Before I begin, an acknowledgement should be given to Dr. Eric Berg, author of “The 7 Principles Of Fat-Burning” (for more information, go to www.bergdiets.com), and Dr. Guy Schenker, developer of the Nutri-Spec nutritional analysis system, as the diet and exercise programs described in this book are derived from their work.  Both of these doctors have made a huge contribution to the understanding of diet and exercise for health and weight loss.  I have studied their work extensively, and have attempted to simplify their programs to make the principles of effective diet and exercise easier to understand and implement for the average person.  For those wanting more detail on diet for specific body types, I highly recommend Dr. Berg’s book, “The 7 Principles Of Fat Burning”. 

My simplified dietary recommendations are as follows:


1.Eliminate or greatly reduce refined carbohydrates such as bread, cereal, baked goods, pancakes, pizza, pasta, and anything else made with wheat, oats, or other grains – even whole grains.  Bran crackers (preferably with no added sugar or salt) are alright because they are mostly fiber.  In addition, eliminate or greatly reduce all sugar and other sweeteners.  The main reason that refined carbohydrates MUST be kept low is because they trigger the release of the hormone insulin from the pancreas.  ANY significant insulin release will shut down your body’s ability to burn fat for one to two days.  To put it in eating terms, if you eat more than about 20 to 25 grams of refined carbohydrate (about the amount found in one slice of white bread) in a day (that’s in a DAY, not per MEAL), you CANNOT burn fat effectively for the next one to two days, no matter how well you eat and how much you exercise those days (you will burn calories, but not from fat – you will burn up whatever sugar is in your body and then your body will start “eating” your muscle tissue to convert it to sugar.).  Now, there might be special occasions or some other reason why you want or need to eat refined carbohydrates for social reasons.  If that comes up, it is not the end of the world, but try to minimize the carbohydrates you do eat.  Just be aware that every time you “cheat” on the carbohydrate recommendation, you set yourself back one to two days on your weight loss.

2.One thing that I think needs special mention separate from the carbohydrate issue is that it is strongly recommended that you stop drinking sodas of all kinds (those with sugar and artificial sweeteners alike).  This is for a couple reasons.  Sodas containing sugar obviously create the problems of any refined carbohydrates, and your average 12 ounce soda has around 35 grams of sugar – more than enough to sufficiently activate insulin release that would stop fat-burning completely for 24 to 48 hours!  Artificial sweeteners create their own problems, most notably that they tend to cause water retention.  But sodas may cause yet another even bigger problem when it comes to weight loss.  Preliminary studies indicate that sodium benzoate, an ingredient found in many sodas (as well as in other highly-processed foods), inhibits something called mitochondrial DNA.  We talked about the mitochondria in relation to the effects of thyroid hormone.  Well, when you inhibit mitochondrial DNA, the cells of the body don’t make as many mitochondria, and just like in cases where there are problems with thyroid hormone function, when there aren’t as many mitochondria, you can’t burn as much fat, and you tend to get fatigued.  Over the years, several people have told me that they lost weight after the only change they made was that they stopped drinking sodas.  Because of the combination of problems with soda, for some people simply eliminating their soda consumption can be the solution for their weight loss impairment. 

3.Be careful not to eat excessive quantities of animal proteins (meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, etc.).  The liver has to process the proteins you take in, and animal proteins (and the animal fats that accompany them) are hardest for it to process.  So, the relatively low protein intake during the early stages of the diet is intended to give the liver a rest and allow it to recover.  Low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese (provided you don’t suffer from lactose intolerance or dairy allergies), organic eggs, and fish (especially eaten raw as sashimi – without rice!) are the easiest animal proteins for your liver to handle, so I recommend eating these more frequently than beef, pork, or chicken.

When possible, it is best to stick to fresh meats and avoid processed meats like ham, salami, bologna, and processed turkey and ham, as processed meats are high in preserving agents and salt which promote water retention.  There are some “natural” processed meats such as ham and turkey that do not contain nitrites or other preservatives that are acceptable, but fresh, unprocessed meats are preferable. 

