Peat Style Diet For An Exhausted Newbie?

Fat&Furious

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Dec 28, 2019
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Hello everyone!
I am a female (mother) in my 30s and just discovered Peat and this style of eating. Won’t waste time on too many details but started Low-Carb about 8 years ago after having Pre-eclampsia with my first child, and reading some weird literature on how going low-carb may possibly prevent this, (I was scared, I was desperate!) so I upped my magnesium and took the journey towards a lot less carbs and more meat, dairy & good fat. Apparently there were lots of health benefits, apparently sugar was bad anyway, right?!

Well, I was fine with my second child, had them naturally, and although we both sighed a huge sigh of relief, perhaps this was dangerous in another way, for ‘encouraging’ me in what I thought was the ‘right’ dietary direction, but I would always diet Yo-Yo, as would my husband. We just couldn’t maintain it for longer than a few weeks and would end up on a weekend binge of carbs, pizza & sugar, and so on, like we’d not been fed in a week. (My children were exempt from my own dieting fads, thank goodness!) Long story short I began to doubt (aren’t whole civilisations are built on carbs?!) so I began to eat a varied, normal western diet about 4 years ago, after being tired of diet obsession and what in my head was ‘failure’ whenever I reached for a candy bar or even a carrot or apple!

Let me just add that I also (stupidly!!) substituted sugar for artificial sweeteners. Yes, I could have used honey or maple syrup, but in a way I was brain-washed, even though, looking back, who knows what is in these sweeteners, and they probably didn’t agree with me (or the human body as a whole) one bit. Around the time when I first did low-carb hard, & cut out all fruit & sugar, I began to develop arthritis type symptoms and inflammation too, which I couldn’t find relief from! What?! I was in my 20s! Instead of Drs and drugs, I just considered it another diet failure, like I wasn’t eating ‘clean enough’. I was mad at myself. I also just put it down to how pregnancy ‘changes some women’ and that I was unfortunately one of them, who would never be the same or get a decent figure back... I even lost a lot of my breast tissue after one child, due to under feeding myself, determined to lose weight, which was crazy! It was that which finally tipped me over into eating ‘normally’ because I was shocked at how three tiny meals a day of L.Carb could mean my actual breast tissue disappeared, (not just decreased,) instead of leading to weight loss elsewhere (thighs, tum). I now have a belly I cannot budge, and both my husband and I are more unhealthy than when we had first tried this Atkins style diet... surprise, not...!

Recently my husband discovered Ray Peat and thought we would try this way of eating (or drinking, as most if it may be) but I am unsure how to proceed. Does anybody else here feel terribly hungry after having minimal solid food, even if they drink their orange juice and milk? I am used to a higher fat diet than what is suggested for those people who wish to lose weight, (this will be a hard habit to break) although I have strangely noticed that I crave less if I have more sugar. I haven’t lost weight, but I haven’t gained either so far, about a month in. I feel like it’s all guesswork.

I have not been a high energy person in years, but I do ‘life exercise’, I’m busy in my own way even though I don’t do sports. I’m glad that I read somewhere that you shouldn’t over exercise while your body is under strain because I feel terribly weak and I have had bad knees since childhood. For a short period while eating a ‘normal western diet’ and ditching L.Carb I did exercise like mad, thinking that this was the missing component, but all it left me was exhausted and extremely grouchy! Can anybody relate?

I would like to know other people’s experiences with raising metabolism, which I pretty much think I wrecked, and how long it took their body to recover from feeling constantly stressed or pushed. I am also convinced that my overnight increase in grey hairs (I now have a whole bunch of them) was due to somehow placing unnecessary strain on my body or the wrong type of foods. I have been through some stressful things in the past decade, illnesses, deaths of family members, house moves, etc, while all the time ‘searching’ for how to get back to my old, healthy self. Funny how when I was younger and slim I ate what I wanted, like a tonne of sugar, but didn’t think anything of it because I was healthy. The second I grow up and have kids I’m set on dieting to change myself and I go in what seemed to be the totally wrong direction! Is this why people have a ‘middle aged spread’? Because they don’t think about dieting until they’re older? Plus the PUFAs I guess...

Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed with diet without overdoing it? I don’t have the willpower to be overly strict anymore, but I want to be convinced that I am doing my body some good, instead of just reaching for the ice-cream or mashed potatoes because I don’t really believe anything will work anymore. I suppose you could say I am ‘Peat-leaning’ but I’m taking it one week at a time. I have given up cruciferous vegetables (or however you spell it!) which I used to rely on in L.Carb, and finally am enjoying things like carrots and squash and turnips again.

Happy 2020 people! All the best in your dietary ventures, may we never take health for granted again!
 
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somuch4food

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The liquid diet is the number one mistake by newbies.

