Who would have thought we would have an entire website dedicated to showing obesity statistics!?
That’s what stateofobesity.org does.
According to their latest research, they predict that 1 in every 4 Americans will be overweight in the next 10 years.
That’s a shocking figure.
However, this has also meant an explosion in diet programs, meal services, fitness companies and even shady pill companies.
In such a bleak scenario, there is one lifestyle program running for the last 8 years that gives us a hope in this predictable dark future.
Enter Beyond Diet
Basically, you eat like a monster but shed pounds … say what? Yes, you read it right. That’s the basic theory behind the beyond diet program.
Yes! The beyond diet is one of the only online diet programs currently that does not starve you or force you into eating stuff you don’t like. Whew, right?
Now I know you will be conjuring images of brave masculine men savagely hunting wild beasts and gorging themselves on wild game roasted over open flames.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean you chase down your lunch or dinner into the woods. The Beyond diet takes a different approach – enjoying the foods that are right for you and then having a feast.
The diet isn’t so much on calorie counting, but how and when to eat REAL FOODS.
The focus in this diet is on foods that provide nutritional need of your body. Foods human ate prior to domesticated animals, farming or food processing.
So based on this one fact, it might look similar to the insanely popular Paleo Diet (aka The Caveman).
But the beyond diet plan not only focuses on foods that can be found, gathered or hunted; fruits, vegetables, grass-fed meat, seafood, nuts, seeds, eggs and poultry, but suggest eating only those among these that are right for YOU.
So, the Beyond diet is basically a high-protein, high-fiber eating plan that promises you to lose weight without cutting down on the calories. This diet has a proper balance of nutrients to encourage health and reduce the occurrence of chronic diseases.
Moreover, the best part is it is highly customizable. Meaning, they have this method that says we all have a particular type of metabolism, protein, carb or mixed type metabolism. It’s called “metabolic typing”.
So once you sign up, you take a quiz and find out your type and then customize the diet, most of which is based on the paleo diet.
Next, you begin the three phases of the program.
Phase One
This phase lasts for two whole weeks, in which you are not allowed to eat potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, sugar, baked goods, fruits or consume alcohol. In these first two weeks itself, you can except to lose between 8-12 pounds. You have to focus on very small carbohydrate consumption.
You can consume as many eggs you would like. You can even consume most cheese, sugar-free desserts and some types of nuts.
Below is a sample menu for you during your first phase of the beyond diet program:
- Breakfast: For breakfast you might have eggs, make an omelette or bake them. You can have a cup of tea or coffee with it.
- Lunch: You can have a vegetable salad with fish or scallops.
- Dinner: Dinner may consist of a small amount of pork with grilled vegetables or a fish and a salad.
- Dessert: The best thing about this diet is that it encourages you to enjoy a dessert like creamy chocolate mousse, chilled espresso custard or a cheesecake.
- Snacks: Snacks you can munch on during the day, such as roasted or boiled vegetables, fruits etc.
Phase Two
Phase two consists of adding carbohydrates slowly and gradually. But even at this point of time it is still important that the weight loss counties.
You can start eating fruits, some cereals, whole wheat bread, some starch, fiber baked goods and pasta, but in small proportions.
The goal of this phase is that you continue to lose weight but not more that 2-3 pounds per week.
It also emphasizes that you eat healthy desserts and snacks of all kinds (yes even dark chocolate!!). You can move on to the third and the last phase once you have reached you target weight loss goal.
Phase Three
Finally, phase three is when you reach your goal in terms of body weight. Carbohydrates can be added at the individual choice. This phase defines your diet for the longer period, which can also be throughout your life.
In this phase you can eat whatever you want.
There are no restrictions on what types of carbohydrates you what to consume. The only thing you have to keep a look out for is that you will not exceed the amount of carbohydrates limits.
And that your aim is not to start gaining weight again. Here in this phase the beyond diet becomes more of a lifestyle, than a “diet”.
Overall, What Can You Eat On The Program?
- Non-starchy vegetables, such as asparagus, green beans, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower (and root vegetables).
- Lean meat (grass-fed meat), such pork, chicken, turkey, and lean beef.
- Fresh fruits.
- Seeds like sunflower and pumpkin.
