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Health & Nutrition17 min read
The Metabolism Reset Diet
by Alan Christianson
Repair your liver, stop storing fat, and lose weight naturally
Published: May 7, 2020
4.5 (724 ratings)
Table of Contents
1
what’s in it for me? achieve optimal liver function to lose weight and get healthy fast.2
the key to rapid and sustained weight loss is a healthy metabolism.3
the liver is the core of our health.4
a clogged liver leads to a sluggish metabolism.5
you can help stimulate your liver’s innate power of regeneration.6
meal replacement is more effective than food-group restriction.7
sleep and exercise help aid liver recovery during the cleanse.8
final summaryBook Summary
This is a comprehensive summary of “The Metabolism Reset Diet” by Alan Christianson. The book explores repair your liver, stop storing fat, and lose weight naturally.
what’s in it for me? achieve optimal liver function to lose weight and get healthy fast.#
Introduction
dr. alan christianson, the metabolism reset diet, 2019.
repair your liver, stop storing fat and lose weight naturally.
narrated by karen cass and marston york.
are you tired of gruelling diets that don't work and never end?
do you find dieting to be a constant struggle against calories, cravings and hunger?
if so, do yourself a favour and stop torturing yourself.
most likely your diet isn't working and may even be harming your health.
most fad diets promote unhealthy short-term weight loss by restricting the fuel and nutrients that your body needs.
these diets are counterproductive because they often exacerbate the core problem, your metabolism.
thankfully there's a new way to improve your health and get rid of those unwanted inches for good and it doesn't involve counting calories and spending hours at the gym each day.
the key is to revamp your metabolism by detoxing your liver so it can function properly again.
our modern high intake heavily processed diets place a lot of stress on our livers.
they tend to get clogged with waste which prevents them from processing energy efficiently.
these chapters outline a simple program to wake up your liver's innate healing powers and cleanse it of all that gunk.
this program is the metabolic reset diet, the new sensational diet cleanse devised by the renowned naturopathic doctor alan christensen and his team at integrative health.
based on evidence from clinical trials involving tens of thousands of participants, dr. christensen has created a program to help you not only lose weight but heal your liver and take back control of your health.
so what are you waiting for?
you have the power to turn back the clock on aging, optimize your health and feel better than you've felt in years.
the key to rapid and sustained weight loss is a healthy metabolism.#
chapter 1 of 6.
how is it that everyone around you seems to eat so much more than you and yet ends up so much slimmer?
what are they doing right that you're not?
if you swallow what diet fads and health media are preaching you might think that your struggles with your weight and health are your own fault.
sadly overweight people constantly receive social messages that they're doing something wrong.
they're told you eat too much, you don't exercise enough, you're not trying hard enough.
but you've been led to believe a lie.
people who are naturally thin are not more disciplined than you nor do they eat less than you.
their advantage is not superior willpower, it's their metabolism.
the key message here is the key to rapid and sustained weight loss is a healthy metabolism.
the word metabolism gets thrown around a lot but what does it really mean?
it's actually very simple.
metabolism just refers to the way your body responds to incoming fuel, meaning your main calorie sources such as fats and carbohydrates.
when your metabolism is healthy incoming fuel either gets burned immediately for energy or it's put into short-term storage to be used later.
our metabolism is remarkably useful because we never consume exactly the right amount of fuel at any one time.
by storing excess fuel at mealtimes and burning it later our metabolisms smooth the release of energy throughout the day.
when your metabolism isn't working properly your body is unable to make use of incoming fuel for energy and is forced to put it into long-term storage.
that is to say body fat.
that means you'll gain weight but it also means you'll suffer from chronic fatigue and other health ailments because your body isn't getting energy from the fuel you eat.
that's why diets that focus solely on limiting calorie consumption miss the core problem, the way your body deals with those calories.
it doesn't matter if you eat a high calorie diet if your body is able to burn most of it for energy.
but what can you do about your metabolism?
you're either born with a good one or a bad one right?
wrong.
this is yet another myth about weight loss.
in fact your metabolism isn't fixed and there are some simple steps you can take to encourage it to become more active again.
the answer isn't an extreme self-denying diet.
the answer is in the liver.
to understand why let's take a closer look at this marvellous organ.
the liver is the core of our health.#
chapter 2 of 6.
the liver is an unjustly underrated organ.
we marvel at the power of the brain.
we're passionate about the heart but the liver?
we hardly give it a second thought.
yet behind the scenes the liver's running the whole show.
in fact no other organ is as important for your body's health.
that's because the liver is far from a one-trick pony.
it has a lot of different functions and plays a role in most of your body's vital systems such as the digestive, circulatory and immune systems.
the liver affects everything from blood pressure to metabolism to muscle strength and body weight to name just a few.
so when your liver is unwell you're going to feel it.
the key message here is the liver is the core of our health.
the four most important functions that the liver performs are filtration, protection, storage and conversion.
let's take a look at why these are so important for our health.
first the liver is the body's filter.
much like the filter in an aquarium the liver regulates the fluid in our bodies to ensure our insides remain an optimal environment for life to thrive.
