Weight Loss for Men: 23 Tips to Blow Your Mind | Girls Chase

Weight Loss for Men: 23 Tips to Blow Your Mind

Chase Amante

Hey! Chase Amante here.

You've read all the free articles I can offer you for this month.

If you'd like to read more, I've got to ask for your help keeping the lights on at Girls Chase.

Click a plan below to sign up now and get right back to reading. It's only 99¢ the first month.

Already a GirlsChase.com subscriber? Log in here.

Eric Reeves's picture

weight loss for menNote from Chase: this is our second article from Eric, who wrote last week's fantastic piece "Making Your Seductions EFFICIENT;" his article  this time around is on weight loss. I've shed some pounds myself, mainly by tracking every last calorie I ate and cutting caloric intakes and portion sizes, but Eric's got far more info on this subject than I've ever come across in one place, and he's pared himself down from a pretty substantial body weight, too. Second article straight Eric's mustered up some roundly impressive stuff. Without further ado, here he is.


As I’m laying here writing this article I’m really feeling one main thing: elation. I really love my life right now. The french use a phrase to describe this ethereal feeling; they call it joie de vivre (zhwä duh veev-ruh), and there’s really only a few things that make me feel this way:

  • Women,
  • Self-growth,
  • Diet, and
  • Exercise.

I didn’t used to be this way... in fact I used to be quite overweight. And I don’t mean just a little extra here or there, I genuinely was fat. My body mass index (BMI) was close to obese (28.5) and I hadn’t exercised in 2-3 years.

I just sat on my butt every day and played video games, eating potato chips and drinking sprite all day long.

What little social life I had was gone, or took place over the Internet. My life went to shit, and while I wasn’t necessarily depressed... I certainly wasn’t happy.

So one day, I decided to change.

Today’s article is all about weight loss for men, and how you can shave all the extra pounds you’re carrying around off (not just a few of them), whether it’s a lot (like me before) or even just a little too much around your waistline.

Because today, I want to tell you how I went from almost-obese to mean, lean, and trim instead, and why today I get women telling me how great my body is.

Comments

Vaughn 's picture

How can I stop hunger pangs from coming while I'm working out or playing sports? I get so hungry and weak. I thought it was good to eat before you workout so you can have energy? I also almost threw up because my stomach was so empty while I was doing my activities. Can you explain this to me? Thanks

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Hey Vaughn

I too had this problem, and still do occasionally. I especially used to have this pretty bad when I first started out with martial arts. I would find myself either 1) wanting to puke, 2) out of breath and winded / faintish. Protein helped #1 and then I figured out purely by testing that gatorade helped me with #2.

Now I suggest two things for you:

Either have a small carb/protein drink or BCAA drink (like purple wraith or xtend) to give you some energy. If you're the low carb path you can try substituting with mct oil and see how that effects you.

As general rule of carbs is the lower body fat and harder the exercise the more you can afford to have.

You should also try cutting down your weights / exertion to 70% to allow yourself to adapt.

That being said, if you're losing weight there's really no reason to go to such lengths of FORCING yourself to do workouts on an empty stomach.

As for why this is happen, there are many reasons. It would depend on your current dieting habits (that of which I do not know) and lifestyle, as well as current fitness and the amount (and type) of exertion.

Hope that helps,
Eric

mindfulness's picture

Hey,

Interesting article, however I think there are some misconceptions and some of the information given may do more harm than good. Feel free not to post this comment, maybe it will make you consider to change a little bit the article itself.

"I’ve lost weight eating 4-5k (or more) calories per day."

I think it makes no sense to make such comments keeping in mind that people take a lot literally. Assuming slightly overweight person with little activity, calorie maintenance is around 2500, so you would have to burn via exercise associated thermogenesis around 3000 calories (to have 500 calorie deficit).... I think it is pointless to present such ideas to regular people that they could loose fat at 5000 kcals, unless they are a woodchopper working in woods form dusk till dawn.

• Fat loss and mobilization (de novo lipolysis) is stalled by insulin (de novo lipogenesis)

De novo lipogenesis is about converting carbs to fat, not just storing energy or preventing fat mobilization and certain coditions must be met for it to occur, like i.e. overfeeding with carbs for longer periods of time. De novo lipogensis is not a process that stops lipolisis. Lipolisys is triggered by hormone sensitive lipase and only two primary things that affect is activity are catecholamines and insulin, insulin inactivates HSL, so basically anything that rises insulin levels makes fat mobilization impossible, but it has nothing to do with de novo lipogenesis.

• Carbohydrates are excellent for growth (as well as fat gain)

Excessive calories are excellent for fat gain. If you eat high carb every day but don't go over maintenance calories you simply cannot gain fat. I cycle carbs and eat over 400 grams every other day, half of that are pure simple carbs and I still lose fat. Carbs end up as glucose in the bloodstream anyway.

• Sugars are treated as a scarce commodity and stored quickly

See above, too vague, such statements can sustain recently popular so called 'carbophobia'. Carbs can make you fat under certain conditions, via DNL (chronic overfeeding with carbs), inhibiting fat oxidation, especially if you are over maintenance, then all fat over maintenance will be stored net fat gain = fat consumed - fat oxidized.

Couple of random:

• It would be better to say that foods with high insulin index cause high insulin spikes, low GI foods can cause a lot larger insuling spikes that high GI food.

• Fat do also cause insulin release and if you consume fat lipolisys will be stopped.

• TEF for certain types of macros are the same for etiher whole food or liquid form, the difference is irrelevant.

• You can still get fat while in ketosis if you are over maintenance.

