Lose fat and get

lean by eating the foods

that nature intended you
to eat

THE WORLD’S
SIMPLEST FAT LOSS
PLAN
 The World’s
Simplest Fat Loss
Plan

P. D. Mangan
Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3
1: The World’s Simplest Fat-Loss Plan ...................................................................................................... 5
Sugar ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Refined carbohydrates ........................................................................................................................ 10
Vegetable (seed) oils ........................................................................................................................... 12
What to eat, and what to avoid .......................................................................................................... 16
Meat .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Fish ...................................................................................................................................................... 18
Eggs ..................................................................................................................................................... 18
Cheese, yogurt, and milk..................................................................................................................... 19
Non-starchy vegetables and low-sugar fruit ....................................................................................... 20
A word about nuts .............................................................................................................................. 21
Drinks .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Hunger................................................................................................................................................. 28
Protein and Muscle ............................................................................................................................. 29
Intermittent Fasting ............................................................................................................................ 35
Simplicity vs Complication .................................................................................................................. 37
Is this diet healthy? ............................................................................................................................. 39
Sample Meals .............................................................................................................................................. 40
Breakfast ............................................................................................................................................. 40
Lunch ................................................................................................................................................... 41
Dinner.................................................................................................................................................. 41
Vegetarian options .................................................................................................................................. 42
Why does this fat-loss plan work? .......................................................................................................... 43
Food plan for life ..................................................................................................................................... 43
3: Summary and Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 45
Appendix: Shopping Guide.......................................................................................................................... 47
 Introduction

Fat loss, health, and fitness programs are needlessly

complicated. In this book, I’ll show you an easily implemented fat-
loss plan that works.
Conventional weight-loss diets usually recommend counting
calories, but there are a few problems with attempting to do this.
One is that calorie counts as determined in the laboratory can
be wildly inaccurate. They may underestimate calories by 20% or
more.
Another, bigger problem is that have a miserable track record,
and fail big time. If fat loss were a simple matter of counting calories,
there would be no obesity problem.
What conventional diets fail to take into account is hunger. All
the calorie counting in the world won’t help you if you’re hungry and
can’t stick to your plan.
You don’t need some fancy new diet plan to help you lose fat.
You don’t need an entire book to show you the proper way to eat
for fat loss.
All of this can be explained quickly and easily.
Your great grandmother would have known this.
The explanations are not the only simple thing about this
program. It’s very easily implemented as well.
You shouldn’t have to think much about your diet. Get your
kitchen in order, stocked with the right foods – which don’t take long
to prepare – and you’re set.
Too much thinking about what you’re going to eat leads to
dithering and ultimately cheating when you grab the first food at
hand to satisfy your hunger.
 And on this diet plan, you won’t be hungry, ever.
Mainstream fat loss, health, and fitness advice is sorely lacking,
and has led to a nation in which 80% of the population is skinny-fat,
overweight, or obese.
Conventional advice on these matters is a gigantic failure.
I’m going to give you some explanations for why this plan
works, because understanding is a route to implementing. If you
understand, you’ll be less likely to cheat or otherwise wander away
from the program.
Are you tired of failing at the various fat loss and fitness plans
you’ve tried?
You’ve come to the right place.
1: The World’s Simplest Fat-Loss Plan

What causes obesity?

Foods like these:

And these:
 These are all ultra-processed foods.
They’re not merely processed, because almost all foods are
minimally processed in some way. From meat to cheese to olives,
most foods have to be cooked, formed, fermented, packaged, or
processed somehow.
Ultra-processed foods are junk foods containing many
ingredients which have seen the inside of a factory, processing plant,
or restaurant, or all three, at some point. Ultra-processed foods
include:
• Bread, tortillas, naan, chapatis
• Sweet or savory snacks
• Chips, potato and tortilla
• Pastry, candy, and desserts
• Cookies
• Energy and protein bars
• Instant noodles and soups
• Pasta
• Pizza
• Soda pop
• Virtually anything from a fast-food restaurant or the
middle aisles of the supermarket.
Don’t eat them.
That’s step one of your fat-loss plan.
Ultra-processed foods contain three key ingredients that cause
obesity:
1. Sugar
2. Refined carbohydrates
3. Vegetable (seed) oils.
Many ultra-processed foods contain virtually nothing but these
ingredients.
Unfortunately, ultra-processed foods comprise some 60% of the
average American’s diet.
 A key factor of ultra-processed foods is that the ingredients are
cheap, and the foods therefore highly profitable. Big Food companies
can slap a brand name on them, do some marketing, and make huge
profits with cheap ingredients.
It’s no wonder we have such an obesity problem.

