I almost never hear of people cooking with beef tallow, even in Primal circles. I hear about lard, duck fat, ghee, butter, olive oil, and avocado oil, but rarely tallow. Hey, those are all great, delicious fats, and they deserve their prestige, but I like sticking up for the little guy. I like an underdog. In this case, of course, the little guy comes courtesy of a big cloven-hoofed ungulate.
Another reason to try tallow: those of you experimenting with the carnivore diet will want to mix up your cooking fats here and there. Each one has a different nutritional profile.
To render beef tallow, you need to get your hands on some raw beef fat.
It’s called suet, and the best stuff for rendering is going to be solid and firm. Most suet comes from the tissue surrounding the kidneys and the loins, but any hard beef fat will do. What I did was buy steak and roast trimmings from a butcher. Grass-fed and grass-finished is best, but if you can’t find that, look for clean, organic meat. It should be inexpensive. If you can find a good butcher that deals with grass-fed meat, I’d imagine buying the fat trimmings is still fairly inexpensive and completely worth the extra effort.
I don’t know whether my batch was suet or not (I suspect there was at least a bit, judging from the thick, hard pieces that felt like cold butter when you sliced into them), and it did look a little ragged and hastily thrown together, but it was still fat. I wasn’t going to let a little uncertainty slow me down, for I was armed with the knowledge that fat can always be rendered.
Instructions
Using a chef’s knife, trim off any leftover tissue (it will be red or hard) and cut the fat into cubes. I’d read tons of contradictory information about particle size, with some recipes calling for larger, 1-inch cubes and others claiming finely diced or shredded fat got the best yield. When I rendered pre-shredded buffalo kidney fat, I went for shredded. So this time, I opted for cubes so I can test both ways. Shredding and cubing both work just fine.
So, after trimming the fat completely and removing all attached muscle meat and bloody tissue (this step is crucial, because meat and blood will only burn and ruin the purity of your tallow), I ended up with small cubes. Tiny bits of red are fine. You’ll end up straining later.
Dry rendering vs. wet rendering method
Here, I could choose to dry-render over the stove in a high quality pot, or do a wet-render and get the potentially purest tallow by boiling and then separating fat from water. I’d read about several different ways to render fat, but I chose two that seemed to make the most sense. The wet-render sounded tempting, if a bit messy and time-consuming, but I eventually passed on it. I settled on doing the traditional dry-render over super low heat on the stove top. I used enameled cast-iron pots and about a pound of cubed fat in each.
Stove top dry render method
The stove top fat started rendering almost right away, even with just a tiny flicker of a flame doing the heating. After about 20 minutes, the first sign of “cracklins”began to show: light brown shriveled up pieces of (former) fat bubbling around inside the newly rendered fat. I was initially worried that I was going too fast too soon, but that wasn’t the case. The cracklins were great, and they never burned. The fat remained pure and clear.
I used a fine mesh strainer and it was completely sufficient. The result was pure, delicious tallow that turned white in the fridge and was easy to scoop. If you look really closely, you can see some specks at the bottom of the jars, but you’d really have to look for them.
From my experience, both methods work equally well. If you like stay in the kitchen and tend to your dishes, go with the stove top method. As long as you keep an eye on it and keep the fat from sticking to the bottom, your fat will render much faster this way. If you want to go do other stuff while it renders, use the oven method. Other than keeping the heat low and occasionally popping in for a quick stir and scrape, you can pretty much set the clock and forget about the rendering.
Anyone ever use the wet-render method? Got any tips for my next batch of tallow? Let me know!
If you’ve read Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Workweek, you can just jump to the end of this post. For everyone else, I invite you to take a closer look at your relationship with time. Especially those of you who are too busy to spend, oh, I don’t know, 5 or so minutes reading this.
Somehow, “I’m busy” has become the new “I’m fine” in response to being asked how you are. I get it thought — I know you actually ARE busy, but stay with me here.
Whenever I’m working with new clients, they’ll typically tell me they don’t have time to sit down for a satiating, nutrient-dense breakfast, so they just grab a “quick toast and coffee.” Or they have too much going on and can’t get to bed on time. It’s not just a once-in-a-while-thing either. It’s day after day after day.
Sound like your life? If so, let me ask you this: why do some people seem to effortlessly crush their to-do lists and others find theirs growing out of control?
Seriously, There’s Not Enough Time
I never like to say “We all have the same 24 hours in the day,” because that logic is fundamentally flawed, and can come off sounding privileged. In truth, all of us are filling our 24 hours in different ways depending on our jobs, lives, families, hobbies, obligations, and unique life goings-on.
Sometimes I choose to be busy during my 24 hours because I have lots of things that are important to me — family, friends, my clients, my home life, my role at the Primal Health Coach Institute. And *usually* I like that because I enjoy my work and I like being productive.
I’m choosing to be busy because it leaves me feeling fulfilled. The problem arises when it leaves you feeling like a victim, like you can’t keep up, or like you just want to bury your head in the sand.
Lack of Time = Lack of Priorities
It all comes down to priorities. If better health or a leaner waistline was really important to you, you’d make it a priority. Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, you unknowingly put other, less important priorities in their place (everything from stewing over a mean comment on social media to worrying how you’re going to get it all done).1
Whenever you catch yourself having an I-don’t-have-enough-time moment, remember that what you’re spending your time on is a choice — and you always have options. This is the perfect time to take a step back and ask yourself these four questions:
What’s important here?
What’s not important?
Am I wasting time on things that aren’t important?
What else could I be doing with my time?
Go ahead and do this exercise with me for a sec. Get out a piece of paper (or the notes section on your phone) and jot down your daily schedule. What time do you typically get up? When do you go to bed? How much time do you spend at work? On social media? With your family? Daydreaming? Running errands? Working on your health?
Looking at your list, what are the three things you spend the most time on?
Like it or not, those three things are your priorities. How you spend your day reflects what you believe to be the most important. If that’s not sitting well with you — or you feel like you have an equal amount of priorities (even though that’s not actually possible), you’re in a good place to start making change.
Because when you learn to eliminate your non-priorities, you free up time to focus on what does matter to you.
How Do You Eliminate Non-Priorities?
It starts by taking things off the table that aren’t important or urgent. Research shows that having too many options can lead you to waste time attending to details that don’t matter or avoid a task altogether. In this experiment, a Columbia University professor set up a booth selling jams at a local farmers market. Every few hours she alternated between offering 24 jams and 6 jams. She found that 60% of the customers visited the booth when there was the larger assortment, however more people actually made purchases when there were fewer options.2
Not only that, when faced with tasks of mixed urgency and importance, participants in this study prioritized to-dos that were time-sensitive over ones that were less urgent but had a greater reward3 Researchers found that the effect was even more prominent in people who describe themselves as busy, adding that they were more likely to select an urgent task with a lower reward because they were fixated on the clock and “getting it done”.
But how do you determine what’s urgent and important? Enter the Eisenhower Matrix, named for the 34th U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower. It’s a prioritization framework (used by everyone from athletes to CEOs) that helps you eliminate time wasters in your life.
And in case you need proof that Eisenhower knew what he was talking about, during his two terms in office, he signed into law the first major piece of civil rights legislation since the end of the Civil War, he ended the Korean War, oh and he created NASA.
Eisenhower recognized that having a solid grasp of time management means you’ve got to do things that are important andurgent — and eliminate all the rest.
Important tasks get you closer to your goal, whether it’s wearing a smaller pant size or not feeling ravenous all day.
Urgent tasks are ones that demand your immediate attention, like a deadline or showing up on time for an appointment.
Once you’ve got that straight, you can overcome the tendency to focus on the unimportant tasks and instead, do what’s essential to your success, whatever that looks like for you.
Let’s Put the Matrix into Action
Using the questions below, you’ll be able to get a good handle on your priorities, evaluating which are urgent, which are important, and which can be delegated to someone else — or ditched altogether.
