Lose Fat Not Pounds & Seeing Is Believing (before & after pics)

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Stress seems to be perceived as a need for sugar. In the absence of sucrose, satisfying this need with starch and fat is more likely to lead to obesity.” -Ray Peat
Quote

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

This is me today at 59 eating my liver and drinking milk every day, and I haven’t been to a gym since I was 28. I didn’t look like this last year, eating grains. Ray Peat is right when he said really being fit is 90% diet and 10% moving around.

 

[Old Irenaeus]

This is me today at 59 eating my liver and drinking milk every day, and I haven’t been to a gym since I was 28. I didn’t look like this last year, eating grains. Ray Peat is right when he said really being fit is 90% diet and 10% moving around.

Going from great to even better ? you look spectacular. I'm glad you share your wisdom with us.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Going from great to even better ? you look spectacular. I'm glad you share your wisdom with us.

Awww thank you! You know I am happy to encourage and root us all on! ?

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Whey has been promoted as a protein supplement, but it contains a slightly higher proportion of tryptophan than milk does. Cheese (milk with the whey removed) contains less tryptophan. Some people have been encouraged to eat only the whites of eggs, “to avoid cholesterol,” but the egg albumin is rich in tryptophan.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

UPDATE:

I added 3 to 4 ounces of liver weekly 2+ months ago and cut out the starches I had gotten lax about eating over the earlier months, and really transformed the same weight into looking more trim in my jawline, neck, waist and legs, and without losing any weight. I also switched out a lot of my white sugar for honey and fresh fruit juice (minus the fiber). Here is an updated pic from today.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Burr didn't understand that it was his rats' high sugar diet, freed of the anti-oxidative unsaturated fatty acids, that caused their extremely high metabolic rate, but since that time many experiments have made it clear that it is specifically the fructose component of sucrose that is protective against the antimetabolic fats.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Many studies have found that sucrose is less fattening than starch or glucose, that is, that more calories can be consumed without gaining weight.” -Ray Peat

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“Feeding animals a normal diet with the addition of Coca-Cola, or with a similar amount of sucrose, has been found to let them increase their calorie intake by 50% without increasing their weight gain (Bukowiecki, et al., 1983). Although plain sucrose can alleviate the metabolic suppression of an average diet, the effect of sugars in the diet is much more likely to be healthful in the long run when they are associated with an abundance of minerals, as in milk and fruit, which provide potassium and calcium and other protective nutrients.

Avoiding the starches such as cereals and beans, and using fruits as a major part of the diet helps to minimize the effects of the polyunsaturated fats.“

 

[coffeelover]

UPDATE:

I added 3 to 4 ounces of liver weekly 2+ months ago and cut out the starches I had gotten lax about eating over the earlier months, and really transformed the same weight into looking more trim in my jawline, neck, waist and legs, and without losing any weight. I also switched out a lot of my white sugar for honey and fresh fruit juice (minus the fiber). Here is an updated pic from today.

