Soldier 3.0 Nutrition

SOLDIER 3.
0
(2)
Nutrition
ESSENTIALS
A piece of The Skinny-Fat Solution
by and © anthony mychal of anthonymychal.com
The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

And now it’s time for the part where I cover my legal behind
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fitness advice. Please consult a qualified health professional prior to engaging in any exercise.
The content here is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Talk to the old
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Fonts used: homestead, bebas neue, triforce, carroserie, saiyan sans
Edited by: Lander M. Kerbey

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRO.................................................................................................................4
ALL CALORIES AREN’T CREATED EQUAL................................................................10
BODY FAT ISN’T EXACTLY EXCESS CALORIES.........................................................20
MAKING OF THE METABOLIC MAGIC......................................................................32
REBOOTING THE FOOD BIAS................................................................................42
LEVEL 1.0..........................................................................................................43
LEVEL 2.0..........................................................................................................46
LEVEL 3.0..........................................................................................................51
LEVEL 4.0..........................................................................................................60
LEVEL 5.0..........................................................................................................65
LEVEL 6.0..........................................................................................................73
LEVEL 7.0..........................................................................................................80
LEVEL 8.0..........................................................................................................83
LEVEL 9.0..........................................................................................................95
ALCOHOL, REFEEDING, KETOSIS, AND ADJUSTMENTS...........................................102
SUPPLEMENTS....................................................... ..........................................111
QUADRANTS AND HOT DOGS.............................................................................118

introduction
he vast majority of people living in the western world want to lose weight.
T You might be thinking that’s what you want to do, too. That’s why
supplement companies make outrageous claims of their pill guaranteeing
weight loss. Of course, it never works that way: there isn’t one pill that solves
your problems. The issue is more complex than can be remedied by downing a
plastic capsule, so we need a more comprehensive approach.
You might think losing weight is why we’re here, because built into the ethos of
all of this is getting down to your solid base so that, in the future, you can build
muscle without getting fat, ride off into the sunset on horseback, and do all of
that other stuff that puts a soft smile on your face.
Being skinny-fat, you have some fat. And so getting to the solid base, which is
defined by a lowe(er) body fat, starts with fat loss. Looks like we’re on the right
track. But are we? Most people have vague goals. “I want to lose weight.” “I want
to gain muscle.” Even being more specific, like gaining “x” pounds in “y” time
doesn’t get to the core of the problem, which is this: what has to happen
physiologically to make these things happen? What, exactly, does “I want to lose
weight” mean?

4
First, it means that you probably want to lose fat and not just weight. As they
This first step is say, the fastest way to lose weight is to chop off an arm. Distinguishing between
fat and weight is an important concept both now and in the future. Deeper than
about How to go
that, though: in order to lose fat, your body has to release fat from fat cells and
about the then “get rid of it.” The former is called fat mobilization (fat releasing from cells),
metabolic shift with the latter being fat oxidation (what you’d call fat burning). Releasing fat from
from top to their cells doesn’t guarantee much of anything, as the cells can easily suck the fat
back up.
bottom
seamlessly— Cutting to the chase, we’re nudging the body in two directions:
from now (solid
(a) Make the body regularly use fat for fuel
base goal) until (b) Regularly store and deliver nutrients to muscle
the eventual
non-fattening In other words: build muscle and lose fat. Preferably at the same time. This
combination is so sought after that it’s practically the holy grail of the physical
muscle-build.
training world. Crazily enough, the physiological juice behind making it happen
also has sporting implications, which means the idea is spreading far enough that
it has a jargony name attached to it now: metabolic shifting.
It may sound fanciful—the body gobbling up and lighting ablaze fat cells, all while
setting the dwarves of Moria to upkeep and rebuild muscle tissue. And it is, to a
degree. The only way to tell what your body is using for fuel is to get your blood
thrown into a contraption for respiratory quotient analysis.

5
Nevertheless, being able to gain muscle without getting fat depends on your body
being able to make good use of fat for fuel. We’re here to start this process. For
me, personally, this was a long process, and it wasn’t exactly gentle, either.
Nutrition was the toughest nut for me to crack.
I leaned down in 2006. I found out how to gain

muscle without fat in 2012. For six years, I swam
between bulking and cutting failure. But rest easy:
built into the entire skinny-fat concept is the
avoidance of the failures I’ve made.
The good news is that, as we set our body up for

optimal muscle building sans fat gain, we can set
our sights on a nice little feat that, next to gaining
muscle without getting fat, is also on the list of
things people claim to be impossible: gain muscle
and lose fat at the same time.
I’m no Incredible Hulk in the picture, but I want to dismiss the idea that the trek
to your solid base demands you become a starved, skinned rabbit. You can lose
fat and also cater to the muscle side of things, so long as your training and
nutrition are holistic. You won’t be prime time for gaining muscle, but you won’t
be a total bone yard, either. (Even though I’m not really muscular in the picture,
you have to realize that I’m more muscular there than most people walking the
earth with close to no muscle mass.)

6
If you believe that your body is nothing more than a fancy calculator, and that
calorie numbers determine the entire fate of your physiology, then you probably
won’t get very far with this process. There are a lot of things you can believe,
really. Some are over-simplified because they need to be. Some are the opposite.
What I’m presenting here, I hope, covers all of the things out there you might be
curious about, all while giving you a look at the belief system that’s helped me
make it to the other side. Built into this is an actionable structure and system of
steps to take, sort of like leveling up as you go along. You’re level one, you
acquire some skills, then you level up, then work on level two skills.
Now, nutrition is tricky. People eat different things and get different goals. As you
will see, some eat solely carbohydrates, stay lean, and have a long life-span.
Others eat solely fat and protein and have almost zero incidence of heart
problems. Before we get into all of this, we have to start at the bottom. After we
cover the basics, we will then see the cocktail that essentially creates skinny-fat
syndrome—why your body, right now, is likely working against the fabled
metabolic shift—and what we can do to fix it.
The follow up to the catalyst

As mentioned in (1), training is the catalyst to getting the body function
differently. After realizing that the body is unconsciously flinching and functioning,
it’s your job to change what has been wired into your metabolic subconscious for
who knows how many years.

7
The first piece to this is strength training. With a skinny-fat body, the fat cells
aren’t afraid to be the primary uptaker of anything excess. (Fat cells also have
other functions, which we will soon cover.) Strength training provides some
competition by upregulating the muscle cells desire for nutrients. In other words,
you’re carving a new canal so that water can now flow two ways. This is one
reason why strength training is such a hugely effective fat loss method in itself.
The other training we did on top of strength training just encouraged more fat
mobilization in an attempt to squeeze the fat cells for all their worth.
Although the wheels are turning in a positive direction because all of this, we still
have to address nutrition. Training alone isn’t going to be holistic enough to
change your body—at least not at the most effective level. If you continue to give
your body junk and garbage, your fat cells will still dominate.
What you have to realize is that you’re not only eating for fat loss, but also
muscle repair and recovery. You need to be getting quality nutrients and the right
kind of nutrients in order to build muscle. It’s tough to build a solid house when
you only have feathers to work with.
Our goal is to continue encouraging the desensitization of fat cells to nutrients.

We don’t want them to be all hungry and greedy. What we eat can help make this
happen, especially if we err to the foods and philosophy that take care of our
newly found muscle needs.

8
This metabolic shift business
For the sake of cool, I’m going to be using the term “shifting” or “metabolic
shifting” to refer to what we’re trying to do with our body. If you look at body
composition from afar and training being a catalyst, humans are naturally aerobic
creatures. In most instances, we use fat as fuel. Unless otherwise told, we’re
going to store most excess energy as fat because of this.
We want to use fat as our dominant fuel source at rest to expedite fat loss, but
we also want to trigger our body to concern itself with muscle. When this sort of
thing is repeated over time, and we’re at our solid base, we can hope that our
body maintains its comfortable and safe (but low) body fat percentage. And when
muscle concerns are maintained, they demand a share of nutrients and energy,
too. This makes the long tail look a little something like this: maintain body fat,
give a little more to the needy muscles.
All of this is to say I’m using the term “metabolic shift” a little lightly. Depending
on what you read, some might live and die by this concept. Call it whatever you
want, but it’s all the same to me: convincing the body to use stored body fat for
fuel.
This might get a little thicker as we progress into things, especially with how I like
to manipulate nutrition variables. That’s future thinking though.

9
1
All Calories Aren’t
Created Equal
It’s basically common knowledge: you get fat if you eat too much.
But is that the closing of the book? Is there more than we aren’t
reading? Is It Impossible to Gain Muscle and Lose Fat?
e want to lose fat and gain muscle. Simple. Yet, simple as it is in theory,
W the implementation is tricky because the idea's self-contradictory. Losing

fat means that your body is in tear-down mode, getting rid of stored
energy. Building muscle means that your body is in build mode, storing away
energy and nutrients.
Because of the opposing physiological stimulus required for each of these ends,
some say that doing both of these at the same time is impossible. This has some
truth, but it all depends on what “the same time” means. If you’re talking about
the exact same millisecond, then it makes a bit more sense. In general, the

10
processes required to tear down absolutely can’t run at the same time as
processes required to build.
You have parasympathetic nervous system tone, which means you’re resting and
digesting. Your body is prone to store, recover, and relax. You also have
sympathetic nervous system tone, which means you’re fighting and fighting. Your
body is breaking down energy and shuttling it to the exercising muscles. Save for
(crazily enough) male ejaculation, these ends of the nervous system rarely work
in tandem. You’re either knee deep in one or the other.
key concepts:
Sympathetic nervous system, sympathetic tone = fight, flight, fuck—just
think times of high arousal, and high heart rate. When you’re gnawing on the
steering wheel, stuck in traffic, your sympathetic nervous system is going like
gangbusters.
Parasympathetic nervous system, vagal or parasympathetic tone = rest,

digest—just think of when you’re relaxed and nappy. Post giant holiday dinner is
a great example.
This is all built around the idea that humans are just like most other off-the-rack
animals, built to survive immediate conflicts. See the bear, mobilize energy, run
from the bear. Escape, relax, recover from the escape. For the most part, these
building up and tearing down processes are on separate ends of the continuum,
going on at different times.

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So, yeah, impossible to build and tear down at the exact same millisecond? Yes.
But over the course of an entire day? No.* This is the essence of the shift.
*It’s important to also note that doing this is like walking a tight rope. The more on the
fat loss side you err, the less your muscle building chances become. The opposite is
quite true, too. Since I find huge value in the solid base, we err more on the fat loss side
of things.
What Is Body Fat, and Why Does It Come and Go?

Much like we asked about the nature of muscle to start, we have to ask about the
nature of body fat. What is the stuff? Why is it junking up your midsection and
lower chest? Why don’t the calories just fizzle into oblivion and save you from this
personal body fat anguish? In comes the investment banker. Calories and
nutrients are good to have around, so when the body gets extra, it changes them
into storage-friendly material and tucks them away in case of need.
For most of human history, food was magic. Eat stuff, and you live. Don’t eat
stuff, and you die. Pretty trippy when you think about it, right? Given that food
was the difference between life and death, cultures deified it. Being fat is a sign
of wealth in some cultures. Even among old school cultures that sought physical
perfection, food was revered.
Ancient cultures partied hard with lots of good food and wine (back then, “good
food” had a different definition). When they couldn’t eat anymore, they
voluntarily vomited so that they could start over, eating and drinking more. Only

12
recently has food become something of an evil—a view that comes primarily from
those looking to lose body fat for performance, aesthetics, or health. This candy
bar is sabotaging my life!
And it’s true: body fat may sabotage life in the long run.* But in the short term,
body fat is an essential energy source in case of famine. Why do bears get fat
before hibernating? To have energy reserves. It keeps them alive when no other
foodstuff is around.
*Obesity is linked to a ton of problems, which shouldn’t be surprising. Although obesity

is bad, lots of things that kill us beyond simply being fat. Insofar as heart disease is
concerned, you have to have damage done to the arterial walls before you create a big
‘ol thrombus that clogs a pathway. So you can have a bunch of bad things floating
around (to a point) and still be locked and loaded, living the dream.
Fat and calories don’t make you fat

It’s important to note that the fat we’re talking about now is body fat, not dietary
fat. Some foods contain fat, but that doesn’t automatically mean they become
body fat when eaten. When talking about excess energy being converted into
body fat, any candidate can make that happen.
There are three classes of macronutrients that you’ve probably heard of or seen
on nutrition labels:

13
• Protein
• Carbohydrates
• Fats
Each of these macronutrients, as seen above, has a caloric value. You’ve probably
been bombarded by idea of calories by this time in your life, but as evidence by
those tricky television shows that go around asking random people on the street
questions, most people don’t know what a calorie is.
A calorie is a unit of energy. It’s not “fat.” Calories don’t necessarily make you fat,
either. The way scientists first measured the caloric value of a food was to put it
inside of a fancy contraption called a bomb calorimeter. They zapped the food and
saw how hot the water got. Bob-omb. That’s the calorie value in a food. This
process essentially measures the amount of heat a food gives off. Nowadays, this
process is skipped. Instead, most people use values that were discovered over
100 years ago (which is concerning in itself) and simply fill in the gaps:
• Protein = 4 calories per one gram

• Carbohydrates = 4 calories per one gram
• Fats = 9 calories per one gram
• Alcohol = 7 calories per gram
(Alcohol is a beast in itself, and something that deserves its own attention. More
on this later.) By virtue of being alive, your body is burning calories to maintain
functioning. Have someone lay in bed all day and measure the amount of heat

14
they give off, and you’ve just out how much energy they need back into their
system to maintain that nearly dead lifestyle. And thus, you get basal metabolic
rate (BMR), which is the minimum level of energy you’d need to “break even” if
you did nothing but lie in bed all day. Yeah, it takes a lot of effort to beat your
heart, squeeze your intestines, and do all of that stuff that goes on inside of you
without your conscious thought.
There are lots of calculators online that woefully try to estimate your BMR. We will
quickly find out why they are practically worthless. And don’t forget, since most
of us do more than snooze in bed, your actual metabolic rate lands somewhere
above the BMR.
Excess Calories = Fat . . . Maybe
? We’re successfully equipped with two of the biggest concepts in nutrition: (a)
your body needs a certain amount of energy to live, and (b) the food you eat
contains energy. Fat gain, fat loss, and everything in between then is reduced to
the fat-loss fairy tale:
Calories In > Calories Out = Weight Gain
Calories Out > Calories In = Weight Loss
In this sense, any macronutrient can become body fat if eaten in excess, not just
dietary fat. Fat can become body fat. Carbohydrates can become body fat. Protein

15
can become body fat. This is congruent with the analogy of the investment
banker that we’ve been using thus far. The problem with this analogy (that we
now dismantle despite it being oh-so useful to us to this point) is that it assumes
the sole purpose of body fat is excess nutrient and energy storage. This isn’t
really the case, so this simplistic calorie view falls short for what we’re trying to
accomplish.
For the sake of some structure, however, let’s start with the “calorie calculator”
mindset, and why it could destroy your gains.
How to Look Like a Skinned Rabbit

In a 2011 study, researchers found that Swiss and Italian females had the lowest
body mass index (BMI) among Europeans. The Swiss are fond of their fats. The
Italians, their carbohydrates.
What gives?
How can two countries with different “diets,” so to speak, end up on the low end
of the BMI totem pole? And how can each be the “thinnest” despite committing
two of the most feared diet faux pas: eating a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of
fats?
Of course, we can play the thermogenic calorie game. Eat more calories than you
need, you get fat. Eat less calories than you need, you lose weight. Quite simply,

16
the Italian and Swiss babes might be eating less than girls in other countries.
After all, plate after plate of pasta is much more filling for its caloric load than
spoon after spoon of ice cream.
So the mystery is seemingly solved: don’t eat that much if you want to lose
weight, eat more if you want to gain weight. Although this might have some
degree of truth to it, here’s what you need to consider. BMI is a ratio between
your weight and your height. With regards to “weight,” there’s nothing said about
the amount of muscle tissue—or even fat tissue—you have. So the first hitch:
“weight” is different than muscle. Most people that want to lose weight actually
want to lose fat. There’s a difference, as, technically, losing muscle is also losing
weight.
Nevertheless, our pursuits extend beyond the bounds of “weight.” Wanting an

aesthetic physique isn’t exactly in the “health” realm, as there is no correlation
between increased longevity and six bulging abdominal muscles.
As John McCallum wrote in The Complete Keys to Progress:
If you want a graphic example of the relative unimportance of sub-surface fat to a

good build, take a look at photos of the ultimate in man’s inhumanity to man—the
survivors of the Nazi concentration camps of the Second World War.
Those pitiful people, whose existence shocked and sickened the civilized world, have as
little fat as a human being could have and still cling to life. They had, admittedly, very
little muscular development, but even the starving remnants of their muscular

17
structure didn’t show through the skin to any great degree.
Good definition is affected by your sub-surface fat. There’s no doubt about that. But
it’s also affected by the size, shape, and condition of the muscles underneath.
As terrible as it is to reference these unfortunate souls, they’d be sitting rather

low on the BMI scale. But is that really what you’re chasing? Do you want to look
like a skinned rabbit?
The umbrella of calories might be useful if your only concern is a number on a

scale. Unfortunately, most physique goals are far beyond the scale. Recall Frank
Zane’s 185-pound physique and Ronnie Coleman’s 300-pound physique. A far
more important thing to track is how you appear. The scale, or any ratio between
height and weight, can only tell you so much.
Deeper than calories, we need to get into how different foods have different
functions if we’re to have any hope of building muscle and losing fat. Most people
that are studied for research are sedentary, average people. You are no longer
sedentary or average. You don’t want to lose “weight,” you want to be strong.
You’re out and about, lifting heavy things, and with this comes a unique need for
nutrients.
“Losing weight” is different than wanting to shift physiology to support a lifestyle

of voluntarily breaking down muscle tissue, violently firing the nervous system,
and draining valuable stored energy reserves.