I recommend starting with about 30 to 50 grams of animal protein per day – preferably in the morning and early afternoon (avoid eating lots of animal protein late at night).  If you feel fatigued or sensitive to cold after a day or so on this amount, continue to add an additional 10 grams of protein per day until you are feeling good, or until you reach a maximum of about 80 grams per day – remember, this is strictly for animal proteins.  Proteins from nuts, seeds, and nut and seed butters can be eaten in unlimited quantities.  On the following page are guidelines for the grams of proteins in certain foods. 

1 egg = 7 grams
1 chicken leg = 10 grams
3 ounces of canned tuna (1/2 of a regular can)  = 20 grams
4 ounces of hamburger (a quarter-pound patty) = 40 grams
½ cup of plain yogurt = 11 grams
½ cup cottage cheese = 15 grams
1 cup of milk = 9 grams of protein
1 ounce of cheese = 7 grams of protein

Before moving on, I wanted to take a moment and address a common concern regarding eggs:  cholesterol.  Eggs have been unfairly blamed for causing high cholesterol by those (including many doctors) who do not really know that much about diet.  It is true that eggs are relatively high in cholesterol, but eating eggs does not significantly raise blood cholesterol (this has been shown by clinical studies).  How can this be?  Well, first of all, it is a well-documented fact of human physiology that about 70% of the cholesterol in your blood is actually produced by your own liver (for the purpose of hormone production), and only 30% is from cholesterol you eat.  Secondly, even though eggs are high in cholesterol, they are also high in a chemical called lecithin.  Lecithin has been shown to quite effectively lower blood cholesterol.  So, at worst, eggs are pretty much neutral when it comes to blood cholesterol, and they are an excellent source of several nutrients.  So, about now you may be wondering if the liver makes 70% of the cholesterol in your blood, what makes the liver over-produce cholesterol and give you high blood cholesterol?  To a large degree, it’s refined carbohydrates!  Did you ever wonder why diabetics typically have high cholesterol and triglycerides?  It’s because diabetes (Type II, anyway) and high cholesterol/high triglycerides are caused by the same thing:  eating too many refined carbohydrates!  Now, getting back to the diet recommendations…

4.Most fats should be kept relatively low.  This means eliminating or greatly reducing fried food, butter, margarine, shortening, lard, bacon grease, and cooking oil.  If you want to use some type of fat/oil for cooking, organic coconut oil is the best choice.  Olive oil is a good second choice for cooking, or it can be used in salad dressings.  Small amounts of real butter are also acceptable for cooking or for use as flavoring for cooked vegetables.  Flax oil and fish oil supplements are fine and are actually beneficial, and flax oil can also be used as a salad dressing oil, provided you mix your own dressing and use it immediately (flax oil degrades quickly when exposed to air).  Flax oil should not be used for cooking because heat breaks it down very rapidly and produces unhealthy changes in the oil.  Any added fats and oils should be limited to just what you need to cook without food sticking to the cookware, and to maybe a tablespoon or so of salad dressing. 

5.So, what should you eat?  The answer is fresh (or frozen) vegetables and fruits, nuts and seeds, and unsweetened/unsalted nut and seed butters (peanut butter, tahini, etc.). 

You can eat unlimited quantities of any kind of vegetables, preferably raw, but lightly steamed is alright.  The best vegetables for helping the liver to recover are the cruciferous type, which includes broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and radishes.  Some people have difficulty digesting raw vegetables, and if this is the case for you, it is alright to steam them lightly (cook them as little as possible so that they will retain their nutrient content).  The sprouts of the cruciferous vegetables are particularly high in nutrients and are usually easier to digest raw than the full-grown vegetables.  Whenever possible it is best to eat organic vegetables.  Organic vegetables are not as contaminated with pesticides and other chemicals which are damaging to the liver. 

You can eat unlimited quantities of apples.  All other fruits and berries should be consumed in quantities of about 1/3 of the quantity of vegetables consumed.  Again, organic is best. 