Hi @Rinse & rePeat ! I have been reading through your threads for a few weeks and finally had the opportunity to join the forum. I'm so inspired by your dietary approach and results!! I'm wondering if you would change anything if you were younger, childbearing years, have the stress that comes with raising young children, and lots of fat to lose? I understand you're not a trainer or a nutritionist but I've tried so many approaches over the years and just can't stick to anything (nor do I get results). My last 3 pregnancies eating the Weston Price way has packed on the pounds and I am starting to understand why. I always thought it was my lack of willpower around sweets....now I understand the craving for sugar is because of my biological need for it and that all that fat (lots of raw milk, butter, egg yolks, etc) while delicious has just been adding the fat to my body. I'm sure I've been eating too much overall food too. It's hard to re-regulate your appetite after pregnancy and breastfeeding, at least for me. Right now I have weaned my youngest, and I am 203 lb, at 5'5", and I have been trying your no-starch, low-fat approach for a couple of weeks now. No weight lost, I usually feel okay except I have to eat all the time. I can't snack on starches or fats so I'm just doing egg and dairy for breakfast, snacking on low fat dairy and fruit all day and then meat and a Veggie like zucchini and fruit for dinner. I have a homemade frozen greek yogurt with melted chocolate chips for dessert. Anytime I try to cut calories down I end up starving all day. My body seems to want to keep me at 2000+ calories. Just not sure what to do.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Hi @Rinse & rePeat ! I have been reading through your threads for a few weeks and finally had the opportunity to join the forum. I'm so inspired by your dietary approach and results!! I'm wondering if you would change anything if you were younger, childbearing years, have the stress that comes with raising young children, and lots of fat to lose? I understand you're not a trainer or a nutritionist but I've tried so many approaches over the years and just can't stick to anything (nor do I get results). My last 3 pregnancies eating the Weston Price way has packed on the pounds and I am starting to understand why. I always thought it was my lack of willpower around sweets....now I understand the craving for sugar is because of my biological need for it and that all that fat (lots of raw milk, butter, egg yolks, etc) while delicious has just been adding the fat to my body. I'm sure I've been eating too much overall food too. It's hard to re-regulate your appetite after pregnancy and breastfeeding, at least for me. Right now I have weaned my youngest, and I am 203 lb, at 5'5", and I have been trying your no-starch, low-fat approach for a couple of weeks now. No weight lost, I usually feel okay except I have to eat all the time. I can't snack on starches or fats so I'm just doing egg and dairy for breakfast, snacking on low fat dairy and fruit all day and then meat and a Veggie like zucchini and fruit for dinner. I have a homemade frozen greek yogurt with melted chocolate chips for dessert. Anytime I try to cut calories down I end up starving all day. My body seems to want to keep me at 2000+ calories. Just not sure what to do.

Hi coffeelover! I am honored that you value my opinion on the matter. You know thinking back with my two pregnancies I would change things cause I figured this all out way later in life. Back then I never ate sugar, honey or fruit, until finding Ray Peat 6 or 7 years ago. I just didn’t like sweet things. My first son I had at 28 and worked out at the gym all the time until his first birthday and never really got back to my pre-pregnancy body., until after I had the second son, 4 years later. When I had my son I took up drinking coffee for the first time in my life, with cream and sugar and I lost all my pregnancy weight fast, without going to the gym. That coffee was a magic cure! I would have several cups with a chocolate chip cookie and I wasn’t hungry until well into the afternoon. I didn’t know it at the time, but coffee stopped working when I took the the sugar and cookie out of my morning routine and my weight fluctuated for years after that.

I think you are on the right track with the low-fat, but I think eating a dinner with meat or eating late is always the worst idea, keeping the fat accumulating. I make meat meals for lunch or eat an early dinner nowadays. It was an interview with Ray Peat where the question was asked “what it is the first thing you would do if you wanted to lose weight?”, and he said stop eating. That doesn’t mean fasting, but it does mean cut down those calories for a bit and work your way back up again to adding more.

As you have described your diet, I definitely suggest eating heavier protein meals during the day and that Greek yogurt dessert for breakfast and put the fruit at night, maybe with an ounce or two of cheese. Ray Peat says blood sugar levels are low and unstable in the morning through early afternoon so eat girl! Just slow the fats, proteins and calories down in the evening. I think that small swap will get thing moving in the right direction. Have a small cup of milk with a big spoonful of raw honey before bed if your hungry. You have some some hormones going too so don’t get discouraged. This is gonna work! Let’s’ check back with each other in a couple of days and see if you can start feeling more satiated, switching things around.

 

[coffeelover]

Hi coffeelover! I am honored that you value my opinion on the matter. You know thinking back with my two pregnancies I would change things cause I figured this all out way later in life. Back then I never ate sugar, honey or fruit, until finding Ray Peat 6 or 7 years ago. I just didn’t like sweet things. My first son I had at 28 and worked out at the gym all the time until his first birthday and never really got back to my pre-pregnancy body., until after I had the second son, 4 years later. When I had my son I took up drinking coffee for the first time in my life, with cream and sugar and I lost all my pregnancy weight fast, without going to the gym. That coffee was a magic cure! I would have several cups with a chocolate chip cookie and I wasn’t hungry until well into the afternoon. I didn’t know it at the time, but coffee stopped working when I took the the sugar and cookie out of my morning routine and my weight fluctuated for years after that.