18
If you’re sedentary and average, maybe all you need to do is control your calorie
intake. (And that’s a big maybe.) For every person that says, “All I had to do was
watch my calories,” there’s another person that says, “I’m controlling calories and
nothing is working.” Keeping the logistics out of the equation, there are also
boatloads of research showing that those that use the low calorie strategy to lose
weight (often very low calorie) generally always relapse and gain the weight back
once they try to eat “normal” again. Perhaps to give you some light at the end of
the tunnel, I regularly eat 2000+ calories of rice some nights. Some days, if I
were to guess, I top 4000+ calories. Alas, this is down the road. The skinny-fat
road is long, and we’ve just begun the journey.
Before it’s all over, you’ll learn why counting calories probably isn’t a holistic
enough approach to facilitate weight loss. Before we go there, we have to touch
on why all calories aren’t created equal.

19
2
Body Fat Isn’t Exactly
Excess Calories
Eat more than you need, you gain weight. Eat less, you lose weight.
It’s that simple, right? Maybe not. To answer this, we turn to
Pirates, Vitamins, and Fetuses.
ver since you were a little embryo, you’ve been doing more than extracting
E energy (calories) from food. You’ve also been extracting essential

substances that create who you are and substances that are necessary in
order to function properly. The pirates of the Atlantic Ocean often died not of
starvation (a calorie-energy problem), but of scurvy (a nutrient problem). But we
can’t end the conversation here because no one chomps solely on multivitamins
and lives to talk about it, so we have two ideas here: food is energy (calories),
food is nutrients.

20
Part of nutrition is nutrient. Digestion is more than extracting calories from food;
it’s also extracting nutrients. Specific nutrients signal specific cascades of events
in the body, just as different macronutrients do different things inside of the body.
It’s kind of like—appropriately enough—taking vitamin pills: there are a lot of

them, and each is needed in different quantities and different amounts in
different populations based on your baseline status. (That’s why there are
vitamins for old people, young people, pregnant people, and every kind of people
your mind can imagine.)
Different Macronutrients, Different Functions

You can Google “carbohydrate,” “fat,” and “protein,” and find out everything you
need to know about macronutrients, but what does it all mean? Where does each
piece fit into the puzzle?
Proteins are made up of amino acids. Amino acids are considered the building
blocks of life. Proteins are generally builders; structural nutrients. So they’re
builders and repairers of tissue. This probably isn’t surprising, as most interested
in building muscle have heard tales of loading up on meat, eggs and similar food,
along with the general importance of protein.
Although protein in some instances can be used for energy, there are two other
nutrients that usually shoulder that responsibility.

21
Fats and carbohydrates are energy nutrients, but both have different
functions inside of the body. Dropping the juicy details here would be premature,
but it’s important to contextualize the body’s energy systems and how they use
nutrients.
Circumstances That Burn Fat and Carbohydrates

When the body breaks down food into its simplest bits, it stores them inside of
the body many ways. Carbohydrates often become glycogen. Fats, triglycerides.
Proteins, long chains of amino acids. The general use of each corresponds with an
energy pathway in the body, of which there are three.
Alactic anaerobic exercises last just a few seconds. Think of one or two
vertical jumps, a baseball pitch, or a ten yard dash. The typical energy pathway
for these activities is the phosphocreatine pathway. If the name didn’t give it
away, you can see that part of this pathway involves creatine, which is why the
supplement creatine is widely used among strength and power athletes.
An alactic anaerobic exercise becomes a Lactic anaerobic exercise when it

continues on for 30-90 seconds. The lactic part produces a byproduct, pyruvate,
which is what causes the wonderful burning sensation in your muscles. Think of
doing jumps for 60 total seconds, a 400M dash, or push-ups as slow as you can.
These exercises are much more of a carbohydrate-consumption candidate.

22
Aerobic exercise is the stuff that can be maintained for a lonngggg period of
time, and it generally uses fat for fuel. Think of walking casually on the treadmill,
jogging a marathon, or riding a bike for a few miles. These are exercise
examples, but what’s often missed is that, as you read this, you’re in a
predominately aerobic state. Assuming your body isn’t tearing apart a recent
meal and storing it away (digestion can take anywhere from five to eight hours,
in general—depends on the meal size; during digestion all fat burning and “break
down” processes halt, remember the bit about parasympathetic-sympathetic
duality?), your body is probably churning through fat for energy. This is why sleep
(!) has the potential to be a big fat burner. More on this later.
The first footnote here is that, under certain circumstances, the body can also break
down its protein storage and use that for fuel. More and more evidence shows that it’s
actually rather efficient at doing this, but only with muscles that aren’t of immediate
need. Regardless, if you’re training regularly (and not neglecting areas), your body
won’t be tearing its muscles down all that much. And what gets torn down will likely be
rebuilt without issue.
The second footnote: this isn’t to say the energy systems exist in a vacuum. Every
energy system is being used to varying degrees during every activity. It’s just that one
is relied on most heavily. In a lot of intense aerobic activities, you’ll eventually make
huge use of glycogen (carbohydrate) stores.
The third footnote: excesses of any macronutrient can be doomed to body fat. The
relationship between fat – triglyceride, carb – glycogen, and protein – amino acid is nice
when it works. And then it doesn't.

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What Does This Mean for Excess?
Certain macronutrients do different things inside of the body, something that’s
invaluable in understanding this whole shifting business. Before we dig into that,
we have to cover a loose end.
What about excess? We’re still stuck with the idea that excess macronutrient
consumption (calorie consumption) leads to fat gain—even if certain
macronutrients have certain functions, excess would still be excess. The body is
pretty good at transforming certain things into other things. If the common
carbohydrate stores are filled, you better bet it’s headed towards triglyceride
reconfiguration
There are a few immediate problems here that your brain should be fighting with
right now, most notably: what about muscle? We know muscle uses lots of
energy, so why doesn’t the body build muscle with all that excess coming in? Why
triglycerides and not hulking muscles?
(The astute reader might counterpoint me and say that, “Because the muscle just
wastes the energy away. If it’s stored as fat, it will be available for a future
disaster.” And to that, I say, you’re learning well and you’ll probably make it out
of this skinny-fat journey for the better. )
We started with the single concept that body fat is stored energy. The investment
banker analogy made oh-so much sense in this regard. Planning for retirement,
extra money, store it away, all ends well. This, however, assumes that there’s only

24
one reason the investment banker puts the money in the bank. But is that true?
What if the investment banker is also gobbling up the high APR? What if he’s
putting the money in a place that the mafia can’t access?
And so in comes the most important concept, and something we’ve harped on
endlessly: what has to happen physiologically to make these things happen?
The Sole Purpose of Body Fat

Tracking solely calorie intake assumes that body fat is solely an energy excess
problem. It shouldn’t be a surprise that nothing inside of the body is this simple.
Much like muscle is more than a caloric furnace (it’s active body armor,
remember?), body fat may be more than a caloric barrack.
According to Ori Hofmekler, body fat is an important piece of managing toxins

within the body (most toxins are fat soluble). I’m not sure I agree with the idea of
“toxins,” but that’s what Ori calls them. When I think of toxins, I think of Mr. Yuck,
poison control, and dying in about five seconds. Nevertheless, I’ll keep the term
static, and just say that toxins are things that the body probably shouldn’t be
ingesting. Candidates for toxins are likely a result of industrialized culture.
Pesticides in huge quantities, for instance, is a good example.
In order to be as comprehensive as possible with body fat, we have to consider

every reason (that we know of) as to why it exists. Excess energy is just one of
those reasons, which—if I had to put lots of money on a guess—is why a lot of

25
people fail to lose weight simply watching calories. We’re in deeper than calories.
We have to be.
This is a prime example of allostasis, which contrasts the old idea of homeostasis.
Homeostasis is all about one thing. You’re a plant. You need this much water. But
is that always the case? While you might need water, and even this much of it, it
depends on what kind of plant you are, but also what kind of sunlight you get,
and what kind of soil you’re in. Focusing on one thing puts you in a bad place.
Where one person might just need to eat less, your physiology might respond to
a completely different set of cues.
The Reason(s) You Have Body Fat

I’m not going to pretend that I completely understand how the body functions
under the hood, but there seem to be many weird ways in which body fat comes
into play. For instance, during times of high stress, a class of hormones called
glucocorticoids are released. These hormones float about for a while, even after
the stress is over and they help rejuvenate the body after the high stress
breakdown. These hormones stimulate appetite (body wants to restock energy
stores), which is all fine and dandy when running away from bears and lions. You
escape, and then relax.
But in this thing called “the real world” (I’ve never been there, but I hear it’s a
terrible place), mini-stress responses are common. Glucocorticoids, being a long-
duration stress hormone, ends up being hugely overactive. You’re always hungrier

26
than you should be. Part of calming glucocorticoid (and thus, the stress response)
levels down is chowing down and doing the dirty of filling up the cells with the
energy that they think was lost.
(It’s important to remember that a lot of our stressors aren’t the kind where we
actually run away from predators—most of them happen on our butts, simply
thinking about stressful things. The body apparently isn’t very good with
distinguishing between the two. A stressor is a stressor, and the body churns
through the response as if they were one in the same.)
People lots smarter than me are now saying that abdominal fat might be
shouldering the responsibility to tone down the stress response. When it soaks up
the caloric goodness, you feel better. Ergo, when you have stressors, the body fat
says, “Again? Alright, alright, I’m going to handle this nasty prolonged
glucocorticoid secretion,” and so it increases its vacuum power for free floating
energy (the hunks of food you just ate).
And you want to talk about skinny-fat implications here? There appears to be
some, especially with linking stress to fat cells to skinny-fatness. The passage on
the next page comes from Robert Sapoklsky’s Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. I talk
about both Sapolsky and this book a lot. Notice the theme. Learn from the
theme.

27
So with lots of stress, you get cravings for starchy comfort food and you
pack it in the abdomen. One final distressing piece of information, based on
some fascinating recent work by Mary Dallman from the University of
California at San Francisco: consuming lots of those comfort foods and
bulking up on abdominal fat are stress-reducers. They tend to decrease the
size of the stress-response (both in terms of glucocorticoid secretion and
sympathetic nervous system activity). Not only do the Oreos taste good,
but by reducing the stress-response, they make you feel good as well.
There seems to be a huge number of routes by which obesity can occur—

too much or too little of this or that hormone; too much or too little
sensitivity to this or that hormone. But another route appears to involve
being the sort of person who secretes too many glucocorticoids, either
because of too many stressors, too many perceived stressors, or trouble
turning off the stress-response. And thanks to that weird new regulatory
loop discovered by Dallman, it appears as if abdominal fat is one route for
trying to tone down that overactive stress-response.
- Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

28
The important take away is that body fat might have a mind of its own, affecting
areas we can’t even begin to fathom. Along with energy storage, stress
modulation, and toxin regulation, body fat might also have a hand in regulating
estrogen levels, and even insulin resistance.
No genetics? No Is Body Fat Genetic?

You need nutrients and energy, but the underlying factor in all of this is how your
problem. Stefan
body handles nutrients. The world around you, the life you have lived, has some
Holm, from years play in how your body functions. It should be no surprise that people that live in
of high jumping, colder climates are prone to “add” insulation to their body, and those that live in
stiffened his warmer climates grow taller, slender, and with a body with more surface area for
cooling.
Achilles tendon
fourfold in We can’t forget that building muscle and losing fat involves manipulating genes,
comparison to an as mentioned before. It’s an epigenetic phenomenon, and anytime I think of
genetics and their influence on performance, I recall of the story told at the
average person!
beginning of David Epstein’s book, The Sports Gene.
On one hand, Stefan Holm trained his butt off almost daily to become one of the
best high jumpers in the world (he stiffened his Achilles tendon in his jumping leg
fourfold through training!). On the other hand, Donald Thomas became one of the
best high jumpers in the country with terrible form and little experience.
(Ironically enough, Thomas, hit a ceiling. Fast. And never was able to overcome
it.

29
Human example
A good example of epigenetic influences on metabolic rate? The Dutch
Hongerwinter. With little food around, babies in the third trimester (when they’re
wondering about the nutrient condition of the outside world) seemed to develop a
“thrifty” metabolism.
In other words, they could tell that there wasn’t much out there. Result? They
primed for being much better at soaking up every last drop that came in.
This makes for a bleak outlook, but luckily, the skinny-fat phenotype gives us a
good hint of how the body is functioning, and what needs doing to change it. And
keep in mind, this isn’t genetic. It’s not a gene defect. It’s environment, meaning
that it can also be reversed.
What Being Skinny-fat Says About Your Body

If you’re skinny-fat, there’s a good chance you're more on the Stefan Holm side.
No worries. He became an Olympic gold medalist, so you can do great things,
too. We just need a more holistic approach, and it’s important to recognize this,
because others might not: you can’t compare yourself to anyone but yourself.
Your body is changing every second of the day. Your cells are built with receptors
on them, and those receptors can up-regulate and down-regulate and become
more or less sensitive and it’s honestly madness. You can dig deep. So let's dig
wisely.