Nuts and seeds can be eaten in unlimited quantities as long as they are not salted.  It is preferable to eat them raw (not roasted), and it is best to soak them in spring or filtered water in a glass container overnight before eating them, as this makes them much easier to digest.  After soaking, they can either be spread out to dry before eating, or can be eaten damp.  Nuts and seeds make convenient snacks because they do not take up much space and do not require refrigeration. 

Nut and seed butters can also be eaten in unlimited quantities.  These include peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, and tahini (sesame seed butter).  It is preferable to get nut and seed butters that have no added sugar or salt.  If organic nut and seed butters are available, these are best.  Tahini can be made from either raw or roasted sesame seeds, and the raw type is preferred for the purpose of the liver enhancement. 

6.Snacks are important to make sure your blood sugar stays stable.  You can snack as often as you like and can eat as much as you want as long as you stick to the foods laid out in number 5.  It is not good to let yourself feel hungry for extended periods of time, as this causes the adrenal glands to release cortisol, which will interfere with weight loss. 

7.Caffeine, alcohol, and artificial sweeteners (splenda, equal, saccharine, etc.) should be kept to a minimum.  Caffeine stimulates the release of cortisol from the adrenals, which can interfere with fat burning, and artificial sweeteners tend to make you retain water.  Alcohol is handled like carbohydrates by the body (which means increased insulin and decreased fat-burning), can be damaging to the liver (which reduces the liver’s ability to activate the fat-burning hormones) and also tends to cause water retention.

8.Condiments and seasonings need to be used with care.  Some condiments and seasonings are fine (such as dried or fresh herbs and spices), but it is best to avoid products containing added salt, added sugar, and chemical flavor enhancers and preservatives.  If you need salt on your food, I recommend Morton’s Lite Salt, which is essentially half sodium chloride and half potassium chloride, but it tastes pretty much like regular salt.  For salad dressing, I recommend mixing your own with olive or flax seed oil and balsamic or apple cider vinegar, with dried spices and/or garlic and/or Morton’s Lite Salt to taste.  Another option is to mix low-fat yogurt or sour cream with organic salsa (it’s kind of like a spicy thousand island).  Pre-made salad dressings can be used, but try to use them sparingly. 

Most people will lose weight pretty rapidly in the first few weeks on this plan.  The weight you are losing at this stage is mostly retained water, and you will likely need to use the restroom much more frequently when you begin – people may make fun of you for running to the restroom all the time, but they won’t be laughing when they see the positive changes in you.  Poor liver function causes the body to retain water, and it is possible to have several gallons of water stored in your tissues.  This diet will stimulate the liver and kidneys to release this retained water.  Since water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon, it is possible that you will lose several pounds in just a few days when you first begin this program.  Once you have run out of the retained water, your weight loss will slow down dramatically.  This is the point at which you begin to burn fat.  This is what you want to have happen! Once water weight has been eliminated, optimum fat burning will take place at about 1 to 2 pounds per week for most people.  Some people get discouraged when they start out losing 5 or 10 pounds (or more) per week and then drop down to losing 1 to 2 pounds per week (in some cases maybe only half a pound per week), and they may think that their weight loss program is no longer working.  In fact, this is exactly what should be happening and is simply the difference between eliminating water and actually burning fat.  When you understand what’s happening, you can look at the slowing of your weight loss as a positive sign – you’re finally getting somewhere toward lasting change in your body! 

At this point, you can either keep doing what you’ve been doing, or you can add a little more protein into the diet, particularly if you are following the exercise recommendations (covered later).  You don’t want to go too heavy on protein, because that will start to overload the liver again, but up to about 80 grams of protein per day is usually fine, as long as you don’t have a tendency to get the “beer gut” type of weight deposition.  If you do have a tendency to develop a “beer gut”, I recommend keeping the protein intake down to the 30 to 50 grams per day as a maximum. 

While losing weight is probably your primary motivating factor, there are actually more important signs that you are on the right track in the first few weeks.  Among the things we look for are your clothes fitting more loosely, your energy level is higher and you are sleeping better, your skin looks healthier, and you are in a better mood.  As long as some positive changes are occurring, you are getting healthier, and this is the first step in your body becoming able to lose weight efficiently.  The weight loss will happen, but you may need to be patient to allow your body time to heal and function properly. 

