The rotation diet is designed to speed up your metabolism by changing caloric intake week to week, supposedly leading to weight loss. The rotation diet claims to be less demanding and easier to stick with than diets that have a consistent calorie restriction, which may cause you to burn out and give up on a diet altogether. The rotation diet allows all foods but focuses especially on fruits and vegetables.
How the Rotation Diet Claims to Work
As the name suggests, the rotation diet claims to work by rotating the foods and the number of calories that you consume over a three-week period. This rotation between low- and moderate-calorie days is supposed to increase your metabolism, resulting in a claimed average weight loss of 13 pounds (lb).
Martin Katahn, the author of The Rotation Diet, recommends that women eat up to 600 calories the first week, 900 the second week, and 1,200 during the third week, followed by a maintenance phase in which you return to eating the normal recommended daily calories. For men, the principle is the same but the numbers differ: 1,200, 1,500, and 1,800 calories during weeks 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
The premise behind the diet is that it does not lower the dieter’s metabolic rate, which increases the chances of keeping the weight off. In a test group studied, 85% have maintained their desired weights, Katahn said.
The Man Behind the Diet
No one could be more surprised than Katahn, a low-profile personality whose life has been devoted to scientific research as professor of psychology and director of the weight management program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
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Katahn claims that the rotation diet boosts metabolism by changing the number of calories and the specific foods consumed over a three-week period. This claim is based on the premise that a diet that’s too strict can cause you to burn out and your body’s metabolism to adapt to the lower caloric intake if you maintain it for too long.
What You Can Eat on the Rotation Diet
Unlike many fad diets, the rotation diet does not place any restrictions on the foods you’re allowed to consume, provided you stay within the calorie targets and eat different foods during each part of the cycle.
Foods to Include:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Whole-wheat bread
- Cheese
- Skim milk
- Meat
- Healthy fats
Foods to Avoid:
- None, though Katahn recommends avoiding artificial sweeteners during the maintenance phase.
Potential Benefits of the Rotation Diet
Katahn claims that the rotation diet boosts metabolism by changing the number of calories and the specific foods consumed over a three-week period. This claim is based on the premise that a diet that’s too strict can cause you to burn out and your body’s metabolism to adapt to the lower caloric intake if you maintain it for too long.
The rotation diet claims to be less demanding and easier to stick with than diets that have a consistent calorie restriction, which may cause you to burn out and give up on a diet altogether. The other benefit of the rotation diet over different types of diets is the variation in the foods you eat. Another benefit of changing the type of food you eat every day is giving your gut a break.
Disagreements Over Diet
The scientific community, which often denounces quick weight-loss diets as unrealistic, has had mixed feelings on Katahn’s recommended approach. The American Dietetic Assn. says that 600 calories is unbalanced, but most nutritionists say that a brief period of low-calorie intake will not be harmful for normal healthy people. However, Katahn said the diet is not recommended for children, pregnant women, diabetics and people with heart problems or hypertension. “Anyone embarking on a low-calorie diet should see a physician first,” he said.
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How to Succeed with the Rotation Diet
If you want to succeed with a rotation diet, it's all about planning. Plan your week of meals so you know which foods you'll eat on which day. Stock your fridge and freezer with easy-to-use foods that won't take much prep. Monitor how you feel after each meal and see if you can find patterns when eating certain foods. Remember, you don't have to be perfect; there will be days when you slip up but don't focus on them! Keep your meals as simple as possible. Healthy eating doesn't need to be complicated. Oatmeal with apple and cinnamon. Keep snacking simple too. Salmon and grilled veggies.
Once you have tracked your diet for a month, you should know the foods that don't agree with you.
Sample Menu
A sample menu indicates that “free vegetables,” such as asparagus, celery, chicory, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, endive, escarole, lettuce, parsley, radish, spinach, watercress and zucchini can be consumed in unlimited amounts.
Here is a sample of the first day’s diet for women (men may add two more grain servings of bread, cereal or crackers, 50% larger portions of meat, fish or fowl, one tablespoon of butter, oil or salad dressing and three safe fruits (low-sugar type, such as apple, berries, grapefruit, melon, orange, peach, pineapple and tangerine).
- Breakfast: half a grapefruit, a slice of whole-wheat toast and a slice of cheese, plus a no-calorie beverage.
- Lunch: 2 ounces of canned (water-packed) salmon, unlimited vegetables, five whole-wheat crackers and a non-caloric beverage.
- Dinner: 3 ounces of baked chicken, one serving of cauliflower and one cup of beets, one apple and a non-caloric beverage.
Fruit, says Katahn, are an excellent substitute for sweets. “People should think of fruit when they want to have a snack between meals for an energy lift. That’s the best way to control the impulse to eat high-calorie sweets.
Read also: Weight Loss with Low-FODMAP
The recipes are rather basic--lemon-baked chicken, chicken with yogurt, poached fish fillets, broccoli with olives.
About eight glasses of water are recommended to facilitate weight loss and regularity. Behavior-modification techniques are outlined to avoid overconsumption when planning meals, shopping, storing foods and cooking, with emphasis on serving size. “If you don’t have a good idea of serving sizes, it is worth your buying a scale and other measuring implements and measuring for a few days,” Katahn said.
Rotation Diet and GEK Lab methodology
Based on the GEK Lab methodology, the rotation diet alternates different food groups throughout the week according to strictly scientific principles. Its peculiarity, compared to other diets, is that it does not exclude any specific food from meals. From the clinical experience perspective, the rotation diet intervenes not only on weight loss (especially when metabolic alterations depend on inflammation caused by foods), but also on many health issues related to inflammatory states: from recurring migraines to chronic fatigue, from irritable bowel syndrome to recurrent cystitis, covering a long list of autoimmune conditions and diseases, such as certain thyroid dysfunctions. The main goal of the rotation diet is to counteract the inflammatory state caused by the repetition and monotony of the diet. This occurs due to the repeated contact, at the intestinal level, of certain food proteins with the immune system, which ends up producing an excessive amount of specific immunoglobulins. In the case of a meal unbalanced towards carbohydrates, an insulin spike will occur: the carbohydrates will be absorbed by the bloodstream and stored as fat, and the feeling of fullness will soon be followed by the desire to have a snack. If predominantly high-protein meals are consumed (as in the case of the paleo diet), the excess protein that is not immediately useful will be converted into fat through gluconeogenesis: when carbohydrates are reintroduced, a dangerous rebound effect will occur, quickly leading to fat gain. The balanced plate provides everything the body needs: carbohydrates, proteins, fibers, and micronutrients (such as vitamins and minerals).
Wheat and Gluten
This group includes bread, pasta, and all baked goods containing wheat flour. It is important to emphasize that it is not the exact day of the week that matters, but the correct alternation of days of abstinence and reintroduction. This time frame, of at least 36 hours, allows for the so-called immune reset. The reintroduction meals are initially no more than 7 out of 21 total weekly meals. By adopting a rotation diet, it will be possible to support the rebalancing of body weight and regain well-being and energy. One in ten Americans has a food intolerance. The rotation diet is the diet plan created by Martin Katahn, who coined the phrase in his book.
Maintenance
There are guidelines for returning to a full-scale maintenance diet, such as increasing food intake slowly to 1,200 calories for women and 1,800 calories for men for the first week, then increasing calories to 1,500 for women and as much as 2,400 for men to determine where weight will stabilize with a new level of physical activity, which Katahn has introduced in his program. Exercise may include anything from walking briskly, bicycle riding or swimming, racket sports or rowing. There are alternate menus for the Rotating Diet for both maintenance and weight loss should the need arise.