that means cleaning the blood of toxins and supplying it with essential nutrients that our organs need.
on average the liver cleans the body's entire supply of blood about once a minute and if it's lacked off even a little it would cause the brain to shut down due to over toxicity which can happen sadly to people with severe liver disease.
but don't worry the liver is a very robust organ and well adapted to protect us from toxins and other unwanted intruders that enter the body through the foods we eat.
the liver is covered in special immune cells called cup for cells which swallow pathogens and chemical debris neutralize them and send warning signals to the rest of the immune system.
but the liver does more than just protect us from toxins.
supposing the body were a house then the liver is its pantry.
all the nutrients that come from the food we eat such as vitamins, minerals, fuel and other useful substances get repackaged and stored in the liver for later.
however we can't get all the nutrients our bodies need from the food we eat.
thankfully the liver saves us yet again.
the liver doubles as a factory which builds the nutrients we can't get from our food such as many essential amino acids.
since the liver plays a part in so many of the body's vital functions ailments of the liver are frequently the root cause for many other chronic diseases.
so maintaining a healthy liver isn't just about losing weight it's about maintaining a healthy body overall.
a clogged liver leads to a sluggish metabolism.#
chapter 3 of 6 most fad diets involve eliminating a major food group from your diet which are allegedly the source of all your problems.
usually this food group is one of your calorie sources carbs, fats, proteins or ketones.
all of which at one time or another have been cast as the villain in the story.
but there's a reason diet fads don't work.
it's easy to see why when you consider that your body ultimately breaks down every calorie source into the same thing.
acetyl which is the most basic fuel that the body burns for energy.
if your body is in need of energy then it'll burn this acetyl immediately.
if the body wants to keep the fuel for later then it'll store it in the liver and muscles.
now if it gets stored in the liver it'll be repackaged into either one of two types of fuel glycogen or triglycerides.
triglycerides are short-term fats.
they're basically fats in purgatory.
they're waiting to either be burned for energy soon or sent off to be stored long-term as body fat.
the key message here is a clogged liver leads to a sluggish metabolism.
so here's the core difference between a healthy and an unhealthy liver.
a healthy liver will burn most of these short-term fats for energy while an unhealthy liver will store most of it as body fat causing weight gain.
but how does the liver become unhealthy?
well consider that a healthy liver needs a good supply of both glycogen and triglycerides.
this is because in order to retrieve the energy from triglycerides the liver needs to burn some glycogen.
think of triglycerides as blocks of wood and glycogen as tinder that helps get the fire started.
the trouble is it's much easier for the liver to make triglycerides than glycogen.
when we continuously eat a high fuel diet the liver can clog up with triglycerides leaving no room for glycogen.
since the liver needs glycogen to burn triglycerides the liver loses the ability to clear itself of the backlog of triglyceride fat.
this results in what's called fatty liver syndrome.
this means that the liver is so overloaded with fat that when new fuel comes in for processing the liver is forced to send it away to be stored as body fat.
this is effectively what it means to have a slow metabolism.
your body is unable to utilize the fuel you consume for energy and is forced to put it into long-term storage.
in this case it doesn't matter how few calories you consume you're going to have a lot of difficulty losing weight.
but the good news is the liver can be repaired.
we'll see how in the next chapter.
you can help stimulate your liver’s innate power of regeneration.#
chapter four of six.
the liver's importance to our health is reflected in our language.
the word liver comes from the same root as the word life.
this is no accident.
for a long time the liver has been venerated for one extraordinary property.
its ability to regenerate.
remarkably up to 80% of the liver can regrow if it becomes damaged.
thanks to this ability healthy people can donate over two-thirds of their liver to someone in need and the rest will grow back in a matter of months.
let this give you hope.
given the right circumstances your liver can heal itself.
the metabolism reset diet is designed to provide those circumstances.
the key message here is you can help stimulate your liver's innate power of regeneration.
the first thing we can do to help is reduce the burden that our high fuel diets place on the liver.
the main reason the fatty liver struggles to clean itself is that we ingest new fuel faster than the liver can break down old fuel.
that's why on the metabolism reset diet limiting calorie intake is very important.
the liver can only process so much in a day.
so it's important we minimize extra work for the liver so it has a chance to tackle its backlog.
so far this jives with other calorie restriction diets but this isn't enough.
your liver also needs nutrients to perform its processes.
you may have plenty of energy in reserve in the form of body fat but your body can't necessarily access it if it doesn't have the tools to do so.
unfortunately people who engage in highly restrictive diets can deprive their liver of the nutrients that it needs.
this means that even though they're hardly eating and feel starved they can still put on weight because their body is unable to utilize their fat reserves for energy.
the solution is to eat plenty of the foods that provide the nutrients your liver needs.
that means supplying the body with healthy amounts of protein, fiber, micronutrients and phytonutrients which all aid liver function.
the following foods are especially rich in liver aiding nutrients.
garlic, onions, radishes, fish, papaya, turmeric, tomatoes, grapes and soy.
all are packed with nutrients that help the liver break down its stores of fat.
but how are you supposed to eat a nutrient-rich diet and minimize fuel intake?
