This is a summary of my full-carnivore lowER fat, highER protein diet, for fat-loss experiment. That’s a mouthful I know, I’ll explain more later in the post but in short, while still eating only animal based foods, I reduced my fat consumption and increased my protein consumption.
Important takeaway points from this post.
- If you have experienced a weight-loss stall or plateau, try this!
- Results including pics, weight and fat loss.
- Nutritional Summary
Note: I’m not suggesting you follow this diet forever, just give it a month or until you reach your weight/fat loss goals. I have been following a lowER fat, highER protein diet for 40 days, without any ill effects. I urge you to read this post in it’s entirety before dismissing the idea.
The picture above shows those foods I ate the most of …with one exception, the post is missing pork loin. I definitely ate a lot of chicken breast, lean ground beef, eggs and lean beef (top round).
I dislike using terms ‘low” and “high” because what is low for someone may be high to another. The actual amounts of daily fats and protein will be provided later in this post.
Weight Loss Results
I started reducing fat in June … but really grabbed the bull by the horns on July 1 (the green arrow).
High Protein Diet for Weight Loss
This is not the usual ‘low fat diet’ people typically use for weight loss.
For 40 days I have eaten lowER fat and highER protein.
- It is high protein, my goal was over 200 grams of protein every day.
- It is lower fat, my goal was under 100 grams per day. I know, compared to ‘conventional’ dietary advice that’s still high fat… I’ll explain when I compare nutritional macros.
- Calorie restricted, my goal was sub-2,000 calories.
Protein Sparing Modified Fasts (PSMF)
Some call this lowER fat, highER protein diet a “Protein Sparing Modified Fast” or PSMF. I don’t care for this name since it’s not a ‘fast’, but I’ll use the acronym PSMF for simplicity.
The diet I followed is high protein, lowER fat, and lowER calories. However, a lot of the PSMF designed diets are in the 800 – 1,000 calorie range, my daily calorie average was around 1800.
For the rest of the post I’m calling it my experiment a PSMF to simply things, just understand it’s not a true ‘fast’, it is a calorie, fat, carb restricted diet. And please don’t credit me with naming it. :)
Nutritional Summaries
You can read the summary of my Full-Carnivore experience, “I Believe in Meat“.. In short, I loved it but … didn’t see the body re-composition results I wanted. In four months, I’d lost 1-2 lbs, and seen a slight change in re-composition. I wanted more…
Here are the nutritional macros for the 40 days of the PSMF (at the bottom) compared to historical averages.
The “Historical” line is the approximate average over the past 8 years, following a “Low Carb Paleo” meal plan, for 8 years I thrived on this meal plan. I didn’t need to change, but I love to experiment so I finally decided to try an All-Animal Based diet. I called my version of All-Animal based, “Full Carnivore”, the second line.
The third line is the PSMF diet I’ve been following for the last 40 days.
I won’t go into a lot of discussion here. The data speaks for itself. This is per day averages.
- Reduced calories by 471! … per day. Effortlessly, just eat leanER meats! (protein).
- Protein increased slightly by 2 grams. I went over 300 grams six times. So for me, this was not highER protein, which is why I hate adjectives ‘high – moderate – low’, and prefer dealing in grams.
- Reduced a whopping 55 grams of fat… per day!
- Protein and fat traded places as the top two calorie contributors, all by simply eating lean and leanER cuts of meat.
More Data
This information was surprising and enlightening! So much to discuss, will hit the highlights.
NOTE: I kept meticulous records on foods consumed. Only twice did I ‘guess’ and even then I knew the weight of the food before cooking, 1/4 beef patties from Wendy’s.
- Highest Average Fasting Blood Glucose occurred in mid-range and even in the LOWEST protein consumption.
- Average protein did not correlate to higher fasting blood sugar.
- The only week I gained weight? Was the 2nd lowest calorie week (and only 2nd by 3 calories).
- Blood Sugars – if you know me, you know I prefer to be in the 70’s and 80’s. My blood sugar rose and fell erratically. Many variables affect blood sugars, including stress. I have experienced a high level of stress that just happened to increase July 1, the day this PSMF experiment began.
Given those dietary changes what were the results?
High Protein Diet Results
- My goal was fat-loss, not weight-loss. I ‘fought’ the weight-loss early on, trying to maintain weight by eating more. However once I could see the results in the mirror, I went with it. Suze Morris was my ‘coach’. She’s awesome, check out her links below in the Acknowledgements section.
- I was normal weight when I began — and EVEN I LOST FAT AND WEIGHT almost effortlessly. I should say I exercise most days, but I did not increase my exercise during this experiment.
Here are pictures I took this morning. I am very excited. :)
If you have reached a weight-loss or fat-loss stall, give it a try. You have nothing to lose… but the fat. :)
This is almost effortless weight/fat loss. Yes I still exercised, but changed very little.
High Protein, Low Fat Food List
Basically any lean meats are great, even fattier cuts are ok, if you eat them in moderation and stay within your macros.
Note: When reading the food list below, all meat is ‘no visible fat eaten’. I typically trim the fat off the meat before cooking it. The canines loved me on this diet experiment, they were the beneficiaries of my trimming off the fat.
- chicken breasts with skin removed before cooking
- pork loin
- top round steak
- mackerel, salmon, tuna, sardines
- ground beef 93%
- ground beef 80% or lower lean – if at home, I will rinse with boiling water
- eggs … whole eggs, also just egg whites
- whey protein – try to buy one as ‘clean’ as possible, balancing cost.
- chuck roast, beef shoulder roast, I’ll go very low fat for the next couple of days if I eat these.
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