Simplest Change

Each of our clients wants to lose fat, except maybe one.  Most are already working within the paleolithic model of nutrition.  Some are having spectacular results, and that is putting smiles on both of our faces.  Some are stalled out.  Today's post is about the simplest change one can make to reaccelerate fat loss.

That change is to have a breakfast of only protein (some, 15-30 grams) and fat (a lot).  Why will this help?

First, let's get into how you body fuels itself.  The number two metabolic priority (in terms of urgency) is getting sugar to the brain.  The brain needs approximately 600 calories worth of fuel daily.  That's about 25% of the total caloric requirement for most folks.  If the brain does not get the necessary fuel, it will cease to function, you will fall down, and the ghost might leave the machine, depending upon how fuel deprived the brain is.  To keep this from happening, you were engineered with a redundant fuel system, that allows you to make brain food from fat, carbs or protein.

Most of your body runs best on fat as fuel.  The engineer's intent seems to have been that you would not need to eat or store much sugar, and that the sugar (not in large supply until very recently) you ate or stored would be used primarily by the brain.  The first contingency for lack of available carbs/sugar is that your liver will convert fat into ketone bodies, which can be an alternate fuel for the brain (in fact, there's some evidence the brain is most healthy when fueled by both sugar and ketones).  This system is what lets a person survive day after day with no food available (remember those stories of 60+ days in a life raft?).  If you ever face that situation, the body will also catabolize muscle to make protein and sugar for the brain.  So in all you have three ways to store energy - fat is the biggest source and the best fuel.  Sugar is the smallest source and is a preferred fuel for the brain.  Muscle is the desperation fuel, "for emergency use only."

Now let's get back to why keeping carbs out of your breakfast will help you to burn fat.  First, all night long, since you are not eating, your body has to start converting to fat burning (you know people have a serious sugar problem when they cannot sleep through the night without sugar cravings).  When you "break your fast", if you give the body sugar, it will stop running on fat.  If you give your body too much sugar, it will get busy converting that sugar into fat.  If you give yourself a moderate protein, high fat breakfast, this can keep your hunger at bay but let the body keep burning stored fat for brain fuel.

So the easiest, simplest, change to start burning more fat is to have a carb free breakfast.

If you want to take this one step further, stop eating by 7 or 8 PM.  That way, you may go as long as 12 hours from last meal of the day until first.  That also invites your body to get good at burning fat, and if you don't eat carbs until lunch, that's a 14-16 window of no "carbage".  This kind of carb fasting is very useful for those who want to get healthy and lean.  Why does this help with health?  In short, the number one driver of disease in our nation is metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by loss of glycemic control (that is to say cycling high and low blood sugars).  The above described carb fast interrupts the cycle of excess sugar/carbs, and restores normal blood sugar levels for many who are dangerously close to metabolic syndrome.

This is also why exercise alone does not work for fat loss or health - if you continuously over-eat sugar and carbs, you will not get glycemic control and you will not have your best health no matter how intense your daily workouts are.

If you want to take this another step beyond a carb fast, push your breakfast back by one hour each day, until you can go food free for 14-16 hours.  This path can be risky for some, so if you want to do this, come talk to me first.  You can also search this blog to find prior posts about how to start intermittent fasting.

Are you ready to make the simplest change?  If so, get going and let me know what you learn!

The Easiest Change

Starting with my first experience with the Zone Diet in 1996 or so, and my intermittent success from then until 2007, one of the strongest tools for health maintenance is also a simple one. It involves breakfast, carbs, metabolism, and habits.

Most folks think of breakfast as a carb fest - cereal with sugar, bagel, toast, jelly, milk, and banana. Don't forget the plain yogurt with no additional sugar (yeah right! Four people on the planet eat yogurt without sugar added). A few people, but too few, may add a token dose of fat/protein via sausage/bacon/eggs - which is a hangover I presume from the government's recommendations over the last 30-40 years to avoid fat and eat more carbs. After all, carbs have only 4 kcal/gram whereas the evil of all mankind, dietary fat, has more than twice as many! Therefore you can eat more food, feel more full, eat fewer kcal, and not be hungry.   Pretty simple, if dead wrong.

