Zana Morris
A revolutionary new diet co-created by a Dundalk woman has been taking the health world by storm this month.
Zana Morris, who now lives in London,has co-written ‘The High Fat Diet: How to Lose 10lb in 14 Days’.
The book only went on sale just over a week ago but has proven a major success with Zana reporting that she has already been flooded with tweets from people who have lost weight on the high-fat, low-protein plan.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Zana told The Irish Independent.
“We’re expecting about a 10lb weight loss if you follow the plan, but actually we’re getting people losing a lot more.
“I’ve been getting tweets constantly for the last few days saying, ‘I lost 11lbs’ or ‘I lost 14lbs’.
“The results have been astonishing, which is testament to people actually doing it properly because that was always my biggest concern.”
Zana, who runs The Library gym in London’s Notting Hill, first stumbled upon the idea of eating fat in a bid to lose weight almost 20 years ago, and has been using it to maintain her figure ever since.
“Initially, I went the vegetarian, low-fat direction in life,” says the personal trainer and nutritionist. “So when I discovered the high fat plan in my early twenties, it stunned me – not just from the fat-loss side of it, but also the way it stopped cravings.
“With every other diet I’d been on, you needed willpower, whereas with this you didn’t have cravings, your energy was really good and you felt full, which is sort of why I fell in love with it.”
Following on from the low-carb Atkins diet, the latest high-fat one depends on carefully calculated portions of fat and protein at each meal to force the body to burn its own blubber.
By sticking to the book’s ‘4-Day Pretox’ and ’10-Day Blitz’, Zana insists the fat should melt off: “Once you’re on the plan properly, quite literally the more fat you eat, the more your metabolism flares up and the more fat you burn – it’s like pouring oil onto a naked flame.
“Basically, it is a high-fat, low-medium protein plan that’s very low in carbohydrates, so red meat, fish, eggs, cheese and butter are all on it”
Zana wrote The High Fat Diet with award-winning British health journalist Helen Foster.
Despite its strictness, Zana is confident her Ireland will embrace the fat-filled diet just as she has done.
“I gave the very first copy of the book to my mother and she loves it,” she laughs. “It’s going to be weird to see it on bookshelves when I visit home next month.
“I do think it will go great in Ireland because the traditional diet is very fish and meat based.
“There’s no point asking anybody to give up something completely,” adds Zana. “Ultimately, it’s about dropping fat levels down and easing out of that carb dependency – and just going back to basics.”
WHAT YOU CAN’T EAT
- Beef burgers (unless 100pc pure beef with no added wheat)
- Processed sandwich-style meats, sausages, tinned meats
- Breaded fish products or canned fish products with any kind of sauce
- Beans and pulses
- Low-fat cream cheese, milk and milk products like ice cream or any non-dairy alternative
- Root vegetables: including celeriac, parsnips and potatoes, and vegetables that can caramelise such as onions or shallots
- All nuts and seeds not mentioned in the other list: Brazil nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, and so on.
- All fruits except avocado
- Drinks: Alcohol, fizzy drinks (including diet versions), fruit or vegetable juices, tea with milk, milky coffees.
- Fresh coconut, margarine, low-fat spreads, vegetable oils, nut butters
WHAT YOU CAN EAT
- Beef: mince (10pc fat or above), ribs (no sauce), steak, particularly rib-eye or sirloin
- Pork: including bacon, particularly streaky bacon (no added sugar and ideally free from nitrates), gammon and pork chops
- Poultry: chicken drumsticks (skin on), chicken thighs, chicken wings, duck
- Oily fish: including fresh salmon, fresh tuna, tuna canned in oil and trout
- Eggs: hen, duck or quail
- Any full-fat cheese such Brie, Camembert and halloumi, or full-fat cream cheese like Philadelphia
- Green leafy vegetables: including green lettuce, broccoli, savoy cabbage and spinach
- Nuts and seeds: macadamia nuts, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and walnuts
- Drinks: black tea/coffee, tea/coffee with double cream, butter or coconut oil, herbal teas, still or sparkling water
- Butter, cream, coconut oil, nut oils, olive oil
The High Fat Diet: How to Lose up to 10lbs in 14 Days by Zana Morris and Helen Foster, is out now
