Tag Archives: pro metabolic diet

losingweightprometabolic

Losing Weight with a Pro Metabolic Diet

Recently in our private FB group, I asked the question:

“What are people struggling with most when it comes to a pro metabolic diet? “

The largest item at 42% was Losing Weight. 

I asked the same question on my IG stories and 85% was Losing Weight.

So, it’s time to create this:

Summary on Losing Weight with a Pro metabolic Diet

First of all, here is a summary of all articles I have written on Losing Weight with a Pro metabolic Diet before. Read through them slowly, as you may pick up new things that you didn’t notice previously. Sometimes people are just not ready to take in or act upon information at certain times:

At first I was losing weight, now it’s coming back!

Best diet for weight loss

Best way to lose weight long term

Body temperature affects weight loss

Dieting Weight Loss Health

Best exercise for weight loss

Discussion on exercise for weight loss

Discussion on fasting

Five weight loss mistakes

Free 7 Day email course – How to eat for Weight Loss

High cortisol causes belly fat

Why losing weight fast is bad advice

Metabolic rate and burning calories

Polyunsaturated fats and weight gain

Beginners Guide to a fast metabolism

Eleven factors for weight loss

What I eat in a day from 2019

What I eat in a day updated in 2021

Meal plan to get you started

 

Main points to understand about Losing Weight with a Pro Metabolic Diet

  • Losing weight the healthy way takes time

Sometimes 2-5 years may be required until you get to your goal. It takes patience, and to understand what you are doing. But the good part is, you won’t have to lose weight ever again!

  • Unless you are severely underweight though, you DON’T need to gain weight when starting a pro metabolic diet

If anything, you should just be able to stabilise where you are while you are learning about your calories, macros and food types to improve your metabolic rate.

  • At the beginning, large amounts of calories are NOT required to heal

This false information of needing lots of calories (like 2,400 to 2,800 calories for women) has created a lot of issues for many people and is downright dangerous to promote. There have been stories of people having dangerously high blood sugar, high cholesterol and triglycerides to heart attack levels, onset of diabetes/ prediabetes and large amounts of weight gain like 60 pounds (30kg) when trying to follow this advice. This would be accumulating fat around your organs too, making it more difficult for them to work properly. So DON’T do this.

  • Starting calories

In my books the ZEN Beach Diet, the 3 Day Summer RESTART & the Lemon Coffee + Pro Metabolic Diet Weight Loss Dynamite books, we start at the minimum level of calories recommended for a healthy adult woman. This is 1,800 calories. For those who have been trying to ‘diet’ on 1,000 to 1,200 calories, it is advised to increase to this amount slowly, to get your body used to it to avoid weight gain. Like over a few months.

  • Calories after 12 months or so

Depending how your body responds, there may be opportunity to increase calories beyond this and continue to lose weight, depending on how your metabolic rate is progressing. There are so many other factors involved in this too like your age, your lifestyle, your health, the stress in your life, exactly what you are eating etc. For some, their optimal long term calorie level may be the same, or it may be less, or it may be more. It is so individual, and NO-ONE can tell you what that is. It’s up to you to test and measure and experiment as you go. 

  • Your health

The state of your health plays a big part in your ability to lose weight. Ray Peat often said that most issues will resolve themselves once a person increases their metabolism. So, all diseases he believed stemmed from this one problem. The way to increase your metabolism is all detailed in my ZEN Beach Diet book. So it’s highly recommended that you grab a copy. If you already have it, read it again to ensure you are doing everything outlined.

The additional liver function benefits and other benefits in the Lemon Coffee program actually assisted me to obtain the healthy liver I didn’t even know I needed and the result was a loss of another 5kg (10lbs.)

Bottom line is we approach losing weight with our health in mind first. We don’t go hungry, but we don’t over stuff ourselves either. It is really a balancing act of knowledge and consistency, that will get you there in the end.

