Many long time practitioners of a Zero Carb diet have shied away from discussions on macronutrient amounts and ratios in an effort to keep things simple. The general recommendation is to eat as much fatty meat as you want whenever you feel hungry. I understand the pull of this advice. We all want things to be as uncomplicated as possible, and having to the calculate protein and fat content of one’s diet can put some people into a mathematical tailspin. While this basic advice works well for some people, it does not work well for everyone. Therefore, I am going to dive headfirst into this subject and try to explain why this might be the case.
I have been practicing a Zero Carb diet now for 9 months. Not as long as some have, certainly, but long enough to know how this diet affects my body. I have made it through the initial adaptation process that occurs when one eliminates all plant foods and carbohydrates from their diet, and so any unpleasant symptoms I may be experiencing from the diet now are probably not due to that.
I had many challenges when first starting this diet due to histamine intolerance, and it was difficult for me to even find a meat that was low enough in histamines that I could eat without getting a migraine and feeling generally awful. I had only one source of beef that was not aged very long and was low in histamines, but it was from grassfed cows and was also low in fat. When I tried to add other fats to it, I did not feel well. Any rendered fat (such as tallow, lard, or butter) caused serious digestive problems (like hours of nausea and burping).
However, I was experiencing enough benefits from this way of eating that I continued on with the leaner grassfed meat because I could not figure out what else to do. But the longer I ate it, the worse I felt. It did not satisfy my hunger even after eating 2 lbs of it, and I was constantly thinking about eating again. It also made me very tired and lethargic, as well as extremely thirsty. I really didn’t know what else to do.
Then, I decided to do a water fast with my dog to help with some of his health problems, and we ended up going for 16 days. After the fast was over, I found that my histamine tolerance was much improved. I tested steaks from both Costco and Sprouts and found that I could eat them without developing a migraine afterwards. This was a welcome surprise. Now I could eat meat with more fat on it, and I found that I felt so much better. The fat that is part of the meat itself did not create the same kind of digestive upset that rendered fats did.
Throughout all of this, I finally decided to read two classic works by individuals who were very knowledgeable and experienced with eating and recommending an all-meat diet: The Fat of the Land by Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Strong Medicine by Blake Donaldson. Both of these books should – in my opinion – be required reading for anyone who is interesting in trying a Zero Carb diet.
Stefansson was an anthropologist who spent 10 years off and on living with the Arctic Natives and eating their diet. He experienced their way of life first hand and wrote about it in many books. When he returned to civilization, however, his academic colleagues did not believe he was telling the truth about the Native diet, so Stefansson agreed to allow a group of doctors to supervise him for one full year while eating an all-meat diet. The details of this unique study performed at Bellevue Hospital in New York can be read here: “Prolonged Meat Diets with a Study of Kidney Function and Ketosis.”
The upshot of that study was that neither Stefansson nor his colleague Karsten Andersen, who also participated, showed any signs of nutritional deficiencies or other health problems as a result of eating an all-meat diet for an entire year. The most interesting part of this study for me was the macronutrient profile of their diet. These two men both ate an average of 100-140 gm of protein and 200-300 gm of fat, totally 2100-3000 calories per day. That amount of protein equals about 14-20 oz of meat (lean portion) per day. All of the rest of their calories came from fat. There diet derived 75-80% of all calories from fat. Clearly, their meat was much fattier in 1929 than most of the meat we have available to us in supermarkets today.
Stefansson also explains that when one first starts a high fat diet, they have to go through an adaptation period (in the same way that you do when you refuse or remove carbohydrates from your diet). It takes about 3-4 weeks for the digestive system to adjust, and one may experience nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. He was surprisingly prescient in his understanding of why this occurred and states that the gut bacteria have to undergo significant alteration before we can effectively utilize the higher level of fat in the diet. In other words, he was talking about the GUT BIOME!
So, it is important for people new to a Zero Carb diet, or new to increasing the fat in their current Zero Carb diet, to understand this and be patient with their body. Lex Rooker, a long time raw meat eater, was very nauseated when he decided to up his fat from 65% to 80%. It took his body a while to adjust to the new level, but once it did, he felt much better over all. If you increase your fat percentage slowly over a period of days or weeks, you will experience less negative symptoms. It can be very helpful initially to eat 2-4 smaller meals, rather than one bigger meal, and reduce the amount of fat your digestive system must process at one time. When Stefansson lived with the Arctic Natives, they ate 4 meals per day; and during the Bellevue study, Stefansson and Andersen ate 3 times a day. They never ate all of their food for the day at one sitting.