I think you are on the right track with the low-fat, but I think eating a dinner with meat or eating late is always the worst idea, keeping the fat accumulating. I make meat meals for lunch or eat an early dinner nowadays. It was an interview with Ray Peat where the question was asked “what it is the first thing you would do if you wanted to lose weight?”, and he said stop eating. That doesn’t mean fasting, but it does mean cut down those calories for a bit and work your way back up again to adding more.

As you have described your diet, I definitely suggest eating heavier protein meals during the day and that Greek yogurt dessert for breakfast and put the fruit at night, maybe with an ounce or two of cheese. Ray Peat says blood sugar levels are low and unstable in the morning through early afternoon so eat girl! Just slow the fats, proteins and calories down in the evening. I think that small swap will get thing moving in the right direction. Have a small cup of milk with a big spoonful of raw honey before bed if your hungry. You have some some hormones going too so don’t get discouraged. This is gonna work! Let’s’ check back with each other in a couple of days and see if you can start feeling more satiated, switching things around.

Thanks so much for the tips! I will try....one major thing for me is that I don't sleep well without a bedtime snack, but even more important than that, I have 9 and 7 year old daughters and I do not want them to see me dieting or not participating in a meal. It's easy for me to simply not eat the rice and have fruit instead, my plate still looks the same as theirs pretty much. But if I start nibbling on fruit and cheese while they eat dinner I worry they'll start to get a skewed perspective. So, I'll have to think about how to avoid that!
Also, FWIW, my greek yogurt ice cream is pretty low in fat. I used your "ice cream" recipe but replaced the milk with nonfat greek yogurt. It's so yummy. Was thinking it was a good bedtime snack because of all the casein? But I'm still figuring all this stuff out.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Thanks so much for the tips! I will try....one major thing for me is that I don't sleep well without a bedtime snack, but even more important than that, I have 9 and 7 year old daughters and I do not want them to see me dieting or not participating in a meal. It's easy for me to simply not eat the rice and have fruit instead, my plate still looks the same as theirs pretty much. But if I start nibbling on fruit and cheese while they eat dinner I worry they'll start to get a skewed perspective. So, I'll have to think about how to avoid that!
Also, FWIW, my greek yogurt ice cream is pretty low in fat. I used your "ice cream" recipe but replaced the milk with nonfat greek yogurt. It's so yummy. Was thinking it was a good bedtime snack because of all the casein? But I'm still figuring all this stuff out.

I get what you are saying. This past few months I have quit the snacking and stick to my solid meals now, giving my body a chance to get hungry. I went with this after writing Ray Peat asking if it is better to eat when one is hungry or before one is hungry and he said to eat when hungry. She let myself get hungry. Not only has this been good advice to make sure my body used up all of what I previously ate, rather than store it, but I find it to be better because I can’t always eat right when I get hungry and those small windows give my body a chance to burn a little extra stored fat.

I am like you and make sure I feed my liver before bed, with raw honey and sometimes a little milk, I will often time get up in the night and take another spoonful of honey and it knocks me back out for a few more hours. For me, eating a dinner of meat at night would start the weight gain process, and adding dessert too would not bode well for me. My strategy is to eat dessert for dinner and it would be a big bowl of ice cream with blueberries and orange zest. I don’t deprive myself, and I eat a lot, I just don’t complicate my digestion with a variety in a short a short time frame. I find it to be true when Ray Peat says if you pair sugars and fats together the excess unused fat will be stored. So your dinner with buttered vegetables or fat on meat with that fruit could be your undoing.

Have you looked through my more current fat loss thread. “More Weight Loss Talk”?

MORE WEIGHT LOSS TALK

“STARCH and GLUCOSE efficiently stimulate insulin secretion, and that accelerates the disposition of glucose, activating its conversion to glycogen and fat, as well as its oxidation. Fructose inhibits the stimulation of insulin by glucose, so this means that eating ordinary sugar, sucrose (a...

raypeatforum.com

 

[coffeelover]

Yes, I have read that whole thread.

Would you guys mind looking at what I've been eating this past week and give me some pointers? I just don't know what it will take to "move the needle" and see some weight loss. In the past few months I've reduced calories, reduced fat, increased carbs and protein, and seen zero change. I was even doing walking and strength training and I saw small increases in strength but no weight change. Now I've lowered calories and fat even more and also cut out starch (for the most part) and now I feel like I'm eating the bare minimum at each meal and always hungry....and no weight loss!!! Is my body just really good at slowing down my metabolism?? A few months ago I was maintaining the same weight on 2500 calories, now I'm aiming for 1700 and failing but I tried 2200 and that didn't change anything. I'm just so confused. I also feel tired and like my brain isn't working right. And sometimes I feel like I'm getting an adrenaline surge which does not feel good at all. I'm wondering if the reduced fat is part of this.

