If you want to be thin and stay thin (and avoid Metabolic Syndrome), then you have to eat high fat

It starts with Syndrome X, an imbalance in your Endocrine system which in turn screws with your Metabolism which in turn screws your Pancreas.

But overall, quickly scanned your post without opening your websites, you are right.

It's quite easy to reverse the process, also if you have Diabetes II and a little harder when you have Diabetes I, but definitely possible.

I dont know if I would follow your diet, I was on the Atkins diet for 2 months and ate real cream cheese ham all the good gresy stuff, yes I lost weight but then started gaining with the butter and cream cheese, also had a heart attack 6 months later

I've been on the Atkins Diet twice and each time I lost 80+ in a year! Then I stalled out for a year, even started working out and the weight would not go away. Although, I was loosing inches but not lbs??
I'm planning on getting back on the plan soon, but would like to know if anyone else experienced the same and how did you break the long term plateau's.

I just mentioned this to my wife. Her response was that all of the hormones, antibiotics and other crap they feed beef and other farm animals would be stored in their fat.

BINGO.

This diet is really just another Atkins.

I have put ON weight with it.

Now its even harder to get it off because no diet seems to work for a long period.
This type of diet, I stalled for 6 WEEKS!
My cholesterol went thru the roof.

Its all crap.
Useless.

If you treat things as a diet you will fail. Diets cannot work because they imply that you are changing your normal way of eating for a defined period, a period you define by losing weight!

When you return to eating normally, you WILL gain the weight back on.

You need to find a way of eating that will sustain your lifestyle, whether or not you have time for things like exercise.

Cutting your calories, while continuing to consume substances that screw with your blood sugars, is not a sustainable path. Carb creep happens because of the nature of the way carbs works. Blood sugar rises, blood sugar plunges and you are hungry - ravenously so.

I eat up to 3,000 calories a day, never feel hungry so it's not exactly a hardship ..... I was eating that many calories before I settled at my present weight.

6 weeks on any diet is not actually classified as a STALL, so you don't know what you are talking about. This is not Atkins.

If you were eating mainly protein then yes you will stall. You will stall the moment that your protein intake rises above your daily protein requirement.

The reason for this - simple - look it up. Its called gluconeogenesis. This is the process by which your body creates glucose out of excess protein.

If you simply replace carbs with protein, which is what a lot of Atkins like diets do, you are stuffed. All you are doing is eating a slow release carb. That is what protein is when done to excess. But it's actually very inefficient so you have no energy either. Protein is a backup energy source not a primary one. Fats and carbs are the energy sources. If you remove carbs you need fats.

Your body only really needs very small amounts of protein for muscle repair, especially if you are pretty inactive. 50 grams a day for most people.

Let's say you reduce your carbs from 250 gm a day (1000 calories) to just 20 (40 calories).

Let's say you replace that all with protein. You are probably already eating at least 100 gm of protein day (400 calories). So your protein consumption would rise to 330 gm a day.

That's about 280 gm more than is needed for muscle and other repairs. The body has to do something with the excess. It can only convert it to glucose. That's 280 gm of glucose hitting your system. You may be on a 'low-carb' diet, but you are certainly NOT on a low sugar load system.

Your body will never come off glucose as an energy source, so you will derive none of the benefits from making your body run off a fuel source it can actually use - fat!

Everyone becomes more insulin resistant as they get older - that is all that middle age spread is! Your body, after years of carb abuse, gives up the ghost and can no longer utilise the carbs for energy. The muscles refuse to take any more. But they still need energy and you feel hungry and feel like shit! You eat more (of the same). Your body cannot use any more though. So you start to grow and grow and comfort yourself with the fact that its just your age, or your genes.

No, it's simply glucose and your inability to utilise it for energy. But you are told fat is BAD for you. Of course you are, it's the only thing that will save your glucose knackered body.

Of course, what vested interest wants to save you. So follow their plan for you and go to a long-suffering painful death. Or break with the program. Forget the blue AND the red pill. You don't need pills!

did you guys know that olive oil is a natural anti-inflammatory and blood thinner too?

it's true

and its yummy too

olive oil is the bomb :)

Olive Oil is fantastic. I use loads of it for flavour and for padding my calories. It is mainly monounsaturated which is an excellent fat. But NEVER cook with it. All unsaturated fats break down to toxins when heated! You should only ever heat saturated fats. They are more chemically stable.

But your body needs a variety of different fats, all except for polyunsaturated fats!

If you have too much of one fat type, though, you may still gain weight. I tend to vary my fat sources a lot. It's predominantly saturated fats, since if you don't get enough saturated fat then your body MAKES it. Yes, all that fat on your body is saturated fat.

