Why can’t I find the best weight loss program for me?

I was wondering the other day how to make people understand what is the best weight loss program for them. Many people desperately want to lose weight and can’t understand why diet after diet doesn’t seem to work. Or it does, but only for a while. Or they do, but they feel bad while they’re at it. For people who have tried so many different diets and are frustrated and disheartened, I want to run up to them and yell, “Find out what your metabolic type is!” because it just might make all the difference.

Metabolic typing assumes that we are all different (doesn’t that make sense?) but fit somewhere within broad categories. (For more information on metabolic types, take a look at the links below.) The consequence of this assumption that we are all unique is that there is no one way of eating that can be considered “the best weight loss program” because it will be different for everyone.

Even if you’re already eating for your general category (protein, carb, or mixed), you can continue to refine your metabolic profile in all sorts of little ways, gradually discovering exactly what program is best for you. And when you discover what your genetic tendencies mean for your metabolic systems, your body begins to take care of its size and shape on its own. After all, it’s already programmed to work just fine, if we just get out of the way! The key is to aim to feel good. Once you have the correct overall balance of protein, carbs, and fat, your energy levels should balance out and you should start feeling fantastic.

But what if you’re still not losing weight? Well, part of me wants to say, “What the hell? You feel great, don’t you?” But if you are really overweight, then for sure you want to find the best weight loss program as well as the best healthy eating program. Just take it a little further. Gradually increase the balance of raw foods in your diet, but keep the right balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat for your metabolic type. You could try incorporating food combining, which involves eating starches and proteins separately to help your body digest each type of food more completely and efficiently. But again, always with your metabolic type in mind.

Or maybe, especially if you’ve been on crash diets in the past, you need to “reset your fat thermometer,” as Trish Fahey and William Walcott call it in their book, “The Metabolic Typing Diet”. Basically, if you’ve been on a severe diet, your body will have changed its automatic fat storage setting to “higher please.” He’s just trying to protect you from what he sees as hunger! Reset your body weight “set point” by avoiding low-calorie diets, crash diets that mimic starvation, and get a little more exercise, a mix of aerobics and light weight training.

There are several other ways to refine your diet once you know your top metabolic needs. But the great thing about metabolic typing is that it’s about eating the way your body wants to eat and feeling the tremendous benefits of listening to nature instead of the neighbors, magazines, or the latest fad diet. Learn to really enjoy your food again, in the right proportions, and you can finally find that difficult weight loss program that’s best for you.