The Metabolic Effect Diet: Eat More, Work Out Less, and Actually Lose Weight While You Rest [Paperback]

I have worked in the fitness industry for over 6 years. Prior to that I was a long term repeat dieter and I suffered intermittent depression. I knew back then that there had to be a better model than calorie couting and hours of aerobic exercise. After years of experimenting and reading countless books I discovered this book quite by accident (thank you facebook!).

What is different about this book is that it's based on biochemistry. It explains that not all calories are equal and by choosing the right ratio of nutrients and by using exercise programs to spark your metabolism, you can exert control over your hormones in positive way. This diet is working with your body and not against it.

And what is even better about this program is that I no longer suffer episodes of depression. I now understand how food, stress, sunlight, sleep, food and exercise affect my hormones and my body and what I need to do to stay in balance.

Don't ever try another diet ever again.......read this book and you won't have to. The only minor negative aspect of this book is it was written in America and alot of the food options and suggestions are american based so may take some investigating to find alternatives or equivalents in the UK. But it is possible as I have found.

I read a lot of books on diet and fitness for two reasons: 1. I like to stay fit and healthy and 2. I run a diet and fitness website so I like to keep up to date with trends and new developments.

I found the information in this book to be a bit of each of the following:

Making the Cut: The 30-day Diet and Fitness Plan for the Strongest, Sexiest You - This book by Jillian Michaels is based around finding your body type which is determined by your metabolism and then adjusting your diet and exercise around that to best benefit for you rather than a 'one size fits all' approach.

Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week - An excellent and interesting book selling us the idea of working with our body rather than against it and again by listening to your body and adjusting your diet, you can apparently do exceptionally short workouts based on 'blasts' of energy in a power circuit fashion which will build muscle and burn fat quicker than the old 80s aerobic belief. It has long been realised that the body does not necessarily burn fat and act at its most effective while doing consistent aerobic workouts. This book is an excellent in depth analysis and explanation of how to utilise diet and exercise to best effect with minimal effort.

The 4-Hour Body: An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman: The Secrets and Science of Rapid Body Transformation - Now this book is a little extreme and quite difficult to get into but the concept is the same. By learning more about how our body works and working 'with' it, we don't need to be slogging our guts out at the gym for hours and hours a week. I don't think anyone reading this book would go to the extremes that Tim did but we can all learn and benefit from his results and observations.

The Dukan Diet - Just the diet bit not the exercise but it covers the same principle of balancing proteins and carbs and reducing carbs overall to great effect.

First of all, bodybuilders have realised for years that in order to build muscle and reduce fat, protein is the way to go. An excess of carbs for anyone is a big mistake but most of our daily foodstuffs available these days are carbohydrate heavy.

Secondly anyone heard of Ayurveda?? An age old Indian system of body types and eating to best benefit your particular body type. So nothing new there.

Perhaps the only way this book stands out a little is that is emphasises 'Hormones' and the role they play in our metabolism and in our bodies in general. It is fairly obvious but people do not always realise the obvious. What happens at 'middle age', the menopause, during pregnancy, puberty etc ? Hormonal changes which generally bring about body changes particularly with regard to shape and size. So I see this book as a new slant on an old theory.

But does it work? I have not tried this particular programme yet but I do weight training and have followed the high protein diet for several years now and yes that works. Also, I know that working out every day is not actually beneficial to your body as it can overwork muscle and actually prevent them from building up (if they cannot heal properly they cannot build) and I know that if I miss a couple of workouts, I generally really go for it the next time and push myself and see no difference in effects if I only workout 2 times that week as opposed to 4 so in theory the minimal exercise approach should work so long as the exercise is full on effort when done.

This book gives you plenty of suggested recipes for your body type to follow. The information is presented in a very readable way and easy to read and digest (I don't think it has a high carb content :-) ) and should be fairly easy to follow.

In practice, doing 3 x 20 min workouts a week is easy. So most people will be willing and able to do that but the programme will not work on that alone, you HAVE to follow the diet recommendations for this to work and in practice that is the hardest thing for people to do. Changing your eating habits is possible but takes perseverance and strength of will. It is so easy to slip back into old ways and that can really mess things up. I know, when I am doing a fat-burning 4 days of protein only - it is really hard to stick to you and you yearn for croissants or crisps or potatoes even though you know it is only 4 days of your life without them.

In conclusion, it is a good book. Well written, plenty of factual support to its concepts and if followed should work.

I bought this book as I have just started attending an ME Fitness class twice a week and was interested to know the theory behind the diet/fitness lifestyle surrounding this. I now follow the diet as best I can and do the exercises three times a week. My fitness levels have increased and my muscle tone is better within a few weeks, so I am looking forward to seeing a good ongoing result.