My proposed plan has not significantly changed since the last thread I started. edit/tsearcher -- (Which can be found here). I am going to attempt to eat as much as possible for the next 30 days, hopefully averaging much higher than 4k calories and as much as 6k. I am aiming for greater than 80 percent of the calories I get to come from fat with the remaining to be protein. I will have close to zero carb intake and the only carbs I will be consuming will be from the less than 1 gram that accompanies each egg and the not easily measurable amounts in the glycogen from the meat. No alcohol is allowed either.

About half of these calories will come from cow meat and the rest from eggs, butter, suet and coconut oil, the latter three being 100% fat. In a typical day I will eat 3-4 pounds of meat, 4-6 eggs, 1 stick of butter, ¼-1lb suet, and 2-5 tsp coconut. I might supplement this in the future with heavy cream, which says 0 carbs on the label but in reality might be somewhere <0.5g per serving. Cheeses and other oils might creep in as well, but for now I want to be very strict about any carbs entering my fortress of fat. I will be using the label for the most part to get the nutritional info except for the meat and suet which I will be using the USDA nutrient data laboratory website.

This is an experiment of sorts where I will be testing how the composition of my body changes with respect to this incredibly high calorie and fat diet. Although its far away from hard science, this overdose of nutrition for this time period alone should be enough for some interesting results. Throughout this time period, which may change depending on my results, I will remain mostly sedentary and not do any excessive exercise. I will be lifting heavy weights for 30-45 min every third but will keep strict notes I do happen to do something like play dodge ball for 3 hours.

According to conventional wisdom, the amount of calories I consume must have a direct effect on my weight. My change in body composition should be equal to the calories I consume minus the calories my body burns. Calories consumed is going to be very easy to get an accurate answer but the calories I am burning is going to be fairly subjective. My basal metabolic rate for daily calorie usage found online is around 2000. I’ll look into getting a better number for this later but for now I will settle on something between 2500-3k calories for the calories out part of the equation.

If this simple equation holds true then I must gain some weight. For instance, if I consume an extra 150g of fat each day for 30 days I will theoretically put on 10 pounds. Part of my experiment is to test the “calories in minus calories out” definition for the reason body composition changes. It is of my opinion that with this diet, a shift of the entire metabolic efficiency in the body takes place. It is my understanding that it takes a combination of burning glucose with increased insulin levels for the body to store fat. Without these two, the adipose tissue will continue to absorb and release free fatty acids at will without holding on to them as stored triglycerides and hopefully burning or excreting the excess.

I have mainly come to this conclusion by reading Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes, and then following this up with more research in the science journals. This “metabolic advantage” that diets high in fat have compared to those high in carbohydrates has been hotly debated since the release of Taubes’ book. He makes an extremely good case as to why there is an advantage, when glucose and insulin are low in the diet. I have two separate papers, where each group of researchers clearly state that there definitively is or is not a “metabolic advantage”. I made a post on this subject a few days back that got no love, so check there for my full explanation. From the non-research side there has also been a decent amount of fighting back in forth. Anthony Colpo and Lyle McDonald have come out and called Taubes an idiot on multiple occasions. Neither has given a particularly good reason why he is wrong but both continue to behold the same underlying principle that calories counting is king. Colpo even offered a $20k challenge to Dr. Michael Eades, a firm believer of metabolic advantage, if he could disprove three claims laid out from Colpo that showed why no metabolic advantage. Here is a link to the feud.

There have been tightly controlled studies that have shown where individuals are locked in a metabolic ward for a few months a time with two groups consuming is caloric high carb or high fat diets. There has been no evidence to date that a high fat diet has any sort of advantage. Since the cost of these trials is so high they usually do not last long enough for any advantage to play itself out. It is my personal belief that to expose this advantage in a reasonable time frame, one must over consume a tremendous amount on a very strict diet for it to be seen.

