by Mark Hyman
I prefer you avoid protein powders while on this plan—both vegan and animal based—for two reasons. First, most tend to contain sweeteners and flavorings that interfere with normal metabolic function and keep you trapped in the cravings cycle. Even “healthy” sweeteners like stevia are not ideal for weight loss, blood sugar control, or normalizing addictive behavior around food and sweets.
Second, because this program uses food as medicine to reset your metabolism, your goal is to eat only real, whole foods. Protein powders by definition are processed, and so their nutrient content may be compromised. Exposing protein, fats, and phytonutrients to heat of any kind denatures the molecular structures we are depending on to fuel your body.
With that said, if supplementing your smoothies with a little protein powder feels right for you and has a positive effect on your energy and glucose levels, follow these guidelines to make the best selection:
1. Choose plant-based proteins such as hemp or chia, egg proteins, collagen protein, or a combination of these. I also sometimes recommend hydrolyzed beef protein, a low-allergy, good-quality protein. Avoid pea protein; it can be useful long term, but not for the twenty-one days.
2. Look for plain, unflavored, and unsweetened varieties. Nothing with sugar alcohols or “natural” flavors. A little stevia is fine for most people. Even though I recommend getting off sweeteners completely for the first twenty-one days, if you feel you want to use some protein powder (especially for vegans), then you can have a little stevia in the shake—but not in other foods!
3. Avoid consuming protein powder daily. Eating the same protein repeatedly in concentrated forms increases its allergenic potential. Rotate it with other, whole-food protein sources in your shakes and smoothies, like nut butters or seeds, or choose an egg- or meat-based breakfast.
Good Carbs
It’s become pretty standard these days for people to be afraid of carbs. The problem isn’t carbs, per se—it’s the wrong carbs. Refined grains, processed foods, sugary cereals and snacks… absolutely, we should all be wary of those carbs, for all the reasons I’ve already shared. It may sound like I’ve been making carbs into the bad guys, but what I mean are the refined, processed carbs: flour and sugar in all their forms. The reality is that all veggies are carbs. Yes, broccoli is a carb! So the key is to eat the right carbs.
The carbs in the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan are the good ones: vegetables and plant foods. Most of your diet should come from whole plant foods, and all plant foods (vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds) contain carbs. Plants contain powerful antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and phytonutrients that have critical healing properties. For example, broccoli has glucosinolates, which help your body detoxify and prevent cancer. Tomatoes have lycopene, another anticancer compound. To learn more about the amazing compounds in whole plant foods, I encourage you to look up your favorite fruits and vegetables at the World’s Healthiest Foods (www.whfoods.com).
While you won’t be counting carb grams on this program (because by choosing the right foods you won’t have to worry about counting anything), I think it’s helpful to understand why certain carbs (like, say, broccoli or nuts) are better than others (like flour or sugar). Really, it all comes down to the fiber content, which determines what’s called the net carbs of any given food, or the net effect of any given carbohydrate on your metabolism. Net carbs are calculated by subtracting the number of grams of fiber from the total number of carb grams. So, if you have 45 grams of carbs in a serving but 15 grams of fiber, the net carbs are 30 grams.
If you increase the fiber in your diet, you decrease the spike effect of carbohydrates on your blood sugar. And when you eat more fat, you need more fiber to keep the right balance of flora in your gut. This plan is not just about increasing the amount of fat in your diet; it’s about striking the right balance. As I’ve said, resistant starch and PGX help to reduce the effect of carbs on your blood sugar and insulin, and therefore they help you manage your weight, metabolism, and even cholesterol.