High Calorie Bullies

I had a person recently in our private group argue adamantly that my approach to a pro metabolic diet was too low in calories and stressful for the body. She claimed that no-one could possibly increase their metabolism on 1,800 calories and they shouldn’t stay at that level long term. Fortunately, she removed herself from the group as the last thing we need is high calorie bullies!

Funnily enough most of what she was saying was in line with my philosophies however she hadn’t read my books and had no idea what my philosophies actually were. However, she was wrong on two counts. Some people CAN increase their metabolic rate on 1,800 calories – I did! And I’m 5ft 10 inches tall. Others in our private group have as well. And at NO POINT did I say that everyone MUST stay at 1,800 calories for the long term. So it seems she was just making up her own stories and arguing against herself! Can’t please everyone.

Anyway, the point is, don’t let any high calorie bullies get into your head, as it is not the best way forward for most people.

We take a slow and steady approach and make tweaks in our own lives to suit our own bodies best.

See you in the groups!

Cheers

 

Kristy

Lemon Coffee

 

chocolate mousse high protein

Chocolate Mousse – High Protein Low Fat

This recipe for Chocolate Mousse High Protein is so easy to make and eat for breakfast!

One of the issues I commonly see is people drinking coffee first thing in the morning without food. Coffee is great and thyroid healthy ONLY when we drink it properly and that is WITH food. Or at least before or after food. The food part must happen close to the coffee drinking to supply the necessary carbohydrates to support the increase in metabolic rate caused by the coffee. Otherwise, we cause stress to the body, raising cortisol. This is why some people get the jitters and feel terrible. Read more about Coffee Drinking here.

Often, we don’t have time to stop and make something to eat, so this is why pre-prepared, easy-to-grab little bits of nourishing food is so important.

This Chocolate Mousse High Protein recipe is high in the RIGHT protein, low in fat, features enough carbohydrates to support the coffee drinking AND has fruit as well. And to make it even more perfect, it tastes AMAZING too!

Let’s get cooking!

chocolate mousse high protein
Print Recipe

Chocolate Mousse High Protein

Chocolate High Protein Snack
Prep Time10 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: Healthy
Keyword: 5 ingredients
Servings: 8

Equipment

  • 1 Large Bowl
  • 1 Mixing Spoon

Ingredients

  • 1 500g Cottage Cheese 17.64oz
  • 1 410g Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 can 14.46oz
  • 1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
  • 1/2 cup Peanut Butter Powder
  • 1 670g Jar of sour cherries 23.63oz

Instructions

  • Drain the liquid from the cherries and set the liquid & cherries aside separately.
  • Add all ingredients into a bowl except the cherries & mix with a spoon until well combined.
  • Add the cherries & stir through.
  • From here I portion out the mix into 4 x 1 cup sized plastic containers and store in the freezer until needed.
  • Place one container in the fridge to thaw out, if you are planning to eat it the next day.

Notes:

  • You may eat this recipe as ice cream too!
  • If you are planning to eat it every day, you can store it in the fridge for about 7 days. I just prefer the freezer as it keeps longer, and I’m not forced to have it before it goes off. 
  • My cottage cheese is the smooth type that doesn’t have curds – it’s more like a Skyr or European cottage cheese. I can just mix it with a spoon and it’s smooth and fluffy. If your cottage cheese is different, you may need to use a food processor or stick blender to get it smooth.
  • The sour cherries go perfectly with all the sweet, however it still tastes amazing without them too. Add any fruit you have that you think would work with chocolate!
  • The peanut butter powder is optional but makes it taste awesome. As nearly all the PUFA fats are removed, it’s an ok food to have once in a while.

Calories/Macros

Whole recipe

1989 Calories

114 g Protein

322g Carbs

28g Fat

Per half cup serve

249 Calories

14.25g Protein

40g Carbs

3.5g Fat

I find myself making this recipe at least once every 2 weeks to stock up the freezer. It just takes a few minutes and is the perfect quick breakfast option, with all the necessary macros to go with coffee. I love pro metabolic food!

Happy cooking!