Sugar

Sugar is increasingly recognized as causing obesity, whereas

formerly people and even nutritionists thought of it as benign, or at
worst, “empty calories”.
(I’m not going to give you a bunch of scientific citations in this
program, but if you’re interested, see my website.)
Sugar is a lot worse than empty calories though. It spikes
insulin leading to accumulation of fat, and enough of it can lead to
diabetes, a fatty liver, and atherosclerosis.
Most ultra-processed foods contain sugar. The obvious ones are
foods like soda pop, candy, pastries, and desserts. Less obvious ones
include salad dressing, protein bars, ketchup, bread, and many
others.
Don’t eat sugar.
The combination of sugar and fat is commonly known as
“dessert”, and this is a deadly combination for your waistline and
your health. Ice cream, candy, milk shakes, cakes and pies: these are
all examples of ultra-fattening foods, combinations of sugar and fat,
and in some cases, refined carbohydrates.
Go easy on “natural” sugar too. While an occasional piece of
fruit won’t kill you, don’t drink fruit juice, which has as much sugar as
a soda. Fruit juice is not healthy and will cause weight gain or prevent
you from losing it, despite what you may have heard.
There’s no difference between “natural” sugar and table sugar.
Table sugar is sucrose, which is 50% glucose (the same sugar
carried in your bloodstream) and 50% fructose, or fruit sugar. When
you consume table sugar, it’s broken down by the body into glucose
and fructose.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been blamed as a
uniquely harmful substance, but in reality, it’s not a lot different from
table sugar. HFCS is 40% glucose and 60% fructose.
So don’t think that by avoiding HFCS that you’re avoiding the ill
effects of sugar. There’s not much difference.
Fruit such as apples and bananas contain sucrose, as well as
glucose and fructose in their simple forms.
A medium apple, for instance, contains 3.3 grams of sucrose
(table sugar), 2.3 grams of glucose, and 7.6 grams of fructose. That’s a
total of 13.2 grams of sugar, or about 3 teaspoons.
Bananas are even sweeter.
By contrast, the entire amount of sugar (glucose) in your
bloodstream is only about 5 teaspoons, and it normally maintains
that sugar within very narrow limits. When blood sugar goes too high
or too low, ill health, sometimes very ill health, results.
When you ingest a lot of sugar, your body must work overtime
to digest that sugar and store it away so that it doesn’t increase your
blood sugar much.
To do that, it raises levels of the hormone insulin, which
promotes fat storage.
Fructose is a special case. Only the liver can metabolize
fructose, and too much can overwhelm it. Ingesting large amounts of
fructose is associated with the metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes) and
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Both are associated in turn
with obesity.
Ingesting too much fructose will ruin your liver and make you
fat.
There are some low-sugar fruits, such as olives, tomatoes, and
avocados, which we’ll discuss more later.
 Modern fruit has been bred to be sweeter and larger than wild
fruit. A modern banana, for example, is a sugar bomb. You don’t need
them and they promote weight gain. Likewise, most other fruits such
as pears, peaches, nectarines, many apples, are all loaded with sugar.
Dried fruits such as raisins or dried apricots should also be
avoided.
However, fruit is the least of it. I only emphasize it because too
many people think that fruit is always healthy and that you can’t eat
too much of it, and that’s a mistake.
Virtually all ultra-processed foods contain sugar.
Foods containing more than a little sugar include:
• Ice cream
• Candy
• Cakes and pies
• Cookies
• Brownies
• Chocolate
• Soda pop
• Fruit juice
• Protein bars
• Granola bars
• Sweetened yogurt.
To be serious about fat loss, don’t eat these foods.
Don’t add table sugar to anything either, such as coffee or tea.
What about artificial sweeteners?
While the alleged bad health effects of artificial sweeteners are
over-hyped, in my humble opinion, they also keep your sweet tooth
alive. My personal preference is for no artificial sweeteners so I
completely disengage from the beguiling taste of sugar.
I recommend you do that too. Many people struggling with fat
loss have a serious sugar addiction. You should go cold turkey and
eliminate it all, including artificial sweeteners. Before very long, you
won’t miss it at all.

First step on your fat-loss plan: eliminate all

sugar.