Given all that, it’s less important to worry about net carb amounts than it is to focus on the quality of the carbohydrate you are choosing. You don’t need to count grams of food or calories. You just need to choose the right foods, and the rest takes care of itself. When we focus on quality, the quantity takes care of itself because your appetite is naturally regulated (I mean, you can’t eat 750 calories of broccoli, which is 21 cups!). When we have poor-quality, processed, high-sugar, or refined foods, our normal mechanisms that regulate appetite and metabolism get completely derailed. The whole science behind Eat Fat, Get Thin is to reset our biology to its original factory settings so we can easily and naturally live in balance with our bodies and minds without having to struggle or restrict or control how much we eat. If we just focus on eating the right foods, the rest takes care of itself. Your body can shed unnecessary pounds and reach a new healthy equilibrium.
A quality carbohydrate will contain both phytonutrients and fiber. It will be whole and unprocessed and have had a very short distance from field to fork. How many “processing steps” does broccoli need to get to your plate? Hardly any—just cut it off the stalk, wash off the dirt, steam or sauté, and voilà, it’s on your plate. If your food took a pit stop in a factory, you might want to reconsider eating it unless you can still recognize it, like an artichoke in a can or jar, or a nut that has been removed from its shell. A quality carb will not contain refined flours, additives, preservatives, fillers, sweeteners, dyes, or any other ingredient normally found in processed foods. Bottom line: If you can’t pronounce an ingredient or recognize it as originating from nature, don’t eat it!
Here are the best carbohydrates to stick to on the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan:
Nonstarchy Veggies
Unlimited amounts—knock yourself out!
Artichokes
Arugula
Asparagus
Avocados
Bean sprouts (not alfalfa sprouts, which contain natural carcinogens)
Beet greens
Bell peppers
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots (no juicing, because it becomes like sugar)
Cauliflower
Celery
Chives
Collard greens
Dandelion greens
Eggplant
Endive
Fennel
Fresh herbs
Garlic
Ginger
Green beans
Hearts of palm
Jalapeños
Kale
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Mustard greens
Onions
Radicchio
Radishes
Seaweeds (kelp, aramae, wakame, etc.)
Shallots
Snap peas
Snow peas
Spinach
Summer squash
Swiss chard
Tomatoes
Turnip greens
Watercress
Zucchini
Starchy Veggies
Eat only at dinner, ½ to 1 cup maximum, up to four times per week
Beets
Celeriac
Parsnips
Pumpkin
Rutabaga
Sweet potatoes
Turnips
Winter squash (butternut, kabocha, acorn, etc.)
Fruit
Limit to ½ cup to 1 cup per day
Berries (fresh or frozen blackberries, raspberries, wild blueberries, or cranberries; not strawberries, as they are higher in sugar)
Kiwi
Lemon
Lime
Pomegranate seeds
Watermelon
Note: Check out the Environmental Working Group website (www.ewg.org) to learn the list of the Dirty Dozen fruits and veggies (the ones that you should always choose organic) and the Clean Fifteen (which have very low levels of pesticides, even if not organic).
Condiments, Staples, and Sp
ices
Almond flour or almond meal
Apple cider vinegar
Arrowroot (a natural thickener)
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper
Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
Coconut flour
Dijon mustard
Dried or fresh herbs and spices, such as basil, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, ginger, cumin, onion powder, oregano, paprika, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, turmeric
Gluten-free tamari
Sea salt (at least 1 to 2 teaspoons per day, unless you have salt-sensitive hypertension or kidney failure)
Tahini (sesame seed paste)
Vanilla powder (unsweetened) Vegetable or chicken stock (organic, no MSG or gluten)
What to Drink
Each day, be sure to consume a minimum of 8 glasses of filtered water. This is especially important for detoxification and to prevent constipation. Additionally, you can enjoy any of these beverages throughout the day:
Hot lemon water (helps detoxification)
Sparkling water or mineral water
Herbal or green teas
Butter coffee or tea (see Bulletproof Coffee, here)
Bone broth (see Dr. Hyman’s Veggie-Bone Broth, here)
Organic coconut milk (1 can mixed with 3 to 4 cans of water); use mostly for smoothies or cooking
ENERGIZE
Exercise boosts your energy, revs your metabolism, increases mental clarity, and—when done in tandem with an anti-inflammatory, detoxifying, health-boosting program like Eat Fat, Get Thin—facilitates weight loss.