But let us take a look at a few numbers. The government says you need 2000 kcal/day if a female, and 2700 kcal/day if a male (these numbers are estimates and highly variable by individual, so they are just a starting station for this train of thought). The government also says you need low fat, 30% of kcal or less, low protein, 15% or so, and thus you'll get the other 55% as carbs. You carb dose then is 275-370g/day respectively (by gender). If you get 30% of that dose at breakfast, your carb intake will be 82.5g/111g. This my friends is a fairly hefty dose of carbs, all of which will be metabolized to glucose (unless some of your breakfast is fructose, such as table sugar, or an HFCS flavored fake OJ of some kind, and to a lesser degree, OJ too). This dose of sugar, will rocket your blood sugar higher (which you can easily measure for yourself), especially for those of us old or fat enough to care about our diets. Blood sugar is both essential to keeping your brain working, and a neuro-toxin when above a certain concentration in the blood - about 160mg/dl.  Those with out of control blood sugar, aka diabetics, lose their vision and peripheral nerves, if they don't die from cardiovascular disease, kidney disease or cancer first.

The body is not well equipped to dispose of large quantities of blood glucose, but it has an emergency mechanism, insulin secretion from the pancreas, to help the body pack away sugar where it can, and to turn the rest into fat via the work the liver does in the presence of high insulin levels. This emergency mechanism works in many of us like most emergency mechanisms - it does too much too fast and leaves a mess. One consequence is that many of us have crashing blood sugar levels after we overeat carbs and suffer the insulin response. In the presence of falling blood glucose levels, we feel hungry, because keeping the brain fed is a very high metabolic priority.

We learn by experience we can rapidly restore glucose levels via ingestion of high carb snacks.

So the high carb crazy train starts with a high carb breakfast followed by a "see food" diet in which we often perpetuate the high carb/insulin/hunger cycle. In the later stages, we feel "mind fog", grumpy, and often cold as the body reacts to falling blood sugar just as it would to starvation. In short, this is no way to live.

So, there's an obvious solution - skip the carbs in your breakfast. You actually don't need any breakfast carbs, although most of us will do better if we break our fast rather than skipping the morning meal. Instead of the Neolithic monstrosities that we think of as "breakfast", I recommend you start the day with a serving of protein and fat. Keep protein/fat snacks handy throughout the morning, and eat when hungry. Have a lunch plan that will allow you to eat some good quality carbs - a big salad for example, or a grapefruit/avocado.

When you are sleeping, great stuff is happening for your metabolism. By eating on fat/protein for breakfast, you allow these metabolic health and healing stages to continue. You make room for your body to store any excess carbs you eat for lunch/dinner/snack, and allow insulin levels to fall, restoring the possibility for insulin sensitivity. Most importantly, you set up a situation that puts a demand on your body to provide its own fuel, from its primary storage source, fat. AND, you keep up the demand for your body to make enough fat oxidation enzymes (at the cellular level) to keep your cellular fires well stoked all day long.

Any day that you follow this pattern is a day your body is allowed to move towards a normal metabolic state, without excess insulin and all the related consequences of the high carb crazy train. Once you are very comfortable running your body's fuel system this way, you can consider skipping breakfast altogether, a state termed intermittent fasting (more on which I will write later; and you can check the archives for info about IF).

IOW - if you want to make the easiest change towards a thriving you, a leaner you, a healthier you, skip the carb fest in the AM, and enjoy some bacon, sausage or eggs (or all three!) with your coffee or water tomorrow morning. 

If I Could Wave My Magic Wand ...

As I have several friends and family members who are struggling to make the jump from out of control to mostly in control of their health and body composition, I wondered what "the magic formula" would be.  That is, if I could wave a magic wand (My apologies to Rush, who wrote a song by the same name) and make people choose the right food, day in and day out, and ensure they did not fall back into years of habits that drive them towards the foods of defeat, what would that magic eating day look like?

Start with bacon and eggs, some avocado and tomato; unless tall, thin and smart (then more avocado, less bacon). Coffee? Google "bullet proof coffee" so you'll know how much butter, MCT, and/or heavy cream to add.  If not interested in BPC, just add heavy cream to your Joe and you can thank me later.

