Very Low Fat Peat Diet And Physical Changes

[Tarmander]

Are you still eating rice in large amounts, Tarmander?

Not as much as when I posted that. I remember when I did that, I was on such low amounts of fat, I would get dizzy, and could not get much protein down. I lost weight on the diet, but it came back once I stopped eating that way. These days I usually do rice for like one meal, and then lots of fruit and some milk otherwise. If I crave fat, I eat it.

 

[Gadsie]

I want to switch to a VLF diet to get my pufa intake below 0.5 grams, but I'm afraid it will impact my testosterone levels, as shown by many studies, including this one ARTICLES | Journal of Applied Physiology



suggesting that the higher the SFA intake, the higher the testosterone, and the higher the PUFA intake the lower

 

[Ideonaut]

Low-fat? Haven't come across any good ones yet.
Gelatin--I'm a vegetarian so have been looking for fish gelatin.

Fish are not vegetables, last I heard.

 

[DawN]

Fish is for the cats.

 

[Dan W]

I'm afraid it will impact my testosterone levels, as shown by many studies

I can't speak to whether this is true, but some people think it will drop estrogen levels, "making up" for any testosterone drop.

 

[Optimus]

I want to switch to a VLF diet to get my pufa intake below 0.5 grams, but I'm afraid it will impact my testosterone levels, as shown by many studies, including this one ARTICLES | Journal of Applied Physiology



suggesting that the higher the SFA intake, the higher the testosterone, and the higher the PUFA intake the lower

I saw this study somewhere else too and wondered, how does more percent protein, meaning higher total protein, equal less testosterone? For a standard 2100 cal diet, the protein-test chart essentially translates to lower testosterone going from 74g protein to 130 gram protein.

Even ray peat says to eat a min of 100-120 grams of protein (that too for a normal person not even requiring increased protein as a training individual would)

 

[Ella]

2% fat is too low and sounds like you are detoxing too fast. What are your alkaline minerals like. What are you doing to support heavy metals coming out as it will place a heavy burden on detoxification pathways, kidneys, adrenals and bladder. I would cut back on the orange juice and try to slow things down a tad. Are you using gelatin?

 

[AJC]

2% fat is too low and sounds like you are detoxing too fast. What are your alkaline minerals like. What are you doing to support heavy metals coming out as it will place a heavy burden on detoxification pathways, kidneys, adrenals and bladder. I would cut back on the orange juice and try to slow things down a tad. Are you using gelatin?

My diet's changed quite a bit since last June. I've "evened it out" a lot more since then--not very extreme anymore.

Positive changes I will say I experienced though was the gain of about 20 lbs of muscle in little over a month. I am not exaggerating, I did weight and caliper assessment before and after. Ultimately, the diet itself wasn't very sustainable, but it was a great experience.

 

[Luann]

I've been doing very low fat for the last 3 months, something like 2% kcal from PUFA, maybe 4 grams of total fat a day , and feel pretty good. The weirdest part is my 5-pound fat gain (not muscle). So, that's not so fun, but other than that low-fat feels okay.

 

[Elysium]

Positive changes I will say I experienced though was the gain of about 20 lbs of muscle in little over a month. I am not exaggerating, I did weight and caliper assessment before and after. Ultimately, the diet itself wasn't very sustainable, but it was a great experience.

Did you also grow in height? Say at least 4 to 6 inches? That would be consistent with the 20 pounds of muscle per month gain.

 

[AJC]

Did you also grow in height? Say at least 4 to 6 inches? That would be consistent with the 20 pounds of muscle per month gain.

No, though I did gain about 6 pounds of fat as well. Exercise was rock climbing. My weight before was around 170 and shot up to around 200. Between 190-200 seems to be about my body's preferred place to be when protein is adequate to high, because the weight stayed stable around there for a few months pretty much no matter what I did.

Also should add that prior to this I was pretty much undereating and consuming fairly low amounts of protein. So the doubling of daily calories and tripling of daily protein was well-recieved by my body.

 

[jaa]

You can try this for milk if you're worried about digestive issues and added vitamins

CapraMilk

Pricey though and doesn't taste as good as the real thing.

 

[ddjd]

Hello all,

I've recently switched to a Very Low Fat Peat-style Diet after reading some articles and many very helpful posts on this forum and other related blogs.

I came to this diet from a diet of lots of fish, grains, raw whole milk, and fruit. It was moderate to high fat, low to medium protein.

Immediately upon making the switch to this style diet I had a huge jump in energy, a return to sharper thinking, and more zest for life and work. Overall, I've been feeling awesome.

My temperature and pulse have been rising throughout. I've been tracking food as well: eating around 3000-4000 calories daily, at about 600 g carbs coming from OJ (lots), milk sugar, white sugar, some other fruit, and the occasional potato. I've been getting around 180-200 g protein more or less exclusively from skim milk (around 100 ounces daily at least), with the occasional can of oysters. My fat intake has been around 1 tbsp of coconut oil, so around 2% of daily calories. I've also been drinking ample coffee with my meals, which also feels great. I haven't gained any fat, but have actually gained a little muscle, as I've been engaging in moderate exercise. 22 years old, with hypothyroid type symptoms (temperature usually 97-98, pulse usually 70-80), but healthy aside from that as far as I can tell.

So, those are all the good changes I've noticed since implementing this diet 10 days ago. Now, throughout this time I've also been experiencing bouts of "diarhhea" after meals. It comes and goes. I put it into quotes because it's usually not watery, but it comes on with the urgency of diarrhea and it's usually right after a meal. Accompanying this is GI "rumbling" and extra gas. Over the past two days as well, I've had a couple of headaches and joint pain, which I usually don't get.