I’ll guess we’ll see if there is any advantage for this diet for me. I am 27 and have been mainly sedentary for the last 5 years or so. I used to be very active in high school and a little with intra-murals in college, but since then have become very lazy, having little energy. Ever since high school I can remember never having the same energy as my friends. This gap seemed to widen when I graduated college. I would always be the first amongst my friends to want to go home when we went out and there were even a couple parties where I would just find a place to go to sleep. I routinely had an energy deficit with nearly everything I did. Perhaps I was depressed, but I just had nothing in me. I remember doing 3 sets of 20 pushups senior year in my room and taking over half an hour to recover. I was never obese, weighing between 180-190 and did go work out my upper body once a week on average, though I never had any energy to do more than a few exercises. I think I nearly died one day I decided to play soccer one morning after not sleeping one night. After pulling myself out of the game 15-20 minutes in, I laid down and suffered through the most excruciating internal chest pain I have ever had. It took me 10 minutes just to be able to stand up and the rest of the half to finally feel normal. I did eventually go back in and play a bit in the second half. My energy level continued to stay low and was very poor when I decided to give grad school a try. Several days I would come home for lunch, eat and then pass out on the floor not being able to sleep, but also having energy to go back to school to work.

I am going through all this because I believe I am extremely effected by carbohydrates. After going through parts of GCBC, I cleaned up my diet and within a week or so I started feeling much better. Out of nowhere my energy levels started rising and I rarely experienced the same kind of symptoms as before. I just felt better. For the first time in my life, I went to the gym consistently. This had never happened though I’d been telling all my friends for years that all I wanted to do was work out. It was finally happening and it hasn’t stopped since. It’s only been three months now but the progress I have made is incredible and I always maintain high energy at the gym. For the first time since I was under 21, I actually could go out at night, not drink, stay up the entire time and still have a good time.

I strongly believe this was not a result of just focusing harder or changing my internal mindset. I had seen therapists before and had not changed a single bit and perhaps was getting worse. I firmly believe that my body and brain were not being fed properly and this was accounting for my energy deficit. I still have symptoms of being lazy, but for the vast majority of the time I feel like I can finally go out and accomplish something without fear of not having energy.

From late September to early November, my diet was very strict and I probably averaged less than 50g per day and lost a few pounsd along the way. I had very impressive results at the gym as well gaining at least 30 pounds (20 more than PR) on my bench.

As I discussed previously the body will adapt to this carb-less environment and run entirely on ketones and free fatty acids. This period of adaptation usually takes 2-3 weeks and can take much longer for the full effects to occur. The body will be inefficient during this time and might waste some muscle along the way. I did go out drinking several times during october so I am not sure how much this effected my adaptation.

I have lots more to write but it’s getting too long.

My weight right now is 182.5

This is on the very low range of what it is has been at the last 6 years. I have not gotten a body-fat measuring but am guessing I am around 13-15%. Calories actually do count if your body fat is low enough. I think I am just above this threshold and so am not expecting to gain that much weight. Perhaps I will in the beginning but it should stabilize, as I think there is a limit of body-fat that the body will naturally adjust to on this diet.

I have also been 0 carb for the past week and should have emptied out any excess water that I would have lost from starting this thing fresh.

I am also going to log my strength training which should be primarily a SS routine with bench, squat, chins, and oly lifts and the occasional plyo thrown in.

Let it begin!

Edit/tsearcher: More discussion on this topic can be found in Greeksquared's preliminary thread: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85...ciated-361553/

My favorite food has always been meat and I never really liked veggies that much. I also have never really drank coke ( I have literally drank an entire can perhaps twice my entire life) and even remember being called out in elementary school for not liking chocolate as much as everyone else.

My first three meals today

5 eggs ------------ 355 cals 60% fat
4 tsp melted butter - 400 cals 100% fat
350g steak --------- 760 cals > 60% fat

My meals are going to be very boring. I am eating my meat mostly raw, just searing the edges for a bit. The rawness with the blood actually makes the meat much tastier and I won't be using anything to season it for now. Also, none of my food contains any salt.

