There’s a new restaurant in our area: MGM Roast Beef on Brentwood Road, across from the Brentwood post office. MGM Roast Beef is a quick-service eat-in or takeout diner with a relaxed attitude where you can get breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared to order.

I’m going to show you how you can eat there while still respecting your body and getting back into your small clothes.

Understanding Body-Fat

It’s important to know a little bit about how body fat works in order to make good choices when eating out.

Conventional “wisdom” would have you believe that your fat cells are garbage cans that simply take in whatever calories happen to swim by. Somehow we have come to believe that human fat cells are the only animal tissue on planet Earth that is not regulated by hormones.

The fact of the matter is that you can look in any endocrinology or biochemistry text book and see that fat cells are fundamentally regulated by the hormone insulin. Your body can become fatter on a low calorie diet that promotes high insulin levels, and leaner on an unlimited calorie diet that promotes low insulin levels. We have decades of research that shows this time and time again.

So, if you’re looking to reduce the amount of fat on your body, the main thing to focus on is getting your insulin levels down through smart eating and smart exercise.

Your insulin levels are regulated by the quantity and quality of carbohydrates in your diet. So, green veggies will only raise insulin levels a smidge, whereas white bread will create an insulin surge. Fat does not raise insulin levels, and protein will raise them only slightly. You can eat as much as you want while losing fat, if you eat the right stuff.

What I Had at MGM Road Beef

Instead of choosing a sandwich on a bun, I ordered a salad with all four kinds of meat on top—the beef, the ham, the dark meat turkey and the light meat turkey—plus the coleslaw, and unsweetened iced tea. Everything was delicious and nutritious.

The meats are all protein and fat, so you can eat away with minimal impact on your insulin levels. The veggies are good carbs – the kind that don’t cause insulin surges. You can walk away full, and with more energy than before the meal.

You know how you normally feel sleepy after a big lunch? Well, that’s actually the insulin surge making your blood sugar crash, which saps you of energy. A low-insulin lunch like this, even though large, will leave you feeling more energetic afterwards. And since your body will be able to access its stored fat for burning calories, you’ll also be losing weight.

For breakfast, MGM also has low-insulin choices: eggs cooked to order, plus turkey sausage, turkey bacon and regular bacon. They’ve got tasty food and are more than willing to modify anything on the menu to make it a low-insulin meal at no extra charge.

Brookland fitness expert and frequent Brookland Heartbeat contributor Josef Brandenburg is releasing his 3rd book: The Body You Want from A to Z in October. It contains 26 strategies for creating the body you want in the time you have. It covers everything from getting the booty you want to how to eat chocolate cake without gaining weight, plus it includes a bonus chapter that lays out how to lose 12lbs in 3 weeks without being hungry. It will be available on amazon.com and Josefbrandenburg.com