Product Description

Permanent weight loss without hunger or hardship is everyone's dream. In this ground-breaking book Leslie Kenton reveals how to achieve your ideal body shape and weight in this way while simultaneously overcoming the health hazards that excess weight brings in its wake. A recently discovered group of metabolic disorders known as Syndrome X has spawned obesity on a scale never seen before. Also known as insulin resistance syndrome, it predisposes us to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and early ageing. Cutting-edge research has recently shown that the major culprit is the high-carb/low-fat diet we have been urged to follow. This regime simply does not suit the way our bodies have evolved. Result: it makes many of us fat. Leslie Kenton's scientifically backed X-Factor Diet provides two fat-loss programmes, together with delicious recipes and easy meal plans to restore normal weight naturally, increase energy levels and make you fitter for life. Join her on a journey towards a leaner, healthier and more beautiful body.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268779 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Leslie Kenton is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and photographer. She is the author of over 30 bestselling books on health, lecturing and teaching workshops throughout the world. Her recent documentary, To Age or Not to Age, made television history when the anti-ageing programme she designed transformed the lives of participants in medically measurable ways in only five weeks.

Excerpted from The X-factor Diet by Leslie Kenton. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WAKE- UP CALL

LEAN FOR LIFE
Perhaps once a century, a scientific discovery is made that has the potential to transform human life fundamentally. Less often a discovery is brought down to earth translated into the kind of information and practices you or I can use to change our lives for the better. This book is about such a discovery.
Pandora's Box
I am fully aware of what a huge statement this is. Yet it is true. The discovery is two-fold. First, there's the growing awareness that one of the most widespread epidemics ever to hit the Western world has moved into full swing, although few as yet even know of its existence. Known as insulin resistance syndrome or Syndrome X, this collection of troubles centres around your body's inability to handle the food you eat. It is almost certainly the reason why you, like literally millions of other people, have trouble losing weight and keeping it off no matter how hard you try. Syndrome X can be responsible for all sorts of other miseries, too - from chronic fatigue and anxiety to irritability, depression and a poor sense of personal worth. The second part of the discovery is that there's a way out. But first, let's take a closer look at Syndrome X.
Syndrome X affects the majority of us to one degree or another, even though we may not know it by name. We just imagine that the symptoms - aches and pains and the sense that something is 'just not right' in our body and life - are caused by something else entirely.
But what is it, precisely? Syndrome X is not one condition but a collection of them, all affecting our metabolism in one way or another. They include, among others, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and blood sugar disorders. Together they can make us vulnerable to overweight and obesity, and put us at increased risk of getting just about every age-related disorder you can name: eye problems, diabetes, heart disease, exhaustion, cancer and Alzheimer's, to mention only a few.
And as I've hinted, it's not caused by a virus or accident of nature. It's the result of the high-carbohydrate/low-fat, inadequate-protein way of eating which we have followed for a very long time, believing - as government directives still tell us we should - that such a diet constitutes nutrition for health.
Impeccable scientific research indicates that these directives are wrong. Eating this way screws up the human metabolism. It is contrary to what the human body, throughout the whole of evolution, has been programmed to thrive on - so contrary that it actually causes degeneration.
It happens like this. The hormone insulin helps the body turn the carbohydrates we eat into energy. But eating high-carbohydrate, low-fat food tends to flood cells with insulin. This leads to a cascade of problems. The cells lose sensitivity to insulin, which means even more of it is produced to redress the balance. Too much insulin causes the body to convert food into fat, yet prevents it from releasing the fat to use as fuel. It's not hard to see that the low-fat/ high-carb diet can lead, directly or indirectly, to overweight, obesity, and the rest of Syndrome X's grim tally. So much for the bad news.
The good news is that all of these miseries can be reversed - not by popping a pill, but by shifting the way you eat and live. In fact, changing your way of eating and living is the only way to do this. Nothing else will work. No matter what your weight or age, or how long you have struggled with fat, you can transform your body into a radiantly healthy, fat-burning organism for life. Slowly and inexorably, the fat will melt away, you'll gain sleek, smooth, beautifully shaped muscles, and you'll reach levels of energy and vitality you may only have dreamed of until now.
The X Factor
How will this transformation happen? I've called it the X Factor Diet, because permanent weight loss doesn't happen until we deal with Syndrome X. Following any other kind of diet will mean the loss of lean body mass and an endless, tedious seesawing between losing weight and gaining it all back, with interest. In fact, making good use of the X Factor Diet puts an end to slimming diets forever - as well as the heartache, fatigue and sub-clinical nutritional deficiencies they cause.
The X Factor Diet redresses the balance by altering both the kind and ratio of the three fundamental nutrients - proteins, carbohydrates and fats. You'll eat only the best: slow-release, low-density carbohydrates, top-quality protein, vital plant nutrients, omega-3 fatty acids. Depending on your needs, you have two programmes to choose from - Ketogenics and Insulin Balance. Both are natural, scientifically validated programmes for a total and permanent physical metamorphosis.
Michelangelo once said that he never sculpted anything. All he did, he insisted, was take his chisel and remove extraneous marble to reveal the perfect form hidden within it. Ketogenics and Insulin Balance are your chisels, and a natural, healthy, lean body the perfect form which they can reveal. Both programmes work their health-giving wonders by altering the way you process food and creating more energy at the core of you - on a cellular level. Both are well supported by research which you'll find in the References section at the back of the book. These references and further reading are for you to study and to take further if you want to learn more, as well as for your doctor, who, with the inevitable busy practice, may as yet know little of these new discoveries.