I think people can got lost in the information you provided, and losing fat is basically based on calorie deficit plus making lipolisys easy attainable and preventing leptin levels drop to much in the whole process.

I really think that the article has a lot of useful information I just don't think it was presented in the way that 'regular joe' could really benefit from.

Anyhow, thank you for running such a great source of wisdom :)

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Hey man, thanks for looking through this all and giving me some input. I actually do appreciate it, and helps me with writing (I'm not a writer and never really have been). Especially helps me with how I come off as which I'm always concerned with..

My intention by adding so many different extremes (such as 4-5k) and loading the reader with information was to remove any fear of fats/portion control. I seemed to focus more on fat being good and carbs being bad in this article, simply to destroy any lingering presumptions left over from mainstream dieting advice. I could have done a better job with supporting the carb side of the article, but these days in the mainstream and government view it's quite the opposite already. I'm also not looking to teach the reader how to grow but rather remove fat, and ketosis is very effective for this.

I would have to disagree on some points you have though (and agree on others). In descending order:

- I do agree the calories (and the 4-5k) ideology was overlooked a bit (but again, for reason)
- I'm not well read enough in the literature to address the granularity regarding de novo lipogenesis and its interference with lipolysis, unfortunately.
- I cycle carbs as well, and sometimes I'll even have 800g+. I'm actually messing around right now eating nothing but pizza (one meal per day, medium pepperoni pizza). I had 12 oreo doublestuf cakesters. I'm doing this to test how easy it is to lean out (from the garbage I shoveled over thanksgiving week and the week prior). Back to around 10% and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to keep losing
- Carb phobia is well founded and to be concerned about, it has it's uses. I won't disagree.

As for the random bits, GI and such is a bit of a grey territory to discuss if you're speaking from a chemistry point of view. There are lingering studies that show that nutrient type (whether fast or slow metabolized protein, or fast/slow carb) spike insulin in about the same amounts. Also, another thing on glycemic index is that it is poorly understood. From wikipedia: "A practical limitation of the glycemic index is that it does not take into account the amount of carbohydrate actually consumed. A related measure, the glycemic load, factors this in by multiplying the glycemic index of the food in question by the carbohydrate content of the actual serving". You'll also get people like kiefer from carbnite/backloading saying that lower glycemic index/load foods are worse than fast absorbing, because it keeps you in lipogenesis for longer periods of time (and thus limiting or deminishing the period you could be in fat burning).

Yes, you can also get fat on ketosis. But even Robb Wolf has trouble considering how this is possible. In one podcast of his he says something along the lines of: "Are people shoveling down quarts of cream every day with every meal?". The general idea is not to worry on calories but focus on the more important aspect of staying in a ketogenic state.

Anyways, thanks for the input. Hope I hit some concerns of yours about the article. I probably won't go into this much further because I don't want to bog down readers even more than already -- this was quite the article information wise already.

- Eric

------
EDIT: I just realized that I accidentally skipped over the part of you mentioning thermogenesis. I didn't want to leave this unspoken because it's somewhat important. Yes, there is the first law of thermodynamics. But, the caloric model tends to be a horrible model for diet, because the body treats each nutrient differently. Our focus is better pointed towards modifying our nutrient partitioning. Take a look at the bulletproof exec: He's low body fat and eats 4-5k calories a day. He also rarely exercises. The caloric model says this is impossible. There was also that one guy who has not ingested food nor water for the past 70 years (for religious reasons), and he is apparently as fit as a fiddle.

mindfulness's picture

Hello Eric,

I really thought you would not post my comment, I wanted to make some remarks rather out of the public than show it under article, it could sound a little harsh and my English could have been better to make it sound more friendly.

Basically we would have to go deeper down in the nuances and probably most of the readers would not benefit from it, so I'll try to write more generally now and sum up at the end.

Fat/carbs 'war' is all about context, basically everything is about context. If you know what to do either fat or carbs are your friend or enemy at certain times.

Yes, as you said you can have over 800 carbs and still loose fat, it is all about context. If you are glycogen depleted, pretty low on BF, have been in calorie deficit for last several days, you need to reset you leptin levels, and as long as you are not overfeeding with carbs for longer period of time nothing will get converted to fat via DNL, like if you eat those 800g carbs in 12 to 24 hours. One thing to keep in mind with refeeding like this is that one needs to keep fat to absolute minimum, all of it will be stored, so it can't be really eating anything one wants as much as one wants.

Problem most people have is that they eat very dense caloric food in excess, that is why all the 'fast food' is labeled as really bad. You eat two big macs with fries and coke in one sitting and you almost got 2000 calories, and that number of calories is around calorie requirement for regular joe having a desk job. Apart the fact that there are almost no vitamines, minerals etc. and I don't recommend this kind of food generally, the fact is that this food is roughly as good as any other, as long as you are not overeating.

You said you are experimenting and eat pizza, yes you can eat pizza and still loose fat, what it important is how much you eat it. That is also why 'eating whole food' etc. is labeled as good, it is less dense in calories and it will keep one more full for longer period of times and this lead to eating less calories in the end.

If it fits your macros and caloric requirements for loosing fat is all good (roughly), I don't want to support eating not healthy, but some of the readers might get headache if I told them what I eat and I'm under 10% all the time, with a lot of strength, like benching around 1.7 of my weight, all natural.