I always laugh when they tell you that saturated fat is bad for you. If that's the case why does your body store all your excess glucose as saturated fat (about 60-80%). Why, because you are not giving it enough and it's the preferred energy source. So it stores some for later use. It doesn't know that you have fast food joints all over the place. It thinks you are starving it, and by reducing your fats you are! So it's planning ahead and making sure it has enough.

But if you mix those fats with carbs, it's a double whammy! Your body will burn the fats you are eating for energy (it's preferred source of energy) and saves all the glucose as fat for later use, the famine it thinks is coming behind!

I go for lots of fats - butter, coconut oil, dripping, lard, olive oil, walnut oil, fish oils. It's the mixture that is important for weight maintenance. Your body only has finite needs for each type.

And you don't think those toxins are in everything?

Veggies take up all the toxins from the soil. They absorb everything. The fertilisers, the human shit that is now used as a fertiliser, with the hormones, the anti-depressant and other drugs, contraceptive pills, etc.

Even if it's animal shit for fertiliser. Do you think that's any better?

And then don't forget that animals have flight or fight as their defence mechanism for escaping predators. What do plants have? A chemical of cocktails that they pump at you to stop you eating them. Flouride and aluminium in tea springs rapidly to mind as absorbed baddies. Various oestrogen mimicking hormones in soya and other plants to keep animal populations under control. Gossypol in coffee and a variety of other plants. Yeah, look up gossypol!

It's a balance, of course. Unfortunately we live in a very toxic world. But the toxin you can control is sugar and if you look around you the biggest killers are not the toxins - it's the diseases caused by insulin and the breakdown of the insulin mechanism. That is something you can at least prevent.

BUT WHO CAN EAT LIKE THIS???

Example:

DAY ONE


Breakfast
P 4 1 g, F 107g, C 10g, 1 : 2.1 : 0.25, 1200 kcal

Scrambled eggs: take one chunk of fatty bacon (150 g), cut into cubes and melt on a frying pan until brown. Whisk in 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk and mix quickly so that they combine with the fat. Fry on low heat until the eggs firm up but remain fluffy.
Have a slice (100g) of sponge-cake bread with the scrambled eggs. To drink, I suggest a glass of tea with lemon but no sugar. Scrambled eggs can also be made with butter (80g), lard (70g) or bacon fat (80g) instead of the fatty bacon. They may also be made with 3 whole eggs or 1 egg and two yolks. The proportions stay substantially the same.

Lunch
15g, F 63g, C 10g, 1 : 4.2 : 0.7, 680 kcal

Two cheese pancakes (100g) with butter (30g) and a spoonful of unsweetened fruit jelly. Wash down with a glass of sweet cream (120g).

Dinner
P 28g, F 83g, C 22g, 1 . 3 : 0.8, 965 kcal

Take a 10 mm thick pork cutlet (150g), pound it slightly to soften it, dip it in a beaten egg and then cover with breadcrumbs. Coat it once more. Melt two tablespoons of lard on a frying pan and then fry the chop. Eat with a spoonful of potatoes (100g) mashed in with the fat. Garnish with a dill pickle














YUCK!

lol

I don't want to belittle a heart attack, but if you needed to go on a diet than you were probably overweight and had been for a while.

You don't think that you can reverse decades of body abuse in just SIX MONTHS?

Your liver alone will take up to 10 years to repair itself from fructose and alcohol abuse.

Do you think your arteries can survive decades of abuse and then come right just like that in SIX MONTHS?

Or, that the abuse of decades doesn't count but just SIX MONTHS of some fatty food can cause a heart attack.

With all due respect that borders on absolute naivety!

As for the weight gain, please see my note on protein and its contribution to weight gain. Atkins is unfortunately a high protein diet, but by its nature it is also moderate fat. If you replace carbs with protein gram for gram, you will not achieve glucose control and because you inevitably have more fat then this will give you all the energy you need. So, while with carbs you might have been using some of the fat if you had a deficit, with protein and MORE fat all the excess protein would have been converted to fat.

Atkins was much too simplistic and he was scared of the media reaction to recommend what he really believed in. Controlling protein is as important as controlling carbs, since they are a secondary glucose source. Hence why the Kwazniewski ratio for the Optimal Diet is much better.

There are actually much easier ways to achieve the same ratio's. Some imagination is called for her. Also the carb ratio there is too high and it includes potatoes and fruit, which are no-no's if someone is having metabolic problems.

Its amazing what you can do with 2 eggs, some cream or sour cream, mayonnaise and bacon for breakfast. I have now been eating eggs in a variety of ways for breakfast for 4 years. They fill you up so much often you really don't even want lunch.

