How do you get that belly off?

1. Stimulate the metabolism

The so-called ‘metabolic method’ that Maaike de Vries has developed is for both menopausal women and men who are getting older. The aging process is accompanied by loss of muscle mass. That’s where fat comes in. De Vries: “You live a healthier life by working your metabolism – the metabolism – in a clever way so that you become fitter and lose weight. Roughly speaking, the method consists of exercise and healthy eating. This means, among other things, that you almost no longer take snacks, that you are frugal with carbohydrates – cookies, chips, bread – and exercise a lot.” If done right, your body can burn both sugars and fats and switch smoothly from one to the other. But because of how we live and what we eat, our body hardly burns fat: we mainly burn sugar and quickly get hungry again. “When you eat carbohydrates, such as sugar, the sugar level in the blood rises. In response to this, the body produces the hormone insulin. This hormone brings energy to the cells and ensures that the blood sugar goes down and normalizes. Without insulin, blood sugar levels would spike and you could have physical problems. But insulin also blocks fat burning. That is actually quite logical: during a sugar peak, the body is not waiting for even more energy to be released from the adipose tissue via a detour. As long as there is enough sugar in the blood, nothing is done with fat burning.”

2. Keep your insulin low

But how do you limit the production of insulin? Firstly, by eating less often, because insulin is released with every meal. “If you take three meals a day and skip snacks – including cappuccinos – the blood sugar level stabilizes and fat burning becomes possible. On the other hand, on those three moments when you eat, you can eat more than you did. Choose unprocessed products, such as vegetables, eggs or fish.” The second way to temper insulin spikes is to choose fewer ‘fast sugars’, such as candy, cookies, jam, white bread, cornflakes, white rice, soda and fruit juice. Instead, choose whole-wheat bread, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, vegetables, fruits, and legumes. You can also really limit the intake of carbohydrates, such as with the keto diet. In addition, you eat a maximum of 30 grams of carbohydrates per day, so that your body will break down more fats. But that is not for everyone, because with one banana you already have this amount of carbohydrates.

3. Get moving

As we age, our basal metabolism slows down. Therefore, older people need less energy than young ones. The fastest and best way to burn more is to build muscle. With a good portion of exercise you burn more energy. This way you maintain your weight and you can eat more. Strict calorie-restricted diets are known to make your body adapt to what it takes in and use the available energy more efficiently. If you start eating as you used to over time, you will gain weight. So move vigorously: throughout the day, in combination with strength training. Exercise also lowers the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

4. Sleep well, less stress

“Good sleep and relaxation is a precondition for successfully getting fitter. If you don’t relax much, sleep badly or are under a lot of stress, you produce cortisol. This makes you more hungry and you start sniffing more. You make more grelin – the hunger hormone – and less leptin, the satiety hormone. So you become hungry and lethargic, which puts you in a negative spiral. Make sure you tame your stress hormones so you can feel fitter.” If you’re not sleeping well, keep a sleep diary so you can see what could be causing it. If you suffer from stress, you can go for a walk, do a course such as mindfulness or meditate, or try to be less annoyed by things.

5. Perseverance is success

The metabolic method can help you get rid of your excess pounds of fat. How can it be sustained without snacks and cookies with tea? “You do that by changing your behaviour. Think about how you are going to approach it and learn to see the usefulness of the method. The first 28 days are the basis for this. The method is not a diet, but a way of life, so it is not a temporary change. The first four weeks are the hardest, as the body has to adapt. It’s transitioning from predominantly sugar burning to more Fat Burning.” The more natural, routine, and automatic new habits are, the better you can stick with them. For new habits, think of exercising for at least an hour every day, relaxing every day, not eating when bored, cooking yourself and no more ‘food from packages’. Once you’ve learned these new habits, you’ll have less and less trouble with them.

This is an article previously published in Plus Magazine September 2022. Want to subscribe to the magazine? You can do that in an instant!