Donaldson was a physician who practiced medicine from approximately 1900-1960. He stumbled upon the all-meat diet at some point during his career and began prescribing it to all of his sick and obese patients. He recommended 6 oz of meat (lean portion) and 2 oz of fat eaten 3 times per day, for a total of 3000 calories per day. This macronutrient profile is uncannily similar to what Stefansson and Andersen both ate during the Bellevue study. Fat provides about 75-80% of total calories with his recommended ratio of lean to fat. Donaldson said that if his patients ate less than this amount of meat, or skipped meals, their weight loss actually slowed down. He felt that a certain amount of protein was necessary to stoke the metabolic fire needed to burn body fat. He claims to have had a very high success rate with his patients. But since there is no study documenting his results, we can only take his word for it.
Another very interesting doctor who prescribed a mostly all-meat diet for his sick and obese patients was Dr. H.L. Newbold who practiced orthomolecular medicine from approximately 1940-1990. He had the good fortune to work with a brilliant doctor named Theron Randolph who taught Newbold how food allergies can cause serious mental and physical health problems. After many years of practice, Newbold wrote a little known, but very interesting, book called The Type A – Type B Weight Loss Diet. Like Donaldson, he recommended about 16-24 oz of very fatty meat per day, according to appetite. He found that his patients responded best to bone-in ribeye steaks.
Joe and Charlene Andersen have followed a Zero Carb diet for almost 2 decades now and have eaten very fatty ribeyes almost exclusively throughout this time. They also ate a lot of pemmican in the beginning of their journey, and that too is very high in fat. Here is a picture of the ribeyes they buy and eat on a regular basis.
So, what does all this mean for modern day Zero Carb practitioners who want to thrive on this diet?
It is my opinion, based on what I have read from the above authors, as well as my own experience of eating this diet for 9 months now, that recommending people eat as much fatty meat as they want according to hunger will only be successful if the meat they are eating is actually fatty, and their cooking method preserves the fat. I know that sounds a bit crazy, but there are others – like myself – who have been consuming large amounts (2 or more lbs. per day) of lean-ish meat on a regular basis for many months. The result is that some of them have gained weight, failed to lose weight, are still experiencing inflammation, and feel generally blasé. In short, they are not experiencing the “Zen” of Zero Carb.
I believe the main reason they are not experiencing the results they are wanting and expecting is because – in some cases – they are eating too much protein. Too much protein can raise insulin and prevent weight loss, as I describe in my post “Insulin, Glucagon, and Fat Metabolism.” Chronically elevated insulin can also lead to all kinds of health problems. Amy Berger has explored some of the many illnesses that seem to be a direct result of high insulin levels in her terrific blog post “It’s the Insulin Stupid – Part 2.”
When I was eating 2 lbs of lean-ish ground beef, my total protein intake was close to 250 grams a day. Not only is that amount of protein not necessary, it can even be detrimental over the long term. When protein is broken down during digestion, toxic by-products like ammonia are created. These toxins must be eliminated through the kidneys, and the kidneys need water to do their job. This explains why I was so unbelievably thirsty while eating 2 lbs of lean-ish meat per day. As soon as I reduced my protein to 100 gm (16 oz of meat) and increased my fat to almost 200 gm per day, the fierce thirst vanished almost overnight. So, if someone is eating an all-meat diet and they have already made it through the adaptation period (first 4-6 weeks) and they are still incredibly thirsty, I think they would be wise to take a look at how much protein versus fat they are eating.
For economic reasons, many people use ground beef as a staple food on their Zero Carb diet, and it is not always as fatty as they think. When raw, 80/20 ground beef is 70% fat, but after cooking, the fat percentage drops to less than 60%. If you pour all the fat from the pan back over your ground beef, you will be getting close to percentage of fat recommended by Stefansson, Donaldson, and Newbold. But if you do not add the fat back to your ground beef, then you will fall short. You can also lose a lot of fat from a fatty steak if you barbecue it and the fat drips off the meat during the cooking process. This, not only is the original fat content of the meat important, but so is the cooking method. If you lose a lot of fat during cooking, then you will need to add extra fat to your meal to make up the deficit.
