The initial step of The Metabolism Miracle Plan is an eight week cleansing during which the first three days is an intensive adjustment period. Step one is a fairly straightforward part of the diet. Your fat cells will shrink and you will lose weight. You should notice the roll of fat around your tummy diminish dramatically. You will not have to give up carbs completely for this step. You get to have 5g of carbohydrate enriched foods every five hours. Kress, author of The Metabolism Miracle, calls this ‘5×5 carbs’.
The 5×5 Rule
There is an easy way to tally carbohydrate total in foods with a quick and easy formula to decide if they fit the ‘5×5’ rule. To calculate a food’s net carbs, look under the nutritional values per serving size on the packaging, and subtract the dietary fiber figure from the total carbohydrate grams.
For example:
One Mission Carb Balance Fajita Tortilla has 13 g of total carbohydrates and 9 g of Dietary fiber.
13 (Total Carb) – 9 (Dietary Fiber) = 4 Net Carbs
The total carbs in one tortilla is 4 g. This is safe to eat. So, fill it with cheese, meat, vegies, or anything else that has no additional carbohydrates (there may be some food that has 1 g or 2 g of carb, which is ok, but be careful) and go for it. It will satisfy you and hold you up for the next five hours, even though you can munch on other non carb food in between.
Three Days
According to Kress, you need a few days to adjust to the change in your diet. It’s during the three initial days that your body will still crave carbohydrates and even though you will be eating plenty of food, you may feel tired and hungry and even get a head ache. When I first tried the diet I got a head ache in the first three days. This time around, I think I drank plenty of caffeine to avoid the headaches, but I had the pang for something sweet.
After three days, as you continue to eliminate a large amount of carbohydrate from your diet and your liver remains purposely depleted of most of its glycogen stores, your brain will have to come up with an alternative plan for fueling your body. If you follow the plan, the theory is that the brain will automatically make the choice to burn fat cells.
I will warn you that during the 8 week period, do not stop to take a break one day and eat any extra carbs or something sweet. If you do, it will be like starting all over again to get over those sugar cravings. It’s not worth the hard work.
Last week I got past my three days and I am now into the second week of the 8 weeks in step one of this plan. Next week I will have some easy recipes for you to use with this stage of the diet.
Hi! I came across your blog while doing a search for recipes and tips for the MM diet and found you 🙂 I just finished reading the book and I’m getting ready to start on Friday since I don’t want to feel terrible while at work for the first 3 or 4 days… Would you please be so kind as to maybe making a post on what a typical day of meals and snacks plus your 5×5 are… ?
I feel anxious that I will get this whole thing wrong and have to restart every time I make a mistake. Thanks so much in advance.
I will keep coming back to your blog and checking up on your progress and recipes. Thx!
Hello, Jessie.
I’m so glad you have decided to take this diet on. Please don’t feel anxious, even if you think you have eaten something that doesn’t quite fit the diet just keep going. You don’t have to start over. It will get easier as each day goes by. As for work, keep a lot snacks on hand that you can nibble on such as nuts because they do help a lot. I also get plenty of caffeine, which helps me, like diet soda and coffee. Those are totally allowed on this diet. I have not had a chance to post on my daily meals, but I will do a post on that shortly. So, please tune in as I will have something up by the end of the week. I would love to hear back on your progress. Good Luck!