The Petite Advantage Diet (11 page)

Just so we are clear on the issue of carbs, I want you to:

• Avoid simple carbs.

• Cut way back on whole-wheat and whole-grain carbs.

• Push the vegetables and fruit and don’t be afraid of fruit!

Since you now have a better understanding of the role of protein, fat, and carbs, I now want to address the issue of snacking. I’m a big fan of snacking, especially for you. Let’s look at why.

We just talked about blood sugar and energy with regard to the insulin response to certain foods. You don’t want to consume foods like simple carbs that lead to excessive glucose in your bloodstream. That is followed by a big insulin surge, which causes your blood sugar to plummet, making you totally devoid of energy and ravenously looking for something else to eat. You may feel fatigue, nausea, and dizziness and just want to put your head down and crash. To avoid this, smart snacking comes into play. By snacking and not letting your blood-sugar levels get too low, you enable insulin to do its job most effectively and you keep your energy levels up for making better food choices, and for activity and exercise.

Blood sugar also affects hunger. Energy levels plummet with low blood sugar, and low blood sugar leads to hunger. And you now know that hunger is Public Enemy
^#
1 for Petites. My goal is for you to feel hungry
only
first thing in the morning, after you have been on an eight or more hour fast. That’s the time to feel hungry and why breakfast is so important. But, for the rest of the day, you should never feel hunger, and smart snacking keeps that from happening.

Now, to be clear, there is research that snacking is a major contributor to our obesity epidemic. I can understand this line of reasoning if you are snacking on abundant, “quick empty” processed carbs in the form of cookies, cake, or candy, which I refer to as
sugar crap cubed
. Add to that chips, pretzels, cheese curls, pork rings, fried crap, and salted whatever and you are talking about major calories doing all the wrong things to your caloric intake, energy levels, hunger, and health. That’s not the snacking I’m talking about.

This is where calorie cycling comes in. I have always been deeply committed to research and my own experience, and to my clients’ weight loss. The subject of calorie cycling is almost exclusively based on my experience working directly with clients and, most important, my work with Petites.

I started exploring calorie cycling many years ago when I witnessed both men and women, Petites and Non-Petites, in astonishing shape. I mean, the women in particular looked like the cover of
Sports Illustrated’s
swimsuit edition. For the record, I like the fact that this magazine puts athletic-looking, lean women on the cover and not unattractive, insanely skinny supermodels. I asked these women what their secret was, and time after time I heard about some type of calorie cycling. It was explained by some as “high days” and “low days.” I test everything on myself, so I gave it a try. I found it very effective for me, as a six-foot-tall, 175-pound man. I played with the balance of high and low days and found that one low day, followed by one high, worked best for me.

Then I started bringing the concept to my clients in Chicago and New York. Again, I saw weight
and
fat shedding off my female clients. I remember one Petite who seemed very down during one of our workouts. She said: “Jim, I’ve lost twenty pounds, but you and I agree that I have another twenty to go. I feel as if it’s now coming off very slowly and it’s hard for me to stay motivated and not want to cheat. What can we do?” Immediately I said: “We are going to do a major overhaul of your eating plan and get you to a calorie cycle.” She first looked at me oddly, and then I explained the concept. Just the thought of getting to eat more on certain days was appealing. I decided that, given her smaller size, she should have two low days followed by one high day, because of the math of weight loss. Within the first eight days, she knocked off a solid four pounds. That’s a lot of weight for a Petite in that short amount of time, but she said that her “low days” were now much easier. She said she had no desire to cheat, as she knew the high day was coming up shortly.

She lost all twenty pounds in a little over six weeks. We were both amazed by the ease and the outcome. Since then, I have always put Petite clients on the calorie cycle from the start.

The ratio I want you to follow is the same one I used for this Petite client: two low-calorie days (approximately 1100 calories a day) followed by one high-calorie day (approximately 1600 calories). The approximate ratio of protein (35 percent), carbohydrates (40 percent), and fat (25 percent) will remain the same. It’s the total calories that will go up and down.

Cycling is critically important to you because:

1
. It physically enables you to keep the calories down. You must bring your total calories consumed down lower than larger people. Remember our math. It’s creating a caloric deficit that gets the weight off
and
the fat off. After two days of low-calorie eating, I want to reward you for the great work by giving you 500 more calories. Five hundred more calories is a lot of additional food.

2
. It enables you to trick your metabolism. I established how important metabolism is to your weight-loss success. By cycling in a higher-calorie day every third day, you trick your metabolism into staying elevated. I have never had a problem with a Petite’s metabolism slowing on this plan. And, I build in an advantage by coupling the right exercise program with this calorie cycling.

