Alchemy: not science. Which is liberating.
This is how I’m eating BECAUSE IT WORKS, and it works because I am BENDING
REALITY TO MY WILL. And, because of that, things actually make
sense. Go solipsism. I wanted to get this down in one spot, because
it’s been dribs and drabs all over the place, and even then there’s going to be
nuance left behind and things forgotten, but through the chaos I believe I’ve
actually identified some sort of system. For you DnD Nerds, this is
sorcery or warlockery rather than wizardry.
And let me just go on to say: it works. Here's 25lbs down in 3 months, from 2 Mar to 2 Jun, with ZERO intention or effort in losing fat
*BIG PICTURE
STRUCTURE*
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| Its simple really |
* Currently employing a phasic approach to nutrition, stolen
by Jamie Lewis’ “Feast, Famine and Ferocity” diet. There are phases
WITHING phases, which I absolutely love, but for the BIG structure: 2 weeks of
“Famine”, 4 weeks of “Feast”, 6 week block in general, which fits right in with
Dan John’s “everything works for 6 weeks” and Jim Wendler’s 6 week blocks of
5/3/1….and the 6 weeks of Super Squats…and Mass Made Simple. Folks: 6
weeks HAS significance in the world of training. It’s the “40 days” you
see in the Bible. We should be attention to why 6 weeks is important.
* “Famine” is a period of restricted calories and food in
general. In the most IDEAL Famine, it’s PURE protein shakes (Metabolic
Drive shakes with water). Will flesh that out soon. During “Feast”,
it’s more food, which means fewer shakes are NEEDED, but they’re not restricted
for the sake of restriction. If there is a desire or need for shakes,
they can be consumed, but, ideally, more food is eaten instead.
* No transition phases: go straight from the Feast into the
Famine. But I’ve taken to ramping up the Feast as I go, vs feasting to
the maximal extent. Details to follow.
* As for “phases within phases”, stealing from “Apex
Predator”, calories are ideally waved through the week, rather than kept
static, to include a “Rampage Day” once a week, and otherwise adding when and
subtracting based on training demand. Moreso during feast than famine.
*SOME PRINCIPLES*
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| And it's never lupus |
* Protein Leveraging: There’s a LOT of information out there
regarding the magical qualities of protein, and many authors have discussed it,
to include the aforementioned Jamie Lewis, Mark Bell of Slingshot fame, and of
course the good folks at T-Nation/Biotest, with articles like https://forums.t-nation.com/t/the-contrary-diet/282403 with the passage “Turning protein into body fat, however, is an entirely
different type of challenge. It takes several biochemical and hormonal steps,
and it’s monitored closely by the liver, which metes out amino acids according
to the body’s metabolic needs (tissue breakdown, tissue synthesis, catabolism,
anabolism, etc.).” as a prime example. We were off the mark when we said
it took more calories to digest celery than it provided, but when it comes to
protein, we’re a bit closer there: digesting protein is a thermogenic process
in and of itself, which can mean that, though protein might be “4 calories per
gram”, when we consume it, we effectively receive 1.4 calories worth of energy,
having used the rest just to digest it. THEN, when we factor in that
protein has the effect of SPARING muscle in a deficit and growing it in a surplus
AND that protein tends to be a satiating food, I am willing to consider “pure
protein” as a “free food” in my nutrition. Is that scientific? Who
cares: this is alchemy! What this means as an alchemist is that,
irrespective of where I am in a nutrition phase, if I eat pure protein, it’s a
non-entity. This will come into play as I discuss the nutritional
phases. It’s worth appreciating that about the only real “pure protein”
FOOD source out there (for my consideration) is egg whites, so that’s my go to
for protein leveraging, BUT piedmontese grassfed sirloin or some chicken
tenderloins can qualify in a pinch. I’m legit looking for a rating of “0g
fat, 0g carbs, Xg protein” on a nutrition label, fully appreciating that there
WILL be trace amounts of carbs and fats and that it IS, in theory, possible to
consume enough to violate the intended benefit of protein leveraging…but in
practice, SINCE protein is satiating, one tends to reach satiety before
overeating is a concern.
