How I lost 75# and got my health back

Recently several people have asked me what I did to loose all that weight (75#) and am often out in the sierra hiking +100 miles. I'm quite frankly shocked at how many people roll their eyes and don't believe what I tell them. Some even get livid and want to argue with me. If you have honest questions about what I've shared here I'm happy to answer. If you want to troll I'll not answer.

In answering this question I've often noticed that people are often asking for a quick and simple answer to their question. My simple answer is that I eat the way my ancestors eat. That answer is not that simple though. The process took a lot of research and trial & error. I'll just write up a summary here and perhaps someone may benefit.

First my goal was never really just to lose weight. The effect of being obese is that I had difficulties pursuing the activities that I loved (long distance hiking). Being obese was a symptom of these other problems. The bigger health problems was that I had fatty liver, leaky gut, skin rashes all over my body, moody, diarrhea every morning and was highly insulin resistant.

My research and experience really comes down to a conclusion that we’re all different and the best scientific study one can do is on oneself. That is when N equal 1. Also understanding clearly what one is trying to achieve. I wanted to do a lot more than loose weight. I wanted to go from extremely compromised health to outstanding health so that I could continue to hike at an advanced level as long as possible. I needed to do a lot more than just loose weight to accomplish that goal. Another thing that I came to believe is that most of the commonly held beliefs about nutrition is based upon corporate profit motives and not my good health. Perhaps this is why I found traditional modern medicine to be of limited use. At the end of this essay are a few sources that I relied heavily upon.

The basic concept is actually quite simple. My thought process goes like this. When I was born I inherited a package of DNA that is a product of millions of years of evolution. I aspire to live in a manner that is consistent with factors which that package of DNA evolved around. Many generally refer to this lifestyle “ancestral.” It also goes by other names such as paleo, primal, Banting, wild, warrior, even Atkins is essentially ancestral eating.

I'm a fair skinned, blond haired, blue eyed male of mostly Northern European (German) descent. What that actually means could be argued a long time with out getting to any real provable facts but it provides me with a basic frame work for thinking about my lifestyle. The key part for me has been to run experiments based upon the above framework and pay attention to how my body and mood respond to different inputs. I also talk to others with a similar physiology who have had success and try what they have found works. So for me what this frame work + diet trial and error comes down to is that my ancestors likely had very limited access to sources of glucose and used fat as their primary fuel source, especially through long cold winters. Grains come from warmer climates. Wheat originally comes from North Africa, rice from southern Asian, and corn and potatoes from South America. My ancestors likely had none of that and more likely more access to fat laden animals and plants found in the wild. Glucose / fructose in the forms of grain, hybridized fruit and straight up sugar is the primary fuel source in the SAD (standard American diet). Ever wonder why we have a diabetes epidemic in the US?

In the world of ancestral eating the primal blueprint interpretation is the one I favor. This is Mark Sisson’s (primal blueprint author) primal lifestyle list. I've made my own based upon his. Here are the primal blueprint basics:
https://www.primalblueprint.com/what-is-the-primal-blueprint/

Diet: In a nut shell I eat a diet low in carbs, with moderate protein and high in fats. Essentially that means that I eat a fat based (ketogenic) diet. I use fat and my primary fuel source rather than glucose and fructose. But it's not that simple because all carb, proteins and fats are not created equal. The key for me is to eat a diet that creates an ideal hormone balance and doesn't produce excess insulin or cortisol. One trick I've used is to figure that out is to get a $15 glucometer at a drug store and check my blood sugar before and after eating. That will quickly tell me the effect of what I've eaten Stop guessing and start testing!

Carbs: I eat less than 50 net carbs a day (grams of carb - grams of fiber) this has the effect of forcing me into green veggies like broccoli, spinach, chard, green beans, zucchini, cabbage etc. I occasionally eat sweet potatoes, blackberries or blueberries, rarely eat regular potatoes and never ever eat grain or other fruit. Typically goes carbs are around 50g and fiber is around 30g leaving the net carbs at around 20g.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-succeed-with-the-primal-blueprint/


From reading and talking to others it seems like the daily net carb intake takes some careful dialing in. Some folks do a carb refeed periodically but that never seemed to help me. My Perhaps my ancestors likely went long periods of time in the with little or no carbs. Whatever the reason very low carbs work best for me.

I also don't eat much fruit. The fruit available today highly hybridized and was not what my ancestors evolved eating. It also triggered the candida growth in my gut and caused my skin to itch so I quit eating it, felt a lot better and have never gone back.



Protein is another area that took a personalize approach. Excess protein in the body often turns into glucose (sugar) in a process called gluconeogenesis. We are all different in this regard and this can easily be tested using a glucometer as discussed above. There are other health issues with excess protein https://youtu.be/Yv-M-5-s9B0

Beans are often used as a protein source but they have a lot of carbs in them as well as the anti-nutrient phytic acid
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vegetarianism-and-plant-foods/living-with-phytic-acid/
so I don't eat them so that means meat.

