RP Diet & Lifestyle For Young Men With A Lust For Life

[ebs]

Got the idea of starting this thread after a reply I received here: Not Doing Well On High Fruit | Juice Intake

I’m a total lurker, but I have been quietly following a lot of your posts and you’ve got me motivated enough to post.
Dude, ditch the Ray Peat effort. You’re only having problems. If your concern is anabolism, testosterone, etc, there are other resources to read on like anabolicmen.com and Christopher Walker. Both are very heavy supplement sales driven but the book Master Your T has enough good information on the subjects you’re looking for.
Trying to cobble together a Ray Peat diet has you going in circles of anxiety. Maybe read through @olive posts.
Even look at LeanGains.com and apply some principles to an alternative.
You’re too young to be fretting about on an old man diet like Peat’s. Read the alternatives and do some more vigorous stuff.
​

So, I'm interested in some general guidelines for a young man to follow.
The 2 main motivations / pursuits that attracted me to RP are:

• hope for greater energy levels
• hope for high androgens & high Testosterone
• hope for better mental health / resillence, which would have a positive effect on my social life
• hope to stop thinning & receding hairline

I am lean and fit, have some muscle mass. Though I suffer from low T / libido and low energy levels (dedicated threads)
Any thoughts / guidelines?
I lift heavy weights 3 times / week for aesthetics & strength. I don't do cardio, except walking.

• should someone like me be taking stuff like Aspirin, if I'm not overweight or something?
• should I include more starch / glucose for greater strength in the gym?

Ali from Anabolicmen happens to be a RP follower too. At least when his forum was still online.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Anyone who has followed C. Walker's Thermo Diet?

 

[Kartoffel]

I played for River Plate academy, didn't played pro of course. But I'm 41 and still playing at high level of amateur leagues.

Talking about Bundesliga

Lewandowski wife's talking about his diet

"The footballer has cut sweets and chocolate out of his diet as well, as alcohol and cow's milk, and sometimes finds steak tartare on his daily breakfast menu.

"I write his nutrition plans. I have deleted dairy products from the diet, as well as gluten," Lewandowska told Fit and Fun. "Depending on the training phase, there is porridge made from millet or protein in the form of tartare for breakfast. Otherwise a lot of seafood and fish. We love pumpkin noodles."

Again, low fat, high carb high protein, no gluten, no dairy, no white sugar. Fish, eggs, some red meat, and lots of carbs.

I can see you are a very prolific googler. I wonder why Lewa was so successful in all those years before his anhedonic wife started writing menus for him, and when he still ate all those things, or how Messi became the best player in history just eating whatever he wants. Most of the best attacking football players are skinny, agile, twigs with no remarkable muscle mass. Those guys just eat according to their needs and hunger, that's what keeps them healthy and fit. They don't obsess about protein intake, or eating tons of eggs and meat like some pathetic bodybuilder.

 

[redsun]

@Zigzag On Peat, my protein intake varies from 90 - 140 grams.
On Carnivore, I was easily eating 200 - 350g of protein per day.
And before being Carnivore, my intake was 160g on average.

160g is probably the best in your case . Dont let that protein intake vary too much, best to keep it consistently higher like no less than 135-140g. Your protein intake is going to play a big part in your daily wellbeing.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

Ever since finding out about this forum and reading through it, I've made a few changes in my lifestyle, like quitting cold showers, quitting short-distance running, quitting fasting. And the thing is I feel like I've become a little more 'lifeless'.
I still had energy issues back then, don't get me wrong, but I guess I was getting a temporary cortisol / adrenaline high from the activities mentioned above.

I am still physically active, as I do a lot of light walking, coupled with my lifting sessions. But other than that, I am sedentary.

Now my stress hormones have lowered for sure, but I feel kinda lifeless. Is having low stress hormones and high energy really that hard to attain?
I have felt this state temporarily, either when drinking a Red Bull or some fresh juice.
My libido is dead

@redsun I definitely feel a drop in strength if I go under 130g of protein. Ever since peating and making healing my no.1 priority, I stopped being so demanding on the need for protein to support muscle. Whereas before, If I ate under 100g of protein in a day, I would freak out and panic about losing muscle. Now, I'm more chill about it, but I do need to keep my intake high as it benefits me in multiple ways.

 

[redsun]

Ever since finding out about this forum and reading through it, I've made a few changes in my lifestyle, like quitting cold showers, quitting short-distance running, quitting fasting. And the thing is I feel like I've become a little more 'lifeless'.
I still had energy issues back then, don't get me wrong, but I guess I was getting a temporary cortisol / adrenaline high from the activities mentioned above.

I am still physically active, as I do a lot of light walking, coupled with my lifting sessions. But other than that, I am sedentary.

Now my stress hormones have lowered for sure, but I feel kinda lifeless. Is having low stress hormones and high energy really that hard to attain?
I have felt this state temporarily, either when drinking a Red Bull or some fresh juice.
My libido is dead

@redsun I definitely feel a drop in strength if I go under 130g of protein. Ever since peating and making healing my no.1 priority, I stopped being so demanding on the need for protein to support muscle. Whereas before, If I ate under 100g of protein in a day, I would freak out and panic about losing muscle. Now, I'm more chill about it, but I do need to keep my intake high as it benefits me in multiple ways.

