Being super thin is very different from being healthy. The distinction lies in understanding body composition – the ratio of lean to fatty tissue that makes up your total body weight. Your body is comprised of many tissues, including fat, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, organs and also plenty of water. Healthy body composition is determined not by the number on your scale or the size of your jeans but by your percentage of fat versus lean muscle. Keeping your percentage of fat low and your lean muscle mass high is ideal for maximizing your strength, wellness, and hormonal balance. Excess fat, bone loss and muscle loss are all factors that can result in altered body composition. The latter is what is referred to as the “skinny-fat person,” someone who appears slim but has a high percentage of body fat. In this case, body composition is not altered by excess fat but rather by an unhealthy deficiency of muscle, just like a supermodel.

The worst part? Fat fuels fat. That’s right, the more fat we accumulate, the greater our risk of obesity. With all the hormonal signals being sent and received from our fat, our fat actually controls how much more fat we store. As a result, we need to take charge of our fat cells to successfully initiate and maintain fat loss. The more fat we already have, the more difficult this process is as you may have experienced – the frustration of making dietary tweaks or exercising more but not seeing results. Don’t give up because it’s doable and worth the effort. You just need to retune your hormones and your ability to metabolize stored body fat and an effective way to do this is with a 12-Day Metabolic Reset.

Our reset involves increasing your intake of lean proteins, cooked vegetables and fiber and limiting your servings of fats and starches for the duration of the 12 days. After this period, we recommend consuming fats and starchy carbs, our most calorie-dense food choices, in amounts that match your activity levels. For instance, if you work out or are active gardening or doing housework (versus sitting at your desk or on the couch), you should consume olive oil and at least one other fat source such as egg yolks, avocados, goat cheese, etc… And though you’ll skip starchy carbs for the 12-day reset, we suggest that you enjoy them on-going on the days you complete strength activities including Nordic pole walking, weight training, horseback riding or yoga. Another benefit and key to success of upping your protein and vegetables during this plan is these keep you feeling full. If you get hungry, however, consume an extra serving of protein and our veggies. Many of our patients report this simple habit as a major game-changer. 

Stats to Track Your Progress:

The key is not to cheat during this reset. Being strict is the best approach to the goal of lowering insulin, the only hormone that instructs your body to store energy as fat and a major appetite-stimulating hormone.  When successfully lowered in the fasting state, it’s the key to restoring your body’s ability to process carbohydrates once you do begin to consume them again after the reset.

Here’s how we came up with this program: indulging with extra carbs or fats on the weekend, while being strict through the week, still didn’t lead to the results we were looking for.  It wasn’t until we stuck to this 12-Day plan – that results from arose from our efforts. But perhaps the best part is this, once you reset your hormones and get on the right exercise plan – you are supposed to indulge at least once or twice a week for your metabolism and hormonal health. And when your hormones are balanced, you tend to avoid a set back like a two to four-pound weight gain from your cheats.

This metabolic reset kit includes two shakes and two meals per day. The shakes are comprised of a meal replacement supplement combined with an additional scoop of protein (both of which may be whey- or vegan-protein based).  A beneficial addition is a scoop of collagen with Vitamin C to your morning shake, which you can learn more about in this blog post: Ten Benefits of Collagen.