 

PS: If you love this recipe, there are more of them in my Sweet Treats Pro Metabolic Desserts recipe book. Click the image below to find out more…

sweet treats book

sweetened condensed milk

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk – no cook

 

Sweetened Condensed milk was one of my all-time favourite foods as a kid. When the ‘all sugar is bad‘ craze hit, my favourite food went out the window for at least 30 years.

How exciting to now understand that it can be included in your Pro Metabolic diet and still be healthy! Yay!

After continually buying tins of Sweetened Condensed Milk for a while, and not quite being sure of the source of the milk, I wondered if it was possible to make it at home. So I found the cooking it on the stove top recipe.

I tried this once. After 30 minutes of continual stirring, wasting so much time and still burning the mixture on the bottom of the pot – I thought surely there must be a better way? A non-cook way.

Pleased to report there is and it’s quick, easy and awesome!

sweetened condensed milk
Print Recipe

Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk - No cook

A quicker, easier way to make Sweetened Condensed Milk
Prep Time10 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Healthy
Keyword: 3 ingredients

Equipment

  • 1 Food processor

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Low Fat Skim Milk Powder
  • 2 cups Icing Sugar
  • 1 cup Cold Water

Instructions

  • Throw all ingredients in a Food Processor and whiz until smooth.
  • Check mix after about 3 minutes of blending and add a little more water if necessary.
  • Spoon into a container.
  • Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Recipe Notes

Now some people add a dash of vanilla essence, or a pinch of salt. Some even add a few tablespoons of melted butter to enhance the flavour. You make your Sweetened Condensed Milk how you like it.

Now one important thing is that the water going in must be COLD. Do not add boiled water or hot water to this. This is because Milk Powder dissolves better in cold water. If you put hot water in, you will get a clumpy mess.

This is also why I use Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar.) Normal granulated sugar likes hot water to melt in but the Milk Powder doesn’t. So if you use granulated sugar with this, you will get crunchy Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Also while I haven’t tried this in a blender, I’m not sure if it will work, as it is quite thick. I believe it needs the power of the bigger blades in a food processor. But if you try a blender – let me know how you go!

All the little tricks are important. It may look a little more runny at first than the canned version but will firm up in the fridge.

Best Milk Powder

Now the best source of Milk Powder I have found in Australia is this one by Collagen X – Organic Skim Milk Powder – they have it available on their ebay store. I’m not sure if they ship this one to overseas locations – please ask them.

Update: The lovely crew at Collagen X, have advised that they are able to extend the special Slimbirdy 10% discount that you would normally get when buying their gelatin products on their website – on their ebay store for the Organic Skim Milk Powder! 

All you have to do is make an offer for the Organic Skim Milk Powder at 10% less than the listed price on the ebay store, put the code Slimbirdy in the notes and they will honour the discount! So very nice of them to find a way to help us.

How to use Sweetened Condensed Milk

I use it on my fruit and Greek yogurt just to jazz up the sweetness. It is also in quite a few of my recipes in my Sweet Treats Dessert Recipe book.

I used to use it in my coffee as well however, I found it packed on the pounds for me as it was just too much sweet/sugar for my lifestyle. This is how I have my coffee now – Lemon Coffee – which has a whole new weight loss element to it as well.

I feel so much better making Sweetened Condensed Milk myself and knowing where the milk comes from.

Happy, healthy cooking.

Cheers

 

Kristy x

PS: For those concerned about all the sugar in this recipe, a pro metabolic diet allows sugar as it increases your metabolism, but only if you eat it correctly. To learn how to do this, grab a copy of my main book The ZEN Beach Diet, which explains everything.

Lemon Coffee

Cherry High Protein Ice Cream with Marmalade

The trick with a pro metabolic diet is to create food that is super delicious but also good for you. This new Cherry High Protein Ice Cream recipe certainly fits the bill.