Breakfast--1 hard boiled egg with fruit and coffee with collagen, sugar, and half and half
Snack (or eat this with breakfast)--1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese or nonfat greek yogurt with honey and fruit
Lunch--1 can oysters (drained and rinsed), or shrimp cooked in a small amount of butter, a bunch of fruit, a few carrots, and an iced coffee made with 1% milk, collagen, and maple syrup
Afternoon snack--1% milk with whey and casein protein, chocolate syrup or maple syrup mixed in, and probably some fruit
Dinner--a big serving of fruit and 3 oz of jarlsberg lite cheese (3 oz has 9 g of fat) or a few times I did caprese salad with no olive oil and then fruit on the side
Bedtime snack--my homemade frozen yogurt with melted chocolate chips +coconut oil. macros for frozen yogurt are 12 g protein, 4 g fat, and 32 g carbs.

I think I probably eat more than this though because I will find myself starving and grabbing a glass of milk and some fruit or a piece of dark chocolate. There were 2 days I had starches because of a big family birthday party and a potluck but other than those I've been pretty strict. Most days I'm around 1800-1900 calories. Aiming for 150 g protein, 40 g fat, and 200 g carbs. Please help!

P.S. If you want me to delete this and post it somewhere else please let me know. New to the forum. :)

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Yes, I have read that whole thread.

Would you guys mind looking at what I've been eating this past week and give me some pointers? I just don't know what it will take to "move the needle" and see some weight loss. In the past few months I've reduced calories, reduced fat, increased carbs and protein, and seen zero change. I was even doing walking and strength training and I saw small increases in strength but no weight change. Now I've lowered calories and fat even more and also cut out starch (for the most part) and now I feel like I'm eating the bare minimum at each meal and always hungry....and no weight loss!!! Is my body just really good at slowing down my metabolism?? A few months ago I was maintaining the same weight on 2500 calories, now I'm aiming for 1700 and failing but I tried 2200 and that didn't change anything. I'm just so confused. I also feel tired and like my brain isn't working right. And sometimes I feel like I'm getting an adrenaline surge which does not feel good at all. I'm wondering if the reduced fat is part of this.

Breakfast--1 hard boiled egg with fruit and coffee with collagen, sugar, and half and half
Snack (or eat this with breakfast)--1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese or nonfat greek yogurt with honey and fruit
Lunch--1 can oysters (drained and rinsed), or shrimp cooked in a small amount of butter, a bunch of fruit, a few carrots, and an iced coffee made with 1% milk, collagen, and maple syrup
Afternoon snack--1% milk with whey and casein protein, chocolate syrup or maple syrup mixed in, and probably some fruit
Dinner--a big serving of fruit and 3 oz of jarlsberg lite cheese (3 oz has 9 g of fat) or a few times I did caprese salad with no olive oil and then fruit on the side
Bedtime snack--my homemade frozen yogurt with melted chocolate chips +coconut oil. macros for frozen yogurt are 12 g protein, 4 g fat, and 32 g carbs.

I think I probably eat more than this though because I will find myself starving and grabbing a glass of milk and some fruit or a piece of dark chocolate. There were 2 days I had starches because of a big family birthday party and a potluck but other than those I've been pretty strict. Most days I'm around 1800-1900 calories. Aiming for 150 g protein, 40 g fat, and 200 g carbs. Please help!

P.S. If you want me to delete this and post it somewhere else please let me know. New to the forum. :)

Hi Coffeelover!
I know how frustrated getting your body back after having children can be. Looking at your eating in a day I am still concerned about eating at bedtime and I think maybe you need to cut some of that protein down too. How tall are you? Ray says too much protein can get stored to fat and also sugar with too much fat in one sitting can do that also. Ray says calcium and protein is better to have during the day. I think that if you are needing a bedtime snack than you should have a dinner that gives you more fat for staying power, like a bunch of well cooked buttered broccoli or have an egg as a bedtime snack with a little spoonful of honey. You are eating way too much in the evening and not enough fat to keep you satisfied. I really thing that dessert is keeping you from burning fat during the night. These macros on your frozen yogurt “12 protein, 4 fat and 33 carbs” is on top of a dinner, it’s too much eating before lying down for hours with no way to burn it all off.