30
Knowing where we’re going is important, but so is knowing
Changing yourself is where we are. Being skinny-fat tells you some things. Lack of
muscle overall shows that you aren’t signaling for muscle. We
changing signals. You have to fix that by strength training. Even more telling is fat
communicate things to your distribution itself. Remember that whole glucocorticoid
body, and in order to do that, cascade mentioned above? A hallmark of it: storing energy
and nutrients around the belly. Right now, your body is
you have to learn about the making assumptions about your life, your needs that cause it
kind of questions the body to retain fat.
asks.
And now we’re back to the concept of signaling. The way we
live and the way we train tells our body what to do with
nutrients and energy. The idea of a lower caloric intake
causing weight loss is merely a facet of the truth: lower
calorie intake causes a feedback loop, which then encourages the body to dip into
its stored energy. Although body fat is stored energy, it’s not the only form of
stored energy. We need to learn what’s actually going to get the fat cells to
shrivel away, and what’s going to help the muscle tissues grow.
Making the Metabolic Shift Happen

This brings us to the primary purpose of this: how do you make the metabolic
shift happen with so many factors influencing everything? Well, we can use the
skinny-fat phenotype to our advantage. There are four steps, and we'll attack
them sequentially.

31
3
Making of the Metabolic
Magic
How to encourage the body to use its own fat as its primary source
of energy. (And Exactly What I Ate To Beat Skinny-fat Syndrome.)
walked the skinny-fat path in 2006. Nutrition philosophies have changed
I since then. I’ve changed. The way I build muscle without getting fat is
different than the way I leaned down, and that’s something you need to
understand. There is not one ring that rules them all, and often times you need to
use a strategy that suits you. This changes over time, which is why there are
different strategies for starting weight loss, losing stubborn body fat, and then
gaining muscle without getting fat. What you need is a system that slowly
introduces you to the philosophy and the changes, and that’s what this skinny-fat
approach is designed for.

32
We’re going to uncover the rationale behind the entire structure below, but if you
want to get started thinking about what to eat, here’s the exact “meal plan” I
followed that took me down to my solid base. When I jumped into the fitness
world, most everyone ate six (or more) meals per day, so that’s what I did. I ate
five-six meals, each averaging around 300 calories. From what I remember, I ate
the same thing pretty much daily:
1) Breakfast: 1 serving of oats (150 calories), 2-3 eggs

2) Lunch: 1 can of tuna (30-40g protein), one piece of whole wheat bread, one
piece of fruit (usually one apple)
3) Snack: lean meat (usually chicken, 20-30g protein), assorted non-starchy
veggies
4) Dinner: fish or seafood (either tilapia or salmon or shrimp), spinach salad
with no dressing, usually grilled veggies on top
5) Late snack: cottage cheese, 20g whey protein
Use this as a beginning blueprint. Also keep in mind that I was 180-200 pounds.
If you weigh less, you’d need less. We’re going to soon learn why this was
effective, and then I’ll provide you with some alternate templates—perhaps if you
want to not eat as often (you don’t have to).

33
Calculating Calories (Your Estimates Are Way Off)
Our story starts with an antagonist, insulin, but we have to go through
Fat loss starting point some plot and setting garbage first. Most people dichotomize fat
burning. When they’re doing some kind of exercise, that’s when
BW (pounds) x 12 = they’re burning fat. At all other hours? Not going down. This is just
bad thinking on the part of the masses.
# OF CALORIES TO
Every second of every day your body is chewing through calories. This
CONSUME depends on so many factors, that it’s almost useless trying to get a
semblance of an accurate BMR or any kind of metabolic rate. The
accepted starting point for fat loss is your bodyweight multiplied by
twelve.
It’s a crude formula, but it might just be the ticket for fat loss insofar as
mitigating the “excess energy” aspect of fat retention. To show you how vague
this is though, here’s an example: Dr. Sapolsky (yes, man crush is confirmed—I
love the guy) commonly throws around the factoid that grand master chess
players churn through thousands of calories on match days simply by sitting on a
chair and thinking about their next move. (Exact number, if my memory serves
me, is around the 6000-7000 neighborhood.)
How can this be? Extreme sympathetic arousal. We already talked about how
thinking stress jacks up this part of the nervous system, and how this part is
responsible for breaking down energy as if you were running away from a
predator. When you’re in a heated chess match, I suppose you’re “running away”

34
24/7. Keep in mind, us peons playing chess likely won’t have the same response,
as chess isn’t as do-or-die.
There are also studies which show that playing the violin burns as many calories
as walking. All in all, the brain—for how small it is—uses a considerable amount of
our total energy expenditure: somewhere in the range of 20%. Don’t run off and
think that using your brain power is going to help you crash through calories
though.
There was an interesting study done that compared energy expenditure among
Americans and Europeans and the Hadza people of Tanzania (one of the few true
“primitive” tribes left who often cover 15-20 miles of ground daily gathering
food). Throw these figures into a BMR calculator and you’re surely going to see
that moving for eight hours would naturally lead to a higher metabolic rate . . .
right? Well, maybe not.
This is what they found (source):
We found that despite all this physical activity, the number of calories that the Hadza
burned per day was indistinguishable from that of typical adults in Europe and the
United States. We ran a number of statistical tests, accounting for body mass, lean
body mass, age, sex and fat mass, and still found no difference in daily energy
expenditure between the Hadza and their Western counterparts.
How can the Hadza be more active than we are without burning more calories? It’s
not that their bodies are more efficient, allowing them to do more with less: separate

35
measurements showed that the Hadza burn just as many calories while walking or
resting as Westerners do.
We think that the Hadzas’ bodies have adjusted to the higher activity levels required
for hunting and gathering by spending less energy elsewhere. Even for very active
people, physical activity accounts for only a small portion of daily energy
expenditure; most energy is spent behind the scenes on the myriad unseen tasks that
keep our cells humming and our support systems working.
All of this is to say that your body is likely programmed to unconsciously balance
out calorie expenditure over time. Somehow. And BMR calculators can’t detect
how receptive your fat cells are to nutrients, or any of this other fancy stuff that
might have a play in the process.* Just face the facts here: BMR estimates are
way off. Using anything more specific than BW x 12 is probably doing nothing
other than inching you further away from a good number.**
*This is more suited to discussions of chaos, but to give you a glimpse here: metabolic
programming goes down during the third trimester. You, as a fetus, can program
yourself to be more receptive to nutrient uptake during this time. Crazy, right? This is
the Hongerwinter concept.
**There could be potential for it to be much higher here, too. But you can go on forever
trying to nail down some kind of specific caloric value, and that’s exactly what we’re
trying to avoid. Just worry about what you can control.

36
Since so much energy is used at rest to simply stay alive, the goal is to shift your
body to preferentially use fat during this process. We already know that certain
kinds of activity are prone to use certain kinds of fuel.* We know that fat burning
is perhaps best in the absence of any formal exercise, as its low intensity enough
to not even encouraging heavily making use of the other energy stores. But if this
is the case, how come people that are overweight are often also sedentary?
Wouldn’t just lazing around mean tons of fat burning?
*The reliance on fat for fuel has huge implications for sports, as our stores of fat allow
us to perform for hours upon hours. Carbohydrate sources only last minutes, and
whenever they tank, you tank. If you can train at a higher intensity and still use fat to
fuel those processes, then you’ll boost performance.
Cheddar cheese omelettes and muscle gain

It’s best, perhaps, to understand all of this through the nervous system. A quick
revisit:
• Parasympathetic: rest, digest, rebuild

• Sympathetic: fight, flight, fuck
Under most circumstances, these systems run in opposition to each other, each
one’s activation sort of boosted by the other. In other words, when sympathetic
jacks up in a crisis, parasympathetic importance jacks up after to mediate the
sympathetic damage. This process as a whole can be considered a feedback loop.

37
The more you learn about the body, the more you see that these loops practically
control every aspect of our being. Feedback from one cell modulates another and
so on.
During immediate sympathetic crises, the body immediately begins to break

down energy to use to respond. There’s absolutely no building or energy storage
when this happens. After the crisis, the body regenerates itself, and this is where
the fancy-pants storage stuff comes in.
The head honcho when it comes to storing nutrients anywhere is insulin. Insulin
gets a bad rap these days, but you need insulin. Without insulin, you might not
get lots of fat building, but you also get no muscle building. You need insulin to
build muscle.
Cells within the body are receptive to insulin, to a certain degree. This is
where insulin sensitivity comes into play. When a cell is sensitive to
insulin, it reacts to it bunches. When a cell is resistant, it doesn’t react all
that much.
Most people with body fat issues have fat cells that are very insulin sensitive. As
we say before, fat cells might have a mind of their own. Fat cells can become
more sensitive if they think they need to be, as might be the case in the
glucocorticoid example we mentioned a while back.

38
As you can imagine, fat cells that are insulin sensitive = bad news. Muscle cells
that are insulin sensitive, however = good news. You have a bunch of broken
down cheddar cheese omelette floating around inside of your blood that you fully
intended on building you strong muscles, but the only way it’s going to get there
is if the muscle cells respond to the insulin.
With most people, that won’t happen. First, because the muscle cell has no
reason to store the cheddar cheese omelette. Second, which sort of plays off the
first, because the body has reason to think the cheddar cheese omelette would be
better off going to the fat cell. (From a lack of strength training. If you don’t
strength train, your muscles don’t have need for repair or extra energy.)
The reasons as to why the latter happens are numerous. Suffice to say, we can
chalk it up to our body being in a nearly permanent fat building mode because
that’s what it thinks is best for its very own survival. Insulin is being abused and
biased to fat cell receptivity, and excess nutrients, even if the muscle cells were
ready to store them, couldn’t store it all if you’re grossly overfeeding.
Sleeping and burning lots of fat doing it

When insulin is roaming the walls of your body and your parasympathetic system
is in charge, any sort of process that would suck fat out of the cell stops. Granted,
you are “aerobic,” but your energy use isn’t coming from the true stored form of
fat (body fat).

39
Insulin secretion depends on the type of food you eat. Carbohydrates are the
typical insulin provoker, and even among them, there is variance. This is where
the famed Glycemic Index (GI) comes into play. GI has been overshadowed by
Glycemic Load (GL) which is a better measurement. I’ll let Wikipedia explain the
difference:
A practical limitation of the glycemic index is that it does not take into account the
amount of carbohydrate actually consumed. A related measure, the glycemic load,
factors this in by multiplying the glycemic index of the food in question by the
carbohydrate content of the actual serving.
For practical purposes, the GI vilifies foods that shouldn’t be vilified, and the GL is
an overall better measurement. All in all, don’t get too caught up in this, as there
are exceptions. Stick to the food recommendations below. Understanding foods is
easier than understanding this stuff.
Insulin is also secreted by certain protein sources, too. Again, insulin is not the
devil. It’s necessary on some level, so don’t be frightened.
The idea is that we generally secrete lots of insulin, and we’re teeming with
insulin just about most of the day. We get up, have a carb-dense breakfast. Have
lunch. Dinner. Maybe a snack. Throughout all those meals, if you’re consuming
some carbohydrates, your insulin is flowing around the body. How long it takes to
come down to earth depends, which is why some people that restrict calories see

40
success. Small meals makes for smaller insulin spikes which means they come
back down quicker.
But the opposite makes for tough sledding. If it takes anywhere from 5-8 hours to
“handle” and digest a meal, that means, in the example above, there are few
hours that even allow for the body to draw upon its stored energy. Most times, it’s
just dealing with what’s incoming. Even the eight hours that you have nothing
incoming, a meal before bedtime that requires digestion and spikes insulin can
turn eight hours of peace into something much less. After years and years and
years of doing this, your body begins building towards a certain physiology—one
that does the above, stores any excess into fat, and then rinses and repeats.
We need to reboot this process. We need to make our muscle cells insulin-
sensitive, and our fat cells not-so-sensitive. The problem? How can you do this by
continuing the same lifestyle? When your body is used to handling insulin and
nutrient storage the same way, any overfeed would be handled the same.
You have to make your body relearn how it builds itself. You have to reboot. This
was why strength training was the most important fat loss method. Now, we look
towards nutrition changes to compliment.

41
4
Rebooting the food Bias
KRAMER: I' m completely changing the configuration of the
apartment. You' re not gonna believe it when you see it. A whole
new lifestyle.
JERRY: What are you doing?
KRAMER: Levels.
JERRY: Levels?
KRAMER: Yeah, I' m getting rid of all my furniture. All of it. And I' m
going to build these different levels, with steps, and it' ll all be
carpeted with a lot of pillows. You know, like ancient Egypt.
- Seinfeld

42
LEVEL 1.0
1.0 The philosophy of fat loss is simple, and it follows the same process
as muscle gain. Want muscle? You have to need it, and then you have
to give your body what it needs to make it. With fat, you consider
the totality of reasons why it exists, and then you slowly eliminate
those reasons. As with muscle though, you have to respect where
you are and build from the ground up. Crawl before you walk,
before you run.
Two obvious first steps (why you’re skinny-fat)

Since we’ve already talked about how body fat can have plays within modulating
stress, this should be a no-brainer. For starters, don’t be a ball of stress. One of
the hallmarks of muscle building is being able to relax and give your body time to
do what it needs to do. Activating the sympathetic nervous system (stressing) is
like trying to write a research paper with your iPhone on, with a Facebook window
open, and with a two year old son in the next room.
Reboot tip #1 – stop stressing.

43
After wasting the worry wart from the fibers of your being, understand how
powerful strength training is at encouraging this shift. Lifting weights is more than
1.0 building active body armor, thanks to insulin and sensitivity.
We know there are more reasons for its existence, but there’s no doubt that some
body fat is excess energy storage. Why did your body look to fat cells and not
muscle cells with this extra energy? It might have been the wrong kind of nutrient
(we’ll get to this soon), but a likelier explanation is that the muscle cells simply
had no need for it.
You need to give your muscle cells reason to start responding better to insulin.
Threaten your body’s survival by needing to create forceful contractions, and your
muscle cells suddenly start improving their sensitivity to insulin. They start
needing nutrients to build, repair, and help you survive. Now, when all that
wonderful nutrient gunk is floating around, muscles become more aggressive at
taking it up. Strength training improves insulin sensitivity of the muscle cells.
And this is why our training is centralized around strength gain, not fat loss. It’s
not solely about the caloric burn!
Reboot tip #2 – strength train (the right way).
Being skinny-fat is primarily a product of both of these things. Body fat around
the abdomen is a hallmark that your fat is modulating the stress response.
Having no muscle hints that your muscle cells don’t give two figs about storing

44
precious nutrients—you don’t need them. Alas, this is where fat loss doesn’t equal
“diet.” Fat loss is much more than what you put in your body. Shoot me now
because I’m saying it again, and you’re probably tired of it: this whole production
is about shifting your whole physiology.
If strength training makes the muscles more receptive to insulin and nutrient
uptake, what encourages fat cells to do the opposite?

45
LEVEL 2.0
2.0 Before you know what protein, carbohydrates, and fats really are,
you need to be able to do one simple thing: distinguish between the
good and the bad.
It’s easy to get nabbed by marketing ploys, buzz words, snack
packs, and the general loopy mainstream way of ignoring matters
at the heart of nutrition. (And fooling you into buying something
that you think is “healthy,” but really isn’t.)
Sexual tension between energy and nutrients

Micronutrients (minerals and vitamins) don’t get the press of macronutrients
(carbohydrates, proteins, fats), but they are important. Having food with calories
and without nutrients is only a fairly recent thing. Just about any food you can
think of that’s plucked from the ground or from a living creature has both.
Potatoes. Broccoli. Carrots. Liver. Heart. Muscle meat. You get the idea. While
some of these things have more of either or (calories or nutrients), none is void
of either. Soda, candy, and other junk food is a relatively new thing, all of which
have boatloads of calories and next to no nutrients.