* Carnivore/Animal Based: Tying into the above: any FOOD
(which is to say, non-Metabolic Drive product) that is consumed is
animal. Since “carnivore” is technically flesh eating, I say “animal”
here because I permit myself dairy and eggs, as they are the PRODUCT of
animals. However, I do not permit myself honey, despite the fact it is
produced by animals. Some folks handle it well, but I still need to keep
carbs low. But, if it’s meat, or if it’s dairy or eggs, when I’m eating
food: it’s permitted. It’s worth
discussing that I treat dairy more like a dessert or condiment vs a food. Sour cream and butter are the “sauces” I use
for foods, cheese is a topper onto meat OR a dessert (cottage cheese is f—king
delicious), I’ll add some cream to coffee primarily just to add fats. In general, meat and eggs make up the
primary, and dairy is “in addition”.
* Speaking a bit more to the sauces: I try to avoid
increasing the palatability of food in general.
Limited seasonings, sauces, marinades, etc. I actually take the time to wash these things
off of meat if it comes pre-packaged.
The truth is: food is ALREADY delicious, it doesn’t need dressing up,
and if it DOES: I’m not gonna eat it. My
body knows what it wants, and it’s going to want those things, and I’m going to
eat the things I want. I’m not going to
trick/deceive my body into eating something.
This also prevents overeating.
Considering I’m stupidly lean right now, that doesn’t really seem to be
a big concern, but given that I AM stupidly lean, maybe it’s BECAUSE I’m not
overeating, because I’m not making an effort to increase the palatability of my
food. I will eat as much as I want, I
will no longer limit myself ARTIFICIALLY (walking away from food still hungry)
BUT I’m also not going to eat when I’m not hungry simply because the food is
yummy. When I’m done eating: I’m done
eating. If I’m still hungry, I will eat
REAL food until I am not.
* Ya know what: I’m gonna flesh that out even more (this is
really becoming my opus here). Know what
I’m NOT going to do? Make carnivore pizza,
or carnivore brownies, or bake carnivore bread, or do any of that stuff. I fell for that very trap with keto. This is fake food. There’s no need to eat it. Real food is amazing enough, and there’s
enough joy to be had from it that it doesn’t need transformation. If there is something I’m eating that I’m not
enjoying, I’m going to stop eating it: I’m NOT going to process it into
something it’s not supposed to be. If I
really want pizza: I’ll have pizza. Meat
needs no apology.
* Speaking a bit more to Carnivore: with my work/life
structure, I work weekdays and have weekends with the family. In turn, I tend to have a more shake-based
approach to nutrition during the week and, during the weekend, make an effort
to stay as Carnivore as possible. If given
the choice between a shake or egg whites: I’ll eat the egg whites. I seem to just REALLY thrive when I’m eating
more and more animals, and it’s just socially healing to EAT meals with family
vs drink them. I also just plain
appreciate the challenge of trying to comply to a set of artificial constraints
as hard as I can, and forcing myself to “stay carnivore” fosters
creativity. So looking at my dietary
structure: Carnivore and Rampage Weekends (holy cow, that sounds pretty cool),
Apex Predator/Velocity Diet Weekdays.
* Rampage/Carb-Refeed: Over the years, I have found that I
have zero issues complying 100% with a no-carb diet. I can easily just
cut them out of my life and be fine. I don’t have cravings. BUT,
I’ve also found, time and time again, that WHEN I include regularly scheduled
cheat meals (not PRECISELY scheduled, but as in “one day this week I’ll have a
cheat meal” vs “it’ll happen when it happens”), everything just works “better”
for me. I get leaner, bigger, perform better, etc. I’ve always
gotten my leannest when I included these, and when I EXCLUDED them, I would
always be flat and hold a little extra fluff. To say nothing of the
social benefit of being out with good company enjoying good food and good
times. To say nothing of the ability to maintain “metabolic flexibility”,
wherein my gut-biome gets semi-regular exposure to a variety of foods/stimulus
and doesn’t get too dialed in. And these days I’m in a place where I
DON’T binge eat when given junk food, primarily because my current way of
eating actually allows me to thrive and eat to satiety foods I like in
general. So, with THAT preamble established, we have what Jamie Lewis
dubbed “The Rampage” in his Apex Predator Diet, what others will call cheat
meals, and what some can call refeeding. Skip Hill also had “Skip
Loading”, which he took from “Sh-t loading”, Justin Harris employs carb
cycling, as did Shelby Starnes, but with these schools of thought you’re taking
individuals that are already carb adapted, so a refeed tends to require a full
DAY of high carb meals in order to top off glycogen, as they don’t have near
the sensitivity to carbs that I do. But alongside that, I have to make a
concentrated effort to actually EAT CARBS at these refeeds, because I flat out
love eating animals, and if given the choice, I’ll binge eat fried chicken
before pizza if you give me a “unlimited junk food” option. And because of all these benefits, there is a
Rampage Day irrespective of diet phase: famine or feast.
