A review of "The metabolic balance nutrition program"

The metabolic balance nutrition program aims at permanently changing the client’s lifestyle. Key elements are individualized nutrition plans, drawn up with laboratory support on the basis of the clients’ relevant blood parameters. Clients do not receive ready-to-serve meals but individually designed food lists and suggestions to plan meals. Dietary supplements or medications to regulate metabolism are not used. Every client is personally supported by a certified advisor, with the option of either individual or less costly group care. The program does not exclusively address overweight and obese people but also those with normal weight who wish to support a healthy metabolism. It can be considered a low-carbohydrate diet.

Objective.Cornelia Meffert1,2 and Nikolaus Gerdes1 undertook this study to assess the efficacy of this diet approach.They-
Assessed the effectiveness of a commercial nutrition program in improving weight, blood lipids, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
Methods. Prospective observational study with follow up after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months with data from questionnaires and blood samples. Subjects. After 12 months, we had data from 524 subjects (= 60.6% of the initial samples). 84.1% of the subjects were women. The average BMI at baseline was 30.3.
Results. After 12 months, the average weight loss was 6.8 kg. Program adherence declined over time but was still high after 12 months. Relevant blood parameters as well as HRQOL improved significantly.
Conclusion. After 12 months, nearly two thirds of the samples had achieved >5% reduction of their initial weights. The high degree of program adherence is probably due to personal counseling and individually designed nutrition plans provided by the program.
This critic shows that "The metabolic balance nutrition program" does help to lose weight. However there is a great deal of supervision and support and if this was provided by other diet plans , I wonder if these results are anything special.




Cornelia Meffert and Nikolaus Gerdes, “Program Adherence and Effectiveness of a Commercial Nutrition Program: The Metabolic Balance Study,” Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, vol. 2010, Article ID 197656, 8 pages, 2010. doi:10.1155/2010/197656