The Galveston Diet - a review
My social media feeds are filled with posts about perimenopause and menopause. As a woman in her mid 40’s, I”m not surprised. Never before have middle-aged women had so much access to what has historically been a mysterious and hidden chapter of a woman’s lifecycle. Per usual, keeping up with all the influencers can feel like drinking out of a firehouse.
Today I’m sharing my review of the best selling book, The Galveston Diet, by the very popular Dr. Mary Claire Haver. She is a well respected OB/GYN who has pushed to get the spotlight on perimenopause and I LOVE following her on Instagram. I was curious to see if her diet recommendations could enhance the advice we give to the many perimenopausal and postmenopausal clients that come to our practice.
The book begins with excellent coverage about the hormonal changes that occur during this time and the symptoms that come with it. There’s a fair amount of nutrition talk with interesting information on the foods recommended as part of the diet. The majority of the book discusses a two part diet plan that helps you to burn more fat while reducing symptoms. *Side note* - fat tends to redistribute to the midsection and accumulate more around the midsection during perimenopause.
Let’s look closely at the first part of the diet called Fuel Refocus. During Fuel Refocus the diet composition is set up to be 70% healthy fats, 20% lean proteins, and 10% carbohydrates. There is no calorie goal given here but the sample meal plans that are shown likely add up to about 1000-1200 calories per day. In my mind, Fuel Refocus is basically a low calorie keto diet that specifies healthy fats (think avocado and nuts) over all of the fats (bacon, butter, beef, cream, etc.) found in a traditional keto diet.
Fuel Refocus lasts for 4 weeks during which you will be eating in an 8 hour window and fasting for 16 hours. As a 3 meals and 3 snacks kind of girl that exercises throughout the week, this first phase is a huge turnoff! You want me to eat hardly any carbs, half the calories I normally do, and limit food consumption to an 8 hour window? Sounds miserable to me.
Now if YOU have to fortitude to follow something like this, you will lose weight. I see a lot of heads nodding now, thinking you’d do anything to lose some belly fat. I’ve spent a decade working with thousands of clients making dietary changes and I can tell you, very few will succeed with this first part of the plan. And if you are one of the few that make it through…what happens after 4 weeks when the maintenance phase begins? Look for my review of Part 2 of the Galveston Diet later this week!
Resources:
Harvard Health article on belly fat during menopause
The Mayo Clinic talks about the health risks of belly fat