Refined carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are molecules that consist mainly of long chains

of glucose molecules, the same glucose found in your blood.
When eaten and digested, carbohydrates turn into glucose in
your bloodstream. Your body must then use insulin to store the
glucose.
Aside from the rise in insulin, which promotes weight gain,
carbohydrates are the least satiating food. That means that you need
to eat more to feel full and you get hungry again more quickly when
you eat carbohydrates than when you eat protein or fat.
Many people have experienced “hangry”, the combination of
hunger and low blood sugar that typically arises a few hours after you
eat lots of refined carbohydrates.
Breakfast is a big offender here, since many people eat a bowl
(or three) of cereal for breakfast, and breakfast cereal is made entirely
of refined carbohydrates and sugar.
Result: by mid-morning you’re hungry and tired, because
you’ve had a spike in your blood sugar from eating cereal, insulin has
risen to control it, and now you’ve “crashed”.
A breakfast of real food will not do that, but will keep you
energized and not hungry virtually the whole day.
Getting hungry again also promotes weight gain, obviously. And
one of the main effects of this diet plan is that it eliminates hunger.
 Refined carbohydrates are those that have had some serious
processing done to them. For example, wheat berries are not refined,
flour is.
Refined carbohydrates include:
• Flour
• Corn meal
• White rice
• Oatmeal
Foods high in refined carbohydrates include
• bread
• crackers
• pasta
• tortillas
• pancakes and waffles
• white rice
• breakfast cereal
• pastries and donuts
• cookies
• pizza
• bagels
• pretzels
• corn and tortilla chips
• potato chips
• burritos
• granola bars
• rice cakes.
This is not an exhaustive list..
Some carbohydrates occupy a middle ground and are less
processed and refined. They include whole wheat flour, brown rice,
steel cut oats, quinoa, and the like.
In reality, they also turn into glucose and can cause weight gain.
Don’t eat them.
 Starches are foods that are not typically processed but contain
large amounts of carbohydrate. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and
sweet corn are examples. Beans also contain a large amount of
carbohydrates.
Starches can cause weight gain. Don’t eat them.
People who do not need to lose fat, that is, who are lean, and
who are in good health and who exercise often may not need to
eliminate carbohydrates from their diet. But even those people would
be healthier if they ate fewer carbohydrates than the typical American
eats.
But if you’re reading this program on fat loss, presumably you
are not among them.
If you are not in perfect health, or need to lose fat, or rarely
exercise, don’t eat refined carbohydrates.
Some vegetables contain low amounts of carbohydrates, and
these are fine to eat even for those who want to lose fat. These
vegetables and fruits include:
• Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Salad vegetables: lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts
But you should avoid concentrated sources of carbohydrates.

Second step of your fat-loss plan: eliminate

refined carbohydrates and starches.

Vegetable (seed) oils

The term “vegetable oils” is misleading, conjuring up images of

colorful, healthy vegetables.
 In reality, they’re made from seeds.
A better term for them is industrial seed oils, and they are
anything but healthy. Solid scientific evidence links them to obesity,
diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
You should never ingest seed oils.
Seed oils are the most common oils you see on the supermarket
shelf and are widely used in restaurants. They include:
• Safflower
• Soybean
• Corn
• Peanut
• Sunflower
• Canola.
That’s not an all-inclusive list, as there are scores of different
seed oils. The general rule is if an oil comes from a seed, don’t use it.
Unfortunately, virtually all ultra-processed foods contain seed
oils. That’s one reason they make people fat.
Restaurants use seed oils liberally. So, in addition to
eliminating vegetable (seed) oils from your home cooking, you must
be careful if you eat out much. And seed oils provide another reason
why you must avoid ultra-processed food.
Reheated and reused seed oils in restaurants promote
metastatic cancer in mice, which is one good reason you may not
want to use them.1
Seed oils – whether reheated and reused, or not – promote
atherosclerosis (coronary heart disease), cancer, diabetes, the
metabolic syndrome (pre-diabetes), and all manner of other chronic
diseases.
These oils basically didn’t exist before about 1900, since the
seeds that they’re made from generally contain little oil, and
industrial methods are needed to extract them.
 Then they are dyed, deodorized, and have various other
industrial-type things done to the, including extraction with hexane, a
chemical similar to gasoline.
Seed oils, along with their cousin, hydrogenated vegetable
shortening (Crisco) contributed greatly to the heart disease epidemic
of the 20th century.
Healthy fats that can be used for cooking and dressing are those
traditionally used, and that your great grandmother would recognize.
They include:
• Olive oil
• Lard
• Tallow
• Butter
• Ghee
• Avocado oil
• Coconut oil.
Note the difference in origin between healthy fats and seed oils.
Healthy fats come from fruits or animal sources.
There’s very good evidence that seed oils promote obesity.
The consumption of seed oils, particularly soybean oil, exploded
starting around 1970, when the panic over saturated fat took hold.
The obesity epidemic began shortly afterwards.
See the image below for a chart of how oil consumption has
changed in the U.S. in the 20th century.2 Note that olive and coconut
oils (seen in the chart) are healthy oils. Also note that cottonseed oil
comes from an inedible seed. (Crisco stands for “crystallized
cottonseed oil”.)
 The polyunsaturated fats in seed oils also do not provide the
same feedback mechanism for satiety as saturated and
monounsaturated fats do. Someone who ingests seed oils therefore
remains hungry and keeps eating.
Seed oils form toxic compounds when heated, such as HNE,
which reacts with molecules in your cells, causes inflammation, and
causes atherosclerosis.
Even when unheated, they contain large amounts of linoleic
acid, an omega-6 fat, and their consumption leads to an imbalance of
moga-6 and omega-3 fats. This imbalance lies behind a great deal of
chronic disease in the modern world.3
Natural fats such as those listed are stable at higher
temperatures and do not form toxic compounds. They are not
polyunsaturated, so they do not promote omega-6/3 imbalance.

