Master Your Metabolism: What It Is

Master Your Metabolism author Jillian Michaels is known as the tough strength coach on NBC’s The Biggest Loser show. In this book, she claims that fixing your metabolism by overhauling your endocrine system is the secret to a hot and healthy body.

Michaels claims that "toxins" in processed junk food, medicines, and the environment can throw our hormones, and thus our metabolism, out of whack.

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"Our nutritionally deficient, dieting, stress-dominated living and toxin-filled eating has abused our endocrine systems, hormonal balances, and metabolisms to make weight loss nearly impossible," Michaels writes.  

Master Your Metabolism is not a diet, Michaels says. It's a program designed to repair your metabolism by the way you eat and what you eat. Not only will you lose weight, Michaels says, you can also reduce your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Master Your Metabolism takes a three-phase approach that first removes "anti-nutrients" (processed, preservative-filled foods) from your diet, then replaces them with healthy foods that help with fat-burning, and finally, rebalances your hormones with better food, exercise, and sleep habits.

Michaels goes beyond weight loss advice in this book, offering guidelines to tackle conditions ranging from menopause to metabolic syndrome.

Master Your Metabolism: What You Can Eat

In a nutshell: "If it didn’t have a mother or it didn’t grow from the ground, don’t eat it," Michaels says.

Beyond that, the Master Your Metabolismmeal plan is centered on 10 "power nutrient" food groups:

1. Legumes (peas and beans)
2. Alliums (onions, leeks, shallots)
3. Berries
4. Meat and eggs (this group also includes fatty fish like salmon)
5. Colorful fruits and vegetables
6. Cruciferous vegetables (such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower)
7. Dark green, leafy veggies
8. Nuts and seeds
9. Organic, low-fat dairy
10. Whole grains

Some items, like meat, dairy, and eggs, should always be organic, the book says. For others, including tough-skinned fruits and vegetables, it's OK to buy conventional sometimes.

Banned on the diet are foods with "antinutrients" -- chemicals, trans fats, hydrogenated fats, refined grains, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives and colors, glutamates (like MSG), and other additives.

Allowed in small quantities are starchy vegetables; tropical, dried, and canned fruits; soy products; alcohol; full-fat dairy products; fatty meats; canned foods; and caffeine.

A two-week sample meal plan, plus portion size recommendations, shopping lists, and recipes, help dieters plan their meals.

Here's a sample daily meal plan:

• Breakfast: Scrambled egg whites, fried tomatoes, and a grapefruit
• Lunch: Southwest chicken salad (recipe included)
• Snack: An orange and a handful of walnuts
• Dinner: Halibut skewers with eggplant, peppers, and onions

Master Your Metabolism: How It Works

Phase One starts in the grocery store, with suggested foods to eat and avoid. This phase is designed to help remove "antinutrients," which "disrupt hormonal balance by increasing weight gain hormones and blocking weight loss hormones," Michaels says.