How much protein does a person need for health? This is a very controversial subject. Dr. Ron Rosedale comes down on the side that less is better. He recommends 1 gm of protein per kilogram of lean body mass. You figure that out, you take your weight in pounds and divide by 2.2 and then subtract 10%. I weigh 115 lb —> divided by 2.2 —> 52 kg —> minus 10% —> 46 gm of protein per day to meet absolute needs. For a thorough look at the potential downside of eating TOO MUCH protein, read Rosedale’s post “Protein: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
Now, it is important to understand that Rosedale is an endocrinologist who treats patients with severe metabolic derangement. The more insulin resistant you are, the less protein you can eat without it converting into glucose. Though many of us today do suffer from insulin resistance to one degree or another, as explained in Amy Berger’s excellent post “It’s the Insulin Stupid – Part 1,” it is unlikely that we all need to limit our protein intake to that low of a level.
In fact, low carb dietitian Franzka Spritzler argues that limiting protein too much could both prevent weight loss and compromise overall health. She has done an outstanding job of laying out the research in her post “In Defense of High Protein, Low Carb Diets.” Interestingly, her recommendations -based on the research she sites – fall somewhere between 100-120 gm of protein per day for most people, and this coincides almost perfectly with the practical experience of Stefansson, Donaldson, and Newbold.
If you simply follow these basic guidelines laid out by these three early Zero Carb pioneers, you will likely do just fine. But if you are very insulin resistant and want to gauge your upper limit for protein more specifically, you can do so by testing your morning blood glucose after a 12 hour overnight fast. If your glucose is higher than 90 mg/dL (5.0 mmol/L), then you are likely eating too much protein for your particular metabolism. You can inch your protein down 10 gm at a time until your glucose comes down to below 90 mg/dL (5.0 mmol/L). This process will help you identify your personal protein limit and tailor a Zero Carb diet in a way that will serve you best.
Many people on a Zero Carb diet are discouraged from calculating their macronutrient ratios. I feel this is a mistake. If one wishes to be successful eating an all-meat diet for the long term, I think it is imperative to have a basic understanding of how much protein and fat you are eating. This is not something that needs to become an all consuming obsession with every single meal calculated and tracked. The joy of a Zero Carb diet is – for many – the freedom it provides in that regard compared to the more complicated Low Carb Ketogenic diets they may have tried previously. But if you do not have epilepsy or cancer or some other potentially fatal illness that you are using a Zero Carb diet to treat, then there is no need to be that specific.
Once you have a concept of how much meat equals 100 gm, and how much fat needs to be added to that meat to achieve a ratio of 70-80% calories as fat, then it becomes very easy. After you do it a few times, you will develop a sixth sense for how much of each you need by the way it looks on your plate and how you feel after eating it. Michael Frieze – who has practiced a Zero Carb diet for over 5 years now – developed an intuitive approach that has worked very well for him. He simple eats all of the fat on his meat first until he is maxed out on fat. Only then does he begin to eat the lean portion of his meat. If there is not enough fat on the meat, he will eat butter straight until he has satisfied his fat hunger before proceeding on to the lean portion of his meat. He says he learned this from The Bear (aka Owsley Stanley) who practiced a Zero Carb diet successfully for 50 years.
Neither Michael nor Joe and Charlene ever track anything with their food. They just eat really fatty meat and place a high priority on the fat, and all three of them are thriving on this diet. So clearly tracking is not necessary if you have access to really fatty meat and can afford to eat it on a regular basis. However, if you are a bit of a nerd like me and enjoy tracking and calculating things, and you find it fun and interesting (rather than complicated and stressful), then of course you are free to do so. I personally use the free online program Cronometer.
In conclusion, while it is important not to eat too much protein, it is also important to eat enough. Based on the above discussion, 100 gm of protein (16 oz of meat) per day is a good place to start, and then you can fine tune – up or down – from there, depending on your personal needs. If you find yourself hungry after eating this amount of meat, then you may not be eating enough fat. Stefansson and Andersen ate 2 gm of fat for every gm of protein. So, if you eat 25 gm of protein (4 oz of meat) be sure to eat 50 gm of fat with it (as part of the meat itself or added extra to make up the difference). There is no hard and fast rule that will be perfect for everyone, but this is the formula recommended and practiced by people who were and are very experienced with this diet.
Related articles:
Optimal Protein on a Zero Carb Diet – Part 2
Is a Zero Carb Diet a Ketogenic Diet?
If you are doing a Zero Carb diet and would like support, please join us in Principia Carnivora on Facebook.
Eat Meat. Drink Water. 