Feeling a bit peckish or longing for "elevensies"? Have combat snack ready - that's something you can keep handy at all times and which satisfies the need to eat without adding sugar to your system.  I like (and my kids like) coconut oil (unrefined) with macs or sunflower seeds.  Avocado works, high quality jerky works, plain meat works very nicely (leftover steak anyone?), hard boiled eggs, nuts/seeds, pork rinds - just find something (mostly) carb free and keep it close.

You must drink water more than you are likely used to doing.  Add a pinch of salt, and take supplemental potassium.  Do this because your body is "getting off of the sugar/insulin" and your tissues are flushing intracellular fluid.  Diet colas won't kill you, so if they help you stay off of real sugared drinks, and high carb foods, drink them with a smile.

Now it is lunch time and you've been humming along on a healthy amount of protein, some fat you ate, and some fat you are burning. But you are running low on fat oxidizing enzymes (which, since you didn't use them enough, you lost), and hunger may be kicking in. Don't fight it! Eat a salad with olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, and add lemon if you like it. Make it a monster salad - meat, any veggie you like.  Enjoy a few of the sweeter veggies like beets or carrots. Pile it on and chow down. Finish with more macs/coconut if you are not satisfied. Aim for 4-6 ounces of meat in this meal. Tomatoes, cukes, mushrooms, celery, lettuces, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, olives, even peas - the more the merrier.

After lunch, the fun begins. Did I mention water? Keep drinking it, and add a pinch of sea salt for flavor so you'll drink more.  Headache? You went half baked on the water/salt/potassium - get more of same and "knock it back".

After a couple of days of this, you may begin to feel "not your best". Or, you may feel nearly euphoric - it depends upon how hard it is for your body to convert to higher levels of fat burning. How long this stage lasts depends upon your discipline, and how far from "normal" your metabolism had deviated.  A two to three week fat adaptation period is common.  Eat more fat, drink more water!

If you get hungry between lunch and dinner, eat. Salad? Yes. Salami? Yes. Nuts or seeds, with coconut oil? Yes. Another cup of BP coffee? Yes. Also recommended: Olives, hard cheeses, anchovies, sugarless beef jerky, eggs, bacon, or low carb veggies.

Now - you've made it! You ate the right food all day long and you are giving your body the chance it has wanted for so long to stop dealing with emergency sugar bombs. Congratulations! Now you have the last job of the day, which is to build a satisfying, nutritious dinner.

Start your meal like a chef - pick your protein.  What do you like? Make 3-6 ounces of that. Veggies? Pick your favorite. Fat? Butter, sour cream, hard cheeses, olive oil and MCTs on salads and veggies, and nuts. Eat to satiety. The only limit is you should be careful if going above 100g/day of protein, as this can interrupt fat burning adaptation (excess protein may be converted to sugar by the liver).

If you are focused on fat loss, stay away from high density carbs like sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice, or apple sauce.  However, after a 30 day super low carb adaptation period, and as you close in on the weight you want to maintain, you may want to add a potato, sweet potato, mashed cauliflower (it's a great excuse to eat butter, and it is very good), or small portion of rice (when you hear rice, think "soaked in butter"), and/or fruit for dessert.

In Magic Wand part II, I'll tell you have to quantify your progress towards metabolic health.
Minor edits August 5, 2013.

"Bars"

The processed food bars seen above can be used to keep carbs low, but still get something to knock the edge off of appetite.  They are portable, better than arsenic and not unreasonably expensive.  I used these kinds of bars extensively in early efforts to master food, diet and health.

What I've found is that even thought they can be low in carbs, and they can be crutch which is better than carb indulgence, they are not a thing to rely upon for daily use if you want to maximize your health.  For that - you need food.

However, much like diet soda, if you can use these bars in place of nasty high carb foods - that's a win. Go from worst to better, and then eventually from better to best as you chase the lifestyle change that will help you feel like you are thriving day in and day out.

But whatever you  do - if it says "soy joy" just say no!