46
We know that most of our metabolic rate amasses from “under the hood”
processes. We’d burn 1500 calories (maybe even more) if we did nothing by
2.0 breathe in bed. This is our BMR, and it’s all about the body breaking itself down,
building itself back up, and fueling its fundamental survival functions—functions
that depend on the nutrients we eat.
Thiamine (a vitamin) is crucial to nerve function and metabolism. Niacine,

another vitamin, does the same, but also contributes to skin health and digestion.
Vitamin B6 makes red blood cells. Essential fatty acids are important for creating
cell membranes. You get the idea.
Another way to think of things: dropping a ton of bricks (nutrients) in a

construction workers lap to build a wall won’t do much if the worker doesn’t have
the energy (calories). And on the flip side: having a ton of energy (calories)
doesn’t matter without bricks (nutrients).There’s a complimentary relationship
between calories and nutrients. It’s not one or the other; you need both.
The only answer to building muscle and losing fat

Your food intake should be based around nutrient-dense foods. You need to give
yourself a lot of nutrients, while also gaming your energy (calories) in order to
encourage fat mobilization and oxidation and also avoiding other foods that might
encourage fat gain by nature of being bioactive. Don’t be afraid of the fancy
words, all will be clear in due time, brave warrior.

47
Nutrient density describes a food's ratio of nutrients to calories. Foods should be
low in calories and high in nutrients. That’s not to say high-calorie foods are bad
2.0 and should be avoided, just that high-calorie foods should also be high in
nutrients. Something like animal organ meat is a fantastic example of a food
generally higher in calories and higher in nutrients, while vegetables are the
prime low-calorie, high-nutrient
example.
Most supplement oils are rancid.
Think about this: you’re tearing They are subjected to heat, light,
down and rebuilding your body. You
and other factors that destroy the
need a baseline level of nutrients
(macro and micro) to function as is. true integrity of the oil. (I don’t
But to build, you need more than recommend taking any fish oil
that baseline. If you’re losing fat, supplements!) Eat fresh, natural
you’re purposefully deficient in
energy (macronutrients). This makes foods. I’m not talking about things
micronutrients all the more that appear fresh or natural either.
important, as they don’t carry caloric Chances are if it has the chance to
load. So be sure to eat as fresh and
non-processed as possible.
say “fresh” or “natural” on the
packaging, it’s not very much of
Jack LaLanne once said, “If man either.
made it, don’t eat it.” The more
processed any one food becomes,
the less nutrient dense it’s likely to become, and the more artificial it becomes.

48
This is why eating the meat of a coconut is better than eating a jar of coconut
butter. It’s why eating a fish is better than drinking fish oil from a bottle. You
2.0 never really know what happens in the food -> process -> packaging sequence.
Most people, now that we’re in the calorie obsession era, actually choose things
that are packaged and inside of the box because the nutrition facts are easy to
see. But a lot of the foods you should buy won’t have nutrition facts on the label
because, well, there won’t be a label. It’s too fresh to be packaged and shipped
like bird food. Your food selection should mainly be meats, fish, fruits, and
vegetables. You know, things that can perish. (Unlike packaged bread which
seems to last forever these days.)
What’s there to drink?

I have one rule that may upset you. Never ever think about drinking calorie
containing drinks again in your life. And then to finish that off, drink nothing but
water, black coffee, and unsweetened teas. You don’t need fancy “no sugar”
sodas. You can do without them. No artificially sweetened junk.
I’m thoroughly convinced that sodas and sugary drinks are the chief cause of
obesity. I'm not saying the other food eaten doesn’t contribute, but when you can
down thousands of calories in a matter of minutes through liquids, it’s easy to get
fat.

49
Reboot tip #3 – eat real food. Like real food. Not just the stuff that says
all natural on a plastic package.
2.0 What’s good? What’s bad? Nothing matters until you can grasp the idea of
broccoli being better than butter cookies. Even more so though: putting this into
practice; actually eating the broccoli. There are many options out there and many
different cultures and cuisines. The World’s Healthiest Food List is a great place to
start your pickings. Another great tip is to shop around the perimeter of the food
market. This is generally where the fresh produce is. The less ingredients a food
has, the better it probably is.

50
LEVEL 3.0
3.0 So you’re reaching for fresh food these days. You’re buying some
fruit, vegetables, and meat. You’re leaving the deadly C’s at the
grocery store: cakes, candy, chips, crackers, etc. That’s the
toughest change to make. But what’s next? Are you home free if you
eat fruit all day? You at least need to know what food you’re
eating and what’s going on inside of the body. We start with carb
choices, and setting a recommended intake.
Starting with carbohydrates and insulin

We’ve been talking a lot about insulin, and now is the time to give it context.
Insulin is secreted primarily after breaking down carbohydrates, and the amount
of insulin secreted depends on the Glycogen Load (GL) talked about earlier.
We’ve been trashing insulin, for the most part, but it’s a crucial muscle-building
hormone. Skinny-fat sufferers need to exploit insulin down the line by eating lots
of carbohydrates at the right time to cash in on its storage and muscle-building
magic. Most skinny-fat sufferers don’t often build muscle well unless they learn

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this and dive fully into a ketogenic diet, which we will touch on a bit later. For
now, though? We need to hit the reset button on insulin. It’s not insulin’s fault
3.0 that it’s not as effective as it could be, it’s our fault for abusing its powers to this
point.
If you follow any kind of typical Westernized diet that includes frequent feedings
of whatever, there’s a chance your body never gets a break from insulin. Quite
simply, it’s always around and it’s annoying. You’re ignoring it. It’s like someone
with a megaphone yelling in your ear every second of every day. The only way to
regain your wits is to practically eliminate it. Although a two hour megaphone
reprieve sounds nice, it’s still blaring for the majority of the day. We need to
make it a minority.
Our goal is to tone down fat’s tendency to attract insulin (a process which
encourages fat gain). We do this by reducing stress and strength training. Also,
by choosing more wholesome foods, you unconsciously eliminate much of what
jacks insulin through the roof. You’d be surprised at how effective full
implementation of these first three tips is.
We continue leveling up though by adding another layer on top: choosing

carbohydrate sources that don’t encourage as much insulin secretion.
There are a lot of carbohydrates. We are a carbohydrate-run world simply

because they are easy and cheap to mass produce. We can get all technical with
the breakdown, but I like using my own classification system that makes things

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easier to understand in the long run. (A more comprehensive list of foods will be
given later.)
3.0 • Gluten-containing complex carbs: wheat, rye, flour, pastas, bread, most
cereal grains
• Non-gluten-containing complex carbs with high(er) GL: white rice,
white potatoes
• Non-gluten-containing complex carbs with low(er) GL: oats, quinoa,
beans, sweet potatoes, yams, amaranth, corn
• Leafy, fibrous, cruciferous, non-starchy vegetables: broccoli,
cauliflower, spinach
• Fruits
• Dairy
The 100g magic number

Now we get into the idea of “resetting” insulin after years of violation and abuse.
The quickest way to do this is to limit yourself to 100 grams of carbs every day.
Before we break this down, let’s look at some structure.
The bulk of your carbohydrate intake should come from the leafy fibrous non-
starchy vegetables categories. I can almost guarantee that those that struggle
with weight loss are those that don’t eat enough vegetables. Not only are they
filling (which means you eat less of the other stuff), but they are chock full of
vitamins and also (for the most part) are anti-estrogenic—just think: less fat,

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more muscle. For the most part, I don’t think you should limit yourself in this
department. Eat as much as you want. I wouldn’t even count these.
3.0 Fruits are also wonderful and full of nutrients, but they usually have more calories
per volume and have more play with insulin, the gigantic exception being thin
skinned berries. I consider thin skinned berries (blueberries, raspberries,
boysenberries, etc.) to be in the vegetable category. Save for the thin skinned
berries, I recommend one “serving” of fruit per day. This is usually one “handful.”
So any hand fruit (apple, banana, etc.) is easy. All others, just ball park how
much would fit into your palm that you could carry. This usually amounts to 20-
30 grams of carbohydrates.
From here, you have around 70-80 grams of play in your carbohydrate intake,
and the next best type of carbohydrate to go for in the name of resetting insulin
is non-gluten, low GL carbohydrates.
That’s not to say you can’t go for the higher GL non-gluten or even the gluten-
containing carbs (some gluten-containing carbs are actually lower GL). But it
should be obvious why I suggest limiting the high GL carbs—to limit the insulin
secretion. As for the gluten, here are some quick thoughts.
Is gluten bad?
Gluten is a protein found in most wheat, rye, and barley products (bread, pastas,
and dough-based food). I’m not a huge gluten fan, but it’s not that I believe

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everyone has a gluten intolerance, as most would probably tell you. It’s just that
most gluten-containing carbohydrates are heavily processed. (Most of them need
3.0 to be heavily processed in order to be edible.)
There’s considerable evidence to suggest that raw vegetables will burn more
calories than cooked vegetables. Cooked vegetables can be thought of as
predigested because they take away from some of the work the body has to do in
order to extract nutrients from them (a lot of vegetables lose nutrients in the
cooking process).
Foods that are ground into a powder generally do something different in the body
when compared eating the same food not ground into a powder. (In other words,
eating a stalk of celery will be different than eating celery processed into a
powder.) Almost all wheat and gluten grains get ground up and transformed into
something different than the actual seed for consumption. You aren’t eating
wheat from the stalk when you eat wheat bread. You’re eating the processed
remnants of the wheat.
A recent study found that people who ate 600 or 800 calorie portions of whole wheat
bread (with nuts and seeds on it) and cheddar cheese spent twice as much energy (yes,
twice) digesting their food compared to people who consumed an equivalent amount
of calories in white bread and a “processed cheese product.” As a consequence, the net
number of calories (calories eaten minus calories needed to digest the food) the whole
food eaters received was ten percent less than the number received by the processed
food eaters.

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And then there's this study which showed that rats that ate powdered food gained
weight, but those that ate pellet food didn't, even though the calories were rather
3.0 equal. Although we aren't rats, you can't help but wonder about how much the
actual process of digestion—regardless of how many calories a food has
measured via calorimetry—impacts what actually happens to nutrients and the
true energy it takes to assimilate, as digestion is much more complex than simple
addition and subtraction.
Now, don’t go crazy over this stuff. I still recommend taking plain, unflavored
whey protein (powdered food). And I ate one piece of wheat bread every day
when I leaned down. It might be trite, but think moderation here, and also go as
wholesome as possible.
Let’s put this into context
• One apple = 25 grams of carbs

• One banana = 30 grams of carbs
• One cup of uncooked oats = 30 grams of carbs
• One cup of cooked black beans = 40 grams of carbs
• One potato = 50 grams of carbs
Of course, these values change depending on the type and size of the food, but it
should give you an idea of what you’re working with.

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For any given day, you’re looking at a serving or two of good and wholesome
starchy carbs, and then as much vegetables as you need to prevent hunger
pangs. The reason you can be more lenient with vegetables (non-starchy
carbohydrates) is because they are very nutrient dense, generally low in calories,
and don’t produce the same effects within the body as starchy carbohydrates do.
In other words, load up on non-starchy vegetables.

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LEVEL 3.0 CONDENSED
3.0 A) Have one “serving” of fruit
This will likely be one “piece” if the fruit is nifty and handheld like an apple,
banana, orange, mango, and you get the idea. If it’s not, ball park one cup of the
cheat fruit. In other words, cut the pineapple into one inch by one inch cubes, throw
them into a measuring cup, when you get to one cup, that’s your serving.
codes B) Have 2 CUPS starchy CARBS

The overall goal here is to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-80 grams
of carbs. This most often will be two “cups” of starchy carbs. If you dice up a
potato, one will likely fit into one cup. Using this logic, you can get around two
potatoes. If this cup logic is funky, simply look at the nutrition facts.
C) AS MANY VEGGIES AND BERRIES

Hungry? Go wild on non-starchy vegetables and thin skinned berries. As many as
you want.

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Leftovers: dairy and high GL carbs
3.0 Dairy generally carries a lower GL, but I’m personally not a huge fan of milk.
Perhaps I just went about drinking it at the wrong time, but I never was able to
make great fat loss strides while drinking it. If you tolerate it well, go ahead and
factor it into the 100g equation. One of the reasons I don’t enjoy drinking it is
because it takes away from other, more satisfying carbohydrate choices (for me,
at least).
I think, in the dairy department, full fat, unflavored and unsweetened yogurt is a
good choice. I also think cottage cheese and regular cheese can be fine (more on
the protein and fat side). Goats milk and such, too. Again, just factor the
carbohydrate load into the 100g mix. (I think that if you experiment with dairy,
you should go with the full-fat versions unless you have some existing blood lipid
problems. Assuming you’re healthy, there’s nothing wrong with the full-fat
versions.)
The bottom line: most of your carbohydrates should come from vegetables and
non-gluten carbohydrates with a lower GL. If you go back to my original plan,
you’d note that my carbohydrates were essentially oats, one piece of fruit, one
piece of bread, and then a bunch of vegetables. Was there some gluten? Yeah.
Not much though. That’s not to say you’re doomed forever to this pattern. Once
you’re ready for muscle-building, the non-gluten containing complex
carbohydrates with a higher GL are of increasing importance, because your body
can use these carbs more efficiently, shuttling boat loads of nutrients to the
muscle.

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LEVEL 4.0
4.0 Your body’s insulin levels are dropping. (You’re probably pooping
better with all those veggies, too.) What’s next? Protein—the must-
ingest for quality muscle building (and body composition in
general).
Understanding the power of protein

Protein is the powerhouse of muscle building. Fats and carbohydrates are
primarily energy providers. Proteins, although they can be broken down for
energy too, are much more important in building and repair. This has been known
for quite some time, and amino acids (the stuff proteins are made of) are known
as the building blocks of life.
In order for a protein to be deemed “complete,” it needs to have every essential

amino acid in adequate quantity. (In nutrition terms, essential means that the
body can’t produce it; it needs to come from food.) If amino acids are missing (or
aren’t in the ideal ratio), the protein can’t be used efficiently. This is why
vegetarians pair beans and cheese. With the two foods combined, the amino acid
profile is complete(r).

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Part of my personal philosophy (making eating easier and carefree) includes
eating a food for its primary macronutrient. So, for instance, vegetarians eat
4.0 beans (a predominate carbohydrate) and cheese (a mix of fats and protein) for
protein. But it’s much easier to stick to protein rich foods for protein. You won’t
get lost in details this way.
Protein rich foods are anything that has protein

as the highest quantity macronutrient. Relying Vegetarian? You still need
on beans for protein is like relying on only a protein, which makes this
straw to break a camel’s back.
business tough sledding. You
should strongly consider
Setting up protein intake adding back in dairy and
Start looking at nutrition labels. You don’t have eggs, which gives you access
to become Einstein, just flip over packaging.
See what kind of macronutrients are in the
to great sources of protein
foods you eat. (The trick here is that most of such as whey protein,
everything you buy shouldn’t really be cottage cheese, and eggs.
nutrition-fact-packaged, so Google is your best
friend when searching for nutrition facts.) This
creates three categories. (I like categorizing foods, not calories. It makes future
nutrition much easier.)

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• Lean sources of protein: white chicken breast, lean white turkey, deer, elk,
whey protein (plain and unflavored and unsweetened), lean fish, buffalo,
4.0 anything that’s nearly all protein and none of anything else
• Fatty sources of protein: red meat, eggs, dark meat chicken, dark meat
turkey, most red meat, fatty fish, anything that’s primarily protein with a bit
of fat to go with it, pork, other meats and animal bits (liver, brain)
• Mixed fat and carbohydrate sources of protein: dairy
You can’t understate the importance of protein for those that are training hard.
You need protein. The recommendation that has stood the test of time is one
gram per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 200 pounds, get 200 grams. For
those of you in the metric world, that’s just about two grams per one kilogram of
bodyweight.
Every single time you eat, you should have some protein on your plate.
When in doubt, go with a fist-sized portion of meat at minimum, or something

around 20 grams of protein (this is around three eggs or one 70cc scoop of whey
protein). If you eat few meals, you’ll need more per meal if you want to hit the
recommended quota. Fill in the rest of your plate with other good foods.
The protein upper limit intake is around 1.5 to 2 grams per pound of bodyweight.
That’s around three or four grams per kilo of body weight. I wouldn’t really go
beyond this for fear of your body becoming efficient as using excess protein as
energy. You don’t want your body becoming efficient at using protein for energy,

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so this is a no-no. You want your body to get good at using protein to fuel
growth, repair, and other essential building processes.
4.0 Protein less likely to be stored as fat?