Thanks very much for explaining this so clearly, Esmée! Another eye-opener for many, I am sure! I tried very low protein Zero Carb for 3 months, and felt as if I was slowly killing myself. Followed it by Zero Carb without exactly tracking anything. After six months of this I’m still not feeling optimum, though, so I’m going to see if I can get some extra fat cuttings from the butcher, and try the eat fat first way for a while.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Talk about nerves of steel .. I was holding my breath for the whole video .. gotta hand it to the French.
Life is supposed to be Fun …..
Werner
LikeLike
Another great post, Esmée. Thanks for taking the time to write such a cogent and clear explanation.
LikeLike
Beautiful. Thanks much.
Sent from my iPad 2
>
LikeLike
As you wrote in your reply to me in the previous post, you so delivered, Esmee! Thank you for making it accessible, easy to understand. I wrote in the previous post that I had been adding fat, and yes, it has all been rendered fat. As you had done before, for me it’s been tallow, lard, and butter. (I have to sneak this in, as my family are all still on the low-fat mantra. I can’t buy the fatty cuts of steak or chuck roast, as they would go ballistic. I add extra lard onto my eggs in the morning.) I’m on my way to plowing through “The Fat of the Land,” along with “Strong Medicine.” I’m also going to read all the links you’ve kindly added in this post.
You write “. . . I reduced my protein to 100 gm (16 oz of meat) . . .”: is 100 grams the amount of protein in that portion of meat?
This is my fourth month of doing zero-carb. I hope that by doing these tweaks, I can start to see results. I’m not giving up!
LikeLike
Yes, Jasmine, every ounce of meat has approximately 6-8 gm of protein depending on how lean it is. The leaner the meat, the higher the protein per ounce.
LikeLike
What a beautifully-written post, Esmée! Such a clear, uncomplicated explanation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Karen! Your opinion is greatly appreciated.
LikeLike
Tnk you once again Esmee for consolidating all this info. I’m so glad I’ve been reading all links & most suggested reading, making this more understandable. Could it be for some, as simple as getting all the fat from 80/20 HB making sure to get all the fat & if still hungry on after 1lb of protein eat more fat to get the desired results? Look forward to on going discussion & clarity. I’m so grateful you continue to pursue this WOE so people like myself can follow & benefit from your experiences.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Robyn, I do believe that it may be just that simple.
LikeLike
Excellent Article Esmee La Fleur! A lot of very important information! Great Job!
LikeLike
Thank you for all this information. Now, I would like to gain weight as I am really too thin. Is there a way to use this knowledge for that goal?
LikeLike
To gain weight, you would eat your optimal protein plus enough fat to give you sufficient calories for weight gain. You might also need to do resistant exercise (weight training) to build lean body mass.
LikeLike
I’ve been zero carb for 6 months eating about 2 lbs of meat day, which is a generic advice given as you stated. All thats happened is I got fatter. What would be a good range of protein intake for a 6’2″ male so I can get rid of the fat I put on?
LikeLike
If I was you, I would start with the 100-120 gm range recommended by Stefansson and Donaldson. That would be about 16-20 oz of meat. Then add as much fat as you need to feel satisfied.
LikeLike
Hi Esmee, I enjoyed your article and agree with your protein and fat recommendations. However, several times, you say 16 oz of meat will provide 100 gm of protein, and in most cases this is not true. For example, 16 oz of 80/20 ground beef is 78 g protein, 16 oz ribeye with lean and separable fat is 79 g protein. 95/5 ground beef is 97 g protein – finally close to your recommendation. Most people who agree with you will opt for the fattier cuts, however. And since you make no distinction (you only state several times that 16 oz of meat is 100 g of protein, regardless of fat content), then I am concerned that people will read your article and follow your recommendation to simply eat 16 oz of meat each day thinking they are satisfying their protein needs when they are actually falling well below. Otherwise, great article – thank you!
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment, Crystal. Most meat has a minimum of 6 gm of protein per ounce, some has as much as 8 gm per ounce. I opted for the low end when I stated that 16 ounces of meat has 100 gm of protein. Technically, it would be 96 gm of protein. It also depends on whether you measure the meat raw or cooked. Cooked meat will have more protein per ounce than raw meat because some of the moisture gets cooked out of the meat. This is why I recommend that people use a program like Cronometer to check the meat they are actually eating. But your concern is certainly a legitimate one and I appreciate you pointing it out.