in the next chapter you'll find out how the metabolic reset diet overcomes this difficulty.
meal replacement is more effective than food-group restriction.#
chapter 5 of 6.
unlike most diets the metabolic reset diet doesn't require the restriction of any particular food group.
in fact eating a range of foods is healthy since it supplies your body with various kinds of nutrients.
what the reset does require is meal replacement.
that means replacing some of your solid meals with protein shakes.
here's what your daily meal plan would look like on the diet.
you would drink one protein shake for breakfast and another one for lunch.
for dinner you'll eat a hearty meal and in between you can eat as many veggie snacks as you desire.
that's it.
it's that simple.
the key message here is meal replacement is more effective than food group restriction.
so why replace meals with protein shakes?
well the weight of evidence in favor of the two shake a day diet is frankly staggering.
compared to standard food restriction diets the two shake diet has proven to produce faster weight loss and greater reduction in liver fat.
one study of 90 obese adults found that people on the two shake diet lost almost twice as much weight as people eating three solid meals a day.
the reason protein shake diets are so successful is that they make it very easy to get large amounts of protein while minimizing other calorie sources.
this is important because of all the calorie sources protein has the greatest positive effect on aiding the liver and boosting metabolism.
protein has the very useful ability to act in place of glycogen to help burn triglyceride fats.
protein also contains essential amino acids which further aids the liver in breaking down fats.
aside from protein the other major food group that plays a big part in the reset is resistant starch in foods like bananas, legumes and potatoes.
resistant starch is a form of carbohydrate that's hard for your body to digest.
that's good because your body ends up absorbing only about half of the calories you consume from resistant starch which means less strain on your liver.
resistant starch is great for the reset diet because it helps to burn body fat, stabilize energy levels and aid digestive health by feeding good bacteria in your gut.
the final aspect of the diet is the unlimited veggie snacking.
that's right there's no limit on how many vegetables you can eat.
that's because vegetables provide high levels of nutrients for your body and phytonutrients for your gut flora while containing negligible amounts of fuel.
the great thing about the metabolic reset diet is that you only need to stick to it for four weeks.
afterward you can go back to a normal diet of solid food and maintain your decreased weight and increased energy with relatively little effort.
sleep and exercise help aid liver recovery during the cleanse.#
chapter six of six.
it's not just your diet that affects your liver's health.
sleep and exercise play a big part too.
by making a few simple changes to your sleep and exercise habits you can amplify the results of the diet cleanse.
the key message here is sleep and exercise help aid liver recovery during the cleanse.
let's begin with your sleep habits.
sleep isn't usually discussed in relation to weight loss yet many experts believe that sleep affects your figure even more than diet and exercise do.
when you're asleep your liver does get a hard-earned rest but it certainly doesn't switch off.
during periods of prolonged deep sleep your liver is busy rebuilding the glycogen supply that it burned during the day as well as continuing to burn stored fat.
what's more sleep helps to reduce your stress levels.
evidence suggests that even stress has an impact on your metabolism because the stress hormone cortisol blocks your liver from burning fat.
sleep prevents your body from producing cortisol which is how your body rewards you for getting enough rest.
for these reasons as well as for your own well-being it's important to try and get a full night's sleep every night.
that means seven to eight hours no excuses.
exercise is also important for your metabolism.
that probably doesn't surprise you but what might surprise you is that it's possible to do too much exercise.
studies show that for people with sluggish metabolisms too much exercise can be counterproductive because it puts extra strain on the liver which has to process all the extra fuel your body burns.
if your liver is already struggling to provide all the energy you need this extra burden can make matters worse.
still some exercise is important.
if you don't do any exercise then your body might tap into your muscle tissue as a source of fuel.
you don't want this to happen because even though you might lose weight it discourages your body from burning body fat.
by doing some light exercise you can encourage your liver to produce glycogen and actually recruit your muscles as an extra place to store fuel.
so while on the cleanse you should strive to find a balance between light exercise and rest.
a good way to achieve that balance is by going on frequent short walks or engaging in daily micro workouts such as short five to ten minute stretching or cardio workouts.
final summary#
Conclusion
you've just listened to our chapters to the metabolism reset diet by dr. alan christensen.
the takeaway message from these chapters is that your liver is the core of your health because it affects every other organ in your body.
the liver purifies your blood, builds and stores the nutrients that your other organs need and protects your body against disease.
it's also directly responsible for your metabolism which affects your weight and energy levels.
so if you want to look and feel better then embrace this simple formula.
a healthy liver means an active metabolism which in turn yields a healthy body overall.
want some more actionable advice?
create a meal plan.
so you've heard the science behind the diet.
you could do with a metabolism boost and you want to give it a try.
now what?
now you need to make a meal plan for the next four weeks.
don't worry all the hard work has already been done for you.
just visit the website the metabolism reset diet dot com to find a plethora of resources such as grocery lists, recipes, progress trackers and more.
there you'll also find a vibrant community of like-minded people who will be happy to give you any extra advice or support that you need.
have you got feedback?
we would love to hear what you think about our content.
just drop an email to remember at summarybook.org with the metabolism reset diet as the subject line and share your thoughts.
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