- Nuts like walnuts, cashews, almond, brazil-nuts, and pistachios.
- Plant-based, such as olive, walnut and coconut oil.
What Is ‘Taboo’ On The Program?
- All dairy products- no milk, yogurt, cheese, or ice-cream.
- Starchy vegetables, such corn, and potatoes chips, as well potato and corn, tortillas, and popcorn.
- High-fat meats, such as bologna, pepperoni, hot dogs, salami, ribs, and ground meat.
- Grains, such as oats, wheat barley, and rice- which means a no-no to cereal, pasta, bread, crackers and bagels.
- Legumes or beans- so no peanuts or peanut butter, soy foods, such as soy milk, tofu.
- Processed foods such as doughnuts, macaroni and cheese, and French fries.
- Salty foods, such as chips, pretzels, soy sauce, crackers, added salt foods, or sport drinks.
- Sugars, such as in soda, jam or jelly, candy, honey, cookies, cakes.
- Any kind of coatings like breadcrumbs, and batter.
Continuing, the Beyond Diet program combines the knowledge of a cutting edge weight loss research and studies, based on the foundation of ‘metabolic typing’ (introduced in 1989 by William Wollcott).
The diet program is based on the key element of making wise and healthy food choices according to your specific “metabolism type”.
The best part about BD (as beyond diet is called by its members) is that it is designed for regular people who are just looking for simple tools and support to lose the weight and keep it off.
For a one-time fee, the Beyond Diet program provides its customer with the following benefits:
The main Beyond Diet manual teaching you the metabolic type method and the subsequent foods you should eat according to it.
A progress meter to measure your advancement over a span of the time period allotted to you.
A personal menu planner, which will help you create and include the kind of food items suitable especially to your body type.
A nutrition journal, to keep a record of all your procedures.
A menu history, so that you can scroll through your menu to keep switching your meals.
A “feeling lucky” menu for when you’re bored of the same foods.
So basically, the Beyond Diet program provides you with all the tools and knowledge you might need to lose weight naturally, without depending on any external aids or shady products.
Following are some of the extra advantages of this program:
One-time payment
The person is expected to pay only once in his/her lifetime to gain access to the benefits of this website which includes a complete set of dietary and nutritional resources, including online forums and direct access to professional dieticians. Currently the program costs a one-time charge of $47.
Interactive platform and community
People from all walks of life, coming from different parts of the world get the pleasant opportunity to share ideas and discuss diets, general nutrition, and healthy living inside the beyond diet community. This, in turn, creates a positive environment in general, as well as help members solve most of their common weight loss problems.
Refund policy
The payment mode is secure and they offer a 60-day refund policy. Given below are the disadvantages of the beyond diet:
Legibility of the program
The program has mixed reviews. We did find couple of beyond diet reviews mentioning some good, positive aspects of the program like the flexibility (being online), or the benefits of the community (read this, and this).
But there were some reviews which were somewhat negative. On further probing we found that most of these reviewers were expecting a physical copy of the program and were disappointed at the lack of it.
However, after getting these reviews, the team behind beyond diet now offers an optional physical copy shipped right at the user’s doorstep.
Powered by a single person
Beyond Diet is the brainchild of a single person, Isabel De Los Rios, who is, though not a doctor, a certified nutritionist and exercise specialist. However, the basic premise of the program, ‘metabolic typing’ has had a long history of research studies and is proven to be very effective.
The greater part of the web world, specifically the scientific community, involved in this research suggests that metabolic typing actually works in real life.
Hence, we would go one step further and say that although Beyond Diet is built on practical solutions and backed by promising results, this program has its share of both, advantages and disadvantages. Thus, we trust you to make a wise decision accordingly.
From our stand point, it looks like a cross between the paleo diet and the dash diet.
As of August 2017, the website claims to have over 900,000 members, and looking at their active community, this number does not seem far-fetched.
Conclusion
Overall we found the Beyond Diet program to be a fair deal. Given by the popularity and the positive reviews associated with it, we can definitely see this becoming more popular with time.
If you are just entering the “weight loss game”, this is definitely a much better choice than going for fad diets or other restrictive diets. At least, with the beyond diet you don’t have to sacrifice most of your favorite foods, plus you would be getting help and advice from people on similar journeys.