Lunch

This was a lunch from last week:

• Pellegrino water, because to do a workout after work, I have to force drink water all day, and Pellegrino is interesting enough that I'll drink it long after I'm way bored with plain water
• Sliced turkey for cheap, portable, storable protein
• Salami for the fat and salt and because I like it
• Hershey's dark chocolate, enough to give me 25g of carbs
• Coconut oil for the medium chain triglycerides and to make the dark chocolate more palatable
• I probably ate some macadamia nuts with this
• Many days, I eat an apple with this

Most of these things I can keep in my desk, the others are gathered during a once weekly run to the grocery store and kept in the office fridge.  This makes it easy to have a lunch that provides basic nutrition, it's enough food that I can barely eat it all, it is not too expensive, and it does no metabolic damage (no wheat, very little sugar).  Oh yes, I like most of these also!

Many of these items would not qualify as "paleo", but they work fine.  Which is to say, I'll never say I do "strict" paleo because I drink 3 or 4 glasses of milk weekly, I eat cheese, I eat processed meats, and I don't eat all that many veggies or fruit.  What I take from the paleo model is that dairy, wheat, sugar, and many fruits/veggies which exist as a result of man made efforts to breed sweeter varieties of foods, are suspect (as are industrial seed oils).  I tolerate butter, cheese, some raw milk, processed meats and other marginal "paleo" foods just fine, so I eat them if I like them.  In the summer in particular, I eat some rice and sweet potatoes since I seem to feel better when I get more carbs in the summer.  I eat sweet potatoes year round, because they are awesome and make a great excuse to eat more butter (ditto of course all veggies, potatoes, rice and mashed cauliflower).

It can be easy and relatively inexpensive to avoid sugaring, wheating, seed oiling, or high carbing yourself to death.

"Daft to Build a Castle on a Swamp"

From the King of the Swamp, Monte Python and the Holy Grail:

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp.

"So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp.

"So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp.

"But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England."

Well, my daft reader, keep on building.  It took me from 1996 until 2007 to get the right combination of habits, information, support, and old habits (finally) kicked to eat in the way that makes me feel my best.

First, take a 30 day challenge of nothing but meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, little fruit or starch.  Eat all you want of the meat and veggies, eggs and bacon, sour cream, hard cheeses, coconut oil, butter, MCT oil, avocado (with salt and either champagne vinegar, red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar, as you prefer), sunflower seeds and macadamia nuts.  Take magnesium, salt, and potassium liberally, sip water continuously.  What you'll notice is that even though there's no conscious restriction of intake, and that you have a green light to eat whenever hungry, you'll eat less than your prior approach.  After you get through the pain of putting a foundation in the swamp (teaching your body to use fat for fuel most of the time), you will feel incredible!  You'll think that building castles in the swamp is the best idea ever. 

After the 30 days, make your best effort to sustain your wheat and sugar free life; zero is good, but many people do well by limiting these foods to one day per week.  So can slam down all you want of the nasty food on Sunday, but no other day, for example.  If this keeps you off of the junk Mon-Sat, it's a good trade.

Booze - try the same approach as above.  Use vodka, gin, or tequila at first.  The famed NORCAL margarita:  shot of vodka, gin or tequila, an entire lemon or lime, and carbonated water to taste.

After you get this up and running, your castle will sink into the swamp.  It will happen slowly, but surely, and you'll notice one day that your "I'm doing great, I can eat this bite of cake" has turned into "I'm doing great, I'll eat another whole cake for lunch.  That breakfast cake was great."  Or the "Yay, beer and shitty carb foods on Saturday!" becomes "Hey, I only drink a half case of Sam Adams six days a week, why am I bloated and dehydrated all the time? Why can't I fit into my new clothes I had to buy?"  Well, the reason is your paleo lifestyle castle sank into the swamp, my friend.

And when you feel bad enough, mentally and physically, and you can no longer see your toes, or tie your shoes without groaning about how damned hard it is to reach the laces with that huge belly in the way, you'll start to rebuild your swamp castle, even though everyone will say you're daft, there's no use trying.  But you'll do it anyway, just to show 'em.  And that one will sink into the swamp too.

When I was in Iraq in 2006, and hit 225 pounds (PR!) with a girth of 39 inches around my belly, I knew my castle had burned down, fell over and was sinking into the swamp.  So I built the fourth one, and after 11 years, that 2007 swamp has lasted.  You can have one too. 

PS: you don't have to make it this hard. If you build just one castle on dry land and it's good from the start and your castle never falls over, that's fine too.