THE FOOD PILLAR

Red foods are fast-digesting carbohydrates, and they all have a carb:fiber ratio above 10:1. They also spike your blood sugar, triggering your body to store more energy as fat. That’s why tracking red foods is such a powerful window into your metabolic health. You won’t begin tracking them in the app until your first food class, so don’t be worried if you don’t see a prompt for your first few weeks.

Two things to keep in mind:

• Calibrate is about finding balance, and with the exception of the two-week Metabolic Jumpstart, we won’t ever ask you to get your red foods to zero all the time. The lower the better, obviously, but over the course of the program you’ll discover what red food range is most successful and sustainable for you.
• On the Calibrate Food Triangle, we encourage you to start counting some colors as red when you’ve exceeded certain servings. This can accelerate your results by giving you additional awareness and accountability, but it isn’t a necessary step in the program if you find it’s tripping you up.

You’ll spend the first few weeks working on the Intro phase of the Calibrate Food Triangle and tracking red foods. After seven weeks, you’re ready for the Metabolic Jumpstart phase (which has its own hub here, so all the information you need is at your fingertips). 

The Jumpstart will kick off the process of retraining your cells to rely on stored energy for fuel, rather than quick hits from carbs. It’s a crucial step in resetting your metabolism—and from reduced cravings to sustained energy, the benefits are huge.

For two weeks only, you’ll work to remove all (or as many as possible) fast-digesting carbs and added sugars or sweeteners from your diet (natural sugars, like the ones you’d find in fruit or milk are fine; those will appear separately from added sugars on a nutrition label). Don’t worry–we’ve done a lot of backend work to give you tools to keep this simple (you can also see what changes for the Metabolic Jumpstart phase here).

We’ll only ask you to do the Jumpstart once during your first year, but many members like to revisit it for an occasional tune-up to help with cravings and overcoming plateaus.

Metabolic health isn’t just what you’re taking away; it’s also what you’re including, and protein and fiber are essential to a healthy insulin response, with protein also being important for muscle maintenance during weight loss. 

Protein is a powerful macronutrient that helps regulate cravings, keep you feeling satisfying, and preserve lean muscle mass. Understanding how much protein to consume each day can be a daunting task, and Calibrate is here to help.  

In Level 2, we give you protein intake guidelines as well as a simple formula to help calculate your daily needs. We also provide some additional strategies and tactics to help you bump up your protein intake each day, including protein-rich meal and snack ideas, and guidance for those seeking to focus on plant-based proteins. 

You’ll also build on the foundation you created in Level 1 by going beyond red food tracking to think about which specific carb:fiber ratios can mitigate cravings and reduce blood sugar spikes, with the aim to reduce these ratios wherever possible.

So far in your Calibrate journey, you’ve learned a lot about what and how much to eat. Now it’s time to focus on when. 

Every time you eat, your blood sugar goes up—this is normal and expected. But research shows that giving your body longer stretches of time without snacking (particularly at night) can have big benefits, from improving your glucose tolerance and metabolic flexibility, to helping with weight loss, and more.

In Level 3, you’ll help your body shift into fat-burning mode by paying attention to your daily grazing habits and tuning into your hunger cues. You’ll also strategically work on closing the kitchen at night to give your bodies longer stretches of time without insulin spikes.

All of the food and nutrition education we provide through Calibrate is backed by strong research. But every person is unique, and part of your Calibrate journey is to use our guidelines to build what works for you. For example, are there some green foods that make you feel better than others? Some red foods that have greater negative effects? A specific number of red foods per day that keeps things steady? Or, perhaps it’s experimenting with eating at different times of the day. Applying what you learn day-to-day is how we’ll get to the big wins, together.