 

[coffeelover]

Hi Coffeelover!
I know how frustrated getting your body back after having children can be. Looking at your eating in a day I am still concerned about eating at bedtime and I think maybe you need to cut some of that protein down too. How tall are you? Ray says too much protein can get stored to fat and also sugar with too much fat in one sitting can do that also. Ray says calcium and protein is better to have during the day. I think that if you are needing a bedtime snack than you should have a dinner that gives you more fat for staying power, like a bunch of well cooked buttered broccoli or have an egg as a bedtime snack with a little spoonful of honey. You are eating way too much in the evening and not enough fat to keep you satisfied. I really thing that dessert is keeping you from burning fat during the night. These macros on your frozen yogurt “12 protein, 4 fat and 33 carbs” is on top of a dinner, it’s too much eating before lying down for hours with no way to burn it all off.

Well, the dessert is about 4 hours after dinner and it's not purely hunger, although I am hungry by that point, it is also my treat after the kids go to bed. Usually 3-8 pm is the most stressful time of day and I have needed that little treat to look forward to--for years. It used to be full-fat homemade ice cream so with all the changes I don't understand why my body hasn't changed AT ALL.
I'm 5'5" and trying to eat enough protein so I don't lose muscle. I have a good amount of muscle but also lots of fat. With my fat only being 40-50 g does it matter if 4 of those grams are before bed? I am SO confused by all these things. I expected the big changes I made to help things start to move, so I'm at a loss. I am planning to get back to walking and strength training next week (It's just been so busy and I haven't had time) but I know when I do that I will be even hungrier. I don't expect you to solve all my problems, haha, but it feels good to have a space to talk about it all.

 

[coffeelover]

Also, if it helps, I'm not actually hitting my protein goal and I am eating more carbs. So in reality it's 40-60g fat, 100-130 g protein, and probably like 250-300 g carbs. I don't know what is optimal really.

 

[coffeelover]

I'm also wondering how you would stay full on such low fat and also less protein. I feel like I I'm gorging myself on fruit all day which is delicious which is delicious and I'm also using honey and Maple syrup and sugar. I don't know how I would stay full without the protein

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Well, the dessert is about 4 hours after dinner and it's not purely hunger, although I am hungry by that point, it is also my treat after the kids go to bed. Usually 3-8 pm is the most stressful time of day and I have needed that little treat to look forward to--for years. It used to be full-fat homemade ice cream so with all the changes I don't understand why my body hasn't changed AT ALL.
I'm 5'5" and trying to eat enough protein so I don't lose muscle. I have a good amount of muscle but also lots of fat. With my fat only being 40-50 g does it matter if 4 of those grams are before bed? I am SO confused by all these things. I expected the big changes I made to help things start to move, so I'm at a loss. I am planning to get back to walking and strength training next week (It's just been so busy and I haven't had time) but I know when I do that I will be even hungrier. I don't expect you to solve all my problems, haha, but it feels good to have a space to talk about it all.

Our activity level matters as to how much protein is gonna get used up, and what leftovers gets stored as fat. I like 50 to 80 for my 5’4 medium build frame and up to 120 if I am really active, and I eat most all of it a good 4 to 5 hours before bedtime. After that I focus on fruit, tea, maybe some buttered popcorn as a splurge, an egg with ketchup or lots of watermelon or a homemade oat macadamia brownie or cookie. I am thinking your fat intake is possible more than you think. A can of oysters and a boiled egg alone is 20 grams of fat and chocolate is so high in fat. One ounce of my Alter Ego chocolate is roughly 15 grams of fat. Try ditching the chocolate. I strategize eating chocolate by having it instead of something not on top of something, like with coffee or nonfat milk

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“People on a standard diet will typically burn 200 or 300 more calories per day when that amount of sugar is added to their diet; but if extra fat is added, too, some of the extra calories are likely to be deposited as fat. It's important to watch the signs of changing heat production as the diet changes." -Ray Peat