Given that protein isn’t used as an energy nutrient, it’s less likely to be stored as
fat, even if eaten in excess. (Until you extend beyond the cusp mentioned in the
previous section.) Because of this, a lot of people leaning down take the liberty of
eating extra lean protein at their meals. This is because it helps you feel really
full, and there’s not a lot of consequence.
If you’re dieting down and struggling with hunger, this is one solution. Combine
this with downing non-starchy veggies, and you’re looking at a nice one-two
punch at fat loss while also not feeling depleted. This is just another one of those
examples where shoving the concept of calories under the carpet actually benefits
us in the long run.

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LEVEL 4.0 Condensed
4.0 A) Get one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, and for you
metric folk that’s 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight
If you don’t know where to start, have a fist sized serving of protein at every
cheat meal—protein rich sources are usually meat, so you’re looking at a fistful of some
kind of meat.
codes
No meat? Make use of protein powder and eggs. One 70cc scoop of protein will
deliver about 25 grams of protein, which is around the fistful of meat. One egg is
usually 6-7 grams of protein, which is considerably less.
B) Use hunger voodoo

I’m convinced that being overly hungry when losing fat is an idea that comes
from people that do it wrong. Want to still feel rather full and be in fat loss mode?
Tank lean protein (like white chicken and turkey) and raw non-starchy vegetables.
Few things will fill you up more, and few things will be better on the fat loss
quest.

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LEVEL 5.0
5.0 With carbohydrates and proteins explained, and a powerful
voodoo combination of the two to combat hunger, where do fats fit
into this equation? Oh, they fit. Because there are some kinds of fat
that are much more prone to being stored as fat within the body.
Are eggs going to kill me?

Fat is another energy macronutrient. Unlike carbohydrates, however, it doesn’t
really jack with insulin. You aren’t out of the water yet, though. You must be
careful with fat consumption.
Through the 1990s, there was a crusade against fat, especially saturated fat
which, sadly, led to nothing but higher levels of heart disease. For reasons that go
beyond the scope of this book, let’s just say fat is essential to your health—even
the right kind of saturated fat! Just about every cell in your body is made up of a
fatty phosopholipid bilayer. Fat helps us absorb vitamins and supports essential
bodily functions. They also help with critical muscle-building hormones.

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Unlike carbohydrates and proteins, which have four calories per gram, there are
nine calories in one gram of fat. This is another reason why fats got vilified. Oh
5.0 no, more calories, and calories are the devil. Run, quick! Alas, some fats are
essential.*
*Essential in the nutrition world means that your body can’t make them. In other words,
you don’t eat them, something is going to go wrong inside of you, for the most part. So
if you don’t eat some fats, you can bet something is going to go wrong.
Given that 'fresh' and 'natural' are abused words these days, it’s necessary to
dive into this a bit further. Most of the people born before the year 1985 think fat
is horrible and leads to fat gain. This is not true.
Fat isn’t bad, nor does it necessarily cause fat gain. Carbohydrates in excess
can form body fat. Even protein in excess can form body fat. Any macronutrient
in excess can create body fat, not just fat. The hoopla about fat being evil is flat
out wrong.
Fat is an essential part of our lives. We need to eat certain fats, essential fats.
The best rule of thumb, about what fats to eat, goes back to Jack LaLanne: if man
made it, don’t eat it.
Eggs are a wonderful food. You don’t need to be afraid of them unless you
have pre-existing cholesterol issues. If you want more information, I recommend
reading this article.

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Grass fed butter is also another good fat, and absolutely better than fake
butters. Margarine, and other butter substitutes, are manmade disgraces, chock
5.0 full of artificial ingredients that are worse for the body than the food itself. We
tend to dig our own grave with nutrition matters. If man made it, don’t eat it.
Don’t be afraid of fat, as long as it’s good fat. And that’s what we get into
now.
The fat secret that can be preventing you from losing fat
There are traditional fat categories like saturated, unsaturated, monounsaturated,
polyunsaturated, and trans fats. But, you know me, I have my own:
Pure fats come in their natural state from their original food. This includes good
animal fat, avocados, eggs, coconuts, seeds, nuts, olives, and fish fat.
Tampered fats are mutations of the fats above like olive oil, butter, coconut
butter, vegetable oils, and fish oils.
Fucked fats are further mutations of the fats, like trans-fats. Trans fat foods are
easy to identify these days. Just look for the words “hydrogenated” in the
ingredients. That’s partially, fully, or whatever kind of hydrogenated. This usually
means the fat is fucked. Forever. And I don’t usually cuss, so you know I mean
business here.

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Most of your fat intake should be pure fats, but there is an important caveat that
we have to cover, and it’s one that often prevents most people from losing fat,
5.0 even if insulin is kept at bay.
First, don’t eat trans-fucked fats. Things won’t end well. This should absolutely be
solved from the get go by choosing food that’s actually fresh, so I won’t really
harp on this. Anything that comes from a package or box, you have to check out
the ingredients to know what you’re dealing with.
Second, we’ve talked about fat being a storage site for toxins. What happens
these days is that animals are raised in terrible environments. They’re stressed
(another cue for fat!). Jammed into places with other animals. Fed junk. In other
words, these animals and their physiology is starting to look a lot like humans,
with fat cells that are cleaning up a bunch of toxins and helping mediate the
stress response. They’re treated this way because the sole concern from owners
is to create plump and large animals because that means more money.
This is something I learned from Ori Hofmekler, as he says the fat from these
animals is bioactive. This means that the fat sends a signal inside our body once
we eat it, and that signal is 'store as body fat.' And this should make sense, as
you have some kind of toxic material coming in that has a mind of its own and a
role that it played in another animal: take up toxins, mediate the stress response,
etc. When you eat the fat, it’s more prone to assume the same responsibility.

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So be careful with the sources of saturated fat you’re getting from animal meat.
The cliché suggestion here is to get free range, grass fed products. Apparently
5.0 there are even some workarounds here, as “grass fed” doesn’t always mean the
animals are allowed to roam, stress free on the plains.
Be aware of this, but don’t freak out immediately. If you seem to be doing
everything right and nothing is working, then come back to this. If you happen to
be eating a lot of fatty meat products, then let the light bulb click on.
Vegetable fat and bioactivity

The idea of saturated fat wanting to become body fat generally only applies to
animal meat. Fat that comes from vegetables and nuts and even dairy generally
doesn’t follow suit. Things like coconut oil and nuts and seeds won’t carry that
same signal, however, there are some warnings in this department, too.
Anytime a food is processed, it’s subject to chemical alteration. My general rule:

use a touch of grass fed butter if you’re sautéing anything on high heat (like
eggs). Otherwise, eat your damn whole foods. Quality olive oil (that’s usually
extra virgin and cold pressed) is fine, but generally not for cooking. You can use
coconut oil/butter here too, as that’s generally fresh and good, and doesn’t get
destroyed by heat.
Avoid fish oils, for reasons already explained. Just buy the stinkin’ fish and eat it
every once in a while. Chugging down rancid oil will likely cause more problems

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than it cures. Avoid vegetable oils (canola, regular vegetable) and shady
supplement oils. Most oils are processed beyond recognition. Supplement oils
5.0 (fish oil, flax oil) are often rancid.
There’s a lot of hoopla about balancing omega-3 and omega-6 fatty, which is why
most people look to fish oil. Most people are omega-3 deficient. Good wholesome
sources of omega-3: grass fed beef and dairy, wild rice, beans, flaxseed, walnuts,
fresh fish, spinach, brussel sprouts, green beans, raspberries—see how this stuff
keeps coming back up? Flaxseed is also good, but once again: buy the seeds and
eat them, don’t buy the oil.
How much fat should I eat?

You don’t find fats. Fats find you. What do I mean?
• If you’re eating any non-lean cut of meat, fat has found you.
• If you’re eating eggs, fat has found you.
• If you’re eating full-fat dairy, fat has found you.
• If you’re sautéing eggs in some grass fed butter, fat has found you.
• If you top your salad with 100 calories of cheddar cheese, fat has found
you.
A lot of protein-rich foods also carry fat baggage. There’s nothing wrong with this.
We need fat. But how much extra we need depends on what protein sources
we’re eating, and what we cook in. If you’re eating mostly lean protein, you can

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be fat forgiving. Have a bit of cheese on your food. Have two handfuls of
almonds. Or have some flaxseed. Or some avocado on your eggs.
Note the use of “or.” The thing with fat: it adds up quick. A quarter-cup of
walnuts has around 18 grams of fat. So in two handfuls of walnuts (a relatively
unsatisfying endeavor) you’re looking at around 40 grams of fat. See? Fat finds
you.

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LEVEL 5.0 condensed
5.0 A) The golden rules
If you’re eating some fattier meat, or cooking with fats (oil, butter) here and
there, or eating a lot of fatty protein extras (six or more eggs per day, or a lot of
cheat regular dairy), be fat gentle. One handful of nuts. A sprinkle of cheese. Half of an
avocado.
codes
If you’re eating mostly fattier meat, cooking in a lot of fat (oil, butter), or eating a
lot of fatty protein extras, be extra fat abstaining. No soup for you.

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LEVEL 6.0
6.0 Making sure you don’t get lost. Let’s do a little recap before we add
the final layer of consideration onto all of this.
Telescope
Stick to wholesome protein sources. Fresh meats, fish.
Throw in some protein extras, like eggs. Have a tad of
fresh fats in coconuts, avocados, seeds, or nuts. Go
for one or two pieces of fruit or starchy carbs here
and there, but be mindful of them at the same time. And
then pile the fresh veggies on top. Like, lots of fresh
veggies.
It might seem daunting, but the above paragraph is a good summary.

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One way to better your ability to do this is with a little pre-research to create
something I like to call a 'core' of food. I hate counting calories, but I think a
6.0 modicum of nutrient understanding is necessary. It only takes a little bit of

digging to completely automate things. You don’t have to carry around a food
scale or become a total slave. You just need to develop some food awareness.
Doing the work

At some point, all of this comes down to a very simple concept: doing the work.
Changing your body doesn’t fall into your lap unexpectedly. You have to develop a
relationship with training and food that most people don’t have.
If you cruise through the list of foods, there will be some that catch your eye. Jot
them down as things that you’re probably going to eat most often. My common
sources are chicken, red meat, and plain unflavored whey protein. It’s boring, but
it works. If you like other animal parts (liver, heart, etc.), go for it. Seafood?
Wonderful.
Because I stick to similar foods, I know how much protein, and how many
calories I’m getting when I ballpark a quantity to eat; it’s all about creating
standards. Research these foods and get a feel for what’s in them. How much
protein and fat? In how much?
Set up one pound of chicken in front of you. Pick it up. Feel how much it weighs.
See how it looks in your hands. See how big it is in your hands. One pound of

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chicken breast has around 500 calories and 100 grams of protein. This is your
gold standard. Compare it to one pound of other meats you’re going to eat
6.0 regularly. Often times, meat delivers a similar protein punch per quantity. The
difference is in the fat.
The goal is to get familiar with the general caloric load combined with the
protein-deliverance of your common protein sources. If there are no nutrition
facts, do a little digging online.
This is doing the work.
So with carbohydrates, you can do the same thing. Weigh the sweet potato, find
out how much it weighs, go home, see how many calories are in sweet potatoes,
and then go back to your potato and say, “So this has this many calories and that
many carbs.”
Take a look at the almonds and see that there are however many calories in ¼
cup of them. Dump them into a measuring cup until you hit ¼, and then dump
that ¼ in your hand. Congratulations, you now know just about how many
calories you can expect out of nuts given what’s in your hands.

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And you know what? The work is fun. You’re going to develop a whole new
appreciation about food that you never had. You’re going to see numbers and
6.0 molecules where others see nothing. You’re going to see future muscle-building
material where people see nothing. Enjoy the ride.
Setting up the core

After you do the work, you’re going to have a solid idea of how much protein you
need, how many carbs you can get away with, and how much fat should be
sprinkled atop all of it. This lets you create a little table that guides your way. For
a guy like me, I concluded that I needed:
• One pound of meat or fish

• Two scoops of plain, unflavored whey protein
• Two or three eggs
• Bowl of cottage cheese
And that would be enough protein. So then you work back and think about how
many meals you’re eating, and then split that up between them.
On the carbohydrate side:
• One piece of fruit

• Two-three cups or “servings” of carbohydrate split among whatever sources

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Work backwards. Which means would be ideal for the carbohydrates? Most time
friendly? Preparation friendly?
6.0 And then from there, depending on what I ate, the fat intake is simple:
• Less extra fats if you eat fattier meats

• Little bit of extra fats (avocado, small portion of nuts) if you eat leaner
meats
With these provisions to top it all off:
• As many non-starchy cruciferous veggies and berries as you need for satiety
• Need more satiety, eat more lean protein
That way, you have some freedom in what you eat, or know how to handle
business if you ever eat something you don’t normally eat. It can be as simple as
that to start.
Honestly, I think the above core of food is a great place to start. If you’re female,
you can notch down the meat-fish-seafood recommendation to 0.5 pounds and
take only one scoop of protein. If you’re a smaller male, you might want to start
there, too. (Maybe if you’re around 150 pounds.) You might need to work up to
0.75 pounds of meat though, but I’d use 0.5 as a launch point.

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There isn’t anything special about the core of food recommended above. It’s
simply a feasible amount of food that hits every recommendation thrown out to
6.0 this point. In other word, by eating the core you know you’re hitting the
minimum protein intake necessary. You know you’re getting the bare minimum
of what you need. Adjusting is solely a matter of what you add.
So start with a core. Add some food if needed. Depending on what happens (gain
or lose), adjust whatever you added, but keep the core intact. Thinking in terms
of foods trumps thinking in terms of calories. No matter what plan you decide, it’s
a good idea to set a “core” of food. So feel free to calculate your own core.

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Level 6.0 condensed
6.0 1. The protein core
• One pound of meat or fish
• Two scoops of plain, unflavored whey protein
cheat • Two or three eggs
• Bowl of cottage cheese
codes
2. The starch step
• One piece of fruit
• Two-three cups or “servings” of carbohydrate split among whatever sources
3a. Fat potential 3B. The hunger cure

• Less extra fats if you eat • As many non-starchy
fattier meats cruciferous veggies and
• Little bit of extra fats berries as you need for
(avocado, small portion satiety
of nuts) if you eat • Need more satiety, eat
leaner meats more lean protein

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LEVEL 7.0
7.0 Learning a bit about what to eat with what and how meal
composition throws a wrench in the production.
Glycemic load and food combinations

Thus far, we have this idea of Glycemic Load (GL) and that carbs are the spawn of
Satan, doing everything they can to destroy us. Eating one granule of rice will
effectively mitigate any progress we’ve made, and we might as well eat an entire
box of Oreo’s once we’ve sinned.
Alright, so maybe I’m exaggerating a bit here, but maybe I’m not. Getting
wrapped up in the GL can cause some funky mindset switches, but it’s important
to screw your head on tightly now.
We’ve been talking about food and macronutrients as if they existed in isolation.
For the most part, you won’t be eating something without eating something else.
The concept of the GL is an isolated one. When you eat something with a high GL
with something with a low GL, then things balance out a bit. This is one of the
reasons why it’s important to make protein a focal point of each meal, as protein
seems to do lots of wondrous things including mitigating an insulinogenic coma.