The trick is to find what you enjoy (although if you are not used to exercise, getting going might require a bit of determination). New research on exercise has shown that you don’t have to spend hours on the treadmill to succeed. High-intensity shorter workouts (what is called burst training or high-intensity interval training), combined with muscle building with weights or your own body weight, lead to amazing gains in metabolism and well-being. You will find that fat fuels your workouts much better than gooey sugar-filled packets or “sports” drinks.
I have everyone start with walking, at least thirty minutes a day if they don’t do any other exercise. If you already do exercise, you can continue what you are doing, or boost it up with burst or interval training and some resistance training (either with weights or using your body weight) for strength. Exercise is not a strategy for weight loss alone, but it has a thousand other benefits and will boost your metabolism. To find free workout programs and resources for how to exercise smarter, not harder, go to www.eatfatgetthin.com. To start, though, there is nothing better or simpler than taking a brisk thirty-minute walk every day. Then you can build from there. After the first few weeks you will have the energy to begin a program of movement that works for you.
As I’ve said in the past, you can’t exercise your way out of a bad diet, but exercise combined with a high-quality diet will help build muscle and speed your metabolism, not to mention prevent almost every known disease of aging. And it’s a better treatment for depression than Prozac!
Regular distance walking wasn’t easy at first, but is getting easier now that the inflammation I had in my hips and lower back is simply gone. I am now walking nature trails with my boys, and it is actually how I spent my forty-second birthday on Memorial Day.
—Heather Barnes
REJUVENATE
The two metabolism boosters and appetite quenchers we all need are sleep and relaxation.
Let’s start with sleep. If you want to get healthy and lose weight, sleep needs to be as much of a priority as eating right. Aim for seven to eight hours minimum per night. Here are my favorite tips to ensure you get good, healthy z’s:
Get on a regular schedule. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day instills a familiar rhythm.
Use your bed for sleep and romance only.
Make your bedroom a peaceful, quiet haven.
Get at least twenty minutes of sunshine every day, preferably in the morning. This triggers your brain to release chemicals that help regulate sleep cycles.
Shut off bright screens before bed. Try to avoid screens for at least one to two hours before bed. Download the app f.lux to change the light spectrum coming from your screen so it doesn’t suppress melatonin and inhibit sleep.
Try blue-light nights. Blue-spectrum light helps your brain reset for sleep and increase melatonin. Try to put on only blue lights for three hours before bed. You can buy them at LowBlueLights.com.
Reset your nervous system. Using an acupressure mat helps to increase your parasympathetic nervous system and get you into deep relaxation before sleep. Lie on it for thirty-five minutes before bed. You can find one at the Spoonk website (www.spoonkspace.com).
Get grounded. Sometimes electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) impair sleep. Turn off Wi-Fi. Keep electronic devices (like your phone or radio) away from your bed. Try an “earthing sheet,” which grounds you to the earth and disconnects you from EMFs that can disrupt your sleep. Check out Earthing.com.
Clear your mind. Keep a journal or notebook by your bed and write down all your to-dos or ruminations before you go to sleep so when you close your eyes your mind will be less likely to spin.
Do some light stretching or yoga before bedtime. Relax your body.
Warm your core. This raises your core temperature and triggers the proper chemistry for sleep. Use a hot water bottle or a heating pad.
Use herbal therapies. Try 300 to 600 milligrams of passionflower or 320 to 480 milligrams of valerian root extract before bed.
Try other natural sleep supplements. Try one at a time and see what works. You can start with melatonin and magnesium, which are often enough for most people. Some of these come in combination.