1. Does it have consequences for not taking immediate action and does it align with your goals?
ACTION STEP: DO IT. This is a task that’s both urgent and important, which means it’s a priority. And getting it done first will take a lot of pressure off your plate. Examples are:
Completing a project for work
Deep breathing when you’re stressed
Responding to certain emails
2. Does it bring you closer to your goals, but doesn’t have a clear deadline?
ACTION STEP: SCHEDULE IT. This is a task that’s important, but not urgent. Since it’s easy to procrastinate here, scheduling time to attend to it is your best bet. Examples are:
Working out
General self-care
Spending time with your family
3. Does it need to get done within a certain timeframe, but doesn’t require your specific skill set?
ACTION STEP: DELEGATE IT. This is a task that’s urgent, but not important — at least not important for you to do, specifically. Sure, it needs to get done, but you could probably pass off this task off to someone else, which frees up your time. Examples are:
Making sure the kids are ready for school
Shopping for groceries for the week
Meal prepping
4. Does it not have a deadline or get you closer to your goals?
ACTION STEP: DELETE IT. This is a task that’s not important or urgent. And it’s a huge time suck! It’s the kind of “task” that makes you wonder where all your time went. Using a browser blocker like Freedom can help a ton. Examples are:
Scrolling your social media feed
Playing online games
Worrying, obsessing, and stressing out about things that don’t matter
Bonus Tip: Figure out what time of day you’re the most focused. When do you tend to get a lot accomplished? Are you a morning person? A night owl? Knowing when you’re the most productive can help you get stuff done with less effort.
Now tell me what you think. Have you tried these strategies? What’s worked for you?
Before the complex tools, before the projectile weapons and the wheels and the civilization, hominids stood upright and walked—and it made all the difference. Bipedalism freed up their hands to carry objects and manipulate the world around them and see for miles and miles across the horizon. They did all this atop bare feet that closely resembled our own; millions-year old hominid footprints from East Africa look almost identical to ones you’d see today at the beach. Not much has changed down there.
That’s the entire basis for the barefoot running movement. We were born barefoot, we spent the vast majority of our prehistory barefoot and history wearing the scantest of minimalist footwear. It’s only in the last hundred years or so that we began entombing our feet in restrictive leather and rubber carapaces that deform our foot structure and alter our gait and tissue loading. Running in bare feet or in shoes that mimic the barefoot experience can help us move and land the way nature intended, thereby increasing running efficiency and reducing injury risk. The science is sound.
I’ve spoken at length of the terrible effect all that sitting we do has on our body. By taking gravity out of the equation, chairs weaken glutes, slacken hamstrings, tighten calves, and deactivate our overall lower body. That’s not even mentioning the poor posture, reduced cognitive function, and impaired fat-burning capacity. Shoes are even worse. They’re like chairs for our feet, only we wear them all day.
Barefoot walking. Barefoot hiking. Barefoot running. Barefoot sprints. Barefoot gardening, trash-taking-outing, dancing, cleaning. All good, all beneficial.
And now I want you to try barefoot lifting. But first, I’m going to tell you why.
Are there benefits to barefoot lifting? Absolutely.
Are there things to watch out for? Yes.
First, let’s explore the potential benefits of lifting weights barefoot.
Better Connection to the Ground
The sole of a shoe is a barrier between you and the ground. A middleman, an interface. This isn’t a deal-breaker. Obviously, people lift in shoes all the time. Most people lift in shoes, so it’s definitely doable and effective enough. But if you’re in bare feet, you are directly connected to the ground, giving you a solid base from which to defy gravity. The soles of your feet have better “cling” than the soles of your shoes.
This effect becomes more apparent on natural, uneven surfaces to which the bare foot can “mold” itself much better than a shoe. Ultimately, the barefoot lifter is closer to the ground with a more stable base than the shod lifter.
And the more solid the foundation, the stronger the house. The same is true for a barefooted person lifting heavy things—once you’re acclimated, you’ll be more powerful and grounded than ever before. Preliminary research suggests this to be the case:1
10 experienced lifters deadlifted for 4 sets of 4 reps in both shod and unshod conditions. Although being barefoot made no difference when it came to some of the performance measures, barefoot lifting did improve the rate of force development. The difference wasn’t massive, but it was there. Barefoot lifters were able to develop more force more quickly than when they were wearing shoes, suggesting that there is a “disconnect” between the shod foot and the ground that must be surmounted before force can develop. Barefoot lifters didn’t have that disconnect; they were connected from the get-go.
Better Proprioception
Proprioception is bodily awareness in space and movement. It’s knowing where your limbs are in relation to the rest of the environment. Good proprioception means you have an intuitive sense of what your body is doing and where it is as you move through the world—where your feet are, where your arms are, where your head is in relation to that tree branch coming right at you. It allows you to respond more effectively to the environment.
Good proprioception is a prerequisite for being a good dancer, a good dodgeball player, a good fighter or boxer.
To create proprioception, your nervous system utilizes all the sensory organs. What you see, hear, smell, and feel—and think. Shoes cut off your proprioceptive interface with the ground. Going barefoot re-establishes that interface, giving your nervous system access to all the data streaming in through the hundreds of nerves located on the soles of your feet.
Better Balance
A shod foot is a single piece, just a big blunt slab of meat atop which you totter. You balance on the soles of your shoes. One linear surface.
A bare foot is a composite of separate muscles and nerves and bones and fascia. You can situate your weight over different sections of your foot much more easily. You can “choose” to focus on balancing on, say, the forefoot, the midfoot, the heels, the sides, the toes, or the whole foot. Balance when barefoot lifting becomes a symphony of constituents all working together—and apart if you so choose.
Barefoot lifting provides a much richer stimulus to your vestibular system.
Better Foot Health
The foot contains dozens of muscles, most of which lie dormant inside a shoe. They go slack, they get weak, they aren’t engaged. Lifting in a shoe is fine but you’re leaving a lot of potential on the table. Now, this isn’t about hypertrophy of the foot muscles. Don’t expect “gains” down there. But you can expect a stronger, more resilient foot that can handle long walks or even runs with regular barefoot lifting. You can also expect fewer foot problems, like plantar fasciitis, provided you ease into your barefoot lifting.
Better Feel
As you can see, barefoot lifting isn’t really about hitting new PRs or extracting more raw power and performance from your body—although there’s a good case to be made that better balance and a more stable base can improve your numbers. It’s more about the entire feel of the lifting experience. It becomes more organic. More real. More Primal. When you’re in bare feet lifting heavy things, you feel like a civilized savage human doing real work.
Convinced? Good. Let’s make sure we do it safely.
First, read this post on how to prepare for the barefoot transition. It has a bunch of drills and exercises you can do to get your feet ready to go unshod. Next, read the following section.
Barefoot Lifting Tips to Keep in Mind
Keep these in mind to stay safe and avoid overuse injuries, especially if you’re new to barefoot training.
Collapsed Arches
The body is a piece. Every component matters. No muscle or joint is an island. Take the arches. If they collapse, is that all there is to it? Your arches collapse and everything else continues to work great?
Of course not.
Your arches collapse and your knee loses crucial support, caving inward. You get knee valgus, which throws off your hips and applies a ton of stress on your knee joint (at the wrong spots, no less). As you travel upstream of that collapsed arch, every joint is compromised. Every joint has to adjust for that initial deficit.
Ideally, your foot musculature forms the arch, is the arch. Most people, their shoes or their shoe inserts provide the arch support. If you’re inexperienced with barefoot movement and training, your arches might not be strong enough on their own to withstand heavy weights, and you shouldn’t take that support away and then expect to succeed with weights. If you are experienced, your arches can probably handle it. Mileage varies, then, depending on the state of your bare feet. Proceed with caution and avoid collapsed arches, especially under load.
No Heel
Olympic weightlifters wear lifting shoes with pronounced, sturdy heels. This raises the heel, reducing the amount of true ankle flexibility you need to get proper depth when squatting. It makes deep squats easier and arguably safer for elite athletes.
Someone like Kelly Starrett with optimal ankle mobility can hit those depths while barefoot, but not everyone has his mobility. If you’re accustomed to lifting in lifting shoes, particularly during squats, the transition to squatting in bare feet will be jarring. Maybe even dangerous, if you use the same weight and attempt to hit the same depth with the same knee angle.
Drop the Weight
With running, big bulky running shoes can mask the damage being done and artificially inflate the number of miles you log past your “natural” capacity. You can go farther, but at what cost?
Strength training isn’t as dynamic as running. It’s also lower impact, so it’s not as risky an endeavor. But you may have to bite the bullet, swallow your ego, and lower the weight a bit when you’re first starting out lifting in bare feet.
Don’t expect to push the weight you were handling in shoes, not right away at least.
Don’t Drop the Weight on Your Feet
This isn’t unique to bare feet: a pair of gym shoes isn’t going to protect your feet from an 80 pound dumbbell in rapid descent. But the advice does grow more urgent when you aren’t wearing any shoes at all.
I don’t think I need to say this, but you never know. Don’t drop weights on your bare feet.
Barefoot lifting can pay big dividends and be incredibly satisfying, as long as you do it safely and intelligently. Hopefully after today, you know how to get started.
Do you lift barefoot? What’s your favorite part about barefoot lifting? What do you get out of it?