Lunch can be something like Parma ham/pate/cream cheese/brie/macadamia's or almonds/avocado/pickles/olives

Evening meal can be much more exciting than a pork chop. Did you see my recipe for lamb mince, peppers, shallots, mushrooms with tomato and hot spices covered in grated cheese, jalapenos and sour cream?

Also I make gorgeous chicken angel wings. You make a mix of grated parmessan cheese, paprika and parsley. Boil the wings for 30-40 mins (keep the broth for chicken veggie soup). Coat them in butter and sprinkle the mixture on top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins. Easy peasy and incredible with a sour cream or ranch dip.

The possibilities are endless. Cauliflower cheese, cauliflower mash, cauliflower rice are great for replacing potato and rice. Cauliflower and cream and butter were made for each other.

The place where I differ with Kwaniewski is on grains, potatoes and fruit. These are a serious no for anyone who is developing first stage Metabolic Syndrome. My carbs ALL come from veggies - and 20gms is typically about 400 grams of low carb veggies, which is plenty for anyone in a day.

Right. That must be why it is good to smoke three packs a day, drink to excess, eat junk food and never exercise.

S'gan-Levi,

And let's not forget that the example meal quoted there was

2840 Calories

That is the diet for LOSING weight my friend!

Give me a typical low-fat calorie controlled diet of say 1000-1200 calories a day needed for weigh loss.

I dread to think what that would entail eating and I guarantee anyone on it will be STARVING hungry in no time.

And then I will put your question back to you - WHO CAN EAT LIKE THAT?

And much more importantly, who can sustain eating like that?

The simple answer is that you can only torture yourself with low-calorie diets for so long, before you break. And then all the weight, and more, comes back! They are simply not sustainable because who can really eat like that?

LOL

You still have to be discerning too and use your brain and test the hypotheses through experimentation!

Don't forget that the very best propaganda works on the 80/20 rule. 80% truth, 20% lies mixed in. When you compound all of the propaganda the lie ratio rises with the sum of the parts and ends up the other way around!

Look, I'll try anything these days.
I've tried Atkins, Schwartzbein, South Beach, The Rotation Diet, you name it.
I exercise every day.
I stall and stall, get frustrated and
go back to bad habits.

I understand your frustration. I am 46 and started on the diet treadmill when I was 18. Every time I came down it was never quite to my last low and every high was higher than my last high.

Atkins was the one I tried in 2003 and up to that point it was my most successful diet. I went from 250 pounds down to 196. But I stalled for more than 6 months. Now I understand why that happened, but at the time it was frustrating. The too much protein and not enough fat (because at the back of my mind I was still scared of fat) ensured that I reached equilibrium. Also I began to suffer from lack of energy. Again I now understand why. The protein was turning to glucose and my insulin resistance and liver damage was slowly progressing making it harder and harder for me to process that glucose. I went back up to 235 pounds between 2005 and 2008.

Then I had my blood sugar scare and I decided I needed to fix this once and for all. From November 2008 to December 2009 I lost 85 pounds and returned to my 18 year old weight. All my blood markers improved substantially.

I realised that resistance training is the best exercise since it burns excess protein most efficiently and enhances insulin sensitivity by building new muscle. I do that 3-4 times a week. I rarely do cardio since its pretty pointless.

This is the first time in my life I have been able to maintain my weight within a very tight range and have found a way of eating that keeps me full up, that I enjoy and that has led to all my health problems disappearing. Hell, I have not even had a cold in all that time, so it must be doing some good. Diseases considered incurable have disappeared. No one could ever convince me now that this doesn't work.

Just as importantly, it has worked for everyone of my family and friends who have tried it. Their health conditions like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, gout, high sugars have all disappeared as well. It is nothing short of a miracle.

Yep .... that first line sums it up exactly.

I see you are from Holland. I am in Holland quite often on business and never cease to be amazed that Holland seems to have the lowest number of overweight people that I have seen anywhere in Europe.

But then you guys eat a lot of cheese and ride bikes everywhere :)

Any other pointers to why Holland seems to do so well relative to the rest of Europe?

Excellent post! Thanks for taking the time Sc0rp10n.

You got it, that is what i do!

I COULD! I just can't eat pork; I have an allergic reaction to it and always have... but replace that with something beef or chicken and no worries! YUM!

Same here really. Don't mind bacon and ham but my favourite is lamb every time :)

Thanks :)

Day 5 and I am still stalled on 278! I'm aiming for 180 by Xmas day, long way to go...

How do you calculate the # of calories required, if I’m 280lbs and desire to be (initially) 225lbs?

So my ratios (goal) should be;
Fat - 306-357g
prot. - 102g
carbs - <20g

and calorie amount would be??

Also, do you have more recipe examples? how do I get started now! I got to loose this wt.!