1 to 3 milligrams of melatonin
150 to 300 milligrams of magnesium
200 to 400 milligrams of theanine
500 to 1,000 milligrams of GABA
50 to 200 milligrams of 5 hydroxytryptophan
365 milligrams of magnolia
Use relaxation practices before bedtime to unwind. Examples include guided imagery, meditation, deep breathing, etc.; see the next section for more information). Try the app called Headspace for simple, short, guided meditations.
You’ll find product recommendations for sleep at www.eatfatgetthin.com.
Now let’s talk about relaxation. And by relaxation, I don’t mean sacking out on the couch and binging on Netflix! For relaxation to have the intended effect on your metabolism, it needs to be deep and active. For instance, set aside, ideally, thirty minutes a day (but at least five) for any of the following:
Yoga
Meditation
Chanting
Deep breathing (see box following)
Guided imagery
A steam or sauna
A hot bath (with 2 cups of Epsom salt and 10 drops of lavender oil—what I call my Detox Bath)
The Take-Five Breathing Break
Here’s the breathing exercise I often recommend: Breathe in slowly through your nose to the count of five, then out for five. Doing this five times a day—when you wake up, before each meal, and before bed—has a profound effect.
If you can’t find 5 to 10 minutes a day to stop, reset, and get still, then you should rethink how you spend your time. You can access more resources for sleep and relaxation in the Resources section here and at www.eatfatgetthin.com.
YOUR DAILY SCHEDULE
Here is your daily schedule for the Eat Fat, Get Thin Plan:
Morning
Begin the day with thirty minutes of brisk walking (or any other workout)
Before breakfast, take 2 to 5 grams of PGX fiber: 1 to 2 packets or ½ to 1 scoop of the powder in 10 ounces of water, or in 3 to 6 capsules of Ultra Matrix Softgels by WellBetX
Make your shake or breakfast
Take your supplements with breakfast
Take your MCT oil
Enjoy a midmorning snack
(optional)
Drink water (at least 8 glasses throughout the day); use at least 1 capful of E-lyte in 8 ounces of water twice a day
Afternoon
Before lunch, take 2 to 5 grams of PGX fiber
Eat lunch
Enjoy a midafternoon snack (optional)
Evening
Take 2 to 5 grams of PGX before dinner
Eat dinner
Take your second dose of supplements at dinner
Do one or more of your relaxation practices (alternatively, this can be done at any time of the day that works best for you)
Take 1 tablespoon of potato starch in water before bed (optional)
Get seven to eight hours of sleep
IF YOU GET STUCK: TROUBLESHOOTING
Each of us starts from a different place and has unique needs and biology. Different questions or concerns or problems can arise when changing your lifestyle or diet. But don’t worry. The doctor is in! Here’s how I advise my patients when problems crop up:
PROBLEM: You don’t feel great the first few days on the program.
LIKELY CAUSE: Detox symptoms or not enough salt.
SOLUTIONS: It’s not uncommon for the body to have a strong reaction when you stop feeding it the processed foods and chemicals it is accustomed to, or when you get off inflammatory foods or foods to which you are addicted. We’re cleaning your system of these toxic foods and drinks, and just as with any detox, that can cause some uncomfortable reactions, such as achy, flu-like feelings, irritability, nausea, headaches, and brain fog. The good news is that the discomfort usually passes within forty-eight hours. See the box following for tips on how to help alleviate detox symptoms.
You may also not be getting enough salt. When you cut down on sugar and unhealthy carbs, you dump fluid and water from your kidneys, along with salt. That is because when you cut carbs, you cut insulin, and that causes your kidneys to excrete sodium, or salt. This causes a contraction of your blood volume and a general feeling of dizziness, weakness, and generally feeling crappy. So be sure you are getting at least 1 to 2 teaspoons of sea salt daily in your food. If you have salt-sensitive blood pressure or heart failure, be sure to monitor your blood pressure and symptoms. E-lyte can have profound benefits of rehydration and replenishment, so be sure to use it too.