Following up on last week’s big carnivore post, today I want to look at some of the main reasons people choose a carnivore diet in the first place.
There are those who just like meat a whole heckuva lot and don’t want to be bothered with vegetables, but I don’t think they represent the majority of the carnivore crowd. From what I can tell, most people come to the carnivore diet because they’re dealing with persistent health issues that aren’t being adequately resolved through conventional means. Maybe they’ve been trying something like Primal, paleo, or keto for a while, but there’s still room for improvement. Others are doing well but wish to see if they could achieve another level of awesomeness by doing something different or, dare I say, more extreme.
In these cases, carnivore is a sensible experiment for a number of reasons:
Carnivore diets combine the advantages of ketogenic and elimination diets, both of which are already popular for dealing with intractable health problems.
A nose-to-tail carnivorous diet is highly nutritious, providing bioavailable vitamins and minerals, plus plenty of protein, that the body needs.
If carnivore puts you in ketosis—and it almost certainly will—you get the anti-inflammatory benefits of ketones, plus mitochondrial biogenesis, increased fat-burning, appetite suppression, and more.
By removing potentially problematic plant foods, carnivore diets contain little or no:
FODMAPs
Oxalates
Lectins
Phytates
Glycoalkaloids
Salicylates
Carnivore lends itself to intermittent fasting and caloric restriction, both of which have noted health benefits.
You know I’m a fan of self-experimentation. Like any good scientist, you should start by educating yourself. In that spirit, today’s post is a roundup of available research. Use it as a jumping-off point for your own investigations if you are considering going carnivore. As always, I am not providing medical advice here. Please consult your doctors before using carnivore, or any diet, therapeutically.
What Does the Research Say?
Unfortunately, I can’t find any randomized controlled trials looking at carnivore for any health issue. There are a small number of published case studies, and Shawn Baker is currently trying to crowdfund some research. Otherwise, we have to rely on anecdotes and inferences from studies on other related diets (low-carb, high-protein, keto, low-FODMAP, and so on). Anecdotes are important, but they’ll never replace well-designed empirical studies. You can find confirmatory anecdotes supporting any of your beliefs if you find the right subreddit.
I pulled together the best of what I could find for today, but as you’ll see, we still have a lot to learn. The medical conditions included here are ones I’ve been asked about personally or that seem to be popular in carnivore forums. If you’d like me to address another in the future, drop me a comment below.
Carnivore Diets and Autoimmune Conditions
The carnivore diet has been launched into the public consciousness in large part thanks to people like Mikhaila Peterson, who credit carnivore with saving them from debilitating autoimmune illnesses. Using dietary interventions in this context is nothing new. There are more than 100 autoimmune conditions with different etiologies, triggers, and symptoms. What they usually have in common is gut dysbiosis and systemic inflammation. Removing pro-inflammatory, high-glycemic, insulinogenic foods is key to overcoming them.
Many folks are already using low-carb, ketogenic, or gluten-free diets to keep their symptoms at bay. The carnivore diet simply takes those a step further. But does it work? Anecdotally, yes, for some people anyway.
Does Carnivore Heal Leaky Gut?
Many doctors say that autoimmune issues “start in the gut,” since so many autoimmune conditions are characterized by increased intestinal permeability, commonly called leaky gut.1 Two main causes of leaky gut are imbalanced gut microbiome—having too many bad microbes and/or not enough of the good guys—and harmful compounds in food, such as gluten.
Carnivore eliminates plant foods, which are the source of most of those harmful compounds, and it offers a hard reset for the microbiome. One study showed profound microbial changes in the gut after just a few days of shifting to carnivore.2 Of course, different isn’t always better. I guarantee that an all-Oreo diet will produce some pretty profound changes, too, but I wouldn’t call them favorable.
In this case, though, we have some promising evidence from the Paleomedicina clinic in Hungary. They use a protocol they call the Paleolithic Ketogenic Diet (PKD), which starts out as full carnivore, though patients are ultimately allowed to include a small amount of approved, organic vegetables. Doctors administer a test called the PEG400 intestinal permeability test to all patients and claim great success in bringing patients into normal ranges with their protocol.3 However, the precise data is not published anywhere to my knowledge.
Carnivore for Arthritis
Mikhaila Peterson famously overcame debilitating rheumatoid arthritis with her all-meat diet. In his book The Carnivore Diet, carnivore drum-banger Shawn Baker claims that joint pain is frequently alleviated by carnivore, in his experience.
However, most research has focused on vegetarian diets. A few studies have demonstrated the benefits of a Mediterranean diet,4 and omega-3 supplementation5 for decreasing inflammation and pain among rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis patients. One small, short-term study found no significant benefit of a ketogenic diet.6
A single report from The Medical Journal of Australia in 1964 reports the success of using a high-protein, gluten-free diet to successfully put 20 rheumatoid arthritis patients into remission for a period of up to 18 months.7 Check out the author’s commentary from the discussion:
“When man changed from food-gatherer (nomadic hunter) to food-producer, epochal changes in his ecology (to village community, urbanization and eventually to civilization) were paralleled by similar changes in his diet. The two or three millennia in prehistory during which the transition to agriculture took place is a relatively short period in the biological history of man. In terms of human evolution, this transition could be too sudden for the development of an adequate adaptive response to the drastic changes in his dietetic habits. The idea advanced here is that the challenge to man’s metabolism by the protein-complex of wheat (and rye) could lead to obscure syndromes;…”
Prescient indeed.
Hypothyroidism and the Carnivore Diet
Individuals with hypothyroidism, including autoimmune Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, frequently rely on dietary interventions like the autoimmune protocol (AIP), paleo, Primal, keto, and now carnivore. Despite abundant anecdotal evidence that they help, there have been few confirmatory studies to date.
Two recent papers confirm that AIP8 and a gluten-free diet9 are feasible and can reduce symptoms and improve quality of life for people with Hashimoto’s. The Paleomedicina team has also reported that they can successfully treat hypothyroidism with the PKD, but those data are not available in journal articles.
Carnivore Diet for Psoriasis
On the one hand, calorie-restricted1011 and gluten-free12 seem to help psoriasis sufferers. Higher intakes of omega-3 fatty acids do as well, which might be expected on a carnivore diet rich in small, oily fish like anchovies and sardines.1314 On the other hand, case studies going back decades suggest that high-protein and high-fat diets are not effective and in fact worsen psoriasis symptoms.151617 A recent controlled study in mice found the same.18
This is one case where I’d tread cautiously. Of course, a quick Google search turns up plenty of people whose symptoms were improved after going carnivore. It can work, and there’s one case study of a patient who was helped by a low-carb, high-protein ketogenic diet.19 Still, I think it’s likely that some of those lucky folks experienced relief because they removed triggers like gluten, eggs, or dairy. They may not have needed to go full carnivore.
Carnivore Diet for IBS
If a carnivore diet can potentially reduce intestinal permeability, favorably shift the microbiome, and reduce systemic inflammation, it should help with gastrointestinal problems like IBS.
Clinicians often recommend low-fiber and low-residue diets for their IBS patients.20 “Residue” is the undigested stuff in food—the leftovers, if you will—that passes through the gastrointestinal tract and gets excreted. Carnivore is an extremely low-residue and low-fiber diet.
Likewise, low-FODMAP diets show considerable promise for relieving the pain and other unpleasant symptoms of IBS.21 In studies, up to three-quarters of patients find relief.22 Remember, FODMAPs are fermentable short-chain carbohydrates that often cause gastrointestinal distress for people with existing GI dysfunction. You won’t find them on a carnivorous diet.
The Paleomedicina team also published a case study of an adolescent boy with Crohn’s disease—a severe form of IBS—who was able to go off his Crohn’s medication after just two weeks on the PKD. After ten months on the diet, ultrasounds of his intestines were normal, and there were no longer markers of intestinal permeability.23
What about Using Carnivore to Treat Gastritis?
Gastritis is inflammation of the stomach lining. Generally, it’s treated with medications like antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors, or antacids, depending on what’s causing the inflammation. There’s very little research looking at dietary interventions to treat gastritis—in humans anyway. You’re in luck if you’re interested in cheetah or ferret gastritis, though.
If you have gastritis caused by H. pylori bacteria, I’d recommend you tackle that directly with the help of a medical practitioner. Otherwise, it’s certainly worth exploring what foods, if any, exacerbate your symptoms. Starting with a carnivore diet as a baseline and then reintroducing foods slowly is one way to do so.
Could a Carnivore Diet Ease Depression?