Heres a couple pics so far today.

Look at all that beautiful fat



This is oen tablespoon coconut oil, it tasted horrible and waxy.



I'll post a picture of me if you guys want

GL with this. You're eating a **** ton.

As always, I'm for pictures. A before and after would be the sex.

So what does your girl friend think of this plan?

You literally drank 4 tsp of melted butter for lunch?

wow...

sounds yummy. Too bad you can't eat carbs, put that **** in a tortilla yuuuuuuummmmmmm. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mm carbs

You do know there's 0 blood in the meat you eat right? The red is hemoglobin

Given you've never had a soft drink, if we could work out logistics, I'd take 1k action your body fat % will not go up during this.

I think this is a good idea. Even if you don't post them here, I would take before and after pics for your own reference (videos actually would be better). Especially if you are just estimating your BF%.

Heres the macro breakdown. Overall, it was fairly tough and I had trouble downing the butter and coconut oil. I ate the suet for the first time which was fairly similar in taste to the fat on the rim of the steaks and it was easier to get down so I think I'll probably switch to that for my supplemental fat intake. I actually ate a tiny bit of salad and spinach that I didn't account for but will probably avoid this as much as I can this first week.

I could actually eat again right now but I think I'll hold off for now because I really want to sleep and I didn't get much at all last night. I just lay in bed restless for hours, perhaps with too much energy



For Kirk and Dexy




I forgot to link the metabolic advantage feud but it can be found here.

Heres an excerpt

Here is my take. No one responded but I thought it was somewhat unique and offered a slightly different perspective.

ty for pics, we shall exchange laters.

Day 2:

Today seemed a bit easier because I substituted almost all of the butter, coconut oil and some steak for suet. The suet is substantially worse than the fat on the rim of the meat but its so much better than butter. I feel better too and have had great energy the entire day. Here a pic of the suet.



Macro breakdown before a good chance that I eat again



quick thought - Since fat is 2.25 times more energy productive (9 cal vs 4 cal for 1g of carb), it would make some sense that we should fuel are self with the more energy dense substrate. Taking this analogy to a car, we would never refuel a car with gas that took up more than twice the amount of space to go the same distance. Obviously our bodies are different but it will be seen that fat is the best fuel for us.

I also got the gym today where I had a nice steady stream of energy

Incline db bench
8x55
8x70
6x80 PR
4x80

Squat - I finally got SS and decided to just concentrate on good form since after reading through the 50+ pages I realized how incredibly poor my form and knowledge of the exercise was.

a bunch of bar squats
5x135
These felt so light that I just threw on another plate

5x225
These were tough and my form suffered quite a bit I think. My back popped in all sorts of weird ways when I did pull-ups

pull-ups

11xbw
5xbw

Nair your chest for the after photos.

Day 3



Heres a decent video of Gary Taubes discussing his general philosophy on diet. When he mentions carbohydrates, he is referring to non-vegetable/fruits carbs. He says later in the video that eats a lot of fruits and veggies and some bread.

sugar free jello + whip cream and diet coke helps with the adjustment if you start craving carbs.

I have yet to have any real carb cravings probably because I have already been doing this sort of diet for quite a while. Also, I am eating a ton and nothing really looks particularly appetizing when you are always satiated.

Diet coke is one of the most detestable substances on earth. What I might do is try a very-low carb ice cream or drink that will contain lots of heavy cream, egg yolk and some aspartame to sweeten.

Anything that mimics carbs will elevate insulin

Day 4 - 3913 cals

My weight is up to 187 which 4.5 pounds heavier than where I was 4 days ago, just about the weight I remained at throughout the last two months when I was not overconsuming. I thought there was a good chance I would get to this weight but didn't think it would be this quick. Actually, my weight gain makes no sense, since on average I am consuming around 1.3 pounds a day of non-water weight food (probably 5 pounds total of energy plus water per day). It appears as though my body is running on oxygen and sunlight since I have only used half a pound of energy in 4 days. Though I'm likely to have a huge **** in me somewhere, perhaps in my intestines, its not going to get anywhere near covering this mysterious energy gap I am missing. If it does, I will tell Bono. Theres also a chance I am retaining a good deal of water that might explain things.


