In one of my previous post I discussed the idea of a high-fat diet, and for the last 6 months I have been doing my best to follow an example of that. Let me start off by saying that I have lost 30lbs since the holiday season 2015. Following a lifestyle where I try my best to not eat sugar, bread, pasta and I include as much healthy fat as I can tolerate.
I have not been following a strict ketogenic diet where I monitor my blood ketones and attempt to keep myself in a ketogenic state. To me that seemed like too much money and effort as I am all about keeping it simple and doing things that I think anyone can benefit from. That being said my way of eating over the last six months has made me a believer of this type of lifestyle. If you want to spend the money and go whole hog monitoring your blood on the daily then I think you will see some incredible results. However, I think the majority of us can become much healthier and fitter by following the guidelines without nerding out over the millimolars of ketones in our blood.
What to Eat?
- Nuts, Nuts, and more Nuts: Seriously I eat all kinds of nuts all the time, don't be afraid of the fat or the calories. My go-to would be pecans, almonds, cashews, and walnuts. Usually roasted and salted, stay away from other flavorings because most of those will have sugar in them
- Eggs: I usually eat 2-3 most days, fried, scrambled, poached, it doesn’t matter just eat them. I know people these days are afraid of heart disease but there are more and more studies coming out saying that there is no correlation between cholesterol from eggs and CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) http://ajcn.nutrition.org/ This may sound stupid but I always try to buy the most expensive eggs I can, farm raised, free range, blah blah blah...My reasoning is purely based on the nutritional value. If you have a chance crack open a cheap egg and an actual free range egg, preferably someone you know who has chickens. You will be amazed at the color difference in the yolk. The healthier the chickens are the darker and more orange the yolks will be. A cheap factory farmed style will be a pale translucent yellow. The moment I saw the difference I just said I’ll pay the 5 bucks per dozen.
- Avocados: A superfruit powerhouse, which is a must in any high fat diet. An excellent source of Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids. Add them to every meal.
- Meat: Steak, beef, pork, chicken, salmon, bacon, etc…One thing about this new diet is that I am seeking out more fat which ironically has made buying meat cheaper as I opt for higher fat content ground beef and chicken thighs instead of breast.
- Vegetables: Go for the leafy greens as much as possible but eat all vegetables. Potatoes and the really starchy ones I only eat on occasions, usually 2-3 times per week or if I know I have a strenuous workout the next day.
- Fruit: I tried to stay with berries or the occasional apple. I wouldn’t worry about eating any fruit but I would limit consumption as the point is to limit carb intake.
- Drinks: Black coffee!!! Or better yet try some coffee with grassfed butted and MCT oil. I usually use Kerrygold Irish butter and Onnit MCT Oil. You can also try the Emulsified MCT in Vanilla for those of you that want some flavoring. Of course stay away from sodas, sports drinks, anything loaded with sugar, and I personally just avoid diet sodas as I think those are just as bad for you. Drink Water, you will just feel and function better. I am not strict about drinking a certain number of ounces but I just try to drink water anytime I feel thirsty.
- Snacks/Treats: This is the one everyone wants to know. How do you fulfill your sweet-tooth? I almost always have some dark chocolate…now I know this has sugar and so I try to only have 85% or higher cacao. This limits the amount of sugar in it, and like I said I was never going full keto so I wasn’t worried about some carbs. I also think that the health benefits of dark chocolate outweigh the sugar if you are eating bars with a high cacao percentage.
Tips & Tricks
The thing that has helped me the most would be intermittent fasting. I usually don’t eat any breakfast and my first meals comes around lunch time. I will drink black coffee or water during this time, and from time to time have coffee with butter and MCT oil. If I do extremely hungry and I need to eat then I usually start snacking on nuts. I have noticed that the blood sugar spike I get from eating carbs in the morning makes it much harder to go longer periods of time without eating. So I try to avoid fruit until I am going to have my first meal.
The honest truth is that you are probably addicted to sugar. I know I was and the first few weeks were difficult. Some people seem to take to this diet almost instantly feeling more energized and less hungry, others will show definite withdrawal signs, which should help you to acknowledge that you were addicted in the first place.
Conclusion
As counter-intuitive as it may sound, eating copious amounts of fat have led me to lose 30lbs of fat off my body. I am the leanest I have ever been, and feel the least controlled by food that I have ever felt. If there is one takeaway that I want you to get from this it’s don’t be afraid to experiment on yourself. You can listen to me or not listen to me, but if what you are doing is not getting you to where you want to be, then don’t be afraid to try something different even if it goes against what others are telling you.
I would love to hear about your experiences with a high fat/keto diet.
TD