagus spears.
For a snack you can indulge (not really) in;
- 5 oz of egg whites
- And one medium avocado
To combat the plainness of the food, you can use condiments (like sauces and dips).
You aren’t supposed to skip any of the meals, but you ARE supposed to drink lots and lots of water (an ounce of water for every pound of your body weight is required).
And alcohol is strictly off the table, mind you!
Check out our review of Steve Weatherford’s Metabolism Reset Diet here to find out our full thoughts on it!
Can You Actually Lose Weight With This Diet?
And now for the million-dollar question.
Can you lose weight with the Metabolism Reset Diet?
The short answer is yes.
But the long answer is that any weight loss achieved would only be temporary.
What generally happens with so many diets that involve a difficult and restrictive plan is that you achieve rapid weight loss at first, only to gain even more weight once the diet ends.
To add to the list of outdated myths in health and fitness, the metabolism reset diet can’t actually ‘reset’ your metabolism. There is no evidence to suggest that to get our metabolism revved up; we need to reset it, or even that it can be reset like that.
In other words, if sustained weight loss is what you’re after, this diet should not be the one you choose to follow.
Is This Diet Safe?
There’s nothing about this diet that is unsafe per se, BUT there are better options out there to maintain a healthy metabolism (more on this in just a bit).
There’s no doubt that this diet does help lose weight in the short term, so if you decide on trying it out, ensure that you’re consuming at least 1,200 calories per day.
Also, keep in mind that healthcare professionals regard diets of this kind to be unsafe and unsustainable since they can slow down metabolism in the long run. (4)
Ensure to consult your doctor before taking up any diet and if you have a specific medical condition or any allergies, let them know. People with diabetes should be cautious and pay attention to food consumption and blood sugar levels. (5)
Other Ways to Boost Your Metabolism
Here are some other ways to achieve natural weight loss to steer clear of a restrictive food plan if you can help it.
Drink Cold Water
Much like the Reset Diet recommends, simply integrating the habit of drinking more water should make a world of difference in helping you shed unwanted pounds.
Not only will it promote healthy liver function; drinking 0.5 liters of water will rev up your resting metabolism by 10-30% for around an hour. Drinking cold water helps even more as your body burns more calories to heat the water to body temperature (thermogenesis).
Stand Up More
Being seated for long periods won’t help you lose weight because you burn less calories sitting down, and if your calorie intake is higher than what you expend, it can lead to weight gain. (6)
If you work at a desk job, try standing up for a while at regular intervals. Of course, you could also try out a standing desk!
Spice Up Your Food
Spicy food, like peppers, contains a component known as capsaicin, which has metabolism boosting benefits. (7)
Capsaicin is thermogenic, which means that it causes the body’s temperature to increase. Capsaicin also promotes satiety, which will make you consume less even hours after eating something hot and spicy because you’ll have fewer food cravings.
So load up on the spice to support weight loss!
Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Sleeping doesn’t grant weight loss- but not sleeping the required amount of hours can mess up your metabolism big time.
Sleep deprivation causes your body to trigger the stress hormone cortisol. (8)
And cortisol tells your body to hang onto fat to ensure you have enough energy saved up for when you’re awake.
Do you see the problem here?
Holding Onto Fat equals Less Fat Burned equals No Weight Loss.
Adjust Your Room Temperature at Night
Studies have found that sleeping in cooler temperatures boosts your metabolism.
The participants of a study conducted by the National Health Institute ended up with more brown fat after sleeping in 66-degree (19°C) rooms for a month.
Brown fat may sound like it’s a bad thing- but it’s actually a metabolically active fat that burns calories to assist the body in maintaining its core temperature.
However, your metabolism only remains boosted while you’re sleeping in a cooler environment. So when you switch back to sleeping in your usual temperatures, there is a reversal of the effects on your metabolic rate.
BUT it’s still worth a shot, seeing as how all you need to do is sleep in cooler temperatures.
Laughter is the Best Medicine
Remember cortisol? The stress hormone that makes your body cling onto fat?
Well, laughing reduces the triggering of cortisol and helps to boost your metabolism.
Kill two birds with one stone- have a blast AND speed up your metabolism simultaneously.
Get Enough Vitamin D
Vitamin D stops the formation of new fat cells, and it thereby helps reduce weight.
It doesn’t just reduce weight, though; it boosts your metabolism and ensures sustainable weight loss, which is very important.
Since you can’t find vitamin D in food, ensure to spend a minimum of 5-30 minutes in the sun daily.
Related: Delicious Metabolism Boosting Recipes to Lose Weight
Bottomline
Suppose you’re looking for a quick fix to get back in shape. In that case, the Metabolism Reset Diet is an option that you can go for, BUT why put yourself through the struggle of keeping to a strict meal plan when you can eat simple healthy foods, maintain a healthy lifestyle andlose weight naturally?
You don’t have to work hard to stick to a diet and spend hours on weight training unless you need to.
Instead, you can integrate the easy tips above into your daily life to yield more sustainable results and optimum health. Then, you can live life as you usually do- just ensure to cut back on processed foods and refined sugar.
The weight loss won’t be rapid, but what you lose will stay gone!
FAQs
REFERENCES:
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/metabolism/art-20046508
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/does-metabolism-matter-in-weight-loss
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/carb-cycling-101
- https://www.healthline.com/health/metabolic-diet-review-fact-or-fiction
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279012/
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-sitting-is-bad-for-you
- https://www.360mws.com/blog/how-spicy-foods-increase-metabolism
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4688585/
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