As for insulin, it is all about context again, some time you need it some times you don't. I wouldn't really attach myself to insulin index and GI as long as your body will be able to get into lipolisys mode. As a side note, fat burning process consists mainly from three stages, lipolisys (mobilization), transportation to skeletal muscles and then oxidation, so one can keep in mind than even if one managed to achieve state of lipolisis that fat still may not be burned at all and free fatty acids will be reestrified, they will go back to where they came from.

Even the link from wikipedia says that fast absorbing carbs can be better because insulin level will go down quickly and no insulin means HSL can do its job and inform cells to release fatty acids. That is way intermittent fasting works so well, you basically for most of the day are in a state that favors lipolisys.

As for ketosis, the fact that body is using ketones for energy it does not mean excessive energy will not be stored as fat, it just won't dissapear. The two examples are just anecdotal evidences and I think we should not take into consideration some extremes that probably are not even real (like not eating for 70 years, even if it was possible for one man it still proves nothing for 99,99% of the people).

To sum up, I really can't agree that caloric model is a horrible model, I think it would be better to say that calories in and calories out are the core, the fundamentals you can build on and then you choose ketosis, IF, paleo or any other diet that fits you, but you still have to count calories.

And even if one is not aiming to build great physique, one should do some kind of resistance training (2-3 times a week is enough then) to improve calorie partioning and prevent body from reaching for muscles when in calorie deficit.

Thanks for the discussion Eric. Wanted to wish everybody good luck in they journey to great body, it is really achievable, just like learning seduction, it takes time and need you to be persistent :)

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Hah, yes I don't really know who accepted your post but I would have regardless. I enjoy open conversation, although I can't say I prefer it in this medium of small blog comment boxes.

We've certainly taken up a lot of space in just 2-3 comments.

Make sure you get on the forum when able, would love to have you in the community.

- Eric

Maxz's picture

Great article Eric.

I too have lost weight in the past year, about forty pounds total. I'm down to about 175 pounds. And I did it by simply cutting out all the junk food and giving up on cereal and milk. I went on the Subway diet. Yes the same Subway that sells sandwiches, and it worked. Color me surprised. But now that I lost the weight I need to build up some mucsle, gotta get myself out to the gym.

This site is the best self help site I've stumbled upon. Great work Chase.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Hey Maxz

That's awesome that you lost so much, most people don't have the motivation to change like that. Just be mindful, as most dieters who lose weight tend to put it back on quickly.

I too did something similar, I started out by cutting sodas and junk food. I stopped milk too even though I loved (and still do <3) it.

Make sure you lift HEAVY. Try a program like stronglifts, 5x5, etc.

- Eric

Anonymous's picture

Hey, was asking chase for an article like this last week, thanks!
Just some questions as I mold this advice to me (I can't follow all these ideas practically):
Is consuming any amount of protein good as long as it is put off by fat?
How do you measure carbs and I'm not supposed to go over 30g am I?
How long until results were noticeable for you?

Thanks.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

My friend has this problem. For him it's a combination of budget and his stubborn parents.

I recommended IF (intermittent fasting) to my friend (and to you) as it's incredibly dynamic, flexible, and able to fit to really any schedule. Even a small change such as not eating for one day out of the week will put you in a huge caloric deficit.

In regards to fat / protein ratios.. Ignore this unless you're dedicated to ketosis. If you're not in ketosis, or aiming to be, it's really just extra calories you're loading yourself with.

Measuring salads and such are harder to measure carbs wise, but they are pretty low carb. As for the rest, it's easy to just check the label and see how many carbs there are. Subtract fiber from the total carbohydrates and you have the number that you need to keep under 30g.

Results? Well I don't really remember. Typically with ketosis and low carb you'll start dropping weight immediately, upwards of 10 lbs in a couple weeks. A lot of this is glycogen / water depletion (especially the first week), but some is fat too.

Feel free to ask lingering questions, I'll try to answer them as best as I possibly can.

Cheers

Phil's picture

Eric,

Glad you made this article. I just want to note to everyone that those other diets will work when followed, but they aren't as efficient or as healthy as fasting. And since we are all about the law of least effort fasting is definitely the way to go. Also testosterone is drived from cholesterol! More of a reason to eat more fats specially meat and whole EGGS high in cholesterol. I tell all of my friends and strangers that I eat 2 1/2 dozen whole eggs a week they freak out and start saying I must have high cholesterol. False! It's the opposite. Once I started eating more fats like eggs with olive oil my weight dropped quickly. I felt great. I have a few questions tho.. How much protein a day to you recommend? Currently I eat 56g the recommend daily allowance. I learned my lesson with protein when I was eating 200g(my bodyweight) everyday, I gained 10 lbs in about a week!. Also do you have any tips on buying whole foods in bulk? I tried the warrior diet which is a fasting diet that promotes whole foods a few months ago and I just went broke. Now I'm back to the 3 squares a day. Great 2 nd article Eric, keep up the solid work!

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Hey Phil, it's great to speak to fellow IFers.

Funny, cholesterol is present all over the body. As we gain in mass we also gain in cholesterol deposits, and scientists correlated this as cholesterol -> fat / unhealthy / heart disease. Kinda like stepping outside while it's raining and seeing everyone with umbrellas. Thus the umbrellas are the cause of the rain. It's silly.. sigh

As for macro nutrient ratios, it partially depends on exercise. I wouldn't be too worried about how much protein you get though. Supplementing with protein tends to be a waste of money, and is not particularly useful.

It also depends on your goals.. If you're trying to lean gain, and you want to be a bodybuilder, then you'll need A LOT more protein. You might be better off with different programs like carb backloading.