* Just to give a bit more detail to the Rampage (it honestly
is probably worth its own section), before I have my Rampage meal, I make it a
policy to have a Metabolic Drive shake. This allows me to not worry about
ensuring I’m getting enough protein in the meal, and can really just lean into
the carbs (French fries and pasta are on the menu boys! Don’t need to
chase down the buffalo wings), and will help create a natural governor for the
meal. I’m not terribly concerned about overeating, as it’s somewhat the
point, but as I demonstrated with my taking on of the Stellanator, I DO have a
prodigious appetite and CAN put away a monstrous amount of food if given the
opportunity, and it’s good to have SOME sort of check in place.
Otherwise, I operate off a premise of “am I still INTERESTED in food” when I’m
in the Rampage. Buffets are ideal for Rampages, and after I’ve eaten
quite a bit, I’ll cruise the line again and see if anything actually looks GOOD
to eat. If not: the meal is done. I’m not going to eat just for the
sake of eating, nor am I going to eat just for the sake of feeling
full/stuffed. But if I’m enjoying the food: I’ll eat it. And,
typically, once this meal is done, I’m done eating for the day. This
isn’t out of nutritional martyrdom or a punishment or anything like that: I
legit tend to eat enough at this meal that I don’t have any hunger for the rest
of the day. Which is why this is ideally a midday meal, OR, even better,
a breakfast or brunch, as in the case of the latter I might be able to get in
one more meal at the end of the day. When I ate the Stellanator, it had
to be at night, per the challenge, and it threw me off for a full day.
* Aside from that Rampage, whenever possible, I endeavor to
consume the highest quality foods I can eat.
Grassfed beef, pasture raised eggs/chickens, grassfed dairy, humanely
raised animals or wild game, animals that eat their natural diets, etc
etc. If I’m putting it in my body, it
should be high quality, and these animals gave their lives for me: I’d like
them to have been treated well for that sacrifice. BUT, I’m also not going to be a nutritional
martyr here. If what I’m served is a
grainfed steak, I will be thankful for that food as well. If it’s a McDonalds burger patty, I will eat
it graciously.
*STRUCTURE AND
INTENT OF “FAMINE”*
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| Beyond employment opportunities! |
* The most ideal compliance of Famine would be Velocity Diet
1.0: nothing but Metabolic Drive shakes all day. Jamie prescribes 1g of
protein per pound of bodyweight, split between 4-6 shakes, whereas V diet tends
to be a bit higher in protein/calorie total. Still using Flameout for
healthy fats, Superfood for nutrients, and a variety of other supplements for general
health/performance, but as far as baseline nutrition goes, this is
“Famine”. For me, I try for ONE of these days a week during the 2 days of
Famine, and typically it’ll be the day after the Rampage day, functioning
effectively as a metabolic reset. The body responds best to hard,
dramatic pivots, so a day of large calorie intake followed by a rapid and sharp
drop in food forces it to scramble and come up with a solution. Also, just
based off my weekly schedule, my Rampage day is typically Sunday, and on Mondays
my wife teleworks and I don’t see her for lunch, so that’s one meal I can make
into a shake. If I’m running late for work or she’s traveling, it’s
another shake I can have instead of a meal.
* I’m willing to consider “egg whites mixed with Metabolic
Drive” to functionally be a shake, as far as the above goes, and have used it
as a pivot to meet the Famine structure while still having “meals”. This
is beneficial from the “Family Man” perspective, as I can make egg whites and
protein into a few different permutations of “real food”, like oatmeal, soups,
muffins, etc. Egg whites are essentially pure protein, and play into
protein leveraging just fine. I’ll discuss my use of the a bit more in
depth here.