These seem like minor concerns, and for the tradeoff in energetic boost I've been feeling they are totally worth it. However, I wanted to bring them up in my situation and ask everyone if they have any experience with them, and to make sure they aren't signs of a deeper problem. Some possible explanations I've been turning around in my head:

1) Allergic reaction to the skim milk I've been drinking.
--I've never really had milk allergies in the past as far as I can tell, but I'm used to drinking raw whole milk, not pasteurized skim milk.

2) Hypervitaminosis from the synthetic Vitamin A and Vitamin D added to the milk.
--This is more of a concern to me, and I'm working on finding a better skim milk source that doesn't have these extras in them. Any recommendations here would be much appreciated.

3) Excessive urea production and failure to excrete it.
--Again, this is more of a concern to me. I'm coming from a low to moderate protein diet of 50g protein on average, and have been consuming around 180g daily since implementing the Peat style diet. I'm no expert on the physiology of this particular pathway, but it seems others have been ables to eat this much protein with no problem, and I am looking to spare and preferably build muscle in the process of this low fat diet. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

4) Headaches and Joint Pain as a side effect of dumping PUFAs and Estrogen.
--With such a rapid shift to the new diet, it seems possible I'm undergoing a relatively quick PUFA depletion, and these are simply some of the side effects of that dumping. Any recommendations for dealing with it would be great, as well as any relevant experiences with something like this.

5) Heavy metal dumping
--I'm on a nutrition supplement program designed to allow me to slowly dump heavy metals from my body (Nutritional Balancing as practiced by Trace elements Labs). My dumps honestly smell like metal at times, or a chemical toxin at times, so it seems possible to me that the metabolic boost I'm experiencing is stimulating a further house-cleaning. Also, the way PUFAs, estrogen, and toxic levels of copper interact also makes this hypothesis possible in my eyes.

I'm open to hearing any experiences or advice or speculation on what I've written about. I'm also open to providing more information (food logs, health history, supplements, etc.) that could help. This forum has been an amazing resource so far, and I'm looking forward to getting off the sidelines and stepping onto the field with everyone.

Cheers

How did you get on with the low fat diet. I'm thinking of starting it

 

[AJC]

How did you get on with the low fat diet. I'm thinking of starting it

I actually kept on with the diet for about 8 months. I'd say it was an incredible success for the first 4 of those. I was eating about 4000 cal/day and 180 g protein/day. Because of this I actually gained about 20 pounds in the first month--18 of which was muscle. I know this sounds crazy but it's true. A few of my close friends (females) commented many, many times on the amazing change my body went through--saying that my face looked more mature, my body overall more attractive, etc. My face did get a bit wider during this period, I also supplemented some of Haiduts K2 for a short period. My body went from 180 ish to 210 pounds over this period of weight gain and growth, and even though I've since returned to about 185--the majority of the positive physical changes are still with me.

However, with all that said (in addition to potent mental/energetic increases during this time) I'd say the benefits of this diet tapered off after about 5 months and after this it plateaued and eventually started to decrease in returns. And now with my hindsight and greater expanse of knowledge I can see clearly this is not a long term diet for me (or probably the majority of people). It was unbalancing. Excessive amounts of store bought skim milk with added synthetic vitamins ended up causing some damage. Inadequate consumption of fat soluble vitamins also did this.

Overall, very glad I did it, and I still kind of think of it as a good short term energy boosting and stress reduction diet if I am in a tight spot at school with final exams or something like that. I just wouldn't attempt to make it a long term solution again.

 

[Wagner83]

What about doing it with some fat soluble vitamins as supplements and other sources of sugar than skimmed milk with added vits?

 

[ddjd]

I actually kept on with the diet for about 8 months. I'd say it was an incredible success for the first 4 of those. I was eating about 4000 cal/day and 180 g protein/day. Because of this I actually gained about 20 pounds in the first month--18 of which was muscle. I know this sounds crazy but it's true. A few of my close friends (females) commented many, many times on the amazing change my body went through--saying that my face looked more mature, my body overall more attractive, etc. My face did get a bit wider during this period, I also supplemented some of Haiduts K2 for a short period. My body went from 180 ish to 210 pounds over this period of weight gain and growth, and even though I've since returned to about 185--the majority of the positive physical changes are still with me.

However, with all that said (in addition to potent mental/energetic increases during this time) I'd say the benefits of this diet tapered off after about 5 months and after this it plateaued and eventually started to decrease in returns. And now with my hindsight and greater expanse of knowledge I can see clearly this is not a long term diet for me (or probably the majority of people). It was unbalancing. Excessive amounts of store bought skim milk with added synthetic vitamins ended up causing some damage. Inadequate consumption of fat soluble vitamins also did this.

Overall, very glad I did it, and I still kind of think of it as a good short term energy boosting and stress reduction diet if I am in a tight spot at school with final exams or something like that. I just wouldn't attempt to make it a long term solution again.

thats interesting because ive started zero or v.low fat this week and my cortisol belly is going, ive got way more energy and clarity and it doesnt feel like high stress. i think ill give it a go long term. although i would like to lose weight, not sure how successful it will be in this, as you say you gained weight!

the one exception im thinking about caprylic acid being my only fat. its very different to regular fat, bypasses digestive system and goes straight to the liver, its anti fungal, fuels the brain, raises metabolism, possibly helps with weight loss too

 

[mayweatherking]

How To Do A No-Fat Diet

 

[AJC]

What about doing it with some fat soluble vitamins as supplements and other sources of sugar than skimmed milk with added vits?

Fat soluble vitamins seem like a minimum to me to avoid burning out on it.

 

[moriwatzi]

Positive changes I will say I experienced though was the gain of about 20 lbs of muscle in little over a month.

 

[AJC]

Right it sounds crazy I know. Keep in mind I was eating 4000 calories daily, much of which came from highly anabolic dairy while working out.