Courtesy of CNN February 2006

DR. YAVARI, GUEST WITH CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SATURDAY:

This is CNN LIVE SATURDAY. I'm Carol Lin: You might find yourself saying when you're dieting, "It must be my metabolism." Maybe you have rolled your eyes when you heard that excuse from someone else who is overweight but our next guest says it's true, everything from weight problems to heart disease can be linked to metabolism. Now here's the good news. You can correct metabolism problems. Dr. Reza Yavari is author of "It Must Be My Metabolism" and he joins me from New York. Dr. Yavari, when we talk about a metabolism, exactly what does that mean?

DR. REZA YAVARI, "IT MUST BE MY METABOLISM": First of all, thank you, Carol, for having me. This is an important topic, and I'm delighted to be able to discuss it.

LIN: You're welcome.

YAVARI: Metabolism is the process by which our body decides to either save calories or burn calories. Two people can eat the same food one gains weight, the other one doesn't. Two people can exercise, one loses weight, the other one doesn't and that's because they have different metabolisms. Now we can blame it on our metabolism but it doesn't mean that we cannot change our metabolism.

LIN: How do you change your metabolism if you've been heavy-set all of your life, feel like you have a slow metabolism, exercise doesn't seem to have an effect.

YAVARI: First of all, it is difficult. There are no quick fixes. All the quick fixes we hear about are mostly ineffective and dangerous. It is really through healthy lifestyle changes that we change our metabolism and really the devil is in the details. For example, you have to eat differently, not just different foods, but different times, small portions, but also frequent high protein meals. You have to exercise differently depending on your body shape, and then finally you have to do a lot of stress reduction and learn relaxation techniques, so it is really a three-pronged approach which has to be put together in a personalized way.

LIN: Well, we've heard that before, you know, eat well, exercise and lower stress, but in your theory what does that really mean? How do you change your metabolism? Ideally, how do you eat to change your metabolism, for example?

YAVARI: Well, my program both in Connecticut and the national program called M-diet really focuses on metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome affects 40 million Americans, and it's a connection between diabetes, heart disease, and excess body fat. In this syndrome, the metabolism of the body is skewed towards building body fat. At the same time, people who have metabolic syndrome really have to make changes to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

LIN: So give me a specific. If you could change one thing in someone's day, what would it be?

YAVARI: Well I think number one is for them to have frequent, lean, small high protein meals and exercise preferably after they eat, not before they eat and finally, learn how to do stress reduction, especially not to resort to food, overeating, stress eating when they're under a lot of stress and there's a lot to be done here. You know, these may sound simple but for two people, you really have to design two different programs.

LIN: Perhaps it allows people some hope, people who have tried to better their health or even lose weight.

YAVARI: Absolutely.

LIN: So, good advice.

YAVARI: We have been very successful and my book has a day by day plan for six months, telling people how to change their lifestyles in a healthy way. As I mentioned, I also have a national program which is going to be in 15 different states. And it's called M-Diet.

LIN: All right. Thanks, Dr. Yavari. We'll leave it there.

YAVARI: Thank you very much.