3
. It mentally rewards you for keeping the calories down. While this may sound like a repeat of point 1, it’s not. That dealt with the physical feeling. This deals with the psychological feeling. If you know that you are going to get a higher-calorie day, you say to yourself: “I can do this because I get a reward in a day or two.” That fact, plus the fact that the scale is going down, will keep you right on this plan.

4.
It makes eating out easier. While I will give you very specific details on eating out, clearly you will get more calories on your high-calorie day. Therefore, you can plan in your schedule when you are going to eat out according to what day you are on in this cycle. It’s a great way to eliminate the deprived feeling that most people experience when on a weight-loss plan. And, it is a plan you can easily follow for continued success.

Now, let’s translate this chapter’s information into your actual eating plan for the next twenty-one days.

T
hroughout this chapter, I outline in detail your twenty-one-day eating plan. This specialized plan is formulated for Petites and is very specific. Let’s take a look at some of the components. While following this plan you are going to:

1.
Front-load calories. You are going to eat your biggest meal of the day at breakfast. You will be leaving behind your flawed belief that you have to “save” your calories to use throughout the day. Eating your biggest meal at the beginning of your day is crucial for Petites. It just works. By giving it a try, you have nothing to lose–nothing but weight.

2.
Follow a very specific eating “allocation” so that you stay mentally and physically full and ward off all hunger. You will be following a three-day cycle that includes two days of 1100 calories, followed by one day of 1600 calories.

Your 1100-calorie-day meal allocation breaks down to:

• 400 calories for breakfast

• 300 calories for lunch

• 300 calories for dinner

• 100 calories for a snack, which should always be in the mid to late afternoon around 3:00 or 4:00, depending on when you had lunch.

On the third day of each three-day cycle, your 1600-calorie day, I allow you a bigger dinner, since I think of this day as your “carrot” day to keep you on plan for the other two days. But, I also kept your breakfast high so that you continue to tip satiety mechanisms. On this day, you are going to enjoy:

• 500 calories for breakfast

• 400 calories for lunch

• 500 calories for dinner

• Two 100-calorie snacks

You may notice that you are only getting one snack on your 1100-calorie days. I like snacking, but on your 1100-calorie days, I only want you to snack once a day, in the mid to late afternoon. On the days that you receive two snacks, I generally would like to see one in the midafternoon and the second immediately after you exercise. I will even allow you to add one 100-calorie snack to your dinner, if that is something that appeals to you. You can do this twice during the first twenty-one days. There are certain things I feel you need to be rigid about and certain areas where you can relax.

But just to be clear, I don’t want you flipping this eating plan and “back-loading” your calories at night. I feel that the research and my personal experience with “front-loading” are compelling enough to insist that you follow my advice. Plus, I give you a bigger dinner every three days. Isn’t successful weight loss worth it? And you will be amazed, because you won’t be hungry.

On this plan, you will consume more protein. In the past, I have generally recommended:

• 40 percent of your calories from carbohydrates

• 30 percent of your calories from protein

• 30 percent of your calories from fat

But in this plan, you are going to increase protein slightly at the expense of fat and eat approximately:

• 40 percent of your calories from carbohydrates

• 35 percent of your calories from protein

• 25 percent of your calories from fat

I said “approximately,” as it is very difficult to hit these numbers perfectly each day. Just know that I am very close. I am going with these percentages for four reasons:

• The metabolic boost that comes from consuming more protein.

• The thermic effect of the protein, which translates to lower calories available for your body to use.

• The feeling of fullness that comes from consuming more protein.

• I want to get the fat percentage closer to what I have recommended for my most successful Petites–a level that is also reinforced by the research in the Seven Behaviors of Successful Weight Loss, which was 23 percent. The fat that you will be consuming will generally be in the food you are eating and does not fall into the Addie category, unless it is in very clear portion sizes.

Week 1

1 package Louis Rich Turkey Bacon

2 cups cut pineapple

1 package cheddar or colby cheese slices, low fat

12 eggs

2 sweet potatoes

sour cream, reduced fat

1 can pinto beans

3 heads fresh broccoli

2 sweet onions

1 large bag fresh spinach

low-fat French salad dressing

1 fresh lemon

1 oz feta cheese

1 4-oz filet of halibut

1 Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt, vanilla, 6 oz

1 container 2% cottage cheese

6 tomatoes

1 loaf Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread

2 heads Romaine lettuce

Grey Poupon de Dijon mustard

1 bag brown rice

1 firm tofu, prepared with calcium sulfate and magnesium chloride (nigari)

scallops, raw, 3 units (2 large or 5 small)

2 cucumbers