Do the Time Warp Diet Part 1

Ruth Tierney

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The older you get, the harder it is to shift extra kilos. Trainer Jillian Michaels reveals the secret to turning back your body clock.

You’d think that, being one of Hollywood’s hottest personal trainers, Jillian Michaels would find staying skinny a cinch. Not so. Until recently, Jillian didn’t let anything pass her lips that wasn’t “lite”, diet or fat free. While undoubtedly slim, she had to work hard at it. Then, four years ago, after turning 30, she started noticing that even a small blowout would add kilos. So she saw a specialist who showed her it’s hormones – not just diet or exercise – that are key to staying slim. By boosting or suppressing certain hormones, you could restore your metabolism to teenage levels.

“One of my friends lost weight after seeing an endocrinologist [hormone specialist],” Jillian told Grazia. “So I booked an appointment. He took blood tests and found my fat-storing hormones, such as cortisol, were through the roof, whereas my fat-burning hormones, such as DHEA [dehydroepiandrosterone], were plunging.”

Jillian spent the next four years studying the effects of diet on hormones, and her resulting book Master Your Metabolism (Random House, $37.95; available from www.angusrobertson.com.au) is currently on The New York Times Best Sellers list. She discovered certain foods – trans fats, sweeteners, soy – cause hormones to cling to fat, while others – berries, organic dairy and meat – can enhance your metabolism.

Food isn’t the only culprit. “Too many stressful deadlines meant my body was constantly being flooded with the hormone cortisol, which was causing belly fat,” she says. “Missed nights of sleep were a factor too, as well as skipped lunches which were making the hunger hormone ghrelin jump. My addiction to fizzy diet drinks was also stopping my satiety hormones, like leptin, from working.” Jillian’s plan allows you to eat 8350 kilojoules a day. You’re even allowed a daily glass of wine and cup of coffee. Oh, and seven hours’ sleep is essential.

“I saw results very quickly. Kilos fell off, yet I was scaling back my time in the gym,” says Jillian. “I could eat normally and not be hungry or obsess about food. For someone who practically used a calculator to track her kilojoules for years, you can imagine how good that felt!”