The Metabolic Typing Diet

This week I have started my new diet. Yes you heard me correctly, I have started a diet. However this diet is far from calorie reduction, it's much more about eating the right foods for your metabolic type.

Through a process of asking 60 questions the program determines what your metabolic type. It asks questions based on how foods affect you, your personality and sleep patterns after consuming certain foods. Once your metabolic type has been established the program suggests what food groups to eat and which ones to avoid. This should result in increased energy levels, better sleep and optimum health.

Bill Wolcott (the author of The Metabolic Typing Diet) played a pivotal role in advancing the field of Metabolic Typing in the 1970s. In 1983 he discovered critical new dimensions of the way in which human metabolism is controlled by the Oxidative System and the Autonomic Nervous System. Wolcott published a paper on this topic and over the course of the 1980s and 1990s made many additional discoveries that continued to transform Metabolic Typing into a multi-dimensional clinical and academic discipline.

Unlike other current dietary approaches which distinguish people from one another on the basis of single variables - such as body typing and blood typing - Metabolic Typing utilizes many different aspects of a person's physiological makeup in order to specify a diet appropriate for that person. Metabolic Typing uses multiple biochemical or metabolic indicators and seeks to identify patterns among these variables - patterns that reveal how a person's system is genetically designed to digest or utilize or "process" specific foods and nutrients.

The diet is a lifestyle change, so once started you adopt it for life. It doesn't restrict your calories, merely guides you to selecting the appropriate foods for your type. For example "fast oxidisers" generally speaking do better on protein and healthy fats with fewer carbohydrates, as their metabolism is faster than most. "Slow oxidisers" are at the opposite end of the scale and do best on whole grains and carbohydrate based foods as their metabolism is slower.

The best way to ascertain what will work for you is to check out the diet at www.metabolictyping.com and take the survey.

But fear not I will update you on my progress. Coffee has been the first thing to go (oh so difficult for me) and I am trying to eat more protein based foods with healthy fats, whilst still consuming some carbohydrates for the marathon training I am doing.

If you need any help or advice on nutrition feel free to contact me at tom@tomalfry.com

Tom :)