Converging evidence suggests a link between diet and depression, and a role for dietary modification in treating depression. First, it’s increasingly clear that there is a strong connection between gut health and depression, thanks to the gut-brain axis.2425 Many experts also consider systemic inflammation to be a root cause of depression.26 Therefore, any diet that improves gut health and reduces inflammation is potentially useful.
Psychiatrist Dr. Georgia Ede has become an outspoken advocate of carnivore for depression, as well as other mental health disorders, on these grounds. She also correctly points out that the brain requires fat, including cholesterol, and other nutrients that are much more abundant in animal foods than in plant foods, such as choline, carnitine, omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, and vitamin B12.27
A 2015 review of dietary interventions for depression and anxiety found that they frequently include recommendations to reduce red meat intake, but that makes them less likely to be effective.28 Likewise, one study found women who consume less red meat were at greater risk for major depression.29
Carnivore Diet to Reverse Gum Disease?
You probably learned as a child that sugar is public enemy number one when it comes to dental health. In part, that’s because it disrupts the oral microbiome. That’s only part of the story, though. Gum health also goes hand-in-hand with gut health and systemic inflammation. That’s why gingivitis and periodontitis are common among diabetic folks—because of the hyperglycemia and chronic inflammation characteristic of poorly controlled diabetes.3031
Carnivore advocate Jordan Peterson, Mikhaila’s father, claims to have reversed his own gum problems once he went all-meat. Some indirect evidence backs his experience:
In one small study, researchers replicated a Stone Age village and set up ten people to live there for four weeks. Despite having no access to toothbrushes or their handy waterpiks, their gum health increased.32
A pilot study showed that when ten participants ate a low-carb (<130 grams per day), high-omega-3, nutrient-dense diet that sounds quite like a typical Primal diet, gum health significantly improved after just six weeks.33 In a follow-up, participants experienced less gum bleeding after four weeks on the diet, and they also happened to lose weight.34
Carnivore for weight loss
There’s every reason to suspect that carnivore diets should promote weight loss. If you’ve ever tried, you know it’s hard to overeat protein. Because protein is highly satiating, it tends to lead naturally to caloric restriction.35 High-protein (not carnivore) diets are shown repeatedly in laboratory studies to be favorable for weight loss.363738 And of course, we know that ketogenic diets can be great for burning excess body fat.
Potential Negative Health Impacts of Carnivore?
Detractors will tell you that carnivore must be bad for your health, what with all that carcinogenic red meat and artery-clogging cholesterol (/sarcasm). Not surprisingly, I don’t put much stock in those arguments. Nevertheless, in the spirit of open-minded pursuit of truth, let’s see what the data actually say.
Carnivore Diet and Colon Cancer
I have already debunked the shoddy epidemiological studies that fuel the belief that red meat causes colon cancer, but it’s one of those conventional wisdom “truths” that won’t seem to go away. Sure, don’t eat a ton of processed meats, and don’t eat your red meat on a white-flour hamburger bun alongside fries cooked in rancid oil. But where’s the evidence that a proper nose-to-tail carnivore diet increases cancer risk?
I can’t find any, but I did find two case studies from the Paleomedicina team that are relevant to this question:
One of their patients with grade 1 colon cancer remained stable for almost seven years without conventional treatment thanks to strict adherence to the PKD. 39 It’s not clear if the patient was carnivore over the entire period.
Another one of their patients used the PKD following a diagnosis of rectal cancer. His symptoms and cancer markers improved when he followed the diet religiously, but he was unable to do so long-term. 40
Emerging research also suggests that ketogenic diets exert anti-tumor effects with certain colon cancers.414243 Quite the opposite of what the fearmongers would have you believe.
Will a Carnivore Diet Cause Gout?
Gout is a painful form of arthritis that occurs when urate crystals build up in joints. It can be triggered or exacerbated by foods and beverages that contain purines, which are metabolized into uric acid. Red meat and organ meats are primary sources of purines, so doctors often advise people to limit or eliminate them from their diets—despite consistent evidence that it actually helps.
As I’ve written before, prescribing low-meat diets for gout is a case of faulty logic. For one thing, meat is hardly the only dietary source of purines. Vegetarians and vegans also suffer from gout, and, according to one study, vegans have higher serum levels of uric acid.44 On the flip side, people who follow a high(ish)-protein Atkins diet have lower serum uric acid levels.45
We should be looking to sugar, especially fructose, and alcohol as more likely culprits, and addressing underlying metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance that make gout more likely. That said, if you already know that red meat and offal trigger your gout, there’s no reason to add more in the hopes that that will fix it.
Is a Carnivore Diet Bad for Women?
This is the same concern lobbied against keto, namely that any “restrictive” diet is dangerous for premenopausal women. There’s a kernel of truth here. Women’s bodies are more sensitive to calorie and nutrient insufficiencies during their reproductive years. All that means, though, is that they have to be especially mindful about getting enough nutritious food. This can be more difficult with diets like carnivore and keto, which tend to be highly satiating, but it can certainly be done.
For what it’s worth, some of the most outspoken carnivore advocates are women like Peterson and Amber O’Hearn who used a carnivore diet to completely turn their health around for the better.
General Advice and Cautions
In the absence of solid scientific evidence regarding the benefits or downsides of carnivore diets, what is a data-minded, health-conscious individual to do?
Follow the advice I’ve previously offered regarding eating nose-to-tail, including plenty of healthy fats, and supplementing as needed.
Stay flexible. As more data and new insights come along, be willing to adjust, even abandon, your approach if that seems wise. Never be afraid to pivot.
Consult your doctor about your specific situation. Ask if there are specific reasons a carnivore diet might be contraindicated for you.
Is There Anything Carnivore Can’t Do?
Definitely. It might well help a lot of people with a lot of different issues, but it’s not a panacea.
I’m also not convinced it’s wholly necessary for everyone who tries it. At the end of the day, the average person will benefit tremendously from any diet that gets them away from sugar and ultra-refined grain products, and toward a diet comprised of whole, natural foods. Primal, paleo, Mediterranean—these are probably sufficient for many folks. But then, desperate times may call for desperate measures.
As with any intervention, be it diet, lifestyle, pharmaceutical, or other, there will be some people for whom it works wonder and some for whom it works not at all. Carnivore is no different. Is it worth trying if you have a chronic issue that you believe may be diet-related? Absolutely, with your doctor’s knowledge, of course. Would I feel comfortable offering a 100 percent money-back guarantee? Nope.
The fact remains, all we have to go on right now are anecdotes and circumstantial evidence. These are powerful anecdotes to be sure, and ones that I have no reason to doubt. Still, I’m eager for well-controlled scientific studies, which unfortunately aren’t forthcoming. Until then, I’ll continue to support everyone in wise self-experimentation.
Tell me: if you’ve tried a carnivore diet, what was your experience?
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
This week’s guest is Chris Peil, a sports rehabilitation expert, who helps Olympians and the World’s Strongest Man get out of pain and back to performing at their best.
Starting your day with a deliberate movement routine that you repeat every single day can be life changing, because it creates the leverage and the power to become a more focused and disciplined person in all other areas of daily life. Contrast this with the disturbing stat from IDC Research that 80 percent of Americans reach for their phones as the first act upon awakening.1 Numerous studies confirm that once you activate the shallow, reactionary brain function in the frontal cortex with a smartphone engagement—especially first thing in the morning when you are locking habit patterns into place—it’s difficult to transition into high-level strategic problem solving mode.2 Julie Morgenstern, renowned productivity consultant and author of Never Check Email In The Morning, explains that when you reach for your phone first thing, “You’ll never recover. Those requests and those interruptions and those unexpected surprises and those reminders and problems are endless… there is very little that cannot wait a minimum of 59 minutes.”
The Dope On Dopamine
The reason you’ll never recover is because your morning foray into hyperconnectivity is creating a dopamine addiction.3 When work gets either challenging or boring over the course of the day, you are hard-wiring a reliable method of escape into the realm of instant gratification and instant relief from cognitive peak performance. As detailed in the excellent book by anti-sugar crusader Dr. Robert Lustig called, The Hacking Of The American Mind, we are chasing the dopamine high today like never before. We are doing this in assorted ways that are strongly driven by marketing forces behind Internet fodder (social media, pornography, click bait, and even email and text messaging), prescription drugs, street drugs, alcohol, processed sugar products, overly stressful exercise patterns,consumerism, and other sources of escape and instant gratification.
As a healthy living enthusiast reading this blog, you can acknowledge the great sense of self-satisfaction and peace of mind that comes from implementing self-discipline and persevering through challenges and setbacks to achieve meaningful goals. These behaviors stimulate the serotonin and oxytocin pathways in the brain, triggering feelings of contentment, connection and love. Bestselling author Mark Manson asserts that self-discipline is a key to a happy, fulfilling life.4 Alas, when you hijack the dopamine pathways too often with the aforementioned folly, you down-regulate the serotonin pathways in your brain so you become wired for quick-hit pleasure at the expense of long-term happiness.