One thing to note is that in IF, it doesn't seem to matter too much when it comes to ratios. If you shovel in lots of protein/fat but low carbs, the huge amount of food is going to spike your insulin HIGH. If you shovel in lots of carbs and no protein or fat, the same will happen.

Budgeting can be tough, but also easy when you're trying to bulk. Try to stay away from low carb, because again (and one of the reasons the government advocates bread) it's not very cost efficient.

Buy 5 lbs of rice or more (white sticky rice is good)
Buy bacon in bulk packs
Buy meat that is grain fed
Buy the cheapest milk gallons you can get.
Buy the 5-dozen egg packs (safeway or costco)
Bananas are good as well.

We're not concerned too much about health here (because again, bulking assumes you're at a decent health/bodyfat levels anyhow), so whole foods don't matter too much. Grain fed meats have no omega 3's, but also less oemga6s, so the benefits grass fed become negligible when you start trying to bulk / shovel food.

Hope that helps bro

- Eric

-----

Edit: One other thing about bulking, try to not go too high in bodyfat levels. Bodyfat is strongly correlated with insulin resistance, so the higher you go the less nutrient uptake. It's often why bodybuilders cycle cutting and bulking, it's easy to put on mass when at low bodyfat.

Anonymous's picture

any tips for those like me who lost alot of weight and now have some type of man boobs?

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

This actually gave me a chuckle, you were so short and blunt with your question. Caught me off guard.

There's two things you can do:

1) Get lower body fat
2) Gain muscle

If you still have problems with excess fat at low levels of bodyfat (<12%), it's likely subcutaneous and you'll have some difficulty getting rid of it at that point. Muscle really helps here, because you can have more fat but still be at a low body fat level. If neither helps then you're stuck with surgery or some sort of cryotherapy to destroy the fat cells. If you're at such low bodyfat levels though you'll likely have abs, and at that point worry about your body image is somewhat excessive, so don't worry about it too much.

Just keep chiseling away at your body, you'll get what you want soon enough.

Phil's picture

Eric

Thanks for the reply. IF definitely helped me more than any other diet. i was getting sick of cooking for every 2 hours. IF is more of a convenience with better results. I also learned bulking the hard way last year. I lost 25lbs then started bulking and gained all that weight back and probably only gained 2lbs of muscle if that. This also proved to me that most supplements are a waste. Like you noted all that extra protein turns to sugar. Not ideal for losing or gaining! I found that the best supplement after a good work out is chocolate milk. You get your macros, micros, simple sugars, and BCAAs. It's much tastier then the protein shakes. Anyone should try it out if you drink milk. Also to add a little to your car analogy and cholesterol.. I always heard cholesterol is oil for our bodies, or lubricant. It's in every part of us and lubricates every organ. Just like oil in a car, if you put good oil in your car it runs smoothly, if your put bad oil in your car it's sluggish, if you run out of oil your engine ceases. It's ideally the same for our bodies.. Good food=good oil=High HDL, bad food=bad oil=high LDL. Again thanks, will definitely put some trial and error into my protein intake.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

No problem.

I LOVE chocolate milk. That and coconut water are my favorite post-workout drinks. Tastes even better with a frother..

Check this out it's an awesome and hilarious read of a guy who did a crazy bulk/cut/bulk:

http://www.biggersmallerbigger.com/
http://www.biggersmallerbigger.com/phase-one

"The lady behind the deli counter is perplexed. You want all of them? she asks, eying the 9 already-cooked Mediterranean chicken breasts.

I tell her I’m not sure. Just that I need however many equals three pounds.

People generally order one or two pieces for lunch, she says. Not by the pound.

I tell her that I understand, but I need a pound and a half of meat for my lunch every day.

This really confuses her."

Walls's picture

I've never been over 155lbs... I'm an ectomorph with a high metabolism who runs. Before you say I'm lucky (I am), I am trying to gain weight in muscle. I've been lifting for about two and a half years. Got any tips on protein supplements and meal suggestions? I take a mass gaining casein protein called Up Your Mass at the moment only after workouts. I know plenty of exercises -- I need dieting advice, to gain more efficient weight in muscle.

Thanks Eric!

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I miss running! I broke my foot and can still only walk so far.

I don't know what your situation is or eat habits are like, so it's hard to suggest something specific for you..

I'd cut out running if that's possible.

I'm limited when it comes to bulking advice, I need to stay very light for my sports (rock climbing) so I don't often dwell in that area. I have posted a few tips above in the comments that you should check out.

If you're trying to build mass (especially from an ectomorph), the main focus is an energy surplus. So basically start shoveling food. Full? Shovel more.

One thing about ectomorphs -- they often have healthier eating habits. They primarily see food as a food source, and don't often snack and habitually eat smaller portions. So when people tell you to eat more, we don't mean a slightly larger bowl of rice.. we actually mean huge salad bowl sizes and lots of meat/milk. Think of in the lbs and gallons (per day) range not ounces.

Check out that page I linked above on the bulk/cut/bulk cycle a guy did.

As for the actual muscle growth, you'll need to challenge them with HEAVY weights. Check out stronglifts, 5x5, and other powerliftng programs.

- Eric

Rasui's picture

I was a little concerned at first when I saw a weight loss article. What with all the misinformation about weight loss on the internet. But you totally knocked it out of the park.

I've spent the last 9 months in the gym using LeanGains/IF and lost 65lbs of fat while putting on a solid chunk of muscle. Now I'm in the home stretch, another 10-15lbs of fat to go and I'll be in abs territory for the first time in my life. Needless to say I couldn't be more excited.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Keep at it, those last lbs suck because you start to get into "Good enough" territory like me, and stop caring about getting super lower like 5-7%.

