Curves Diet

Curves opened in 1974 as a diet and fitness center for women only. Since that time, well over 100,000 clients have gone through the Curves program, which now includes special plans not only for overweight and obese women but also for those who are pregnant or menopausal, or who suffer from arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, or osteoporosis.

Women can take advantage of the Curves program without going to their facilities by following the diets and exercises outlined in the book by Gary Heavin, founder and owner of Curves International Centers franchise. The exercises include a simple half-hour routine of aerobics, stretching, and resistance work, and do not require much equipment. By filling out a short questionnaire, you discover whether you should use the low-calorie or low-carbohydrate version of the Curves diet. Heavin says most women lose three pounds the first week and two the second week in Phase One. If you are on the low-carbohydrate version and do not lose those five pounds, then you must switch to the low-calorie diet.

Phase One lasts two weeks. Phase Two lasts until you reach your desired weight. Both plans have dieters using Curves protein shakes and eating six small meals per day. Once you reach your desired weight, you no longer have to diet because of Heavin’s unique concept of “Metabolic Miracles.” By this, he means you can accelerate the rate at which your body burns calories and therefore eat a normal diet of about 2,500 calories after you reach your desired weight. According to Heavin, a “diet” is about losing weight. Once you lose it, you don’t have to diet anymore. You achieve the “Metabolic Miracle” by going through “Metabolic Tune-Ups” while you are dieting. A Metabolic Tune-Up is what raises your metabolic rate and produces the Metabolic Miracle. When you reach a plateau in dieting – that is, when you stop losing weight – you should eat more than usual. At this point, you actually stop dieting and increase your calories to as many as 3,000 per day. By doing so, you take your body out of its starvation mode and change your insulin levels. While you are eating normally, you probably will gain between three to five pounds and then stop gaining. The weight you maintain is what Heavin calls “your high weight.”

Once you maintain your high weight for a few weeks, you go back to Phase One for 72 hours. Now you will no longer plateau but rather quickly return to your “low weight,” and then continue losing by following Phase Two.

See: Heavin, Gary and Carol Colman. Curves (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons) 2003.

Created: 1974

Categories: Low Carb, Low Calorie, Activity Emphasis, Six Meals or More

Website: http://www.curvesinformation.com/weight_loss.php

Meetings: Yes

Books: Yes

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