* Outside of my 1 “high compliance day” per week, in periods
of famine, my protein sources are as lean as possible. I have a freezer
full of piedmontese grassfed steak tips, which boast 1.5g of fat for 26g of
protein in a 4oz serving, which is bonkers, but I can go even leaner if I’m so
inclined by eating their sirloin, which is given a listing of ZERO grams of fat
per 4oz serving. I’ll pair this alongside egg whites, to satisfy my
insatiable desire to always eat “steak and eggs” whenever possible while still
meeting the intent of the famine. Other options would include chicken
tenderloins, all prepared without cooking oils/butter/etc. Certain fish
is fine as well, you get the point: cuts of animal with as little fat as
possible. This is the protocol for lunches, and if I can work it into our
family dinners I’ll do that too, but if I end up eating fattier meats in the
evening, it’s not something I worry about. I make sure not to OVEReat,
and tend to do so by having egg whites as my go to sides for my meals. A
LOT of fluffy egg whites can be quite filling alongside some chicken
thighs.
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| Works for this guy! |
* All training days during Famine are performed fasted. I DO have a shake in the middle of the night,
but no food upon waking.
* As far as intent goes: the Famine is honestly cleansing
and preparatory for me. It’s funny: I
never considering myself as one for “fasting”, but this IS a “protein sparring
modified fast”, and I actually do feel benefits from that. When I made the hard pivot from Super Squats
style of eating to Velocity Diet, it was amazing how GOOD I felt from NOT
eating food and just giving my guts a break, and that’s what tends to happen
during the initial period of Famine.
It’s a good break after heavy eating, and it primes me to be able to
resume that lifestyle when the time comes.
It allows me to maintain a passion for food by providing the necessary
duality/dichotomy of a period of caloric restriction WITH a clear and defined
end state. Knowing that it’s only 2
weeks of Famine makes it so much more sustainable than an indefinite period of
dieting, and coming out of the Famine I am lean but also flat and ready to soak
up nutrients.
*STRUCTURE AND
INTENT OF “FEAST”*
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| Oh come on: you'd at least give it a try right? |
* I still tend to include a “high compliance” Velocity Diet
day during the Feast, and it follows the day after the Rampage Meal, but for
the most part this is more about eating to hunger signals than anything
else. I want to create hunger so I can
eat to satiate it, and I tend to not have much of it after a Rampage. I’m willing to break protocol more though,
with this being feast, so I might have egg whites upon waking so I’m not
training totally fasted, or if there’s a lunch opportunity, I’ll take it.
* Meat is fattier during this time, and ideally off the
bone. Chicken drumsticks/wings, ribs,
bone in chops, etc. I also tend to pack
a snack of 2 whole eggs, that I eat in the afternoon at work.
* I ramp up over these 4 weeks, rather than just shotgun
blast at the start and hold firm.
Similar to what Dan John outlines in “Mass Made Simple” by introducing a
new addition each week. Subtle changes,
like a half scoop more protein in each shake, extra egg white here and there,
more meat at lunch, etc.
* If I’m hungry, I’m going to eat until I’m not. During Famine, I’ll tolerate hunger until
“the next meal”, following a bit more of a structure, but here, if it’s earlier
than “lunch time” and I’m hungry: I’ll have lunch. Often, I find it sorts itself out anyway, and
I end up eating less in the later meals.
* As far as intent: eating to grow, gain, and support hard
heavy training. Simple enough. This also
is a “metabolism builder”. Justin Harris
among other have spoken about how long periods of restricted calories will
establish a low-baseline metabolism, which absolutely sucks, as you’re in a
state where you cannot eat much food without putting on bodyfat, which limits
the ability to take in nutrients. Having
a higher set point allows for greater intake of food, which means more
nutritional opportunities.
---
Man, this grew huge, and I feel like I have even more to say
on the subject, but this is a good enough stopping point for now. I write all
this down because, right now, at this moment in time, I’ve never felt or
performed better, nor have I been in a better headspace. I am the lightest, leanest, and strongest
I’ve ever been, and I am NOT sacrificing to get here. I am eating and living EXACTLY how I want,
and it’s allowing me to BE exactly WHO and WHAT I want to be. I’m hoping that laying it all out there can
help those in need.