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MAKE PROTEIN A STAPLE AND FOCUS AT EVERY FEEDING!
7.0 To take things further, it’s also a good idea to limit the amount of fat and
carbohydrates you take in at one feeding. This is one of those anecdotes that has
been flying around forever, that somehow seems to work. The rationale is pretty
easy to understand. Lots of carbs, lots of insulin. Lots of insulin, lots of storage
potential. Lots of fat and lots of storage potential, and, well, you fill the last
blank.
Try your best to avoid combining dense sources of energy nutrients. Notice I said
dense. For instance, I don’t think having eggs (which have fat, but also a
comparable amount of protein—remember, protein tends to balance things out)
with carbohydrates is going to ruin the world. I wouldn’t have a bunch of nuts
with carbohydrates though.
This isn’t to say one slip up (having one walnut on top of your oatmeal) is going
to make the world come crashing down, but it’s a good habit to get into. Right
now, with carbohydrates being so low, these matters of food combination won’t
be all that much of a hiccup. As we move into further tiers though, it’s best to
keep energy nutrients separate. In most of the meal plans, if you look a bit
further, you’ll notice that it’s always (protein + carbs) or (protein + fats).

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LEVEL 7.0 condensed
7.0 A) Be mindful of food combinations
Try to have your most carbohydrate dense meals with leaner protein like white
chicken, turkey, and fish. When you go for fattier cuts of meat, eat them with
cheat mostly non-starchy vegetables.
codes

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LEVEL 8.0
8.0 Often times, levels 1.0-8.0 will be enough to do the trick. It’s not
flashy, and that’s the point. This stuff isn’t as complicated as
supplement companies would have you believe. There’s no reason to
get bogged down in details and miracles if you can’t understand
that the blueberries are better than the 100 calorie snack pack of
pretzels, or that the grilled chicken breast is better than the fried
chicken fingers. But we’ll finalize everything by adding the last
artifact on top of everything.
Let’s go back to home base

Let’s return to the sample plan given at the head of this chapter.

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• Breakfast: 1 serving of oats (150 calories), 2-3 eggs
• Lunch: 1 can of tuna (30-40g protein), one piece of whole wheat bread, one
8.0 piece of fruit (usually one apple)

• Snack: lean meat (usually chicken, 20-30g protein), assorted non-starchy
veggies
• Dinner: fish or seafood (either tilapia or salmon or shrimp), spinach salad
with no dressing, usually grilled veggies on top
• Late snack: cottage cheese, 20g whey protein
Knowing what we know now, everything should make sense. There’s a decent
amount of protein (dominating every meal, as it should) and some—but not
many—starchy carbohydrates from the oats, fruit, and bread. There’s some fat
sprinkled in there with some dairy and some fish. Tons of vegetables. Respecting
food combinations. Standard stuff.
All of this is shoved into five meals because I thought that mattered, and most
people did at the time. What’s coming around these days, however, is that meal
frequency doesn’t matter all that much.
The former idea was that more meals made your digestive processes go more,
and that in turn burned more calories. First thing that should make you absolutely
enraged at this point is that fat loss is about more than calories. Second thing is
that overall metabolic rate from digestion is more of a quantity issue, rather than
a frequency issue. In other words, eating two meals would cause the same
metabolic churning as eight meals, as long as the same exact quantity of food

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was eaten in both scenarios. Six meals at 300 calories a pop (1800 calories total),
wouldn’t “silently” burn more calories than two meals at 900 calories a pop
8.0 (again, 1800 calories total) because, at the end of all things, the same amount of
calories needed broken down and dealt with.
The take home here isn’t that timing or size of feeding doesn’t matter, but rather
that your overall energy expenditure has little to do with feeding frequency. You
can eat however many meals you want as long as you go with the
recommendations. I wouldn’t really expand beyond the three solid meals per day
and two snacks for logistic reasons (and meal prep reasons).
The impact of timing on the entire picture

Meal frequency doesn’t affect anything about calories burned, however, meal
frequency does matter in that every feeding is a signal. The more spread out your
carbohydrate consumption is over the course of the day, the less your body is
going to be 'free' of insulin. This is why I think it’s best to condense your starchy
carbohydrate feeding meals into a four hour feeding window. If you go back to
the example we’ve used to this point, you see that my breakfast and lunch
contained the starchy carbs. Any later meal was sans starchy and insulin-
provoking foods.
For our purposes, it doesn’t matter if this carbohydrate window comes in the
morning or at night, but there are usually two factors to consider. First, when it’s
convenient for you. Second, when you train.

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Training and carbohydrates
8.0 You might have heard of the importance of peri-workout nutrition—that’s to say
pre- and post- workout nutrition, peri- meaning around. The idea behind each
being that your body reacts a certain way to your training, and that you can then
boost your results by giving your certain nutrients at certain times—'windows,'
they’re often called.
My general rule about pre-workout nutrition: don’t stress. Our body has a host of
processes designed to break down energy for use when we get amped up. You
can train on an empty stomach. Anything you eat or drink immediately before a
workout will likely be moot. You don’t need a sugary shake. Your body is an
efficient creature, and it will handle business.
Humans are generally reactive creatures. We respond to events that happen. We

don’t become immune to the flu until after we’re sick. We have this inherent
mechanism to actually thrive through some bad things that we already have
experienced.
Post-workout nutrition, then, is a bit more viable. You drive the car, you fill up the
tank. But this isn’t to say you need the sugary post-workout shake post-workout,
either. I don’t think any skinny-fat sufferer should be drinking anything with
straight sugar. Supplement recommendations are later, but if there’s any time to
give carbohydrates a munch, it’s sometime post-workout because the insulin can
help promote storage of nutrients and recovery from the training session.

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Carbs do not have to be eaten immediately post-workout within a five minute
window. In general, I recommend waiting 30-60 minutes after your training
8.0 session to eat anything. The world won’t collapse if you have to wait a few hours.
If you train in the AM, you might want to keep them for dinner because dinner is
the most “indulgent” meal for most. I’m fine with that.
In other words: eat most of your starchy carbs in the morning, or eat most of
your starchy carbs at night. You can match this window with when you train if you
want, but you don’t always have to. What I mean by this:
• If you train first thing in the AM, have your starchy carbs for breakfast and
lunch.
• If you train in the PM, have your starchy carbs for dinner and a late snack (if
your dinner comes after you train).
If you train in the morning and want to eat starchy carbs for dinner instead of
breakfast, that’s fine too.
Eating after 6PM causes fat gain...?

There’s a myth out there that eating before bed time (or after 6PM) is a recipe for
fat gain. This couldn’t be further from the truth. My only recommendation is to
give yourself about two hours between your last meal (if it’s of a larger dinner
portion) and bedtime to allow time for digestion. (If it’s not large and only snack-
ish, don’t worry about this.)

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Having a small snack (like cottage cheese and veggies) if you need it, prior to
sleeping, isn’t going to make you fat. So if you train later, don’t be afraid to eat
8.0 your post-workout meal after 6PM as long as you have some breathing room for
digestion. And if you don’t, I suggest having your carbohydrates the next morning
for breakfast. You can have some cottage cheese and perhaps some berries as a
small meal before you go to sleep.

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Train in the AM,
8.1 carbs at night
Wake up: Train on an empty stomach
Breakfast (30-60 Minutes Later): Four eggs with spinach and
sprinkle of feta, raw tomato, some almonds
Snack: 20g Whey protein, berries
Lunch: Can of tuna, raw veggies
Dinner: Chicken breast, sweet potato, veggies
Snack: Cottage cheese, banana

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Train in the AM,
8.2 carbs in the AM
Wake up: Train on an empty stomach
Breakfast (30-60 minutes later): Three eggs, oats (50g carbs), 20g
whey protein
Dinner: Chicken breast, veggies
Snack: Cottage cheese, berries, some pistachios

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Train in the late
8.3 AM, carbs in the PM
Breakfast: Four eggs with spinach and sprinkle of feta, raw tomato
Snack: Can of tuna, raw veggies
Train
Snack (30-60 minutes later): 20g whey protein, berries
Dinner: Chicken breast, two sweet potatoes, veggies

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Train in the early
8.4 PM, carbs at night
Snack: 20g whey protein, berries, some cashews
Train
Dinner (30-60 minutes later): Chicken breast, two sweet potatoes,
veggies

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Train in the late
8.5 PM, carbs the next
morning
Adjust the portions to fit the protein requirements,
and remember that fats usually creep their way into
things if you’re doing any kind of food preparation
(dab of quality butter or oil in the pan, or just having
fattier meat or fish.) That’s why I didn’t include any
lots of overt sources of fat above. You can very well
merge the all of these situations above into fewer
meals per day, too.

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8.5 Snack: 20g whey protein, berries, some cashews

Dinner: Chicken breast, raw veggies
Train @ 9:00PM
Pre-bed snack: Cottage cheese, berries
Wake up
Breakfast: Three eggs with bowl of oatmeal (around 40g carbs)
Snack: 20g whey protein, banana
Lunch: Tilapia filet, sweet potato, veggies
Dinner: Chicken breast, veggies
Snack: Cottage cheese, tuna, almonds

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LEVEL 9.0
9.0 Troubleshooting.
Here’s where I’d start:

Make sure you’re getting enough protein and vegetables,
they should dominate your meals.
Make sure you’re eating the right foods. eat real food.
real food doesn’t have ingredients. real food IS
ingredients.
Follow the feeding constructs above.

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If you aren’t losing fat, then...
9.0 Critically evaluate how many ' secret' fats you’re eating.
• Are you cooking in fat (oils, butter)? How is that adding up?
• Are you eating fatty meats regularly?
• Fatty protein extras regularly?
Critically evaluate how many carbohydrates you’re eating.

• Are you eating highly processed carbohydrates that carry great caloric load
(added sugar) or are easy to eat in abundance? Hint: Cereal and donuts are
easier to eat than potatoes.
Critically evaluate how your body is responding to food.

• If you’re tanking dairy, and feeling bloated every second of the day, you
need to make adjustments. (More on this bucket of experimentation later.)
Critically evaluate your beverages.

• The only things you should be drinking are water, black coffee, and
unsweetened teas. Ditch artificially sweetened junk.

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What should you pick?
9.0 Follow each Level step-by-step. They are designed to piggyback off one another.
You have no business worrying about food timing if you’re still downing Cheez-Its
by the box. It’s a journey that you advance through over time. You level up skills
just like a video game.
If something is working, it’s up to you whether or not you want to make it more
complex. If I was personally coaching you, I’d say no; I’m a fan of the simplest
step that works. Ultimately, it’s up to you. You can tinker with your body as much
as you want, just know that sometimes tinkering can take you away from
something that works.

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9.0 Doing the
work, part II
Working with allergies and intolerances
It’s your job to experiment with food. Heavily. Some foods might give you
digestive stress. I don’t do well with cow’s milk, but I’m fine with cheese. (Either
gives me gas though, just the former is much worse.) You might need to dig
deeper. I’m fine with cottage cheese, feta cheese, and other similar cheese. And
then there’s cheese from different animals, like goat, that you might be alright
with.
With beans, the way you prepare them (adequate soaking) affects digestion, so
beans might appear to be a bad choice, but perhaps it’s just your cooking. As a
general rule, too much of anything too soon is a recipe for allergy or digestive
stress. The gut is an adaptable machine, and it creates digestive cultures to
better assimilate food over time. If you go veggie gung-ho, you’re probably going

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to be gassy. If you go egg gung-ho (6+ per day, starting at 0), you might develop
an allergy. (These are both assuming you didn’t eat much of either, and then all
of the sudden loaded up.)
Be patient. Your biggest experiments will likely be with dairy and gluten grains
(wheat, rye, etc.). A lot of people will settle into most foods. But dairy is a
mystery. Some people can thrive with it, others won’t see progress until they
ditch it. Same with glutinous (cereal) grains. I, personally, do best without cow’s
milk and cereal grains.
I’ve never been able to get really lean while drinking milk. It’s probably a
combination of the milk itself and the fact that I don’t substitute it for other
foods. In other words, most people don’t see milk as “food,” they see it as “drink.”
It’s usually just added on top of whatever you’re eating and not accounted for.
The “certified” way to measure intolerance boils down to this: avoid a food group
or food for thirty days, and then slowly reintroduce it. Common intolerances are
dairy and grains, and yes, intolerances can negatively affect fat loss and even
muscle gain because you’re going to be bloated and feel like junk. Aside from the
common signs of intolerance, precisely like bloat, there are others like joint pain,
acne, sleeplessness, belly rumbling, other skin issues, headaches, and even sinus
issues.
After the thirty days, you introduce a bit of the food and wait three days. The
important thing is to only introduce one thing at a time. Different types of dairy

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can hit different triggers. You might be fine with cottage cheese and yogurt, but
do bad with milk. So in order to fully understand, you have to single out things
and only introduce them one at a time.
After the thirty days, pick one thing, eat some, wait three days, and then
evaluate. Nothing happened? Maybe up the serving and see. Nothing happened?
You’re probably good to go. Wait another three days and then move onto
something else. The idea is that the moment you introduce more than one thing,
you don’t know what the problem is, so only go one at a time.
Below is a little guide that will help you make decisions. A lot of the
recommendations come from Ori Hofmekler and myself, but know that this isn’t
the total extent of foods out there. There are bunches of fruit and vegetables in
the world, so vary as much as you need to vary.

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Vegetables: Fatty protein:
9.0 leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables

(cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and
brussel sprouts), onion, garlic, parsley,
cilantro, basil, cucumber, celery,
pepper, zucchini, carrot, green beans
salmon, dark chicken, beef, pork,
brown turkey, goat milk, goat cheese,
cheese (cheddar, ricotta, feta),
venison, lamb, other seafood, eggs,
full fat plain and unflavored yogurt
Starchy Carbohydrates: Dairy:
oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, full-fat unflavored and unsweetened

pumpkin, squash, turnip, radish, yogurt, full-fat milk, goat products,
quinoa, beans, lentils, peas ricotta cheese, cottage cheese
Fruits: Fats:
berries, cherries, citrus, apples, almonds, pistachios, pecans, walnuts,

papaya, mango, pineapple, kiwi, cashews, macadamia nuts, pumpkin,
passion fruit, red grapes with pits, sesame, flaxseed, olive oil, walnuts,
peach, avocados, olives extra virgin first cold pressed, grass
fed butter, chia seeds, avocado,
Spices: peanuts
turmeric, curry, oregano, thyme, sage, Beverages:

rosemary, black pepper, real salt
coffee (freshly ground, not
Lean protein: decaffeinated), green tea (not
decaffeinated), black tea, tea with
white chicken, tuna, tilapia, shrimp, rosehips or chamomile, water
white turkey, plain and unflavored (preferably non-bottled)
whey, cottage cheese, buffalo, elk,
other fish, most game meats

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5
Alcohol, Refeeding,
Ketosis, and Adjustments
Dissecting some loose ends that always pop up. Can you lose fat
while drinking alcohol? Can you have a cheat meal? And other
existential matters.
ny time you’re questing to lose fat, teetering on the edge of not giving your
A body the nutrients and energy it’s used to having, your body freaks out . . .
just a little.
Our bodies, all things considered, don't like rapid change. Rapid changes make for
a lot of inefficiency, and inefficiency is bad for energy conservation (a tip to
remember once you’re at the stubborn fat phase). Just like when you’re new to
baking, the ingredients go everywhere. You don’t get as many cupcakes baked as
you should, because you leave half the batter in the bowl. An egg drops on the

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floor. You misjudge how much flour to add. Things work much more efficiently
when you have experience.
The body likes to settle into something called a set point. A set point is a
physiological state in which the body says to itself: this is, more or less, what I’m
going to have to do on a daily basis, so I need to get good at doing it and then
make it as efficient as possible to conserve my energy. Set points are good from a
biological, energy-conservation standpoint, so the body is always looking for one.
On a caloric deficit, the body responds to consecutive days of lower energy intake
by slowing certain processes down. That which is seen as less essential becomes
less active. Some functions—primarily those for muscle building—aren’t as
efficient. Metabolism, as a whole, creeps down. Why keep muscle around when
you’re barely getting enough energy and nutrients to digest food? Which is more
important?
And when you think about it, why wouldn’t non-essential processes slow down?
You’re barely getting enough energy to survive, so you’re aren’t going to be
wasteful. So it retreats into a shell, one that abandons 'non-essential' functions.
The best way to combat this is with a scheduled re-feeds once per week. Re-feeds
are a higher calorie pulse (usually once per week) that shows the body that it
isn’t going to melt into nothingness from a lack of energy.