Rasui is a cool name, where'd you get it from?

- Eric

Mack Julian 's picture

I hope all is well my question is pretty short how long did it take you to see your desired results..i guess in BMI and overall body composition I am assuming around 3 months

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Everything is great :)

I'm not sure how to answer this because I've never really been a logger so I don't have definitive time spans. When I jumped from 185->165, multiple times, that took me about 3 months yes. 3 months seems to be the key time frame.

Overall? It took me about 8 months or so to go down from 215 to 170 or below.
Took me half a year to get a body that I was comfortable with.
Still not satisfied with my body, I've been too lazy to get the last few bodyfat %.

Phil's picture

Hey Eric,

What's your opinion on soy? I've read in multiple nutrition books and articles that it messes up your hormone production(thyroid gland). I try to avoid it as much as possible but it's like sugar, it's in everything now.

To anyone that plays sports, try taking shots of coffee creamer before your game for energy. I did this when I played hockey, the whole team did actually and it worked great.

Also I want to warn anybody that bodybuilds. If you bulk and cut and bulk and cut, I'm warning you now you will be very fat when your older... Here is why.. When you bulk you have an excess amount of calories. All of those extra calories make you fat! Even protein calories. No extra protein won't make you stronger or leaner. Everytime you have extra calories or are bulking your body creates fat cells. This is where fat gets stored(obviously). Your body cannot destroy fat cells! So as time goes by it will get harder to cut and easier to bulk. Eventually you have a lot of extra fat cells to store fat, and that is exactly what your body will do store fat. So in 5 or 10 yrs you'll be fat an it'll take months maybe years to Lose it all again.

From my own trial and errors I highly advise bodyweight exercises, specially if you have an injury or a prior injury that didn't heal correctly. Bodybuilding just absolutely destroyed my joints and it will get yours eventually as well! Calisthenics healed all my injuries. Read the book convict conditioning. It's well worth the price.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I try to stay away from soy in general, but if it's in a product I don't worry about it too much..

Get your teammates having bulletproof coffee they'll be sweating before they even warm up.

Also about fat cells, unfortunately this is true. This is why you shouldn't ever let your body get too fat, it's a huge health problem. Fortunately, there are some ways around this that have some promise.. You can potentially cause cell death by doing a few things:

Cyclic Ketosis (ketosis with a huge refeed once a week)
Intermittent Fasting
(and other stuff like surgery, etc)

I <3 calisthenics too.

student of the game's picture

hi Eric nice post looking to more in the future.i have always been skinny and i want to start putting on lean muscle.so i heard i should take whey protein to immediately start replenishing my body sugars and casein protein just before bed and in the morning to slowly release energy and this is every workout is this good and whats your take on eating from fast food restaurants like McDonalds?they normally have a lot of protein per serving?thanks and i am looking forward to your next post:)

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Shovel food.

Don't be concerned about the health or types of foods. Be concerned about how much and portion sizes. Progressively have bigger portion sizes every day.

When you're not hungry, but not full, shovel food. It's okay to get full enough to where if you hiccup it'll hurt.

Don't do this without lifting heavy weights (powerlifting). Bodybuilding workouts won't work without steroids.

Look at tips above for bulking.

:)

InterKnight's picture

Hey Eric,
Learnt so much from looking around the web thanks to this article sparking interest. Still very vague on a lot but I'm learning.

You recommended IF to me like your friend, I started yesterday. During my eating Windows I should still be eating fats and also vegetables and so on?
I've found Avocado to be quite tasty during Lunch and water constantly.

Now on the note of coffee, during the early morning where I'm not eating due to fasting until 1pm will a normal coffee stop my body from fasting? I've noticed that Coffee you linked, but I'm talking about a normal flat white made with normal milk and no sugar, or am I fine to drink that?

Thanks man.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

You said no sugar.. the problem is that milk has lactose which unfortunately is in fact a sugar.

Animal fats are positively correlated with longevity, so it would be a good idea to get them. Avocados are good too.

There's two sides to the coffee, where IF proponents will say no calories.
Bullet proof exec and I say bulletproof coffee is awesome.

A regular coffee with milk will definitely kick you out of fasting, and while it's not going to kick you out for long it will interrupt the fast long enough to deem it ineffective.

Coffee with heavy cream would work but I would stay away from ingesting extra fats and calories if you don't need to and aren't experienced with ketosis / high fat diets. The MCT Oil part of the coffee really kicks you into overdrive, and is a huge part of the blend. I wouldn't recommend calories during a fast for you.

- Eric

Edit: I noticed you're only fasting until 1pm. A really really good and fun way to lose weight is to keep shrinking your eating window. So go from eating 1pm to 8pm to 1pm to 6pm, then 3pm to 5pm. Eventually you'll get to one meal per day, and if you do this that means you can eat as much garbage you want in an hour timespan. So like an entire medium pizza would be 2k-2.5k cals or something, and you'll be pretty full and still losing weight (if you don't keep eating afterwards) eating a pizza once every day.

Knight's picture

Today (my second day of learning about IF) I went 3pm to 6pm.
Will get smaller still!
So you're saying I can eat anything in that time frame?
I ate avocado, peanut butter, cream and other stuff at 3pm. Then, at 6pm I just ate a normal dinner and drank a chocolate smoothie (couldn't resist) as well as 3L of water over the day. I noticed already I'm getting full from eating WAAAY less than usual. :)

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Yeah you're doing great.

I try to break my fasts using fat, so I can blunt nutrient uptake by reducing the insulin spikes. It'll also prolong ketogenesis.