I think you misunderstand energy like quite a few people. You cannot truly have large amounts of energy without "stress" hormones to some degree. Thyroid works synergistically with adrenal hormones to maintain a higher level of energy. Thyroid doesn't work alone, nothing in the body works alone. Serotonin slows the metabolism to keep you alive when you can't maintain higher energy states basically.

You can't run on dietary sugar 24/7, cortisol always has to be there. You also need the adrenals to ramp up to burn fat when you are out of sugar otherwise cortisol is forced to rise too high to maintain blood sugar. Do you know what happens to all the members here that have tried to constantly pound down food in order to stop the stress hormones from rising? All of them get overweight or obese its just brain damage to do such a thing and the moment they stop eating sugar after pounding it down they get a spike in cortisol because its too sensitive. You are always burning carbs and fat at all times, you need every hormone, every system functioning properly to maintain energy.

The redbull is not providing you energy with low stress hormones dude, you need to get this in your head man. It is raising catecholamines, its a CNS stimulant by definition and this CNS stimulation is helping provide energy. Its raising dopamine, noradrenaline, adrenaline, glutamate, histamine(by reducing DAO which breaks down histamine), and lowering serotonin(which its purpose is to slow metabolism).

If you feel lifeless, that's because you are. You dropped all these activities you used to do and you don't replace them. You twiddle your thumbs as the day goes by. You need to remedy this, do something new. I think if you like running, you should run. Run a good amount of time not too long but long enough to really feel it. Its a great form of exercise to get you out of your own head which in your case I think is a major problem. It also helps to have a greater goal in life in mind. But in general you need to live, do things that make you feel alive, do things you like to do.

Protein is very important for other reasons not just muscle, so for that reason you should keep it up higher.

As for libido, I think you need to look into raising histamine and I believe I mentioned this to you before. This is one of the major reasons why teenagers have insane libido, because their histamine is so much higher. Folic acid will help retain histidine(the amino acid), niacinamide helps reduce adrenaline(which will make your **** literally not work if its high enough) and leave more noradrenaline and dopamine available(because they wont converted as much to adrenaline) which will help libido a lot. Zinc and manganese help store histamine. I think your case I would not touch zinc supplements as we went over this already its a terrible idea especially when you can easily get zinc from food but try to increase intake of manganese, which is vital in storing histamine. Iron competes against manganese for absorption.

You can do:
800mcg folic acid 3x a day
100mg niacinamide 3x a day

And increase manganese intake from foods, pineapples are very high in it. You may just be so low on folic acid that you aren't retaining dietary histidine as much(it gets pissed out) and you arent going to make much histamine if you cant retain histidine. Niacinamide also will help raise histamine and reduce adrenaline(adrenaline significantly antagonizes histamine). Also I assume choline intake is good, if not make sure it is, acetylcholine and histamine work together.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

@redsun Indeed, the whole mechanism is more complex, and I overlooked it. I guess the quest remains on how to have high energy levels without having chronically elevated stress hormones.

If you feel lifeless, that's because you are.

You are right. I would like to do acting or photography, rather than running. Running is a solitary activity, does not help with social life.

About libido:

I have been supplementing Folic acid (methylfolate) 400 mcg on and off for the past 2 months, just for fun. I did not feel anything different from it. Mind you, my sleep was very poor throught this time.
I've also more recently started taking a B complex in very high dose, which contains Niacin 50mg. It also contains other B's in high doses, not ideal ratios. Except increased hunger, I haven't noticed much from them

 

[redsun]

@redsun Indeed, the whole mechanism is more complex, and I overlooked it. I guess the quest remains on how to have high energy levels without having chronically elevated stress hormones.


You are right. I would like to do acting or photography, rather than running. Running is a solitary activity, does not help with social life.

About libido:

I have been supplementing Folic acid (methylfolate) 400 mcg on and off for the past 2 months, just for fun. I did not feel anything different from it. Mind you, my sleep was very poor throught this time.
I've also more recently started taking a B complex in very high dose, which contains Niacin 50mg. It also contains other B's in high doses, not ideal ratios. Except increased hunger, I haven't noticed much from them

It is 400mcg as methylfolate which is not folic acid. Has to be folic acid and much higher dose, 400mcg is nothing when your histamine is low. You need to do the 800mcg folic 3x a day with niacinamide 100mg. The issue with B complex if your histamine is low is it can actually raise adrenaline because you need Bs to make adrenaline and turn the methylation cycle faster(which makes more SAMe which makes adrenaline). If it is raising adrenaline, it will make raising libido even harder.

You want the "stress hormones" at just the right level, not low or high. Too low you have no energy, too high you feel like your on speed. I think your outlook will improve dramatically if the libido issue gets fixed and because histamine doesnt just affect libido, it affects the mind as well positively(for the most part).

You need to give the folic acid and niacinamide a shot. It should work even with the B complex, Just eat protein rich meals preferably foods higher in histidine and take 800mcg folic acid with it and some niacinamide. Do this every meal 3x a day and be strict with it do not forget.