If you are not losing any weight or seeing any of the positive changes just mentioned within the first two weeks on this program, there are a few possible explanations:  First, your liver may simply be in such bad shape that it needs longer to heal up and start working (this could take 4 to 6 weeks in extreme cases).  Another possibility is that you’re doing something wrong.  Take a close look at everything you are eating and drinking.  An online tracking system devised by Dr. Eric Berg, called the Fat Burning Tracker can help pinpoint problem areas.  The Fat Burning Tracker can be accessed at www.fbtcoach.com. Finally, there may be some other problem blocking your body from working properly. This can take the form of an emotional need (you may or may not be consciously aware of) to remain overweight, a physical blockage to normal bowel function (such as from scar tissue related to abdominal surgery), it could be a side-effect of a medication you are taking, you may be having inflammation (and water retention) related to food allergies, or it can be a neurological or energy-flow problem in the body.  We will cover the most common of these barriers to weight loss as we go along. 

It needs to be emphasized that during the first few weeks on this program, weight loss usually proceeds pretty quickly.  The beginning of the weight loss usually begins within a day or two on the program, but for someone with a severely overworked liver, it could take up to a month before any significant weight loss begins.  If you stick to the program and follow the recommendations, the weight loss will come, but you need to be patient and allow the body to get healthy enough for it to happen.  Once the weight loss does begin, you could lose 5, 10, 15 pounds per week and possibly more!  This is the loss of water weight (you’ll need to go to the bathroom frequently during this process).  Depending on how much water weight you are carrying, this rapid weight loss could continue for several weeks.  If you stick to the program, it will continue until you run out of excess water.  From then on, your weight loss will slow down considerably as you begin to burn fat.  Fat burning proceeds at a maximum rate of about 2 pounds per week.  I know we’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating: this changeover from losing water to burning fat can sometimes be discouraging to people if they don’t understand what’s happening.  If you didn’t know better, you might assume that if you were losing 5 pounds per week and then you were only losing 1 pound per week that your program was not working anymore.  Some people mistakenly think they’ve hit a plateau.  Losing 1 pound per week, or even a ½ pound per week is NOT a plateau!  A plateau is when you stop losing weight altogether for a few weeks, or cycle through gaining and losing a similar amount of weight repeatedly.  When you shift from losing weight rapidly (losing water weight) to losing 1 or 2 pounds per week (most likely burning fat), it is exactly what SHOULD be happening – you are on the right track! 

Now, if you are losing 1 to 2 pounds per week, does that mean you are definitely burning fat?  Not necessarily.  Wait a minute!  Didn’t I just say that when you burn fat, you can only lose 1 or 2 pounds per week?  Yes, but you could be losing water weight at that rate too, even though water loss is usually faster than that.  So, how do you know if you’re actually burning fat?  There is a very simple way to tell.  When you burn fat, ketones are produced.  Ketones are an alternate fuel source for your brain when blood sugar is not available.  Anyone who has done the Atkin’s diet is probably familiar with ketones.  To keep it simple, you know you’re buring fat when you produce ketones, and the simplest way to know if you are producing ketones is to test your urine with a chemical test strip.  Ketone test strips are available at most pharmacies, so if you want to be sure your’re burning fat, simply get some ketone test strips and check your urine periodically.  If you have ketones in your urine, you’re burning a significant amount of fat.  If you don’t, you’re not.


Now that we’ve completed the overview of the diet, I’m sure that at least a few people are wondering at what point you start adding the refined carbohydrates back in.  Those people need to go back and read that section about insulin again.  You don’t add carbohydrates back in – EVER!  Eating too many refined carbohydrates is most likely at least a part of what got you into weight trouble (and/or other health problems) to begin with.  So, the only time you would add the carbs back in is if you are trying to get fat again.  Unless you happen to be a movie star needing to fatten up for a role, I don’t think this is going to come up too often.  This being said, there will be times where it may be “necessary” to eat some refined carbohydrates.  This is covered in detail in my E-Book, “Training Your Brain For Weight Loss”, available online at www.trainyourbrain4weightloss.com . 

