Not all roads begin and end with the Garcinia Cambogia Extract.
If you’re struggling with weight loss, you may have had a hard time getting past your body’s natural proclivity to store fat.
In Crack the Fat Loss Code, Wendy Chant explains why it’s hard to lose fat and how you can outsmart your body and speed up your metabolism.
Author Wendy Chant, MPT, SPN, has the credentials to help people shed pounds and build muscle. She is a certified personal trainer and a specialist in performance nutrition. She holds a bachelor of science in medical sciences and nutrition science. Wendy is a model for her teachings as she is also a champion body builder and runts her own training center, ForeverFit®.
About the book
This book is for anyone who’s struggled with losing weight in the past or is ready to start a new journey toward weight loss. The purpose of the book is to teach you how to use the science of the way your body metabolizes macro-nutrients to lose weight.
As the author explains, the human body has evolved to keep weight on. In nature, there aren’t very many sources for fat, so the body craves those nutrients and has systems in place to hold on to every calorie possible to get through times of food scarcity.
And while that was very effective when food was in short supply, today food is in abundant supply. So it’s time to reset your body’s metabolism so that it will become a fat burner instead of holding on to every calorie.
After reading the first few chapters, you’ll understand more about the science of how your body processes calories and specific nutrients. In addition, the reasons your body holds on to fat will finally make sense to you.
The plan described in Crack the Fat Loss Code is appropriate for men or women and there are actually modifications so that men and women can get the appropriate number of calories – men need more calories than women.
The Five Key Ideas
There are five key ideas that make up the framework for fat loss according to Chant.
First, she says you need to protect and support the muscle in your body in order to speed weight loss.
For the second key, she argues that you also need to keep your blood sugar level. She explains how your diet can do that. The third key is that you need to create a calorie deficit – in other words you need to eat fewer calories than you burn.
The fourth key is revving your metabolism by timing food consumption appropriately. The final key is manipulating your energy stores. This is about burning stored fat and preventing calories you eat from being stored as fat.
After explaining the science behind these principles, Chant lays out an eight week program to take your current body and transform it into a fat burning machine. The idea is that by cycling though different patterns of eating specific nutrients, your body will use energy more efficiently.
First published in 2008, this book takes advantage of Chant’s background in nutrition and as a personal trainer who owns her own fitness studio. The book is full of examples of people who have had success on the program.
She backs up a lot of her scientific claims with peer reviewed scientific studies that support her theory of weight loss. She also uses anecdotal evidence by sharing the stories with whom she has worked.
After you read through the introduction and explanation of each week in the eight week cycle, you’ll find some helpful tools for implementing the plan. The book includes a meal plan and recipes to get you through the program.
What Works
Many people who have followed this program report that they were successful at losing weight – some boasting large weight loss in a short amount of time. The meal plan is designed to have you eat five meals each day – a principle known for improving metabolism.
Unlike many plans, this book suggests a diet program that doesn’t eliminate any food groups – including carbs. While there are some weeks in the cycle when you have fewer carbs, you will add them back later in other cycles.
Those who have followed the plan also report that they don’t feel hungry because they’re eating plenty of protein which keeps them feeling satisfied. They’ve also been happy that the meal plan is laid out very specifically.
If you’re looking for a plan that keeps you from having to think about what you should eat, this book provides you with a plan that allows you to do that. You can simply follow the meal plans included for each cycle.
There are also lists of substitutions in case you want to change up the menu plan a little bit. And the recipes for the specific meals are included in the appropriate section. They’re simple to prepare with smart blends of spices or herbs making them tasty and satisfying.
There are no forbidden foods on this plan. After you’re a few weeks in, you’ll find that there are days when you can have unlimited carbs and even cheat days when you can eat whatever foods you want.
This flexibility makes it easy to follow the plan long-term. And perhaps the best part of the diet plan is you will lose weight which helps you to stay committed as you see your success.
What May Not Work for You
Each week has different “rules” for eating. Chant insists this isn’t a diet, but a lifestyle change. And while there are no foods completely forbidden, the meal plan is quite specific except for the free nights included in the fourth week.
She insists that you refer to this plan as a lifestyle and stop thinking of it as a diet. However, it does seem quite a bit like a diet plan because of the need to follow such specific guidelines.
For consumers, the major complaint is that the meal plans were hard to follow in the beginning. Although those who didn’t give up report that it got easier to follow the longer they were on the program.
There are built in “cheat days” but those don’t start until you’ve been doing the program for a few weeks. For people who have a hard time being restricted from carbs and specific foods, this can be a difficult aspect of the program.
There are also tips included in the book about foods that should be eaten daily, but those foods don’t always appear on the meal plan. Sorting through the meal plan suggestions can be confusing and frustrating.
The other issue that comes up over and over is that this plan isn’t very family friendly. The meal plan doesn’t convert easily to a family kitchen, so participants have struggled to make it work without having to cook separate meals for their family members.
Another thing missing from this plan is the idea of the emotional aspect of eating. It doesn’t focus much on paying attention to hunger cues, although it is mentioned on cheat days that you shouldn’t stuff yourself.
For those who have issues with stress eating and emotional eating, there’s not much here to help you learn to work on those particular issues. This is more of a model of calories: nutrients in and calories out.
Does it Work Long-Term?
A lot of diet programs can help you to lose weight, but the true test of a program is whether or not it can work over a lifetime. And with this plan there is a maintenance program that can help you to stick to it long-term.
Many people have been able to keep weight off and if it begins to sneak back up, they can go back to the eight week cycle to get their metabolism going again. And because there are days when you can eat whatever you want, as long as you don’t overdo, this plan can work long-term.
Tools for Success
This book has several tools to help you to have more success with the program. The back of the book includes blank food logs you can copy and use for your journey. The logs match up with the plan for each week so you can quickly fill it in.
Also, for each week there’s a shopping list of items that should be included. This helps you to get started with having all the supplies you need to handle the new plan you’ll be following.
There’s also a worksheet in the appendix to help you calculate your body fat using measurements plus your weight. This is a helpful tool to help you keep track of the success you’re having on the plan.
What Sets The Crack the Fat Loss Code Plan Apart
In a sea of diet books, there are a few things which set this book apart from its competitors. First, this book is grounded in scientific evidence and really helps you to understand what metabolism is and how it works.
It also works hard to teach you about proper nutrition rather than telling you to eliminate carbohydrates and fat. It also suggests avoiding chemical fat replacements and artificial sweeteners that other diet plans have promoted.
Having the ability to have a plan where no foods are completely off limits is also refreshing in a world where most diet plans ask you to eliminate something – sugar, fat, or carbs.
The nutritional plan suggested in this book is balanced and makes sense once you get the hang of it. And it’s designed to keep you from feeling overly hungry at any point in the day.
Crack the Fat Loss Code is a good overall manual for understanding the science behind weight gain and weight loss. If you’ve always felt that there’s something wrong with you because you can’t lose weight, you’ll finally understand why fat tries so hard to hang on.
The idea of carb cycling is one that’s still very popular and this book lays out a solid plan for participating in this type of plan even if you’ve never tried it before. It will take you some time, however, to understand the ins and outs of the diet plan.
If you’re persistent, this plan can help you lose a substantial amount of weight and do it quickly in a healthy way. If you’ve been looking for a way to speed up your metabolism and finally unlock the keys to successful fat loss, this is a great book to get you started.