Try for moderation, sometimes you'll find yourself to be able 2-3k in one meal, which is fine but try to eat to satiety.

Don't be afraid to skip days either, it's really not a big deal and is actually quite healthy (insulin levels are realllyyyy low and this is good for fixing insulin resistance, and you'll also get cell death and new cell production -- autophagy -- which is like "cleaning" the system of toxins).

Eric

Knight's picture

Ah yes,
Might try a full day every week. During breaking my fast I've been enjoying my meals way more. At first I was confused and was trying to only eat heaps of fat but now I understand I should just eat whole foods mostly during breaking my fast. Tomorrow will be tough with school, I'll go to the shopping centre and prepare for 3pm (my goal for tomorrows break). Would you recommend still swapping most milk out for coconut milk? Also, what should I do for bread? I find breaking from bread the hardest, lasted three days without it since this advice but gave in today.

Sorry for all the questions, I've done lots of research on my own part but I see you as a very trusted source. :)

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Swapping milk out for coconut milk is an excellent idea. Go for the unsweetened kind if you can find it however. However, If it's sweetened and ends up having more carbs than whole milk I'm unsure if the benefits outweigh it

Cut out bread.

You'll find it easier if you find foods you love that you've been abstaining from (until recently of course).

A little every so often won't hurt you, and the gluten/anti-nutrient paleo thing is kinda unfounded (there is emerging evidence found of humans eating it 100k years ago, or something), but bread is still very carb dense and tends to be addicting.

I've heard of people taking anti-opiates/addiction pills because they've been so addicted. Heh...

That's quite alright about questions, I'd prefer you come to me. Just don't always trust what I say, if you see me saying something weird or have evidence to the contrary just call me out on it.

- Eric

Phil's picture

Eric,

Just had my first cup of bullet proof coffee, and I feel fantastic and had to take off the sweat shirt. This stuff is amazing and will definitely be my fast breaker. Will also inform my team mates. Also I've been teaching myself nutrition for about 2 yrs and I've learned more from this article than any other book or article combined. Props to you bro.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Haha I love this.

It's great because the butter doesn't emulsify as much as cream, and thus not watering down the coffee. It stays strong but you get the creamy top.

Did you add mct oil or just butter? If you add mct you'll be in overdrive. I have it every time I leave the house, it makes me super motivated (as a preworkout drink does). It helps incredibly with a seductive state.. food is such a powerful drug it's incredible.

You'll find that the better your body gets at breaking down fats the more and quicker you'll start getting super hot / energy.

Thanks, I had to spend a lot of time. Like Chase, I became obsessed (with diet, rather than seduction). I spent a year or two as well, but I've been spending 3-4 hours a day researching (out of pure enjoyment). I've lost a lot of time I could have spent otherwise, but now I know that for the rest of my life I'll have no problem managing my health and body. I'll also be able to help others do the same, and it makes me incredibly happy seeing the responses and willingness of the people (like you) on this site.

Glad to be here,
Eric

Anonymous's picture

"Your insulin resistance increases throughout the day, so insulin-spiking foods should be saved for the evening"

this is plain wrong, insulin resistance is BAD because your pancreas needs to produce higher amounts of insulin to moderate blood sugar

insulin spiking foods late at night?!? Sure, if you want to get on the fast track to DIABETES...

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I'm sorry but your argument isn't very clear..

What are you trying to say?

Insulin resistance isn't a bad thing on it's own, and isn't the only cause of Diabetes. The idea about the liver/pancreas simply giving up on producing insulin because it's tired is unfounded.

On top of that, if you save your insulin spiking foods for later, that means you spent an entire day with a low amount of required insulin.

What makes you think that simply being insulin resistant is the cause of diabetes?

There are many things that add up to causing diabetes, and one of them is called metabolic syndrome:

Metabolic syndrome is defined as the presence of any three of the following conditions:
waist measurement of 40 inches or more for men and 35 inches or more for women
triglyceride levels of 150 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or above, or taking medication for elevated triglyceride levels
HDL, or "good," cholesterol level below 40 mg/dL for men and below 50 mg/dL for women, or taking medication for low HDL levels
blood pressure levels of 130/85 or above, or taking medication for elevated blood pressure levels
fasting blood glucose levels of 100 mg/dL or above, or taking medication for elevated blood glucose levels

A large part of this is fasting blood glucose levels. If you can last the entire day without having glucose and still have normalized glucose levels, what makes you think that an insulin spike later in the day is going to cause diabetes?

I'm sorry but your comment is almost entirely unfounded, and it's frustrating seeing people jumping to conclusions based on half-assed assertions.

Also, there's another thing that you need to realize.

You don't have right the say something like "That's just plain wrong, my way is correct". No one does.

It's why medicine is called "Practicing Medicine". Being stubborn and throwing out an idea just because your past experiences or knowledge don't agree with it is dogmatic, foolish, and naive. We're always learning and saying something so definitive such as "No, this is how it works" without proper research leads to uninformed and even dangerous advice.

It's "guilty or not guilty" in the US court system, not "guilty or innocent".

Challenge the status quo, don't enforce it.

- Eric

Phil's picture

Eric,

I made the coffee with the aforementioned grassfed butter and coconut oil(neutral taste). I went to whole foods and asked if they had mct oil, the lady assistant knew her supplements and told me they only have coconut oil which has MCTs. I'm also pretty sure MCT oils are made with coconut. Correct me if im wrong. Luckily for me the oil has a neutral taste so my coffee doesnt taste like coconut. This combination gave me an awesome feeling. Like you said, I was extremely seductive. I also noticed my sex drive increase(my girl loved this), I was very calm(although I was sweating), happy, extremely social, and comfortable. It's good to hear you are obsessed with dieting/nutrition, I did not think there were people as crazy as me. Agreed that food is a great medication, my favorite actually.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

Good to see you're using grass-fed butter. Anything else grosses me out now..

