The Insulin-Resistance Diet [Paperback]

This past year another doctor of mine mentioned The Insulin Resistance Diet book. I was skeptical at first since I never had much luck with any type of diet, but I decided to give it a try. If you're interested in nutrition topics, you'll find this book a very easy read. I finished it in a few days. I talked to my endocrinologist about lowering my Metformin dosage at the same time I started the Insulin Resistance Diet. He agreed to lower it to 500 mg, 3x a day. Within about four months of following the Insulin Resistance Diet, I've lost 15 pounds. The concept itself is easy to grasp with a little practice, and carrying it out is easy too because I can still eat anything I want to eat as long as I follow the link-and-balance method described in the book. Diets that tell you to eliminate complete food groups never sounded right to me. You won't have to do that on the Insulin Resistance Diet. I'm actually eating more food and more often than I used to eat, and yet I'm losing weight. A friend of mine who doesn't even have insulin resistance followed this plan and lost 30 pounds. We both kept commenting on how easy it is to follow, and how surprising it is to see the weight come off since it feels so easy.

The only aspects that I personally didn't find very useful were the recipe section, the suggestion to use artificial sweeteners, and the sections dedicated to fast food and frozen prepared meals. Perhaps this is appealing to the majority of readers, but if you like eating all-natural foods, you might not find those sections useful either. You can still get so much out of this book, even if you ignore the recipes and the suggestions to use artificial ingredients. (In fact, sometimes I even cheat a little on her lowfat emphasis and the weight still stays off.) Since I found this plan (I don't even like calling it a "diet") so easy to stick to, I've found that on the rare occasions that I cheat on it, it's very easy to get right back on track. In fact, cheating on the plan helped remind me how well it works-- I recently skipped the balancing and was quickly reminded how spacey and tired I feel when I don't follow it.

At my last follow-up with the endocrinologist, my male hormone levels were still elevated, unfortunately, but he was happy to see that I hadn't gained weight and said I could stay at my new lower dosage for now. So I can't say for sure right now that the Insulin Resistance Diet is curing my PCOS, but I can definitely say that it helped me lose 15 pounds very easily. I really hope this works as well for you as it did for me. Tip: I used a free online food journal that helped me calculate the grams of carbohydrates and protein. Good luck!

In just 2 months on this diet and walking routine these were my results:

- I lost 22 pounds
- Blood pressure went from 130/90 to 130/70 (almost normal)
- Blood sugar dropped from 6.0 to 5.7 (top of normal tange)
- Total cholesterol dropped from 167 to 127 (normal range)
- Cholesterol:HDL ratio went from 5.0 to 3.6 (normal range)
- Tryglycerides dropped from 207 to 120 (normal range)

Now, after one more month I've lost an additional 11 pounds.

A friend of mine also got inspired to follow this diet and in 1 1/2 months she lost 15 pounds and her total cholesterol dropped from over 300 to 150. We were both amazed at how fast this diet works for both weight loss and correcting blood chemistry. Also to our amazement, neither of us experienced feelings of cravings or deprivation - you eat so well on this plan. It's not really a diet but rather an eating strategy that is healthy, flexible and easy to follow. I think the greatest gifts of this book are it's emphasis on how the timing of eating affects weight loss or gain, and the effort by the authors to make the diet as easy and flexible as possible. I can't say for sure if this diet will work for everyone, but IMHO, I think it's likely one of the best and most realistic (in the sense that people can actually DO it) answers to a lot of America's overweight problem. I hope it catches on in a big way. Many thanks and kudos to the authors!