Customer Reviews

It is working a treat for me!
I am a Kenton fan, my bookshelf proves it. I read the book in one go and hated it. It appeared to contradict everything I thought Leslie Kenton believes in with regards to health and food.
And then I tried it, basically only because of my high regard for the author. The result is outstanding. I sleep 2 hours less than before (honest), I have a huge amount of energy, my skin has cleared up, I started excercising for the first time in 15 years (weightlifting!), I have lost all my cravings for sweets and junk food. My friends admire my willpower but I don't need willpower at all. I just don't want the stuff. I found that I don't spend more money on food either. And yes, I just put my old trouser away. I cannot wear them anymore, they are too big. If you try this diet, please do read through it carefully. The only time I got into trouble was when I thought I know better. For example, I did not use the Ketosticks first of all. Not a good idea as I was burning too much fat and it made me feel ill. And this is not another Atkins diet, I tried that one and failed miserably. This is about regulating your blood sugar level and getting your insulin production back to normal. So, I continue to say bye-bye to my excess pounds and bye-bye to cravings and hunger!

This is the way of eating for me
Having seen a review of this book in a Sunday newspaper and recognising myself in the description of who it was suitable for, I sent off for it immediately. I began Ketogenics just after Christmas and have lost 14lb in seven weeks. But even better than that, I feel full of energy and vitality. I eat good quality organic meat, fish and chicken, organic veg and a small amount of dairy and drink 3l water a day - I only eat when I'm hungry and no longer have cravings for chocolate and biscuits as I used to do. This isn't a diet, it is a way of eating for life. It may not be suitable for everyone but anyone who feels sluggish after eating a meal high in carbohydrates and is constantly craving food should give it a go.

I found this book extremely useful
This diet is working well for me. Leslie Kenton's book takes a lot of reading and it would benefit from an 'idiots' guide' section on exactly what to do, rather than the somewhat unclear section in the middle of the book that is surrounded by all sorts of other things. However, if you are willing to give the book time and thought to absorb it properly it is packed with information that is very enlightening. Following this method is allowing me to shed 3 stone and I feel marvellous on it. It does work. I have more energy, a clear head, a happy spirit and feel 100% better than I did before I was eating this way. I no longer have the dips in energy or the craving for bread, cake, crisps etc that I could get before. It has freed me from those intermittent but ever-recurring enslavements to eating for the sake of eating. It's not hard either. Once I had understood the principles and worked it through it was easy to integrate this way of eating into my life. A little bit of planning the night before for packed lunches is the most it takes really.
I love the fact that I am shedding stones, feeling good, and I don't have to suffer to get these benefits. This way of eating feels right to me.