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Most people make this re-feed a “cheat.” A cheat is a momentary indulgence in
your cravings—essentially, any “unhealthy” food that catches your eye is
subjected to getting shoved down the chute.
Since most junk foods are higher in calories, they serve the purpose of the re-
feed well. I have no problem with a once a week cheat meal for the re-feed in
which you indulge in your cravings. I just have two rules:
• The cheat meal goes down on a training day

• It’s a single cheat meal, not a cheat day
When you inch into cheat days, physical and mental progress curtails. You end up
with cheat day hangovers (constipation, bloat, dry mouth). So stick to a cheat
meal. One meal. Do it on one of your training days, and consider it a re-feed.
Eat until you feel good, not until you puke or feel like puking (this is all too
common).
If you don’t crave junk food, increase the size of your normal meal. Just make
sure you eat enough. Shoot for 1.5 – 2 times the amount you normally eat.
Can you be a hopeless drunk?

Alcohol is an energy nutrient. There’s seven calories in one gram of alcohol.
Remember: too much energy is too much energy; that’s the first problem of
alcohol.

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Outside of energy cost, alcohol has some hormonal/signaling play. Some studies
say alcohol is good for health, while others say alcohol is bad for health. But,
remember, health is a bit different than performance. Ideally, you’d control your
alcohol consumption to a “cheat/re-feed” day. If you can’t, or don’t want to, treat
it like dairy: experiment.
Just don’t claim that “nothing works,” despite drinking alcohol daily. Changing the
body takes a little bit of sacrifice; save the chalice of red wine for your cheat
meal.
As for what alcoholic beverages are 'best,' the answer is usually those with little
sugar. Any non-sweetened liquor, whiskey, or rum on the rocks or with club soda
is good. If you must, use diet soda. Alternatively, dry wines are usually good
(cabernet, merlot).
Beer is generally the worst as it has hops, and hops are pro-estrogenic (read:
more womanly, less manly). Amusingly enough, red wine is anti-estrogenic, and
therefore very manly, which is clearly the only reason I love the stuff.
If you want to adjust...

The base calorie figure thrown out for those wanting to lose fat is (bodyweight in
pounds x 12). So if you weighed 200 pounds, you’d be looking to consume 2400
calories for starters, and you’d probably expect to lose fat with that figure.
(Remember though, we have more to worry about than just calories.) For the

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smart folks that use metric (I’m not one of them), multiply your bodyweight in
kilograms by 2.2 to get pounds, and then rock the initial equation.
Bodyweight in pounds x 12 assumes a rather normal life. Not too active. Not too
sedentary. But what if you are active? What if you play a sport here and there, or
aggressively hike on the weekends?
First, awesome. More movement is always better. Pride yourself in that. Second,
feel free to adjust the plans above. They are the simplest first step, and that’s
what you should seek before making things more complicated than they need to
be. If they work, great.
But if you’re feeling lethargic on training days, if you’re having trouble getting
stronger, if you’re feeling run down, or if you feel like you’re losing weight too
fast, experiment with a cyclical diet.
A cyclical diet rotates nutrient quantity daily. So instead of eating the same
amount of food every day, you adjust the amount depending on your activity
level.
Cyclical diets work best after you develop base nutrition knowledge, and after you
reach a solid base—they come into huge play with stubborn fat loss and gaining
muscle without getting fat. If you have a lot of fat, and your partitioning isn’t up
to par, any higher calorie feeding will be squandered. The calories you eat aren’t

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used as efficiently in the name of muscle. (And will likely be stored as fat.) This is
why I don’t recommend cyclical diets off the bat.
But if you think you need more nutrients, if you play a sport or do a lot of extra
activity, increase calories on your toughest training days via
carbohydrates. Start with an extra 50 grams on the one-or-two toughest
training days. Evaluate progress after two weeks.
If you want to continue increasing, go with 25 grams on top of the original 50.
Evaluate after another one-two weeks. Follow the 'two week waiting period to
evaluate results and then an extra 25' strategy to bump up calories. And bump
them up as you see fit, but only on strength training days. You’ll naturally have
one true re-feed per week. But you’ll also have a few other higher carbohydrate
days per week when you do this.
Killing softly with ketosis

Those of you with some familiarity with this world might be wondering if this is a
ketogenic diet. Let’s touch on this quickly to clarify some things. Since each
macronutrient has a different function within the body, there are sometimes
preferences.
For instance, the nervous system uses glycogen (stored form of carbohydrate) for
fuel. Carbohydrates are the typical glycogen provider, but if carbohydrates aren’t
available (and glycogen stores are low) the body is smart enough to break down

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fat or protein and transform it into something that can be used instead of
glycogen. When this happens, ketone bodies are formed and are what’s used for
energy.
This specific situation is known as ketosis, specifically nutritional ketosis, and it

happens when ketone bodies begin to become the dominant fuel source. Ketosis
is a common strategy used to get the body in a mode in which it preferentially
uses body fat (or fat in general) as a source of fuel.
(This, “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you, man!,” thing doesn’t always happen. But
the body rarely surrenders without making use of its resources. It’s also why the
body wants to store fat, as it’s a back-up source of essential energy. Without
glycogen, or something that can be mutated into glycogen, your brain doesn’t
fare well.)
Ketosis sounds wonderful (who doesn’t want to use body fat as fuel?), which is
why people often gravitate towards the low carbohydrate diets. Low carbs = little
glycogen = necessary for the body to use fat = ketones for fuel = ketosis. (It also
means insulin [remember: insulin = storage, growth] is kept lower.)
Although ketosis by its lonesome doesn’t guarantee the mobilization of body fat,
it does get physiology shifted in the direction we want. We want the body to use
fat as its primary fuel source at rest. There is, however, a problem. The above
cascade effect is rather sensible if you’re sedentary. The problem: we aren’t
sedentary. Our goal of losing fat is also shadowed by the desire to build an

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appreciable physique through the creation of muscle mass, so there are a few
problems.
First, muscle glycogen fuels high-intensity activity. Totally starving the body of
carbohydrates doesn’t bode well for muscle glycogen refueling, which doesn’t
bode well for future high intensity activity. In other words, strength training often
suffers (unless you keep reps really low, staying in primarily the alactic zone . . .
even then, you probably wouldn’t be totally home free; you’d probably also have
to tank protein by the, well, tank-full).
Note: muscle glycogen can only be used by muscles. Once glycogen is stored in
the muscle, it can’t come back out and be used elsewhere. Just an interesting tid
bit and something that might be of use for you in the future.
Second, liver glycogen fuels the nervous system, which also fuels high-intensity
activity. A sedentary person can deal with lower glycogen levels, but those of us
that engage in rigorous training programs generally can’t. When training ensues,
and glycogen levels are low, the body seeks energy from anywhere. This could be
fat, or it could be muscle—the latter being something we don’t want. We want our
muscles to stay big and strong, not get chewed up and broken down for energy.
So the no-carb freak that trains crazily, yet has a tough time gaining muscle and
losing fat, is a victim to his own nutritional error. For those of us with lesser
genetic muscle-building magic, ketosis makes for tough muscle building (it’s also
tough to sustain energy during a training session).

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Luckily, there is a compromise. By keeping carbs at 100g, we’re essentially
floating above the lines of ketosis, while keeping insulin at bay enough to see
progress. Full-on proponents of the metabolic shift embrace ketosis. While I think
having the body use fat for fuel more is great, I also recognize the importance of
carbohydrates in the long run. I don’t think it’s really a coincidence that most
hardcore advocates of ketosis and full on metabolic shifting (like zero carbers)
aren’t really all that muscled. At least, from what I’ve come to see.

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6
Supplements
99% of supplements are garbage. Here is my 1% list of things that
are actually worth your money.
he first rule of supplements: don’t get duped. There’s a lot of hype
T surrounding supplements. Among teenagers, whey protein is akin to

steroids: it’s believed to make you huge beyond possibility.
But not so fast.
To some, supplements are necessary. A “natural” part of a diet. And to these

people, not taking some supplements is blasphemy. But, to me, supplements are
always optional until proven necessary. Because, sometimes, they are necessary.
Other times, they’re hella useful. And other times yet, they’re useless.
In general, those that spout the necessity of supplements are looking for a
scapegoat. In other words: my diet didn’t work for you because you weren’t
willing to own up and spend your entire paycheck on obscure supplements.

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Whatever. I don’t believe it. The name of the game when it comes to supplements
is getting the job done as thriftily as possible. So here’s my 'long' list of
supplements that you should probably consider.
Whey protein
Whey protein is a byproduct of some dairy processes. In general, there’s nothing
overtly special about whey, save for it being an extremely cheap source of
protein. Ori Hofmekler often praises whey because it’s a dense source of leucine,
an amino acid that stimulates insulin and essentially kick starts the muscle
building cascade. Apparently, it’s also heavily shown to be beneficial for fat loss.
To be honest, I’ve used whey (and still do, on the magnitude of 75-80ish grams
of protein work per day) because it’s cheap. And cheap sources of protein are
good when you’re on a high protein diet and a college kid, as I was.
My preferred retailer for supplements is True Nutrition.com. They have

just about everything you could want and have prices that beat most
other retailers. Even better, you can use my 5% discount code when
ordering. I’d insert a link to the whey I buy, but they’re always
changing links . . .

112
Use “anm158” as your discount code at checkout. Look for the cheapest
whey protein concentrate. That’s what I use. If you have some extra
cash, you probably want to spring for something cold-filtered. Not sure
if the whey protein concentrate fits that bill. You win some, you lose
some. As of this point, after taking this stuff for a few years, It hasn’t
had any kind of negative effect.
I buy the whey protein concentrate from True Nutrition. Of course, we have to get
into the purity side of things, as with any supplement. I recommend buying plain,
unflavored, unsweetened whey. I just want the protein. In general, you know
whey is decent if it is palatable. If it tastes rancid, it probably is bad whey. From
what I know, True Nutrition is a solid source.
Don’t worry about going super fancy with the type of protein you get either. Whey
protein concentrate is fine. If you have the extra cash, you can look into cold
filtered or grass fed. But it’s all in the name of cramming more protein down your
throat. Do that, and you’re on the right track.

113
Since I have a considerable dislike for drinking calories, I tend to make protein
pudding with my whey. Not only do I get to kick a sweet tooth, but I do so while
also fueling muscle growth. Awesome.
Creatine monohydrate
Creatine is one of the most researched supplements in the world. There are two
things most everyone agrees on with creatine:
• It works.
• It’s safe.
Sounds good enough to me.
I’ll also add that it’s dirt cheap. You can get it at True Nutrition for about three
dollars per pound. You can even get a higher grade for about five dollars per
pound. (At least, those are the prices as I write this.)
Contrary to popular belief, creatine is not a steroid— so don’t worry about going
all Hulkamania after reading this. Creatine is a natural compound produced by the
kidneys, pancreas, and liver that plays an important role in releasing energy
when the body moves quickly or powerfully.
Creatine created by the body is stored mostly in muscle cells. During short-term
bursts of speed or strength (like sprinting or jumping) it helps release energy by

114
regenerating ATP, or the body’s go-to pathway for immediate energy. By providing
more immediate ATP for energy, creatine can improve muscular strength and
power, and can even increase muscle size by pulling water into the muscles,
giving them a fuller look.
But don’t worry— research suggests creatine doesn’t 'steal' the body’s water or
cause dehydration as is sometimes thought. In fact, one study found that it
doesn’t even seem to hinder hydration in endurance athletes when exercising in
the heat.
When used by healthy individuals and taken as directed, studies suggest creatine
is a relatively safe supplement, with most side effects being minimal
gastrointestinal problems like gas and bloating.
Without supplementation, the body creates and uses roughly two grams of
creatine per day of its own, stored in the body, but muscles can store around 20
percent more. After hitting the body’s maximum storage point (about 120 grams
throughout all muscles), consuming more creatine doesn’t further affect
concentration levels— a point referred to as saturation or maximum
concentration.
Now, there are two methods used to get to this point. The first (and the strategy
used in most studies) is undergoing a 'loading' phase consisting of twenty grams
(broken into four five-gram servings per day) every day for four-to-six days. After
this phase, anywhere from two to five grams are taken daily to maintain peak

115
levels. The second method (which may be more suitable for those who aren’t sure
about how they will tolerate creatine) simply consists of taking three-to-five
grams daily, in which hitting saturation will take about one month, and the doses
can be maintained to sustain peak levels.
In terms of creatine’s ability to boost performance, studies (and uses) vary

widely. One study looking at the supplement’s effect on jumping performance
suggests an improvement of up to 2.8 percent (likely beneficial), while studies
looking at the effect creatine had on body mass and performance found 'small but
significant increases in lean body mass and upper-body exercise.'
There’s no doubt it seems to work 'better' for some. But it’s so cheap there’s no
reason not to try. As for the method, I prefer the 3-5 grams per day approach.
And I usually only take that dose on training days with the highest carbohydrate
meal.
Vitamins
Ask five different fitness dudes about the best supplements to take, and you’re
likely to get five different answers.
I say instead of spending a bunch of money upfront trying to shotgun which

supplements you need, you’re better off going to your doctor and getting tested
for vitamin or mineral deficiencies. Then you really know what to take or focus on
getting through whole foods.

116
Some people are born with different propensities to become deficient in nutrients.
Tim Ferriss, for instance, is famous for finding out that he had a selenium
deficiency. So he started adjusting his diet to include more selenium. Problem
fixed. But you can’t do that unless you know what you’re deficient in.
So sure. You can safeguard yourself and take a shotgun multivitamin that gives
you just about everything. But you can also be more calculated. Suffice to say, I
think you should keep your diet varied with wholesome foods to give yourself 'as
many' vitamins as possible from that alone.
From there, it’s in the air.

117
7
Quadrants and Hot Dogs
“I' m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all
things.”
-Frodo Baggins
ome people have “fat loss” programs followed by “muscle building”
S programs, but there should be no difference between the two for a skinny-
fat person from an exercise selection and execution standpoint.
Everything a skinny-fat person does should be in the name of losing body fat and
gaining muscle without swinging too far to either side of the pendulum. Go all out
cardio-centric or all out bulk-centric, and you will end up somewhere you don’t
want to be. Don’t neglect strength training in the name of “cardio.”
For a skinny-fat person, a fat loss program needs to include training as if it were
muscle-building time. What swings results in your favor isn’t different programs
or fancy exercises, but rather, proper nutrition.