Personally I'm very concerned about the sources of my meat and buy a free range grass fed / grass finished beef once a year as well as a free range pig from a local farmer. Commercial pork has had the fat bred out of it and the whole factory farm thing is something I really don't want to support. When out to eat I try to order meats that tend to be free range like lamb and goat. For a number of reasons don't eat much chicken.

On a normal day I've found that 70-80 g of protein is fine. I try to listen to my body and go up on days I've lifted.

Fat is the cornerstone of my diet. The cold weather animals my ancestors evolved eating were likely those with a large amount of body fat suitable for getting them through long winters. Yes, I prefer animal fat. My ancestors did not evolve eating soybean, canola, corn or even olive oil. When I say this I'm often confronted with fears of cholesterol. Cholesterol actually serves a critical role in regulating the bodies hormones. Additionally the link between longevity and cholesterol has been proven to be the opposite of what we've been lead to believe.
http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/20-the-basement-tapes
The key hear for me was to differentiate true health from unhealthy fats. As discussed in the podcast link above, industrial seed oils are not something our ancestors evolved around and create a lot of health problems. Essentially it's all about linoleic acid which is prevalent in vegetable oils http://www.marksdailyapple.com/updating-the-primal-stance-on-vegetable-oils-high-oleic-varieties/. I'm also concerned about getting enough omega 3s and avoiding omega 6s. Nice fatty wild salmon is high desirable. Farmed salmon are fed lots of soy and is high I omega 6, not omega 3.

So when I get the beef and the pig as discussed above we also request all the excess fat. I also eat a fair amount of coconut, avocado oil and some olive oil.

The end result is that fat is 60%~70% of my diet or around 130g. The higher the fat the better I feel. Can you say BACON!!

Calories: people ask if I track calories. That never worked for me previously. When I lost all that weight I did not. I only track macros. Oddly enough calorie restriction does seem to work for me now. I think it's because my hormones have come back into healthy alignment. Not sure. My goal these days is 1500-1700 calories. Something I could never do when I was a sugar burner.

Drugs & Alcohol: for a number of reasons I don't drink anymore. (See avoid poisons) A friend of mine once commented that “there's no problem that alcohol cant make worse.”

Supplements: I take 8,000 mg vitamin D drops every morning. There are 4 probiotics that I rotate taking. And a few other things that are very specific to me and my condition.

Activity: the best activity is of course the one that one will actually do so below is what I love to do and the ideal frequency that I aspire to but don't always achieve.
Walking: brisk hour walk 3-4 times a week
Running: 45 minute run at the MAF heart rate 2-3 times a week https://philmaffetone.com/what-is-the-maffetone-method/ sprint once a week. I usually to tabatas and a stationary bike http://www.marksdailyapple.com/15-reasons-to-sprint-more-this-year/

Hiking: I try to make Sunday my play day and that means a +10 mile hike

Lift: I learned a lot from doing Crossfit for 3 years which I no longer do. My home lifting workout uses body weight, kettle bells and a pull up bar. http://sanesolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/More-for-Less-Seriously-Scientifically-quick-start-guide.pdf

Stretch: I do yoga 3 times a week.

Other:
Fermented veggies: I make my own Kim chi, pickles, picked beats, pickled garlic etc….key to a healthy gut biom.

Intermittent fasting: I eat all my food in an 8 hour window. I don't think I could do this if I wasn't on a ketogenic diet. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-intermittent-fasting/

Nuts and cheese: love them and it's easy for me to binge on them so I take it very easy. I eat cheese once a month.

Meditation: 5-7 hours a week an hour or so at a time.

So here is an ideal day in the life:
Carbs 10%, protein 20%, fat 70%

5:00-5:30 wake up fairly easily have a pot of tea
Supplements: Vitamin D drops, probiotics
Mediate / run/ lift / yoga

8:00 begin work day

10:00 breakfast
Often avocado, coconut oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds (soaked, salted and dehydrated), soft boiled egg, a little Kim chi

Noon: Lunch: big meal of the day ~ 4 oz of meat, lots of veggies, avocado, butter, fermented veggies,

4:00 tea / bone broth soup with coconut oil

6:30 last meal of the day. cooked veggies / salad / avocado/ olive oil

Snack, if I get in late from a show or something I’ll have some full fat living yogurt, salt, Kim Chi and some chia seed

9:00 in bed asleep by 9:30

Good luck!

https://www.primalblueprint.com/what-is-the-primal-blueprint/
https://philmaffetone.com/what-is-the-maffetone-method/
http://garytaubes.com/works/books/why-we-get-fat/
http://www.artandscienceoflowcarb.com
http://drrosedale.com/healthplan#axzz4sf2g2UBo
https://www.westonaprice.org