The Magic Of Morning Movement
Extricating from this mess starts first thing in the morning! Since most of us have tons of sedentary influences during the day (commute, office work, evening screen entertainment), I’m going to suggest a mindful routine of exercises, poses, and dynamic stretches that build flexibility, mobility, core and muscle strength. Your morning routine will help you naturally awaken and energize (especially if you can do it outdoors), improve the fitness base from which you launch formal workouts, help prevent injuries, and boost your daily movement quota especially if things get hectic and you don’t have time for formal workout.
I’m not a big routine or consistency guy and never have been, so amassing a four-year streak of doing a template routine every single day may be more of a revelation to me than to big-time creatures of habit. If you’re already good at self-discipline and consistency, applying your skills to a morning movement routine will pay big dividends; you’ll likely increase your level of sophistication and degree of difficulty over time. If you are a “go with the flow” type of person, the morning routine will serve as a much- needed anchor for a focused, disciplined day—especially against the formidable foes of distraction and instant gratification.
The original impetus for designing a short morning movement routine was my frustration with recurrent and lingering soreness and stiffness after every sprint workout. I realized that I wasn’t adequately acclimating my body to doing all-out blasts once a week, because nothing else I did approximated what happened on sprint day. Perhaps many weekend warriors can relate: If you never approximate your most difficult workouts or do preparatory drills and exercises consistently, your big efforts are going to beat you up and require extended recovery time. I figured if I could raise the baseline from which I launched these tough workouts, via better core strength, hamstring and hip flexor mobility, and so forth—the workouts would be easier to recover from. I noticed these benefits right away and excitedly shot a video back in 2017 of my original routine. That’s when I learned the sequences actually took 12 minutes instead of five! I also did lots of the moves in bed (to make sure I’d do them right away) until I later discovered that the core stimulation is much more intense on the floor than on a soft mattress.
As I accumulated an impressive streak one day at a time, I started to realize some amazing physical and psychological benefits. My first few steps out of bed in the morning (that is, before starting the routine) were light and graceful—no more limping, creaking and cracking my way to the bathroom. My post-exercise soreness pretty much vanished—something I’d struggled with after every sprint workout for over a decade. Since I typically pair my morning routine with an ensuing chest freezer cold exposure session, the one-two combo gave me a sense of stability, focus and self-discipline that was missing, since I’m not part of rituals like rush hour commuting or an 8-to-5 office workday.
My routine has evolved quite a bit over the past four years. Buoyed by the confidence that I can carve out the time to execute every day no matter what, I continue to add more custom-designed moves to my template, increasing both the duration and degree of difficulty. Currently, the session lasts for a minimum of 32 minutes. Often, I will transition right into a proper strength training session since I’m so warmed up and fitness focused. This video shows the exercises and repetitions comprising my current routine, with an explanation of each.
Yeah, it’s time consuming and some of these moves—especially the grand finale Bulgarian Split Squats—are not easy! It’s important to note that I’ve progressed naturally and gradually from a modest starting point four years ago. If you are ready to take action, here are the important parameters to honor:
Start Small
Design a routine that is simple and do-able every day. Don’t make it too strenuous or too long in duration out of the gate. You must strive for consistency, convenience, and low stress. If five minutes is all you can spare right now, start with that. Over time, when the routine has become integrated into habit, you may choose to increase the duration and degree of difficulty in a manner that feels natural and fun.
Daily Commitment
Place extreme importance on doing your routine as soon as possible upon awakening every single day no matter what. The goal is to establish a streak that will become as natural as current streak of brushing your teeth every day. If you typically have to visit the bathroom, brew coffee, tend to children or pets, or check the stock ticker as your first acts upon awakening, insert the movement routine into a recurring slot in your morning pattern: bathroom, coffee, hit the deck sounds great! If a particularly hectic morning prevents you from doing your routine, perform a makeup session later in the day to honor your commitment to the project.
Repeatable
Perform the same exact sequence of movements and repetitions every time. You don’t want to have to apply any creative energy or waste precious cognitive resources deciding what exercises to do or how many reps to complete. Repeating the same sequence will make it easier to program your routine into habit. Over time, feel free to modify your template by adding or subtracting exercises, but always have a working template in place. Don’t listen to the folklore that you need to confuse your muscles with ever-changing exercises. Let’s check back in 20 years and see how not confused your body is from completing a great routine every day.
Mindful
Doing the same thing every day adds a meditative aspect to the experience. I focus entirely on proceeding through the rep count for each exercise, which is synchronized with my breathing on many of the moves. I’ve made the mistake a few times of trying to listen to a podcast or take a phone call during my routine, and it invariably causes me to lose count during one of the sequences. That’s when I established a penalty of having to start the reps of that particular exercise over if my mind wanders. That will keep you focused! Now my morning routine is a time to enjoy the view of the trees, the sound of birds, and the mind- body connection that comes from sequential movement—as you might enjoy in a guided yoga class.
Outdoors (Sunlight, Fresh Air, And Maybe Even Cold!)
Research suggests that exposing your eyeballs to direct sunlight as soon as you awaken can have a powerful effect to entrain your circadian rhythm. The sunlight hits your retina, travels down the optic nerve to the all-important suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus. The SCN is considered the master clock of your circadian rhythm, and directs all manner of light-driven hormonal processes.5 Direct sun exposure in the morning (no sunglasses, no window barriers) triggers a spike in energizing and mood elevating hormones like serotonin, cortisol and adenosine. Kick starting these sunlight-driven hormonal processes is actually the first step toward getting a good night’s sleep, as you will optimize the timing of the evening conversion of serotonin to melatonin to help transition into sleep.6 In the winter months, my routine doubles as cold exposure as I’ll wear only shorts in temperatures freezing or below.
Customized
Design exercises that support your fitness goals, address any muscular weaknesses or imbalances, and counter sedentary lifestyle patterns like being hunched over at the car and computer. My leg swings and hamstring extensions are contemplated with sprinting and high jumping in mind, since these muscles take a lot of impact trauma when sprinting. The difficult yoga wheel pose is directly applicable to bending over the high jump bar!
Enjoyable
There are all kinds of expert-recommended exercises that I’ve tried and discarded since I didn’t enjoy them or they don’t work for me. I did the familiar “pigeon” stretch from yoga for a while but I believe I sustained a knee injury from it, so it’s out. I have a few other cool exercises not shown on the video, such as monster walks and shuffles with Mini Bands. I’m tempted to officially add them to the routine, but I prefer to keep them as optional add-ons. With my current routine at 32 minutes, I occasionally experience a bit of time stress to get it done if I have a busy morning planned. I don’t want that feeling to happen more than occasionally, so I’m hesitant to add anything else at this time.
At first, it will be very helpful to write down each of the exercises and number of repetitions as you strive to lock in an ideal template. In particular, you want to discover a rep count that’s a bit of a challenge, but not too strenuous to have you fretting and sweating over it. As I mention on the video, when I first integrated the challenging Bulgarian split squats, I took each leg to the point of mild muscle burn that occurred at 20 reps. Today, I experience that same mild burn after 45 reps. So the degree of difficulty and mental strain have not changed, but I am validating my fitness progress over time. All of your progress with increasing reps and increasing the overall duration and degree of difficulty of your routine should happen gradually and naturally. Today is a good day to start your streak, so try stringing together a few of your favorite moves and get on the books! Good luck, and let us know some great suggestions in the comments section.
There’s an ABSURD amount of horrible advice out there for quick weight loss.
I’m looking at you “Weight Loss Tea” and “Fat Burner Cookies.”
Fortunately, us nerds at Nerd Fitness actually help people get healthy with things like “science” and “proven strategies that last.”
We have thousands of success stories from our community and 1 million+ people tune in each month for our advice on getting in shape.
Below, we’ll share with you our 9 strategies for safe, sustainable weight loss. We use these as part of our Online Coaching Program and today you’ll learn them too.
What Is the Fastest Way to Lose Weight? (4 Common Methods)
At some point in this guide, I’m going to try and talk you out of trying to lose weight as fast as possible.
But now is not that time.
If you are trying to lose weight quickly, there are 4 common ways of going about it. Each will have some pros and cons, so let’s discuss.
#1) Very Low-Calorie Dieting
This is probably the most common way to quickly lose weight: don’t eat much.