I've tried a million fads and each year my wt has ratched up more. Ten years ago I was 215lbs & did 2 triathlons. Now I'm freakin 280 and can hardly breathe after going up the stairs!

Btw, thank you for bringing this information to our attention. It is a mind boggling concept after all the years of doing it apparently the wrong way!

Calories are easy to calculate, though I have found they are not really that important as long as any calorie over-run is on fat rather than carbs or protein.

Fat is typically 9 calories per gram (so would be between 2754 and 3213 calories on your numbers)

Carbs and protein are both 4 calories per gram (so total calories from carbs and protein would be about 488)

This would make between 3242 and 3701 calories (giving about 85% to 87% of calories from fat)

I think you could get away with more protein to start with and reduce as you get any stalls.

I would aim for about 320g fat with 130g protein and 20g carbs to begin with - this would give you about 82% of calories from fat and 18% from protein, making a total of about 3500 calories.

This will make you feel more than full and give you flexibility to scale down as your weight loss slows.

As I said earlier while not necessary, exercise will help speed the process. Resistance exercise is best since it forces your body to use protein to build and repair muscle wear during exercise. Fat will provide all the energy you need and encourage your body to burn its own reserves as well.

Rowing and weights are the 2 I do most. Alternating and doing 3-4 nights a week, usually following them with my biggest protein meal.

I have already posted a couple of recipes for that lamb mince one and also for the chicken angel wings, so check those out.

Make heavy cream and sour cream your friends. You will be amazed how much of the stuff you can get through and what a large proportion of your fat calories can be obtained from them.

Heavy cream in every tea and coffee, nice generous helping. Sour cream and heavy cream can make for great dips for chicken wings, ribs, etc. Curries are good .... some of them use crushed almonds for thickening and flavour and when combined with heavy cream really ratchet up the fat and calorie count. Then there are countless good recipes on the net for peppercorn cream sauces, bearnaise sauces (butter), paprika cream sauces - I make a chicken paprika with both cream and sour cream.

Then make sure you do eggs in coconut oil or butter. Breakfast is the easiest meal to cover off by far.

I will add one more recipe here for chicken liver pate:

450 gm chicken lovers
250 gm butter
100 ml of heavy cream
salt & pepper
Sherry, port or Grand Marnier

Cook the chicken livers in about 50 gm of the butter on very high heat. Brown them but leave them a little pink on the inside. Add salt & pepper to taste. Put them in the liquidiser with the rest of the butter and the cream.

Then pour a generous tablespoon or two of one of the alcohols listed above into the pan with the juices. Let it sizzle nicely for a while and then add mixture to the liquidiser.

Liquidise into a nice smooth paste. Fill a jar, refrigerate overnight and you have your pate for the next day. A sealed jar will last for 3-4 days (OR NOT!! lol)

Great by itself or on some celery sticks - some cream cheese on some celery sticks, pate on the others. Great high energy lunch. It is very high energy and contains good Vitamin C from the livers. About 2810 calories in that single jar of pate - about 350 calories per 100 gm! You can see you don't need much for a lunch:)

I remember once taking some pate, cream cheese, olives and macadamias into work for lunch. There was very little in volume terms in my box. Someone asked me if that was all I was going to have. Should have seen their faces when I told them that my meal was about 1,200 calories and their sandwich and snack was only about 500 lol

Hope that helps. Will post more recipes for things like chicken paprika, broccoli mushroom cheese and trout bake, etc.

One other thing. You don't need to absolutely precise. You will quickly get a feel for what are the right amounts and it really does become intuitive.

Make a list of your favourite foods or start with this list I gave at the start and familiarise yourself with what their nutritional composition is. Go to this site:

[link to www.nutritiondata.com]

This will give the carb/protein/fat breakdown on nearly every food.

I made a spreadsheet of all the things I really liked. Took out anything that had more than 5% carbs (vegetables, etc)

Got left with a list of things I could eat. The ones with highest fat were at the top, the ones with moderate protein (typically meats/cheeses) in the middle and then the fillers at the bottom (high protein meats/vegetables)

I then just made a little plan that achieved an 80% fat calories to 20% protein, mixing and matching the various items on the spreadsheet and using the nutrition data site.

Funny enough, since your hunger goes away, the variety of tastes has become much less important and I do find myself eating the same old trusted things week in and week out. Eating for energy rather than because their is this driving need in me to keep shovelling things in my mouth.

Yes, Sc0rp10n, Thank you very much for this thread. I feel like your post was an answer to a prayer.

So,
Scorpion,
I started today to impliment your recommendations.
Lets see how it goes.

Thank you Sc0rp10n, really good reading. Hope it works well for me too!