The Inverted Diet: BMI = 29.7

I’ve identified a diet that can radically alter your metabolism, change your life, and drastically alter your energy levels. I call it the ‘Inverted Diet’. If you are excited the hear about it, then it is likely that you are already following it.

The basics are simple. You take a balanced diet, as recommended by your doctor, and then you turn it upside down. They tell you to get most of your calories from whole grains? Well then, seek out most of your calories in low fibre carbs like sugar and Wonder Bread. If the egg-heads tell you to eat a LOT of veggies, well then avoid veggies and eat a lot of processed meat. I should warn you that the results can be rather extreme.

I managed to put on 150 lbs using that diet. It wasn’t easy; it took ten years. It took a long time to get out of the habit of eating fruits and veggies, and it actually took effort to start eating pizza for breakfast and sugary cereal before bed, but I totally inverted my diet. I don’t have any photos of my most extreme results, but the above photo should give you an idea of where it went – a BMI of 43.

At my worst, I compulsively snacked all day, trying to find some energy and hopefully a bit of comfort for my chronic pain. I felt like crap, couldn’t get up on time to cook breakfast, slept on the bus to work, and generally exhibited a bad mood. It didn’t help that I took a big cut in pay for moving to a province where my English was not appreciated yet few people would tell me the local translation of even the most basic kitchen essentials.

I’m not even obese in that photo – I’m just overweight. When they fitted me for that back brace I was 105 lbs heavier. Anyway, I used to skip meals to try to take off a few lbs. I never checked the scale because I knew I wasn’t losing anything in the long run. The Inverted Diet is like that – the more you try to lose weight, the more you gain.

My road to recovery didn’t require ‘balancing my diet’, I had to outright upright the damn capsized catastrophe that I called a diet.

I had to eliminate the added sugars, processed meat, and fried foods (especially deep fried). I didn’t need to eat less – I needed to eat more; vegetables and whole grains. I did need to eat less sugar, fat, fried foods, and meat, but I didn’t need a stunt diet. I needed the Canada Food Guide. I simply needed to get off the Inverted Diet and onto a balanced diet as recommended by Health Canada.