LikeLike
It’s funny. Technically, I’m a professional in this field, yet I find myself constantly learning from *you!* It’s a shame that you’ve arrived at so many of your insights and gained so much of your knowledge after struggling so long with such intractable health issues, but you’re doing a world of good in helping so many other people figure things out. Let that be the light that has come out of that darkness and trial.
LikeLike
Thank you Amy! It is people like you who are helping me to figure it out. We are all in this together. 😊
LikeLike
Pingback: Optimal Protein on a Zero Carb Diet – Part 2 | Eat Meat. Drink Water.
Pingback: A High Fat Ketogenic Diet is Protein Sparing | Eat Meat. Drink Water.
Pingback: Its more complex than just meat and water - zer0crap
Hi Esmee,
Do you have any tips on how to enjoy the fat in the meat more? I find the texture very chewy and unpleasant (but maybe this is the collagen or connective tissue I’m getting and not necessarily fat). Did the Andersens have any similar trouble with enjoying the fattier ribeyes that they eat?
LikeLike
Yes, the chewy parts are collagen and connective tissue, not fat. Collagen and connective tissue have lots of goods stuff for your own collagen and connective tissue. These animal fibers also feed the good bacteria in your gut. If you have a butcher near you, see if you can get some kidney fat called suet. It has almost no collagen or connective tissue and can can be very lightly panfried. It literally melts in your mouth.
LikeLike
You may want to change the wording you use when you talk about ground beef. You said “When raw, 80/20 ground beef is 70% fat, but after cooking, the fat percentage drops to less than 60%.” That statement is factually incorrect, it is 20% fat. But after a bit of research I believe that you meant that for 80/20 ground beef, 70% of the calories come from fat.
Please understand that I am not trying to critique your writing, I want readers to understand what you are saying.
LikeLike
Hi Cameron, you are correct. The percentage is by calories, not weight. Thank you for pointing this out.
LikeLike
HI Esmée, thank you so much for your website. I’ve been reading it, or rather devouring it, thoroughly since I went ZC about a week ago. I’m loving ZC and it took me about 2 days to adapt. I discovered your website after searching the internet about salicylates after my doctor suggested that I try a low salicylate diet (have been coming out in hives for something like 10 years). When I researched low salicylate diets it all sounded so complicated and then I stumbled across your website I discovered that ZC will help me in many ways (eg. weight reduction, fixing lifelong inflammation, craving carbs etc.). Today I discovered that a new butcher shop has opened up 3 blocks from where I work and they specialise in grass-fed beef. I was worried about their meat being too lean, however your comment about suet above has pointed me in the right direction. They say they sell suet,so, when I go there, if the meat is too lean I shall just ask for some suet as well. That should work shouldn’t it?
LikeLike
Yes, Keren, try the suet. However, suet from grassfed beef tends to be drier and have more connective tissue, than suet from grained beef. But try it, definitely, and see if it will work. If you are able to tolerate butter, that is another easy way to get extra fat. If you are sensitive to salicylates, you may also be sensitive to histamines. Have you read my article on that? Esmée
LikeLike
Hi Esmée, thanks for your reply. I have read your histamine page but when I first mentioned histamines to my doctor he thought it more likely that I am salicylate intolerant. I don’t seem to have a problem with meat of any age so I’m thinking I might be okay with histamines. Btw, the butcher didn’t have any suet but pointed to jars of tallow which were a bit expensive so I left them on the shelf. I use butter when I feel like it – thanks for that tip.
LikeLike
Pingback: Optimal Fat Intake on a Zero Carb Diet | Eat Meat. Drink Water.
“I had many challenges when first starting this diet due to histamine intolerance, and it was difficult for me to even find a meat that was low enough in histamines that I could eat without getting a migraine and feeling generally awful. ”
I had this at first too and from time to time. I was wondering what it was…..histamines…makes sense now.
LikeLike
I found it REALLY difficult to eat 100 g of protein a day last year. It made me feel sick standing over the sink trying to get a tin of tuna down my neck so I could hit my macros. There seems to be more disagreement over protein than anything. I don’t know who to believe TBH.
LikeLike
The type of meat makes a difference. Have you tried a nice fatty steak?