I’ve made High Protein Ice Cream before in this recipe. However it is a plain vanilla, so it’s time to jazz things up a bit and make it taste super amazing.

high protein ice cream
Print Recipe

Cherry High Protein Ice Cream with Marmalade

High protein dessert you can eat for breakfast
Prep Time15 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Pro Metabolic
Keyword: High protein, cottage cheese

Equipment

  • 1 bowl
  • 1 spoon
  • 1 stick blender or food processor
  • 1 plastic container

Ingredients

  • 1 500g Cottage Cheese (17.64oz)
  • 1 395g Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 tin - 13.93oz
  • 1/4 cup Orange Marmalade
  • 2 cups Cherries (Frozen or fresh)
  • 2 cups Blueberries (Frozen or fresh)

Instructions

  • Tip everything into a bowl.
  • Mix together a little with a spoon.
  • Whiz a little with a stick blender to break up the fruit a little to keep it a bit chunky, or if you would like it completely smooth, then use a food processor.
  • Pour in little containers for portion control or one large one to scoop out.

I’ve been enjoying frozen cherries towards the end of our summer and so one day just whipped up this combination to see what would happen. The addition of marmalade too was an accident, as I just wanted to finish off the jar. But it adds a delicious flavoursome tang and it’s become a fast favourite.

So I’ve been eating this Cherry High Protein Ice Cream for breakfast in our super hot weather. It’s just filling and delicious.

Here are the macro stats:

Total amount:-

2,131 Calories

87g Protein

396g Carbohydrates

20g Fat

Divide the batch by 4 to get the appropriate serving size for a meal:

532 Calories

22g Protein

99g Carbohydrates

5g Fat

So this ice cream as all the correct macros to suit a meal. So if you are going to have this Cherry High Protein Ice Cream in addition to a meal, then be careful to have a smaller amount that fits your total macros. Otherwise weight will pile on, and that’s not what we are after.

For those looking for weight loss help in a pro metabolic diet, grab a copy of the ZEN Beach Diet and the new Lemon Coffee + Pro Metabolic Diet Weight Loss Dynamite Books to get started today.

Cheers

 

Kristy

Lemon Coffee

Thyroid Diet and Hormones

A good friend sent me a message after my Insta story post on the Keto Diet causes Hair loss.

She was trying to convince me that it was menopause causing the hair loss and had  nothing to do with diet.  “It’s all about hormones,” she said.

Yes menopause can cause hair loss, absolutely.

Double yes, it totally is about hormones.

But she is 100% incorrect to say that diet doesn’t play a part. Diet is a massive contributor to how your hormones function.

I am the perfect example, I changed from Keto which is an anti Thyroid Diet to a Pro Metabolic Thyroid Supporting Diet and my thinning hair grew back.

Let’s discuss just one aspect –  feeding the Thyroid properly.

The Thyroid requires sufficient carbohydrates to function optimally. It controls the entire metabolic rate of your body and how efficiently you create and use energy.

Once you mess with this and don’t eat enough carbs, it slows your body down. This in turn slows down your body’s ability to remove excess estrogen, causing an estrogen dominance situation, leading to all kinds of issues.

Issues like this:

  • abnormal menstruation (heavy/painful periods),
  • PMS,
  • headaches,
  • bloating,
  • mood swings,
  • fatigue,
  • anxiety & depression,
  • breast tenderness,
  • endometriosis,
  • fibroids,
  • hormonal weight gain
  • breast cancer

Also once you are in an estrogen dominant state, this further negatively impacts how the thyroid works as well. So it becomes a vicious cycle.

All because you didn’t eat carbs or enough of them!

(There are good and not so good carbs to have, learn which are which in my FREE 7 day email course. Click here to get started.)

Then there’s progesterone. Your thyroid also stimulates progesterone production.

So we’re back at the start— no carbs, wrecking thyroid function and then progesterone stops too.

Following this pattern, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that testosterone also declines when thyroid function declines.

So this is just one tiny glimpse of it and if you’re so inclined, you can study it until you’re blue in the face.

Or you can just grab a copy of the ZEN Beach Diet and start living the life  – enough of the right food, enough sun, enough of the right type of gentle exercise, enough rest and just enough of the good habits to let nature work it’s magic.