118
The solution to skinny-fatness follows two distinct steps:
• Train like a mofo, but eat for getting lean and eliminating body fat.
• Train like a mofobuild muscle slowly over time, and never get overly fat
again.
The first step — and the one soldier 3.0 is geared towards — is to
eliminate the 'fat' from 'skinny-fat.'
To understand the programming, you must first understand the goal. You might
not agree with the goal, but since it’s the 'best' spot to sit in, it’s the ideal ending
point.
The goal is to have a body-fat level you’re comfortable with that only
needs to be maintained with diet and strength training, not aerobic
training or any other kind of 'extra' training.
My intention isn’t to create something that drastically hinders the rest of your life.
The goal is to settle into a baseline physique that requires little 'extra' activity to
maintain outside of both strength training and a sensible diet.

119
Sequence
You might be privy to this training world. You might be wondering where the juice
on intermittent fasting is. (If you aren’t, no worries. That’s in the future.) You
might be wondering where something else is, too.
Know that this entire SOLDIDER universe is sequential. It’s purposely designed.
Unlike other programs that are one and done, no lessons learned, this is more of
a universe. What you read now prepares you for what’s to come. And what you’re
reading now is the very first step to understanding more advanced concepts in
the future.
In other words, if you don’t get this stuff down, the more advanced strategies in
the future are worthless.
If you’re wondering where something is that I normally talk about, chances are
introducing it here would be introducing it too soon. This is a process. A journey.
And one that I’ve screwed up enough times to know that I don’t want you to do
the same time.
In your hands
All things considered, training is the easy part. You go to the gym. You put in your
time. You expel some blood, sweat, and tears. You come out on top.
Easy, right?

120
Well, kind of. Conquering skinny-fatness is more than a sequence of exercises, it’s
a lifestyle. But the good thing about training is that it’s in your hands. You control
going to the gym. You control putting in the time. You control your success.
Physique training is about sending signals to the body that demand the necessity
of big and strong muscles. It’s all about the adaptation brought on from the
training. You’re going to hear a lot of things on your fitness travels. You’re going
to hear about “rules” and “quick fixes.” And while there are some tricky tactics
that can have an immediate effect—eliminating gluten in some (but not all) cases,
for instance—the only secret is that there is none.
Most of this training stuff was figured out years ago. Before research. Before the
new age equipment we have today. Before supplements. Before you and I were
born. The toughest part is not listening and not believing in the fanciness.
Physique training is a sport, and sports are about skills. How do you get better
skills? Practice. No one makes every free throw. No one gets their nutrition “right”
the first time. No one trains without blemishes from the get-go.
Training “skills,” in the skinny-fat sense, aren’t what you think they are. Being
able to bench press is a nice skill. But it’s not one of the “skills” I’m talking about.
The skills I’m talking about are universal. They extend beyond the confines of
specific exercises. They are program independent.

121
Skills like:
• Performing exercises that deliberately overload targeted muscles

• Flushing blood into the muscle to deliver nutrients and increase the mind-
muscle connection
• Overloading tissues in a stretched position
• Delivering enough protein to the body
• Eating the right things at the right time
These things are all skills.
If you’re unhappy with where you sit now—or you’re unhappy with your lack of
progress—you haven’t been practicing the necessary skills that lead to great
results when overall mastery is reached.
As usual, simple is better. Ever wonder why the typical “meathead” stereotype
exists? Because there are thousands of people that do nothing but bicep curl and
bench press. The internet likes to make fun of their chicken legs and slumped
shoulders. But you know what? Most of these “meatheads” probably have bigger
chests and arms than everyone that makes fun of them.
We know what exercises hit certain muscle groups. We don’t need research to tell
us this. Just pick up a dumbbell or barbell and feel where the stress is. We know
curls work the arms. We know rows hit the back. We know benching blasts the
chest. The only thing left is practicing these things enough to get good at them.

122
Meatheads practice the curl and bench press. More practice means better skill
development. Better skill development means more muscle.
Easy.
Your goals
The bench and curl meatheads want bigger arms and a bigger chest. But have
you ever thought about what you want?
What do you want to look like? What do you want to be capable of?
This is an important question that no one answers. People do “X” program and “Y”
program without thinking about the specific adaptations they will cause. Training
shouldn’t be haphazard. If you want to be the best free throw shooter on your
team, you shouldn’t be practicing layups.
Once you know what you want, you need to ask: What exercises matter? What
lifts, when a high skill is reached, are going to give me said physique? Why do
more than this? Why ever deviate from this? In other words: find out where you
want to go and then pick the simplest route. Be consistent and intense with a few
exercises. Practice them as skills. Embrace the simplicity. Just put your head
down and get to work.

123
You should be asking: “What are the specific skills a skinny-fat sufferer needs to
get good at to start shaping an x physique?”
The skinny-fat training philosophy is based around these concepts:
• You need to focus on the “X.” Otherwise, you won’t really be satisfied.
• You need to free your mind if you’re stuck in one of the dogmatic circles.
• You need to embrace a little vanity. You’ve lived long enough feeling
unsatisfied about your physique. It’s time to change that.
• You need to spend time training with free weights. This will be the driver of
muscle growth. You can use machines, sure. But that’s typical. And we know
what typical delivers.
• You need to get stronger. This is one of the ways your body assimilates the
need for bigger muscles.
• You need to show up consistently. Again, you need to let your body know
that it needs to change.
• You need to get good at moving your body weight. There’s an over
emphasis on bodyweight exercises. You can’t be good at body weight
exercises unless you have a decent body composition and good relative
strength. If you’re improving your body weight skills, something good is
happening. Skinny-fat people suck at bodyweight exercises. Only managing
one chin-up isn’t good.
• You need some “pump” work to boost your ego and feel good about
yourself. Who doesn’t like getting jacked? Hello sexiness.

124
• You need to do some “extra” things like morning walking to aid in the initial
fat loss crush.
• You need to be an athlete. There’s a good chance whoever you want to look
like is an athlete. It only makes sense. So keep that mentality. You train
with purpose. You train because it matters. You don’t skip sessions from
laziness.
• You need to emphasize upper chest development. The flat, standard barbell
bench press is abandoned. Instead, the incline press is used to preferentially
develop the upper chest. All pressing is selected to this end.
The future
This is essentially the end of your fundamental learning. You have 90% of what
you need to change your life. Knowledge is no longer a limiting factor for you.
The remaining documents in this resource will fill in the gaps and give you little
“hacks” to help you with the specific exercises and help you learn how to make
these nutrition changes.
Consider a graph divided into four quadrants. The labels on each axis go a little
something like this: (x) good genetics, bad genetics (y) good work, bad work.
You can plot your results on this graph based on what you do. All of us skinny-fat
sufferers land in the bad genetics domain, which gives us two options. We can (a)
do bad work, which would give us below average results, or we can (b) do good
work, which would give us above average results.

125
You are not confined by your genetics. You just have to do things just a little bit
better than those that hit the genetic lottery. Most of us understand this. We want
to do good things. We don’t want to lag behind. More often than not, though, this
causes more problems than it solves. You’re in a constant state of worry. What
exercise is better? How many sets should I do? Reps? How long should I rest in
between sets? And before you know it, you’re so frustrated you don’t do anything
at all.
Listen. The sheer fact of training, no matter how haphazard, is better than
nothing.
Compare two people. Billy goes to the gym four times per week. He doesn’t really
know what’s going on but he works a handful of lifts with some intensity. John,
however, doesn’t go to the gym. Ever.
Which one is going to be better in one year’s time?
So what if Billy doesn’t got a clue. He’ll get somewhere. Few people that have the
dedication to train four days per week every week fail to make some kind of
progress over time. This is why the meatheads referenced earlier are pretty
strong. And even big. They probably know less than you do, but they just go,
expend meaningful effort, and they naturally find a way to get better over time.
Remember, you know what exercises “work” and produce results, the only thing
left is practice. How you practice can change. You can practice for different

126
durations. You can use different drills. You can break the skill apart and work on
its pieces. But what’s left when all of that trickles away is the skill itself. Did the
skill improve? If it did, good. You did your job.
The preferred exercises listed in the program are some of the “skills.” Nailing it on
nutrition is a skill. Living a good life is a skill. Knowing and seeing all of these
characteristics as skills is also a skill, and a crucial one.
How you structure your training depends on many things. Sometimes you might
train three days per week. Other times, four. Sometimes you might split the
workload between workouts differently. Things will change. Life changes. But
what’s important is that the exercises deemed most beneficial stay—the skills you
know you need don’t change.
They are the hotdog in the hotdog stand. If you own a hotdog stand, you can
have as many toppings and condiments as you want. But you can’t take the
hotdog away.
Take the hotdog away, and you got no hotdog stand—you got no business.
So what are your hotdogs? You should know by now. The Skinny-Fat Solution
serves them on a platter. As long as you have them, you’ll be in business.

127
Where you are at this moment
Let’s talk about where you are right now. I’m talking about what you know. What
you do. What your plan of attack is.
If you ever talk to “learning” hackers, they’ll tell you to talk to “experts” and to
find out what they do that others might not. But the most important thing you
can ask “experts” is: What shouldn’t I do? What’s going to waste my time?
Finding out what not to do is perhaps more important than finding out what to do.
And so the majority of this resource is a compass. It points you in the right
direction. “Don’t go that way, go this way...” more or less.
The important part of this resource is what I didn’t include. Depending on which
version you have, it might already top six-or-so documents. It’s a lot of
information to take in. But the goal is the same across each document. So it sets
you on the right training and nutrition path to cure your initial skinny-fat issues.
It “builds momentum.” It gets you going in the right direction.
If I’d include anything beyond this initial push, your brain would be spinning even
more. You can have the best knowledge in front of you, but if you aren’t going to
follow it on account of confusion, what’s the point? A behavior has to be
sustainable. So the Skinny-Fat Solution is built with the following framework in
mind.

128
Bottom layer: Develop awareness about what you put in your mouth and
develop motivation to train regularly.
Without these, you’re nowhere. You’re going to have to at least be aware of what
you’re eating and distinguishing whether or not the quality or quantity is going to
take you either closer to or further from your goal.
Until you do this, nothing else matters. Distinguish between apple and donut.
Chicken fingers and grilled chicken breast.
Know what’s good, know what’s bad.
Second, know whether the amount you’re eating is either going for or
going against your goals. You probably know whether or not you’re eating a bit
“too much” if your goal is fat loss as it usually goes hand in hand with bad food
choices.
As far as bottom layer training, you have to want to make it happen. I have a
cousin, Big Kenny, who I’m tremendously proud of. He lost a lot of weight last
year. Just this past week he had bronchitis. He told me he’s itching to get back
into the gym to get back on track. This is the kind of mentality you need.
I don’t care if Alexander the Great wrote your training program. Until you get an
unsatisfiable itch to train on a regular basis, nothing else matters.

129
The middle layer gets a bit more specific. So you’re aware of what you’re eating.
You’re itching to train. What’s next?
This step is best impacted by knowing what NOT to do. This is why I
emphasize not turning into a cardio treadmill bunny that avoids any
physical stress. It won’t work.
This is knowing what exercises work “best.”
As far as diet is concerned, you need to refine the process. Get used to how much
food you need for your goal, and what foods are going to get you there. Start
packing the apple, chicken breast, tuna, celery, and carrots. Start saying no to
sweet desserts and other junk in 90% of your diet.
The final layer is coordinating all of this towards your goal. The goal of The
Skinny-Fat Solution is to get rid of the emotional baggage, learn how to live a
better life, and begin the quest to a better body.
The quest to a better body for us skinny-fat sufferers begins with fat loss. It’s
easier than building muscle (it happens faster too) and leaves a positive vibe.
Some muscle will grow.
It’s a natural part of training. But by and large, everything here is designed to
shed down and show you how to train long term.

130
After reaching your solid base, you’ll be able to add muscle without getting fat
again—as long as you play your cards right (my card = The Chaos Bulk). Gone
are the days of being afraid to take your shirt off. And in time, you’ll actually be
proud to do so.
So if I was to make an analogy: it’s like jumping in the pool. If you want to swim,
you can’t be afraid of the water. And you could spend a billion dollars on
swimming materials, but none of it will matter if you can’t jump in.
This is the jump.
Being an underdog
I want to leave you with one last thought. This comes from Malcolm Gladwell’s
book, David and Goliath, which is all about how underdogs go about beating the
“favorite.” And the overriding idea is that when the underdog tries to play the
same game the favorite does, the underdog almost always loses.
He cites many examples in the book, but there are two that pertain to this
passage. First is about a gang of troops that decided to travel through a dessert
infested with poisonous snakes in order to sneak up on an opponent. Second is
about a girl’s basketball team that decided to run a new style full court press on
defense because their offense wasn’t all that great. In both cases, the underdog
changed the rules.

131
...think back to Lawrence’s long march across the desert to Aqaba. It is easier to dress
soldiers in bright uniforms and have them march to the sound of a fife-and-drum
corps than it is to have them ride six hundred miles through snake-infested desert on
the back of camels. It is easier and far more satisfying to retreat and compose yourself
after every score—and execute perfectly choreographed plays—than to swarm about,
arms flailing, and contest every inch of the basketball court. Underdog strategies are
hard.
Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath
If you’re an underdog, your strategy has to differ. I might seem intense to train
six days per week, especially when you mix in some of the stubborn fat loss
methods. It’s a lot of work. It’s hard work. But that’s the life of the underdog.
You can say, “Oh well I know this person and he only trains three days per week
and blah blah blah.” But the life of an underdog is different.
The good thing though? We can change. We aren’t our genetics. We may be
underdogs, but that doesn’t mean we have to lose. We have to break the rules.
We have to do hard work. It’s not about talent or genetics. It’s about making the
decision to have all of this fundamentally change who you are and how you look
at the world from now until the end of days.
The ball is in your court, underdog. What’s your decision?

132
WHAT’s NEXT:
READ
(4) MOVEMENT AND POSTURE
You can also go to (6) for kitchen and lifestyle
voodoo, as that is separate from the training.

133

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SOLDIER 3.

by and © anthony mychal of anthonymychal.com

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Fonts used: homestead, bebas neue, triforce, carroserie, saiyan sans

Edited by: Lander M. Kerbey

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

I leaned down in 2006. I found out how to gain

The good news is that, as we set our body up for

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The follow up to the catalyst

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Our goal is to continue encouraging the desensitization of fat cells to nutrients.

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

W the implementation is tricky because the idea's self-contradictory. Losing

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Parasympathetic nervous system, vagal or parasympathetic tone = rest,

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

What Is Body Fat, and Why Does It Come and Go?

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

*Obesity is linked to a ton of problems, which shouldn’t be surprising. Although obesity

Fat and calories don’t make you fat

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

• Protein = 4 calories per one gram

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Excess Calories = Fat . . . Maybe

Calories In > Calories Out = Weight Gain

Calories Out > Calories In = Weight Loss

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

How to Look Like a Skinned Rabbit

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Nevertheless, our pursuits extend beyond the bounds of “weight.” Wanting an

As John McCallum wrote in The Complete Keys to Progress:

If you want a graphic example of the relative unimportance of sub-surface fat to a

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

As terrible as it is to reference these unfortunate souls, they’d be sitting rather

The umbrella of calories might be useful if your only concern is a number on a

“Losing weight” is different than wanting to shift physiology to support a lifestyle

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

E energy (calories) from food. You’ve also been extracting essential

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

It’s kind of like—appropriately enough—taking vitamin pills: there are a lot of

Different Macronutrients, Different Functions

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

Circumstances That Burn Fat and Carbohydrates

An alactic anaerobic exercise becomes a Lactic anaerobic exercise when it

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Sole Purpose of Body Fat

According to Ori Hofmekler, body fat is an important piece of managing toxins

In order to be as comprehensive as possible with body fat, we have to consider

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Reason(s) You Have Body Fat

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal

There seems to be a huge number of routes by which obesity can occur—

- Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

The Skinny-Fat Solution © Anthony Mychal