A very low-calorie diet (VLCD) is defined as any diet ranging from 450-800 calories a day.[1]
For reference, there are about 550 calories in a McDonald’s Big Mac.
So we’re talking about a hamburger and maybe an apple to eat for a day. That’s it.
Unsurprisingly, starving oneself by going on a VLCD will create fast weight loss.[2] However, these diets should only be done under medical supervision because you can run into some serious nutritional deficiencies and other health complications if you don’t know what you’re doing.[3] Additionally, as you’ll soon learn: “temporary changes create temporary solutions.” So, following a VLCD to lose a few pounds will only work for as long as you eat in this fashion.
Not great!
Verdict: Talk to a doctor before trying this.
#2) Protein-Sparing Modified Fasts
A protein-sparing modified fast (PSMF) is much like a VLCD, but the calories you eat more or less come from protein sources.[4]
With a PSMF, you eat:
About 0.68 grams of protein per pound you weigh (1.5g/kg). So if you weigh 250 pounds, you would target 170 grams of protein.
Typically a total of 12-17 oz in the form of lean meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, low-fat cheese, or tofu.
Less than 20g of carbohydrates a day (about 2 servings of low-starch vegetables, with unlimited lettuce salad).
No fats outside of those in protein sources (no butter, oils, nuts, or seeds).
As we discuss in our Protein 101 guide, eating plenty of protein is critical when you’re losing weight, to ensure you’re losing the right kind of weight.
When you’re in a caloric deficit, your body needs to pull from current stores to function, which means it might pull from both body fat AND muscle.
Obviously, from a health and physique standpoint, that’s not good.
This explains why a PSMF prioritizes protein: it can help maintain muscle during a drastic calorie deficit.
I already know your next question: is this safe?
In the short term? Probably.
In the long term? Ehhhh.
A two-week study found the PSMF to result in safe and effective weight loss.[5]
However, a three-month study found nutritional deficiencies were developing in those following a PSMF, even with the added multivitamin and supplements.[6]
Verdict: In the short term (a week or two), this is fine. In the long term, I would check in with a doctor.
Your co-worker, their spouse, and their dog walker’s nephew have all (probably) tried a low-carb diet recently.
Out of all the low-carb variations out there, the Ketogenic or Keto Diet is one of the more strict versions, as you basically cut out all or most carbohydrates.
While the exact prescription of a Keto Diet will vary depending on who you talk to, generally a Keto Diet has you:
Keeping carbs to about less than 30-50 grams a day. For reference, a banana has about 27 grams of carbs.
Consuming protein at about 0.6 grams for every pound you weigh (about 1.35g per kilogram).
Eating the rest of your calories from fat.
If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend you check out our GIANT eBook, The Beginner’s Guide to the Keto Diet. Grab it for free when you sign up in the box below:
Weight loss can occur on a low-carb diet (as long as you can stick with it), since you’re cutting out an entire macronutrient and most likely reducing total calories consumed.[8]
Your results may vary.
Verdict: If you want, go ahead and try the Keto Diet. Lots of people have had success with it. Just know that it’s pretty tough to stick with, which we’ll come back to later.
#4) Weight Loss from Dehydration
If an athlete needs to drop weight quickly for a match or competition, they’ll often do so by dropping water weight.
Think of someone in MMA or bodybuilders, who need to reach a certain weight temporarily to stay in or make a certain weight class.
If today they’re 160 pounds, but in three days they need to be 150, they’ll often dehydrate themselves to get there.
Some tricks to lose water weight include:
Jogging around in full sweatsuits.
Sitting in hot saunas.
Removing all salt from the diet (since it helps you hold water).
Going super low-carb (carbs also help with retaining water).
Not drinking any water the day of the weigh-in.
While these tips might help someone qualify for a competition, we’re not talking about fat loss here, so avoid playing with dehydration to get in shape. Plus, many of these strategies could potentially impact your health if you’re not careful.[9]
Verdict: Don’t bother.
If you’re wondering if there’s a better strategy for fast weight loss than these 4 protocols, we can help! If you’re interested, we’ll set you up with your very own NF Coach who will create a weight loss plan that isn’t so drastic (or soul-crushing):
How Much Weight Can I Expect to Lose?
We’ve all seen advertisements that say:
Lose 5 pounds in a week.
Ditch the stubborn “belly fat.”
Get that bikini body by the summer!
Walk down any magazine aisle and you’ll see:
Flat abs in 28 days? 10 pounds lost easily? Wha…
It’s no wonder that many think weight loss can be done quickly .
Here’s the truth: no one can tell you exactly how much weight you’ll lose in any given time period.
However, we can talk about some realistic expectations as pointed out below by my friends at Precision Nutrition:
By “pace,” we mean consistency:
Extreme. You need to follow your program 100% of the time.
Reasonable.This is about 70-80% consistent with the program.
Comfortable.You’re consistent about 50-60% of the time.
More on this in our next section.
I should also say, your weight loss progress will not be linear.
You’ll lose fat faster when:
You first begin your weight loss journey.
You have more fat to lose.
Why?
Think of it this way: suppose you normally eat 3,000 calories per day and you maintain your current body weight.
Let’s imagine you bring this down to 2,000 calories, a deficit of 1,000 calories per day. With this new approach, you’ll start to lose weight.
But as you begin to lose weight, your calorie requirements will go down.
Simply put, there is less of you that needs “fuel.”
Yep, the bigger you are, the more calories you need. The smaller you are, the fewer calories you need.
In other words: your metabolism doesn’t have to work as hard to fuel all of your bodily functions, has less weight to carry, and thus it will burn fewer calories compared to when you were much bigger.
Here is the estimated daily resting calorie burn (“sit on your ass all day”) of a 35-year old male nerd at 3 very different weights – which you can learn from our Calorie Calculator:
300 lbs: 2,600 calories.
250 lbs: 2,300 calories.
200 lbs: 2,000 calories.
WHAT THIS MEANS: Unless you adjust your calorie intake as your weight decreases… your previous calorie intake amount becomes less and less effective at losing weight, until you hit an equilibrium.
Another piece of the equation: your body will become more efficient at the exercise you do.[9]
Here’s an example: if you burn 100 calories running a mile, if you continue to run this same distance at the same speed, eventually you’ll only burn 95 calories running that same mile. Then 90. And so on.
At this point, we need to talk about ALL the problems with “losing weight as fast as possible.”
How Do You Maintain Your Weight Loss? (Real Talk)
I’m going to make an assumption about you:
This probably isn’t your first rodeo, nor is it the first time you’ve looked into fast weight loss.
How’d that turn out the last time you tried it?
I’m not asking this to be a jerk, but rather to make a point:
I like you, your friends like you, and the world needs you to be the healthiest superhero version of yourself you can be.
The problem with the four strategies we talked about earlier (and the other diets that you’ve probably tried), is they generally aren’t sustainable.
Can you live off 500 calories for a few days?
Probably.
Can you do it for a whole year?
Nope.
As we mention in The 5 Rules of Weight Loss, any benefit you get from a diet is only going to last as long as you do the diet.
Said another way:
Temporary changes create temporary results.
Permanent changes create permanent results.
Sure, it’s great when people try the Keto Diet and lose 20 pounds. But as soon as they ditch low-carb, they generally regain the weight back.
We want sustainable changes and permanent weight loss.
It doesn’t really matter how much weight you lose in your first week or first month, but rather how much weight you have lost after 1 year, and how you feel after that year.
That’s why in our Online Coaching Program, we don’t focus on losing weight as fast as possible. We focus on slowly developing 9 skills that help our clients level up permanently.
Although we focus on long-term behavior change and permanent progress, many of our clients end up losing weight pretty quickly, like Sarah the supermom here, who lost 30 pounds in six months.
This might seem counterintuitive, but after years of running Nerd Fitness, I’ve learned it to be true:
Small changes, consistently taken, create the fastest path to lose weight.
Think of the classic story of the Tortoise and the Hare.
The fast-starting hare becomes bored and decides to take a quick nap, while the slow-but-consistent tortoise keeps its pace. When the hare wakes up, it’s too late. The race has been won by the tortoise.
The morale here: the race is not always won by the swiftest.
Make a small change. Once it becomes a normal part of your life, make another. Then another.
That’s how the tortoise would do it.
This is a message I really strike home in the video on “How to Get in Shape,” which is right here for you:
Now, let’s talk about what small changes you can make.
9 Habits for Successful Weight Loss
Here are 9 skills to help you achieve fast and sustainable weight loss:
#1) Plan and Take Action
If you’re going to embark on a weight loss journey, you’re gonna need to do some preparation.
You can’t just open your fridge and expect there to be healthy food ready to go.