 

[chrismturner89]

It is 400mcg as methylfolate which is not folic acid. Has to be folic acid and much higher dose, 400mcg is nothing when your histamine is low. You need to do the 800mcg folic 3x a day with niacinamide 100mg. The issue with B complex if your histamine is low is it can actually raise adrenaline because you need Bs to make adrenaline and turn the methylation cycle faster(which makes more SAMe which makes adrenaline). If it is raising adrenaline, it will make raising libido even harder.

You want the "stress hormones" at just the right level, not low or high. Too low you have no energy, too high you feel like your on speed.

You need to give the folic acid and niacinamide a shot. It should work even with the B complex, Just eat protein rich meals preferably foods higher in histidine and take 800mcg folic acid with it and some niacinamide. Do this every meal 3x a day and be strict with it do not forget.

Why folic acid and not methylfolate? Would folinic acid work just as well?

 

[redsun]

Why folic acid and not methylfolate? Would folinic acid work just as well?

Because it gets converted to tetrahydrofolate which retains histidine. This is what all the info I have seen for raising histamine says. Folic acid, not methylfolate, not folinic acid. Folic acid. I am sure they all can technically turn into tetrahydrofolate eventually but this is what is recommended, its not my ideas, its ideas from much smarter people. So you want to do it, you do it that way and no other way.

 

[chrismturner89]

Because it gets converted to tetrahydrofolate which retains histidine. This is what all the info I have seen for raising histamine says. Folic acid, not methylfolate, not folinic acid. Folic acid. I am sure they all can technically turn into tetrahydrofolate eventually but this is what is recommended, its not my ideas, its ideas from much smarter people. So you want to do it, you do it that way and no other way.

But folinic acid is 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate - are these not the same thing? Im curious because i believe you are on to something. Its just folic acid can really mess some people up, especially those with mthfr mutations.

 

[redsun]

But folinic acid is 5-formyl tetrahydrofolate - are these not the same thing? Im curious because i believe you are on to something. Its just folic acid can really mess some people up, especially those with mthfr mutations.

No its not the same thing as tetrahydrofolate. Increasing histamine is for people that have low histamine, and they always have low folic acid levels. MTHFR was not concerned with when raising histamine and when all this was being learned years ago by a few notable people. Folic acid is used because it works.

Can you specify what you mean by folic acid messing people up? The only thing I known of is if you are already have high histamine(histadelic) you can react badly to folic acid which raises it even more.

 

[chrismturner89]

No its not the same thing as tetrahydrofolate. Increasing histamine is for people that have low histamine, and they always have low folic acid levels. MTHFR was not concerned with when raising histamine and when all this was being learned years ago by a few notable people. Folic acid is used because it works.

Can you specify what you mean by folic acid messing people up? The only thing I known of is if you are already have high histamine(histadelic) you can react badly to folic acid which raises it even more.

My understanding is that people with mthfr mutations cannot mebatobolise folic acid as it is purely synethic. This leads to a toxic build up of this synthetic nutrient and creates symptoms. Folinic acid is an already pre-metabolised derivative as is methylfolate.

 

[redsun]

My understanding is that people with mthfr mutations cannot mebatobolise folic acid as it is purely synethic. This leads to a toxic build up of this synthetic nutrient and creates symptoms. Folinic acid is an already pre-metabolised derivative as is methylfolate.

Folic acid is synthetic but generally can still be used so I am not concerned about it.

 

[chrismturner89]

Folic acid is synthetic but generally can still be used so I am not concerned about it.

But what im saying is surely a less synthetic more metabolically active type of folate would produce the same results right?

 

[redsun]

But what im saying is surely a less synthetic more metabolically active type of folate would produce the same results right?

The people that created and built upon the histapenic treatments use plain folic acid. Thats what I recommend because thats what they recommend and thats what they have always used. You can try it that way and if it works or not that would be on you as that is not what it is used for raising histamine.

 

[ExCarniv]

You are right. I would like to do acting or photography, rather than running. Running is a solitary activity, does not help with social life.

Try the Meetup app, and find an activity that you like and you can meet some groups of people with the same interest.

Could be running in groups, talking different languages, playing sports, doing calisthenics in parks etc

 

[GreekDemiGod]

I have decided to try a 7-day High-starch experiment.
Yesterday was the first day. Ate a big bowl of pasta in addition to my usual RP diet.
Results:

• first mid-day erection in months
• mild arousal the morning after.
  
• deepest sleep in last 2 months (This one is definitely blood sugar-related).

So it seems like I really benefit from some starch in my diet. Maybe it's because of my genetic blueprint, maybe my current metabolic state & liver health.

However, there are concerns.

• high starch gives me dandruff and scalp itchiness. And probably contributes to my thinning & recession. My hair is really important to my looks.
• gut health & digestion: to be seen, too high fiber is problematic
• I still maintain a high-sugar intake. Is high-sugar not harmful in a high-insulin state (generated by starch)?

 

[GreekDemiGod]

@redsun It's calcium l-methylfolate 400 mcg the one I have

 

[member 2106]

• high starch gives me dandruff and scalp itchiness.

That could be the gluten.