Bliss out.

 

Kristy x

Note: For those still on the Keto, Carnivore, Low Carb train and say you don’t need to eat carbs, your body can make them from fat – it is true that they can be made. However when you are relying on this conversion for your entire fuel, it puts the body under stress, which it can’t keep up forever. I think I lasted 10 years on Keto because I didn’t exercise much. Those who do will fall apart much quicker. 

Lemon Coffee

strawberry ice cream

Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe – Ray Peat Inspired

Who doesn’t love strawberry ice cream?

I’ve been meaning to try the 4 cups of fruit and 1 tin sweetened condensed milk ice cream idea for a long time. I’m always looking for ways to utilise lots of fruit in yummy dishes for our pro metabolic diet. This is perfect with Summer coming on here in Australia.

Continue reading →

prometabolic diet

Pro Metabolic Diet Start Here

If you’re new to a Pro Metabolic Diet, this page was created to point you to all the articles on this website to get you started.

What is a Pro Metabolic Diet & Lifestyle?

A Pro Metabolic Diet is one that provides easily digestible and bioavailable foods that your body needs for optimal cellular metabolism. This ensures your body has all the fuel and specific nutrients to function at optimal capacity, which increases your metabolic rate. Your body therefore efficiently burns fat while at rest. The cells efficiently create energy from the balanced diet we eat.

The feeling is high energy, amazing health with little effort required.

Your thyroid gland controls your metabolism and the thyroid needs sufficient carbohydrates to function properly. This is why so many of us, including me after 10 years on a Keto Diet, ended up with low body temperatures, feeling cold all the time, close to pre diabetes, putting weight on without eating any more. and metabolism grinding to nearly a halt!

We also follow a Pro Metabolic Lifestyle because certain activities can lower your metabolic rate.  These activities include intense cardio, fasting, low calories, exercising on an empty stomach, and more. We need to learn better metabolism supporting habits. These activities include eating enough calories, developing muscle tone and getting out in the sunshine, which all enhance our metabolic rate.

A fantastic place to start is the:

Pro Metabolic Diet Beginners Guide

  • It covers what to eat, what not to eat
  • How to measure your metabolic rate at home
  • Snack ideas
  • Exercise guidelines – see some moves on my YouTube channel here
  • What you may have been doing that messed you up in the first place
  • A link to the FREE 7 Day email course to learn more
  • How to join our Private Facebook Group to ask more questions
  • And more!

Get started reading on the Pro Metabolic Diet Beginners Guide here.

Most of what we’ve been told about diet and exercise is wrong.  This is why we think we’re doing all the right things, but we keep putting on more weight!

This website has lots to read to get you started. If you’re in a hurry though to learn it all quickly, the ZEN Beach Diet is the book to grab. It’s under $10 and available for immediate download worldwide. The summary of a pro metabolic diet, 7 day meal plan, recipes and beautiful images to get you motivated is included. Click the image below to learn more.

To your health,

Kristy x

zen beach diet

fruit

Fruit in a Pro Metabolic Diet

In our private facebook group we were talking about how much fruit people buy in their weekly shop. It was prompted by me trying to organise myself better, to make sure I was sticking to my ZEN Beach Diet.

It’s one thing knowing WHAT to do and HOW to do it,

but actually DOING it is another thing entirely.

Some people are super focused on food prep and planning their meals and to be honest, I wish I was far more like that. But I’m not, so that’s why the basic outline of a meal in the ZEN Beach Diet is so helpful, because at least you easily know what each meal is supposed look like macro-wise.

Continue reading →

Summer Diet RESTART

Losing weight – 3 Day Summer RESTART

 

When it comes to losing weight, making your diet plan simple to follow is one of the factors that makes it work!

The idea of making things as easy as possible is a major theme throughout Kristy Alford’s books based on her own experience of not being able to stick to things long term.