That would be a magic fridge.
Our first step in helping someone get healthy, whether through our Coaching Program or in NF Prime, is by outlining a plan.
Then, we need to act on it.
There are two ways we go about this:
Make time on your calendar. This can be a reminder to buy food, prep dinner, or go for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a huge block of time, but we need to get you in the habit of making space for your goals, otherwise they won’t happen. Step number here one is to make time.
Have “Daily Wins” in the direction of your goal.What we do every day will end up defining us, so daily adherence is important. However, this can be a small action, even just 5-minutes. We call this our “Daily Win.” It could be to drink a glass of water or go do some jumping jacks. The point here is to be able to crush this goal, no matter what it is. It’ll help us build momentum.
When you start a weight loss journey, take some time to plan and prepare. Don’t just say “I’m gonna start tomorrow.” Think of when you’re going to make a change, what you’re going to change, and why.
Then create a path where you can take a step in that direction every single day, no matter how small it may seem.
This will add up quickly, I promise.
#2) Develop Healthier Eating Behavior
So many people ask us “what” to eat.
But we rarely get people asking us “how” to eat.
Both are super important for losing weight.
There are a few things we can work on to develop this “how” skill:
Eat mindfully and slowly. Your body takes a while to recognize it’s full, so slowing down and concentrating on your meal can help with overeating. Some of our Daily Wins here could include using a meal timer, putting your fork down between bites, and eating without the TV or your phone around (no distractions).
Recognize hunger and fullness cues.Sometimes, we eat just to eat. Maybe we’re actually more bored than hungry. To help fight this, a Daily Win could be to keep a “Hunger and Fullness Journal.” Here, you rate your hunger from 1 to 10 before you eat anything. If it’s less than 6 or 7, maybe pause for 30 minutes or so and check back in later. It’s the same idea for our fullness. Pause during the meal, and ask yourself “how hungry am I still?” If your hunger has subsided, maybe save the rest of your food for later. The goal here is to eat (and continue eating) only when you’re hungry.
Create a schedule for meals.Most people do best with eating on some type of routine. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner at roughly the same time. Your body will pick up on this and naturally get hungry at the times you normally eat. Predictable meals can help with weight loss.
#3) Balance Energy Intake to Your Goals.
You’ll hear us talk about “energy balance” throughout Nerd Fitness.
As we point out in The 5 Rules of Weight Loss, study[10] after study[11] after study[12] shows that our bodies obey the laws of thermodynamics and that to lose weight, we need to burn more calories than we consume regularly.
So it’s important to have a sense of how many calories you need to hit your goals.
Some actions we can take here:
Calculate your calorie requirements. We don’t need you to be exact, but we need a rough ballpark on how many calories you need given your body composition, activity level, and goals.
Determine the calories in the food you eat. Next, we need to figure out how many calories you’re actually eating. Apps can be helpful here, but you can also use the “Hand Portion” tool found in our ““How to Portion Control” Guide.
Track your progress. There’s a lot of educated guesswork in matching calories in to calories out, so the most important thing we can do is track the results. If you’re seeing progress, great! Keep going. Not seeing progress? No problem. We’ll take that information like a scientist would and adjust our experiment.
This is one of the more difficult steps in our 9 Skills to Lose Weight, so if you want a Nerd Fitness Coach to give you a hand, we got you:
You don’t have to completely give up the food you love like pizza, cheeseburgers, or ice cream. These can be eaten “SOMETIMES.”
Foods of “higher quality” should be prioritized and eaten more often. We place these in our “YES” category.
We find this “eat more of” and “eat less of” stance to be less overwhelming to our coaching clients than providing hard and stringent rules about food.
Less overwhelming = more sustainable = win.
I’m sure you now have some questions:
What foods should be “SOMETIMES”?
How often is this?
What foods should be “YES”?
The answer: it’s actually up to you to help figure that out!
That’s not meant to be a cop-out, so let me explain:
Our goal here is to move you to “higher-quality food” over time.
We can get there by working on the following:
Set criteria for “better” or “worse.” If we’re going to adjust your eating habits, we need to define our goals. For example, whole wheat bread will typically contain more nutrients than white bread, so it would be “better.” French fries often have more calories than a boiled potato, so it would be “worse.” I put these in quotes because if you want french fries right now, it’s “better,” even if it contains more calories. This goes back to our “SOMETIMES” discussion.
Eat more whole, minimally processed food.You know the drill here: we’re after fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fresh meats, raw nuts, etc. These foods will generally have more nutrients intact. Plus, we want you to eat a variety of them (berries and oranges instead of only eating apples) so you get more nutrients that way. These foods are often “better” than their processed counterparts.
Eat less processed foods.While you can totally eat pizza and drink beer and still be healthy (I do and am), we want these to be “SOMETIMES” meals instead of “ALL THE TIME” meals. If you eat pizza twice a week, maybe we get it down to once a week.
If you’re interested in losing weight fast, a key skill will be to eat higher quality food more often.
#5) Obtain Proper Nutrients.
This one builds up from our last skill: choose higher-quality food more often.
That’s because higher-quality food will provide your body with more nutrients.
But we can get more specific than that.
Here are some actions to ensure you’re getting proper nutrients throughout your day.
Eat lean protein at most meals. This would include lean cuts of beef or chicken, greek yogurt, or beans and lentils. Protein is one of the most critical macronutrients for your health, so it’s critical to prioritize it at every meal.
Eat colorful fruits and vegetables.The color of produce generally signifies the nutrients it contains (green veggies will have vitamin K), so it’s important to eat the whole rainbow when it comes to your fruits and veggies.[13] Try to include some colorful produce at most meals.
Choose high-fiber carbohydrates.Think fruits, tubers, legumes (beans/lentils), and whole grains here. The fiber will help slow digestion and provide long-lasting energy.
Pick healthy fats.Foods like avocados, nuts, and olive oil. These will help you stay full and help regulate inflammation.[14]
Stay hydrated.You need to be properly hydrated for all the nutrients you consume to work well.[15] Plus, drinking plenty of water can help you stay full between meals.
#6) Move Your Body.
Our bodies evolved to move regularly. Yet for those of us in industrialized countries, we often only move to get from our homes to our car, to an office where we sit all day, then back home.
That’s why we often need to plan regular movement.
While we’re big fans of strength training around these parts, it doesn’t have to be that intense to get started. At first, it can literally be anything that gets your body moving. Even just taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
We want the things around us to promote our fitness goals.
This could include healthy snacks in the fridge or weights in the basement for our home gym.
However, it’s not just material things here, because we also need to look at the people we surround ourselves with or “our squad.” Having people who support your efforts, or are themselves working towards a similar goal, can be critical for weight loss.
Any way that you can adapt your environment to match your weight loss goals, the better.
#9) Balance Emotions without Food
It’s perfectly normal and okay to use food to match emotions.
Celebrating a promotion? A dinner out can be the perfect reaction.
Tough day at work? Maybe a glass of wine will help you relax.
As we point out in our Guide to Stress Eating, the problem arises when we are no longer in control of food because of our emotions.
Coach Justin does a great job of explaining why here:
Food can be fine as a reward or as a relief, as long as it’s us controlling the behavior and not the food itself. Developing this skill will be important for sustainable weight loss.
If you find yourself “stress eating,” know that you are not alone here.
One of the top issues faced by clients in our1-on-1 Online Coaching Program is emotional or stress eating. With the eruption of the pandemic, these episodes have only increased.
How to Lose Weight Fast (Next Steps)
I’m going to be real with you: developing and mastering all 9 weight-loss skills is going to take a while.
And that’s okay!
This is the fastest way to lose weight permanently.
Here’s the thing though: you don’t actually need to master all 9 skills to see progress.
As we discussed earlier, even if you just develop 4 or 5 of them, you’ll see results.
It’s something I discuss with Coach Matt in our video from Nerd Fitness Prime, on thinking of fitness as a “Dial,” not a “Light Switch.”
Because we’ve found that even if people are only consistent with their goals 50% of the time, it’s enough to make some progress and build momentum..
So here’s your new mission: work on ONE of these skills by taking ONE action.
That’s it. Don’t overwhelm yourself, but do take action today.
Which one should you pick?
Start with the first one, “Plan and Take Action.”
Make some time on your calendar for a 5-minute Daily Win tomorrow. Go for a walk, or prepare ONE healthy meal.
Make it something that doesn’t overwhelm you..
The win isn’t as important as following through, because that will help us build momentum in the right direction.
If you want some help getting going, I got you.
Here are three ways to continue your journey with Nerd Fitness.