You need A LOT of coconut to get a good amount of mct, something like 5x as much? I can't recall.

http://www.amazon.com/Now-Foods-MCT-Oil-Multi-Pack/dp/B0041TXXLO/ref=sr_...

I buy in bulk in packs of 4 here, saves me a lot of money.. Each one is about $14-$15, and lasts me about a month.

Get about 2-3 tablespoons of that in your coffee. Careful on taking it without food or butter, it'll go through right you and give you the shits. Possible cramping.

I hope some people will see your posts about the coffee, and be more inclined to try it. Maybe it'll become a girlschase staple for state control, hah.

- Eric

calcitriol's picture

Hey Eric, nice job with your article. You do a good job of maintaining a focused, positive energy much like the other authors on this site. I can't resist giving some feedback/making a few comments, for this topic is near to my heart if you'll pardon the pun. I know mindfulness has already touched on a few points, and I agree with his point that context is significant with regards to this topic; hopefully I'm not being redundant. First, I think it's important to make a disclaimer to patients with chronic diseases/therapies (for example chronic kidney disease, cirrhosis, diabetes, patients on long term anticoagulation etc.) that they should at least inform their physician(s) before initiating significant lifestyle changes in this regard. Also, the physiology of cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism and the pharmacology of lipid medications is still somewhat controversial in the scientific and medical community. One other point is that the primary source of energy for the brain is glucose. At any rate, nice job! Keep up the good work, I'll be looking for more of your work on the blog.

Oh and regarding vitamin D toxicity (as a disclaimer I may be biased in this area if you notice my user name) it is very rare, but possible at doses around more than 40,000 IUs daily.

Dan

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I agree wholeheartedly with you Dan. I was brought up the concerns by mindfulness, and while I don't particularly agree with some of the methods of thinking (caloric models are often the status quo solution and don't effectively help those who are stuck), I did I touched on both topics very lightly.

However, I do also believe that I should spent more time dedicated to these couple topics. I was focused on the problem solving for those who have had issues losing weight and providng them a (very efficient) solution, but I'll take your comment to heart as well by speaking to Chase about adding a disclaimer. I can't edit the post myself (as far as I'm aware), but I'll add a section for safety/concerns/etc.

Thanks for the post, I appreciate it. It helps hearing a warm post rather than some comments I may get that are like NOO!!! THIS IS BADD!!!

If you don't mind me asking, what's your story?

Unfortunately with cholesterol, neither side has ry has definitive evidence. The main thing that everyone seems to agree on however is that body fat levels are a main predictor of health (especially visceral), so I'd like to focus our energy on that.

As for the brain needing glucose, yes -- about 20-30% requires energy from glucose (if you're fully keto-adapted). This is made easily through gluconeogenesis from proteins, which is why I don't advocate 100% fat diets (unless you're stuck and have tried everything to try and cure something like migraines). It has no qualms really about using ketones as a primary energy source.

- Eric

calcitriol's picture

I've been busy and away for a good portion of the month, thanks for your reply. You make good arguments for your points, and I believe that this article will help many men (and probably women) move towards achieving their fitness goals. I'd say I've been conditioned to be more conservative with lifestyle and pharmacological interventions, which brings me to my story (thank you for asking by the way); I'm a pharmacy student, and my primary interests include synthetic chemistry, critical care, and edocrinology. I happened upon this site last summer after searching for the "law of least effort" which I had heard someone mention but I was not familiar with, and I really enjoyed the analytical and aforementioned positive/motivational nature of the content. I also find it to be quite applicable to various relationships and forms of human interaction. I've always found the chemistry, physiological role, and metabolic pathways of vitamin D to be highly interesting and challenging; it also works well as a user name with regards to my first initial. How about you, what is your story? You certainly did a good job of compiling and analyzing the dietary information.

Regarding the cholesterol, the CHEST and ACC guidelines still recommend LDL as the primary target based on the statin studies, although more studies are in progress regarding the so-called pleiotropic effect. More studies are also being conducted regarding the effect of the size and hardness of chylomicrons. Pretty interesting stuff, but I doubt Chase would recommend it as first date material...

Anyway nice job! I enjoyed your article and reply, and I'll continue to look for your material.

Dan

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I'm quite pasty myself lately (and sick), need my vitamin D.

As for my personal story, it's not much. Just what I described above in the article, I was unsatisfied. I somehow managed to dive in quite deep into the subject.

That's unfortunate about the statin stuff, it's become quite common to be thrown around. I've had friends prescribed them simply due to having a high total cholesterol count, regardless of their healthy ratios and low amounts of small particles.

I'm looking forward to writing more (although demanding, it's worth it)

I missed responding to this earlier, but happy late new years Danny

- Eric

Anonymous's picture

Hello

I tried to read the article and got halfway through and i got confused.

Can you summarize in a paragraph how to lose weight?

I have been trying to lose weight for 2 years but still can't get the spare tire off my midsection.