Given this weight fluctuation, I will also keep track on how much I gain starting from this date as well.

Creme Brulee IMO. Splenda doesn't crisp nearly as well as sugar though.

Completely agree on diet coke.

You've eaten less every day, 5,000 calorie days please.

wow this is an interesting thread...
be careful with anything substituting carbs. insulin can still spike and i personally do better if I don't even both with sweet stuff when trying to cut carbs. one taste is all it takes to get the cravings back.

btw. i have no idea what suet is... but it looks like something they would make the people on survivor or fear factor eat during the "gross food" challenges.
GL!

I came up with an alternative theory to my weight gain, other than me turning into a plant. I spent 10 days in China a week prior to starting this Challenge and consumed a tremendous amount of carbs. This was just after spending nearly two months consuming anything but carbs. My body was probably well adjusted to a no-carb life and I had stopped using glycogen for energy. Thus, I did not have the same amount of glycogen and its supporting water in my muscle during the previous two months prior to my trip to China. My weight was maintained around 187 give or take a couple pounds during the two month period before my trip.

Now, when I went to China, I consumed lots of carbs and my body reverted back to using and storing more glycogen and water. When I came back I dropped carbs again and started to lose weight very fast. In 5 days I dropped about 7 pounds and was down to my weight of 182.5 when I started this thing. I felt pretty lean, but I remember my workout that day to be particularly difficult. It was just about 5-6 days after my trip and my body was still using glycogen for energy. So, perhaps I depleted my glycogen more than where it is when it stabilizes on a zero carb diet. From what I have read, once your body is adapted to a zero carb environment, glycogen stores remain stable at a lower level than they were previously. It could very easily be that my glycogen levels just stabilized during these last 4 days. Also, glycogen needs some water to be stored, so I definitely stored more water as well.

Again, the very most I could have gained in these 4 days is 2.5 pounds from counting calories, so there must be something else going on.



Yea, I will not have any "dessert" for at least another week or so. It will probably depend on how stable my weight is.

Day 5

I should get around 5k calories once I finish this last new york strip steak. The food is actually starting to taste better as the days go on. I actually somewhat enjoyed the suet, and easily gobbled up all of my steaks. Perhaps, my natural instincts for meat have begun to take over.

Since I did have this unforeseen weight gain most likely from glycogen and water (it was 2 pounds at the very least), I will also check my weight vs calories consumed from where it was yesterday.

I did do some cardio this weekend that I forgot to mention. I got this Santa suit and decided to go running with it around a local high traffic track close by. I would stand on the side of the track, stick my thumb out and then when a chick passed by I would start running about 5 yards behind her pretending she was a reindeer.... so much for my first jackass skit.

I also went to the gym

Bench db press

10x65
8x85
6x100 PR
4x100

Squat - I just concentrated on form here, its still awful

2x5x135

chin pulls
8xbw
4xbw

Press- first real time doing this

6xbar
2x5x95

Umm no? Weight can fluctuate, there doesn't have to be something going on.

Also, do you know any other humans that eat suet? I was under the impression it was bird food.

Did you just not read the first two paragraphs of my explanation? Fluctuations can always be explained by something, they do not just happen randomly. My weight has never fluctuated this much ever to the plus side and especially not in the past couple months outside of my 10 day China carb binge. I think I had gained almost all the weight by the end of the 2nd day.

Suet can be rendered (slowly melted over low heat) to make it into 100% pure fat and mixed with dried fruit and nuts to make a delicious treat that stores for a very long time. I have seen a few other people on other boards talk about eating suet cooked plain like me. You can even use it as a soap.

My standards may be off but you seem surprisingly strong for someone who has been sedentary for 5 years and on top of that is skinny.