Eat and grow thin: this author argues that eating seven meals a day will help you shed pounds. - review of "Turn Up the Heat: Unlock the Fat-Burning Power of Your Metabolism " - book review

Natural Health, July, 2002 by Karen English

Spotlight

Turn Up the Heat: Unlock the Fat-Burning Power of Your Metabolism BY PHILIP L. GOGLIA; VIKING; $24.95

TO ME, THE PREMISE OF THIS book sounds too good to be true: that you can lose weight by eating more--and more often. But author and nutritionist Philip Goglia would counter that I've been swayed by what he sees as misguided popular notions of weight loss--namely, that slimming down inevitably means eating less and exercising more.

On the contrary, he says, most dieters fail because they don't eat enough. To compensate for being nutrient deprived, their bodies store fat and therefore they don't lose weight. Worse, they compromise their health by choosing foods that don't suit their so-called metabolic type. "The key to losing inches and improving body composition," he writes, "is to eat enough of the right kinds of foods for your metabolic type, and to eat enough so that your metabolism is at peak efficiency, burning red hot."

He criticizes one-size-fits-all diets, but his own approach divides the human race into only three metabolic types the fat-and-protein-efficient, the carbohydrate-efficient, and the dual metabolism. He suggests you fill out one of his questionnaires to determine your metabolic type, and then use your type to choose an exercise regimen and several weeks of meal plans. Exercise can help you uncover the body you were born with--but only after you've tuned up your metabolism.

All the plans include six or seven meals daily, and each meal must be scrupulously weighed and measured. Goglia's advice on hydration seems equally extreme: He advocates drinking an ounce of water for each pound of body weight: If you weigh 160 pounds, that's 20 8-ounce glasses.

Included are success stories of clients who've become leaner and more energetic. They would need that energy for assembling, preparing, and weighing all those meals--not to mention keeping pace with the consequences of drinking all that water. Still, if you've been frustrated by other diets, you might want to check out this book--even if its diet advice sounds too good to be true, it just might work for you.