Mike

Phil's picture

Hey mike,

I'm not the best at paraphrasing so hopefully Eric can help. However if your trying to lose stubborn belly fat fasting and ketosis will definitely help, actually they are in my opinion the best when it comes to stubborn fat. Fasting means you don't eat for say 20 hours and then the other 4 hours of the day you can eat. Or you can not eat for 16 and then for 8 hours you can eat. Ketosis is a state at which your body is using fat for energy. To enter ketosis one will have to eat fatty meals with protein. Carbs kick you out of ketosis because your body will use them for energy instead of fat, so it's reccomened to eat very little carbs.. 30g or less. Try to eat healthy foods... No processed foods or stuff with sugar. So basically lean protein, carbs(30g or less per day), healthy fats(lots of it). Eat minimal fruits, unlimited veggies. Fasting and ketosis are both frowned upon to a ton of professionals and other common people and are not considered normal by any means. They are very effective though. If your still confused I would highly reccomend re-reading the article until you understand. Dieting is a really frustrating topic to comprehend, if you dont get discouraged you will inevitably understand. Eric really nailed weightloss in this post, it's definitely worth reading start to finish.

Author
Eric Reeves's picture

I sent a final section -- on how to fail, and a summary of how to proceed, as well as general concerns -- to Chase to update with. Not sure when it will be up, but I think I covered a good amount of mike's troubles.

Lepre's picture

Hi Eric,
i've gone through a similar process in the last 6 years. Lost weight in the first 3 (first 2 by brute force excercising, then i finally changed my diet for the better) then experimented the other 3. Now i'm mostly constant weight but i want to reach 10-12% body fat and see my abs which never happened before :)
For some reasons i never really considered to go keto. Then i discovered fasting and now you convinced me to try ketogenic diet too. Recently i was messing up with Eat stop eat (just fast 1/2 days a week) and Intermittent fasting.

My first questions are about bulletproof coffee: i tried it 2 times already and it tasted fine. I didn't have to much of a kick but it was noticeable, maybe too little butter (10-15g in a mug of coffee). Also i didn't have any MCT at hand.
- does bulletproof coffee actually ends a fast? It wasn't clear in your post.
- I found MCT in powder form, is it any good or better stick with coconut oil?

Secondly:
- dairy/milk: is it important to have them from grass-fed/organic sources?
- eggs: is it important to have them from free chickens (not caged)?
- cheese: which kinds do you recommend? i'm guessing 20months+ with tends to have 0 carbs?

Thirdly:
i'm two days into this. The first day i ate only in the evening (continuing my IF from the days before). The second day i wanted to try bulletproof coffee so i had it for breakfast and then i had lunch (grilled salmon, 1 egg in butter, 100g+ cheese). Before lunch i went to the gym and in the afternoon the girl was over at my place for some extra activity. I wanted to skip dinner and fast to today but i felt very tired so i ate (3 eggs in butter, slice turkey breast in butter plus oil, some cheese again, tomato, some other few things).
The night was a mess and i couldn't sleep much (but i must say it was 2 days i was going to bed at 4am+). So obviously today i'm a mess too. This morning i had bulletproof coffee again and i'm waiting for lunch.
I go to the gym 3 times over 4 days (legs, chest/triceps/abs, back/biceps days).
- Do i need to eat more? or is this ok and i'm just going through adaptation?

If this is kind of too long/personal for publishing you can write me in private :)

Thanks man for the article!

Anonymous's picture

Hey lepre!

Sounds like you're very motivated and on the right path, which is awesome.. we just need to tweak some stuff.

To get down to the lower bodyfats, you'll typically need to focus on eating cleaner (less sugars and processed foods) while also eating less. I also don't really advocate bodybuilding style splits for exercising, as powerlifting programs such as stronglifts often work better.

No worries about it being long, I'm typing this up on my phone..

Grass-fed vs grain isn't too big of a worry, as long as you have seafood every so often. I would skip milk if you're ketoing it up, but I really stress that your butter is grassfed (salted is quite disgusting for coffee..)

Eggs are typically never worth having free roam because of costs..

Whiled buttered coffee (you want 2-3 tblspns butter typically) will give you energy, adding mct will put you in overdrive. I don't recommend coconut oil as you'll need a lot more. I don't have have any experience with the powdered form of mct but you'll want 20-30g in your coffee, which comes out to about 2-3 tblspns of the non powerded form.

As for keto adapting.. it can be TOUGH at lower bodyfat levels. You'll feel like garbage but make sure to eat lots of meat, and whenever you're hungry. I prefer fattier cuts like Ribeye and ground chuck over stuff like turkey and chicken.

Keep with it, but if it's too tough just focus on your eating windows and portion control.

Hope that helps,
Eric

Anonymous's picture

Wait, I'm not really sure I get it (nutritionists' articles have always been Greek to me) but does that mean that without exercizing, I can eat as much ham and eggs I want and lose fat, as long as I avoid pasta and so on, drink whole milk and eat butter?

Anonymous's picture

As long as you eat to satiety and not more. Stay away from milk, it's easy to bulk with.

I sent chase a revision which includes a list of how to fail.

Try to eat less of you can, but focus on satiety. Definitely if you don't exercise.

Mike K's picture

Hello

Awesome article but I have a problem about the NO breakfast thing. Every fitness guru, every fitness blog, every personal trailer, every nutritionist/dietetitian, practically everything out there tells us to ALWAYS EAT BREAKFAST.

Who should I believe?

Leave a Comment

One Date girl next to the number one

Get The Girl In Just One Date

It only takes one date to get the girl you want. Best of all, the date's easy to get… and girls love it.

Inside One Date, You'll Learn

  • How to build instant chemistry
  • Ways to easily create arousal
  • How to get girls to do what you want
  • The secret to a devoted girlfriend

…and more great Girls Chase Tech