I’m not saying that you should feel bad about going off the diet once in a while, but if you want to continue to lose weight and keep it off, you need to consider this program as a permanent change in your usual lifestyle.  If there’s a special occasion and you want to eat some bread, pasta, sweets, etc. either for enjoyment or social reasons, by all means do it.  One lapse is not going to be your downfall.  Enjoy the special occasion, accept that it may take a few days for your body to get back to fat burning, and move on.  The important thing is to not let that lapse become a recurring thing.  If you eat refined carbohydrates a few times per month, that’s not a big deal.  If you eat them a few times per week, the repeated high insulin release will block any and all attempts for you to lose weight. 

As mentioned earlier, alcohol intake should be kept to a minimum, but a small amount of alcohol is OK, if you feel you simply must have it.  By small amount, I mean one 6 ounce glass of wine or of a mixed drink, or (not and) a 12 ounce serving of beer per day.  You really need to keep it to ONE and ONLY ONE serving – and the serving should be a normal sized glass – not a pitcher!  As with the refined carbohydrates, it is recognized that special occasions do come up, and the periodic bending of the rules is fine.  But if you bend the rules every other day, the weight you worked so hard to lose is likely to come back – and fast.

You can usually get away with coffee, tea and other caffeinated beverages in moderation unless you have the adrenal-type weight pattern of the pendulous abdomen with the weight being below the waist – the “stomach pooch” – in which case caffeine and other stimulants should be avoided.  Sodas really should be avoided if at all possible for the reasons previously discussed, but one once in a while is not a disaster.  For coffee and tea, 2 to 4 servings per day is fine, as long as you keep the use of sweeteners to a minimum.  Even non-caloric sweeteners are problematic because of their effects on the liver, so the use of any sweeteners should be kept to a minimum. 

So, let’s summarize the basic approach of the diet portion of the program once more:

1)Eliminate sweets, grain-based foods (bread, pasta, cereal, etc.), potatoes, and corn from the diet.
2)Eliminate the consumption of all sodas (regular or diet).
3)Be careful not to eat excessive quantities of animal proteins (meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, etc.).  I recommend starting with about 30 to 50 grams per day – preferably in the morning and early afternoon (avoid eating lots of animal protein late at night).  If you feel fatigued or sensitive to cold after a day or so on this amount, continue to add an additional 10 grams of protein per day until you are feeling good, or until you reach a maximum of about 80 grams per day – remember, this is strictly for animal proteins, proteins from nuts and seeds can be eaten without restriction.  As much as possible, stick to fresh, unprocessed meats. 
4)After the first few weeks, if you started out with rapid water-weight loss and have reached a stable point of losing 1 to 2 pounds per week, AND you do not have the tendency to develop a “beer-gut”, you may wish to increase your animal protein intake slightly, up to a maximum of about 80 grams per day.  If you do have the tendency to develop the “beer-gut”, you are better to stay on the lower protein amount of 30 to 50 grams per day for the long-term.
5)You may eat unlimited amounts of primarily raw fresh or frozen vegetables, preferably organic.
6)You may eat primarily raw fresh or frozen fruits, preferably organic, in quantities of about 1/3 the amount of vegetables, except apples which can be eaten in unlimited quantities. 
7)You may eat unlimited quantities of nuts and seeds, preferably raw and unsalted, but dry roasted is acceptable (soak raw seeds and nuts in water overnight to make them easier to digest).  Peanut butter, tahini, and other nut and seed butters are also acceptable. 
8)Minimize alcohol consumption. It’s best to limit it to no more than one 6 ounce glass of wine or mixed drink or one 12 ounce serving of beer per day.   In other words, only one small to medium alcoholic beverage per day. 
9)Limit caffeine consumption to 2 to 4 servings (6 to 8 ounces) of coffee or tea per day.  If you have the adrenal type of weight deposition (the lower abdomen “pooch”, it is best to avoid caffeine.




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