The OJ and milk are not meant to replace meals they are added on top of it to make sure you get enough nutrition.

There are a couple of more important points like replacing PUFAs with SFAs, adding dairy for calcium mainly (some don't tolerate it though), upping salt intake and carbs.

As a start point, I would suggest to replace water with orange juice and milk, replace PUFAs with SFAs when cooking and salt to taste.

After that, there is liver and oysters which are recommended once a week and gelatin to balance the amino acids from meat.

The last thing that helped me the most was experimenting with my own body reactions using intuitive eating. If I feel like eating a fat meal I do so, if I want sugar I eat dessert, etc. You should try to connect to your body instead of always looking for external guidance.

I take ideas on the forum and test them out on myself.

BTW, I'm also a mother of 2 in my late twenties that underate during my first pregnancy and when I breastfed my first.
 

Zpol

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Hello @Fat&Furious
A lot of people who are new to RP's recommendations tend to go overboard with sugar, ice cream, and coke, and they might miss the importance he places on getting enough protein. He also mentions saturated fats are healthy fats but some people miss that he also indicates a moderate to low fat overall diet is best for people wanting to loose weight. I am no expert but I can tell you personally that what I have gathered is that 80 to 100 grams of protein a day is usually best for women; you can start with that and build your carbs and fats around that, and keep the fat to about 11 to 15 grams per meal (that equates to a ratio of about 40% carb/30% protein/30% fat). And lowering cortisol and stress hormones is also important, so eating small balanced snacks between meals is helpful as well since food will lower your stress response (if it's easy to digest and nutrient dense). A meal could be 2 or 3oz of no-fat meat or fish, a cup of broth (always have broth with muscle meat), a tablespoon of butter, and a few servings of fruits/roots/or tubers. A snack could be skim milk or low fat cottage cheese with fruit (some people drain the liquid off cottage cheese) or greek yogurt. When you think about it like this, as in a balanced diet which includes fresh ripe fruits, well cooked roots and tubers, milk and cheese (low fat varieties if you are trying to loose weight and balance blood sugar), coconut oil and butter (about a tablespoon of fat per meal), pasture raised eggs, raw carrot salads and well cooked mushrooms for fiber, and shellfish, whitefish, soups/stews (made with bone broth) for main dishes.. you really can't go wrong. This a way of eating that you can feel confident in because it does not conform to any fad diet trends; it's based on traditional foods and rational approach. Also, you can vary it due to taste. For example if you like tortillas, simply prepare them in a more digestible way (soaked in lime). The sugar, ice cream, and coke are fine but they can be occasional foods not daily foods.

Other ways to reduce stress response that RP talks about is bag breathing and red light. You don't necessarily have to use a bag to breath in, I've read many people get the same effect by doing some diaphragmatic breathing, basically just extending the exhale and breathing through your nose.
 

somuch4food

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build your carbs and fats around that, and keep the fat to about 11 to 15 grams per meal (that equates to a ratio of about 40% carb/30% protein/30% fat).

Women tend to do better with more fats in their diet than men in my opinion. My fat intake varies with seasons. I crave more fat in the winter and more fruits in the summer.
 

lampofred

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I think the most important Peat principles are 1) completely avoid all unsaturated oils and use butter/ghee/coconut oil instead (but to eat a relatively low amount of fat even when using saturated fat), 2) avoid all iron-fortified starch and to add 1-2 quarts of orange juice or other sugary fruit daily to your diet, 3) get at least 80 grams of protein daily from animal sources, including 2-3 quarts of low-fat milk for the calcium, 4) consider using coffee, aspirin, thyroid, and other supplements if changing your diet isn't enough to raise your metabolism (temperature, pulse rate) and increase energy levels.

Also making sure to buy organic whenever possible might be good since the glyphosate and pesticides in milk and fruits could really add up.
 
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HUF

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Feb 19, 2019
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Hi @Fat&Furious if you wanted a coach to assist with a Ray peat eating plan then check out Home | NuStrength
Kitty is an Australian based coach trained by Dodie Anderson who with Rob Turner authored the popping the food bubble program. She gets amazing results with women. I wish I had used a coach when I started a Peat style diet as my wife and myself gained unnecessary weight that could have been avoided with a smarter approach. Basically if you start eating high carb and too much fat after being metabolically damaged then you will store fat easily. Walking is all you should start with but Kitty from nu strength will have you lifting 2-3 days per week to recomp as you go. All the best with healing it will take a while but well worth it!
 

YourUniverse

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Peat's diet suggestions are about balance. He emphasizes certain foods (milk, orange juice) because they are what are missing in most peoples diets, not because they are magic although some are extremely nutritious. Eat your meats, fruits, potatoes, coffee, milk and dont be so afraid of candy, chocolate, sucrose, dairy, shellfish or organs. Minimize PUFA and eat what feels good
 

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