3 Day Summer RESTART

“I was three years into following a Ray Peat style diet and was loving the benefits,” author Kristy Alford said, “I’d written the ZEN Beach Diet and loved using the easy measuring system. But I started to get frustrated at the amount of fruit I’d have to cut up all the time and grating all the blooming carrots. I was staring in the fridge starving but didn’t want to cook elaborate meals!”

So in the effort to simplify things even further, the 3 Day Summer RESTART was written. It breaks the meal down into the bare essentials of getting the right macros. So it makes it super easy for those who work a lot, or are just busy all the time.

You cook once and have all meals done for 3 days. Then you sit back, relax and remove all stress around food entirely. It even includes a shopping list!

3 day restart

Here are some benefits others have found already:-

  • I feel really full but I’m losing weight, how is that possible?
  • It’s so refreshing not to have to think about what I’m eating for 3 days
  • I feel really satiated, like my nutrients are being met
  • Finally my body is happy
  • I found the Ray Peat diet confusing, this made it so much easier
  • My energy is so much more consistent throughout the day
  • I already have the ZEN Beach Diet and it’s a fantastic resource with lots of recipes but this just helped everything click for me in terms of weight loss
  • It feels like my meals are better balanced now, I would never have eaten this much protein at the start of the day before
  • I didn’t realise how much it was stressing me out having to constantly think of what to eat
  • A surprising benefit is that I’m more regular, is that the juice focus doing that?

More of what others had to say…

Testimonial 1

“I thought I was eating 1,800 calories before but I mustn’t have been as the weight is just dropping now.” – Rita A.

Testimonial 2

“I have officially lost 8 & 1/2 lbs in 3 weeks. This is not a small amount for me. I have been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight for about 6 years. After getting incredibly sick, my body just did not want to release the weight. Until now… This plan is working so well for me.

I have had two other folks in my health coaching group try it. One girl lost 8 lb in 2 weeks. And another girl lost 5 lb in the 3 days.

If you are considering trying the plan… Do it!!!”

– Maggie M.  (Creator – https://www.facebook.com/groups/beingonpurposetribe )

Testimonial 3

“I have a lot (50-60kg) of weight to lose and feel confident that your books will make the process much easier than in the past. My major downfall has always been planning which you have also made fool proof.

I was done with all the extreme diets like keto and vegan that cut out so much lovely food. Then there was the challenge of trying to get my family to eat the same way…it never lasted very long.

I just wanted to thank you again for putting so much of your time into your books to make this process easy and affordable for people like me.“ – Bunny G.

Testimonial 4

“I’m doing this 3 days of every week just to make life easier for myself. Also while I’m generally sticking to the 1,800 cal ZEN Beach Diet plan, for some reason it doesn’t seem to have the weight loss effect that this 3 day plan does for me. Not sure why but I love it!” Lindsay Z.

Testimonial 5

“Omg WOW!!!! Your books keep getting even more amazing!!! (If that’s even possible!) It’s so beautiful! I opened it while with my friend at work and she was blown away too by the gorgeous design and layout and photos, and we hadn’t even read any words yet…!! “ KD

3 day restart

Testimonial 6

“I’ve enjoyed the Summer RESTART recipes so much that that I’m making them every week! Also the HIIT workouts have been wonderful too.” Courtney G.

Testimonial 7

“Using her books has made it possible for me to lose weight for the first time in years! I’m down 12lbs since I started a few months ago and feel great! I also love eating the foods that are recommended, they are delicious!” Grace O.

Testimonial 8

“I’ve lost 9 lbs in 3 months. Have more energy, lots less pain/inflammation, sleeping better too.” Aleena S.

Zen Beach Diet

Get Started Today!

The 3 Day Summer Diet RESTART is only AU$9.95 (US$7.70 & GBP 6.60) and available for immediate download worldwide.

Buy Now

Note:

Bonus Offer!

Buy any 3 books and receive the FAT Burner HIIT Guide FREE!

Buy any 4 books and receive the HIIT Guide PLUS a 5th book FREE!

Read more about the books HERE.

 

weight loss