LikeLike
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought histamine is usually on the outside of the meat, so washing the meat before you cook should be a good way to eliminate most histamine, that’s how I do it (under warm water) and it seems to work as I don’t have any adverse effects since I do this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, the bacteria on the outside of the meat is what creates histamines for the most part as I understand it. Obviously, if the meat is ground, then the bacteria gets spread throughout the meat and the histamines proliferate rapidly and cannot be washed away.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes indeed, at least it helps a bit this way 🙂
LikeLike
I’m surprised that insulin would go up in a no carb, no sugar, all meat diet, but I must say I’ve experienced more thirst since I started and find myself to drink more then 1.5L of water now. I have to admit that due to family reasons and holidays I’m not yet 100% on meat, I’m doing my best, so hard to evaluate for now, I hope to be on 100% meat and water next week. I’m a little concerned about the kidneys function, especially as the meat I use is less fat then those in the pictures but we’ll see what happens.
LikeLike
Protein does not harm kidneys. The only time protein is a problem is if your kidneys are already damaged.
LikeLike
I’m sure I’m not the only person to not realize that 100g/3.5oz of meat isn’t the equivalent in protein. So thanks for making me do so googling, though you may have this elsewhere, I learned:
“Red meat contains, on average, 20-24g of protein per 100g (when raw) and cooked red meat contains 27-35g of protein per 100g (cooked weight). As meat is cooked, the water content decreases and the nutrients become more concentrated, therefore the protein content increases.”
LikeLike
Correct. Grams in weight is not the same as grams of protein.
LikeLike
Milles merci pour cette article qui m’aide beaucoup sur le taux de protéines à manger , j’ai voulu suivre les recommandations de beaucoup d’autres personnes et j’étais pas bien sûrement beaucoup trop de protéines, de très gros maux de tête ,une glycémie très élevé ( je suis insulino-resistante,je le sais depuis peu) alors je réduis les protéines jusqu’à ce que ma glycémie soit parfaite , encore milles merci.
LikeLike
I must admit to being more confused than ever. If I try to go low enough on protein to get my blood sugar is below 90 fasting, I will start to binge-eat from hunger. If I eat enough protein to control my Hunger, then my blood sugar is in the mid to Upper 90s fasting. I generally pick higher fat Meats, but Beef fat, chicken fat, pork fat, nuts, high fat in general gives me very bad reflux. Avocado is supposed to be a really good at source, but my Hunger goes through the roof when I eat avocado with lower protein, my appetite goes through the roof. It looks like I’m going to have to pick my poison. Any advice appreciated!
LikeLike
Have you read this article? I’m not sure there is anything terribly wrong with a fasting blood sugar of 90.
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2007/10/physiological-insulin-resistance.html
And honestly, beef is the only meat that satisfies me.
https://zerocarbzen.com/beef/
Pork raises my fasting blood sugar to 140 and I am not diabetic.
https://zerocarbzen.com/pork/
Plant foods all make me hungry.
Read Dr. Newbold’s book for more understanding of why this might be.
https://zerocarbzen.com/classic-books/
Also read Dr. Donaldson’s book available through the above link too.
LikeLike
I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m not getting the benefits I’d been hoping for at 4 months into ZC. I suspect I’ve been eating too much protein and your explanation makes total sense. Many thanks!!
LikeLike
Try more fat and see if you feel better. Let me know.
LikeLike
Started last night. Will report back. 🙂
LikeLike
Too early to say anything for sure, but seems very positive so far.
Immediate improvement in libido. Noticeable improvement in mood and slight win in energy. Still experimenting with how much fat to eat and what to eat so that it’s palatable (I’m not a natural fat lover). Lamb chops seem to be the winner at the moment. For the first time ever in my life, today I ate all the fat off the lamb chops and then couldn’t really be bothered finishing the actual meat. Tasted and felt good, but super weird for me! 🙂
Thanks again for your website, so helpful.
LikeLike
If you haven’t read Micheal Frieze’s interview yet, I highly recommend it. He explains how he eats fat first, then lean. It’s quite interesting. I’m glad your early experimentation seems positive so far.
https://zerocarbzen.com/2015/03/07/zero-carb-interview-michael-frieze/
LikeLike
Dietary fat activates the incretin(gut) hormones which are heavily involved with the gut-brain axis, helping with proper appetite signaling in the brain. Also slows down the rate of gastric emptying during the meal, very important for proper blood glucose regulation while you process the meal.
LikeLike
Just reporting back after a month or so. Upping fat was magic, I no longer feel like I have to push my way though life. I now have enough energy to *want* to do this. Wonderul!
Interestingly after a month of lamb chops, ribeyes and fatty mince … suddenly chicken tastes good again.
And doing the Bears trick of eating the fat first helps me stay on track. Useful technique!
LikeLike
I am so glad to hear this. Thanks for letting me know.
LikeLike