#1) Our Online Coaching Program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) Check out NF Journey, our fun habit-building app that helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Option #3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Alright, I want to hear from you:
Any skills for weight loss that I’m missing?
What have you had success with?
What are you still having trouble doing?
You’re not the only one trying to lose weight, so share with us your journey in the comments so we can support each other!
-Steve
PS: If you’re just starting your weight loss journey, make sure you check out:
Backyard gardens are putting forth the last of their bounty, and late summer vegetables are at their peak of freshness. To squeeze every last drop out of your harvest, give fermentation a try.
Fermented vegetables date back hundreds of years. Back before we had freezers, people had to preserve food somehow. Somewhere along the line, someone figured out that salting food and letting it sit for a week creates a crunchy, tangy pickled vegetable that tastes better than what you started with.
A lot of people find home fermentation to be intimidating. And it can be, at first. As long as you sanitize your cutting boards, jars, and tools with boiling water before you start, there’s a great chance you’ll end up with a beautiful pickle at the end.
Here’s how to do it.
Home Fermented Vegetables: Pickled Giardiniera Recipe
Serves: 10-20, depending on serving size
Time in the kitchen: 15 minutes, plus 5 days hands-off fermentation time
Ingredients
1-2 heads cauliflower, cut into small florets
6-7 carrots
5-6 stalks celery
1 red bell pepper
1 large leek
1 lb. green beans
1 tsp. black peppercorns
3/4 tsp. mustard seeds
4 bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 small bunch oregano
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (or 1-2 sliced jalapenos)
Water
Salt
Directions
Using boiling water, sanitize whatever vessel you plan to use for your fermenting. Use care not to burn yourself!
Wash all of your veggies and chop them. Double wash your leeks as they’re notorious for being very sandy.
We recommend a 3.5% salt solution for your fermenting. To figure out how much salt you need, weigh your crock or jar on a small kitchen scale. Tare the scale while the empty jar is on it so the weight reads as 0g. Fill the jar with water until it’s a few inches from the lip of the jar. Record the mass of the water and then multiply the amount by 3.5% to find out how much salt you need.
Pour the water out and add the appropriate amount of salt to the jar. Then, subtract the amount of salt you added from the total mass of the water that fits in the jar. This will give you the mass of water you need to add to the jar. At this point, pour the salt solution you created out into another jar, you’ll need it in a minute. Layer your crock or jar with all of the chopped veggies, the peppercorns, mustard seeds, bay leaves, oregano and red pepper flakes. Pour enough of your salt water solution into the jar so the vegetables are fully submerged.
Alternatively, you can keep the salt water solution. Add a few crock fermentation weights to the top which will keep all of the vegetables submerged.
Cover your jar with the appropriate lid. We used an airlock lid kit, which has a small hole in the lid that the airlock attaches to. Fill the airlock with the appropriate amount of water based on your instructions, and you’re good to go! Place the crock in a cool dry place, ideally away from sunlight. The warmer the conditions are in the room you place the crock, the more quickly the contents will ferment.
If you don’t have an airlock system, you can lightly cover the jar with a lid and “burp” the jar 1-2 times daily which will get rid of any carbon dioxide gas that gets produced as the vegetables ferment. This proves to be a bit tedious and runs the risk of your ferment overflowing, so it’s worth the small investment for the airlock system. Check your crock daily to make sure it hasn’t overflowed.
You can taste the giardiniera after 5 days or so and decide how much tangier and longer you want the mixture to go for. We personally like it around 10 days, but it can also go 2 weeks or even longer. Use your nose first! If you taste or remove some vegetable, make sure the contents of the crock stay submerged in the salt solution.
Mold vs. Kahm Yeast
If you see black, blue, or fuzzy circles forming on top, that’s mold. Discard your mixture and start over. If you see what looks like a thin layer of whitish plastic wrap forming on top, with or without tiny bubbles underneath, that’s kahm yeast, and harmless. Do an image search for “mold vs. kahm yeast” so that you can see the difference side-by-side.
Quick Pickled Veggies Recipe
Not interested in fermenting but want to quick pickle instead? Try these quick pickled onions! Perfect for topping salads, primal lettuce wraps, or your favorite burger.
Ingredients
2 small onions
½ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar (or you could use coconut vinegar)
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. coconut sugar
handful of black peppercorns
1-2 chopped garlic cloves
Directions
To quick pickle, thinly slice your onions. Some people choose to boil water and pour boiling water over the onions for 5-10 seconds to blanch them prior to pickling, but it’s not necessary.
In a small bowl or saucepan, combine the vinegars, salt and sugar. Stir or lightly heat until the salt and sugar dissolves. Layer the sliced onions in a small mason jar. Add in the peppercorns and garlic and then pour the vinegar on top.
Cover the jar and refrigerate for an hour before enjoying. They’re best after a few days in the fridge, but can be enjoyed for about a week.
As long as you swap out the vegetable oil for avocado or olive oil and maybe reduce the honey (if you’re worried about carbs), this charred Brussels sprout and leek Korean-style salad looks quite good.
“Mark, you always offer a balanced and thoughtful opinion and I appreciated your summation here today. It’s why I’ll continue to follow you! I’ve been eating a carnivore diet for 8 months now and have CURED Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, IBS, and depression. My cholesterol is through the roof, but I’m not alarmed. At 65, I’m experiencing the kind of optimal health I dreamed of in my 20s and 30s.”
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
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Warrior Fit Testimonials
First, I want to say thank you for convincing me to do Tabata! I was struggling to lose weight and Finally I found something that helped! I really appreciate your coaching! - Craig T.
Ever since I was convinced to do Tabata I have seen huge results, I lost 6 pounds and gained energy in the first 3 weeks. I have been working out for 3 months before I decided to do Tabata and I struggled to lose weight.
At first I thought "How am I losing weight by bringing my heart rate up then cooling down then bringing it up again?" I don’t know how it works but it does!
Thank you!! - Theresa F.
The first day of Tabata, I wondered WHAT AM I DOING - I AM 56 !! Five weeks later I knew that it was what I needed. I learned that I could push myself well beyond my comfort zone and feel good later. I have a marked improvement in physical as well as emotional endurance. - Lyn C.
When I was first told about Tabata I was very excited from the word go, however that excitement stemmed from the fact that I had no clue what it meant. I missed the first week of class b/c I was traveling for work so when I came in during the 2nd week I had some making it up to do.
It was hard at first b/c my body wasn't used to working out at such a fast pace, but once I got into a rhythm I started to feel very good. These classes are no joke. If you stick with it you will leave there feeling stronger, healthier and overall better about yourself and what you've accomplished.
I would recommend these classes to anyone. Darrin is a great trainer and he'll keep you going with his energy.
- Jami L.
Warriors Fit Audio
Warrior Fit uses High Intensity Music to get ya Moooovin' So we can all "Get Our Sweat On"
The link below will give ya a freeee shot at Audible plus a couple audio books just to try it out and if you haven't used audio books on your commutes you are missing out. Get pumped up before you get to where you are going and exercise your mind. I use it Everyday. Go get yours now!
I almost never hear of people cooking with beef tallow, even in Primal circles. I hear about lard, duck fat, ghee, butter, olive oil, and avocado oil, but rarely tallow. Hey, those are all great, delicious fats, and they deserve their prestige, but I like sticking up for the little guy. I like an underdog. In this case, of course, the little guy comes courtesy of a big cloven-hoofed ungulate.
If you’ve read Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Workweek, you can just jump to the end of this post. For everyone else, I invite you to take a closer look at your relationship with time. Especially those of you who are too busy to spend, oh, I don’t know, 5 or so minutes reading this.
Before the complex tools, before the projectile weapons and the wheels and the civilization, hominids stood upright and walked—and it made all the difference. Bipedalism freed up their hands to carry objects and manipulate the world around them and see for miles and miles across the horizon. They did all this atop bare feet that closely resembled our own; 
Following up on last week’s big carnivore post, today I want to look at some of the main reasons people choose a carnivore diet in the first place.
Starting your day with a deliberate movement routine that you repeat every single day can be life changing, because it creates the leverage and the power to become a more focused and disciplined person in all other areas of daily life. Contrast this with the disturbing stat from IDC Research that 80 percent of Americans reach for their phones as the first act upon awakening.
Backyard gardens are putting forth the last of their bounty, and late summer vegetables are at their peak of freshness. To squeeze every last drop out of your harvest, give fermentation a try.
Alternatively, you can keep the salt water solution. Add a few crock fermentation weights to the top which will keep all of the vegetables submerged.
Cover the jar and refrigerate for an hour before enjoying. They’re best after a few days in the fridge, but can be enjoyed for about a week.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
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