Third step of your fat-loss plan: eliminate seed

oils.
 What to eat, and what to avoid

As noted, Americans eat a huge amount of ultra-processed

foods, which include most things that come in a box or bag, and from
fast-food restaurants.
If you’re serious about fat loss, you’re going to be preparing and
eating most of your food at home.
It’s possible to get healthy, already prepared food in restaurants
or markets, but finding it is something of an art, since everything is
geared toward ultra-processed food. For example, you can order
hamburger patties a la carte from most major fast food restaurants. If
you don’t mind paying up, you can always go to a steakhouse.
Delicatessens have eggs, meat, and cheese, which you can grab
while on the run.
The foods that you will be preparing and eating include the
following:
• Meat, including beef, pork, chicken, and lamb
• Fish
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Yogurt (plain, full or non-fat, no sugar)
• Non-starchy vegetables
• Low-sugar fruit.
Let’s look at each of these.

Meat

Meat will be a mainstay for most people on this fat loss plan.
(Exceptions are vegetarians, whom we’ll discuss later.)
Meat contains virtually everything essential for your health, and
is great for fat loss, since it’s one of the most satiating foods.
 If you eat meat, you will be less hungry. Some people even
advocate a “carnivore diet”, on which you would eat literally nothing
but meat. Many people have shed large amounts of fat eating
carnivore, and if the carnivore style suits you, by all means give it a
shot.
But “carnivore” doesn’t appear to be necessary for most people,
and you can incorporate many other foods in this fat loss plan.
Any kind of minimally processed meat is acceptable.
Beef and lamb are the healthiest meats.
For beef, you can eat any cut, including ground beef. It does not
need to be lean, and in fact the fattiest cuts of meat are the tastiest
and most satisfying and will not hurt fat loss. Same for lamb. You do
not need to eat grass-fed beef; grain-fed is fine. The benefits of grass-
fed beef for health have been wildly exaggerated.4
Pork and chicken are also healthy, although not quite in the
same league as beef and lamb. (The health qualities concern their
polyunsaturated fatty acid content, especially omega-6 fatty acids, of
which pork and chicken have more. But since we’re eliminating seed
oils, the single biggest source of omega-6, the amount in pork and
chicken is not much of a concern.)
Bacon, ham, sausage, salami, and other processed meats are
fine, but as they have been processed more, should not be a mainstay
of your diet. Look for types that use no sugar in processing.
Meat should be cooked in its own fat. If it’s necessary to use
some oil or fat for cooking, be aware that too much of these could stall
your weight loss. If you’re going through pounds of butter or liters of
olive oil every week for cooking, you’re not likely to lose much fat.
Examples of meat dishes that you can make central to your
meals:
• Steak
• Pork chops
• Lamb chops
• Chicken
 • Hamburgers (no bun)

Fish

Fish is one of the greatest health foods around, due to its

content of omega-3 fatty acids, one which most people do not get
nearly enough of.
Fatty fish is the healthiest for that reason.
Salmon is an excellent choice, although pricey. A can of salmon
– or part of one – could be a good choice for a quick dinner.
Sardines are also excellent, and less pricey. A can of sardines
makes a good on-the-go lunch, full of healthy protein and omega-3
fats
Make sure the kind you buy was not packed in a seed oil. Look
for those packed in olive oil, sardine oil, or water.
Other types of fish are fine also, such as mackerel. Tuna is fine
to eat but contains less omega-3.
Farm-raised fish is not as healthy as wild-caught, as it has less
omega-3. It’s perfectly acceptable for your fat loss program though.
Avoid breaded and/or fried fish.

Eggs

Eggs are a health food, despite what mainstream authorities

have told us. They reduce inflammation and oxidative stress in
overweight people.
Especially noteworthy for fat loss, eggs are super-satiating. A
few eggs will fill you up for hours. Hard-boiled eggs seem to be
particularly satiating, and they can be prepared ahead of time and
stored in the fridge, so they make a great food to grab when you’re in
a hurry. (Pro-tip: if you eat hard-boiled eggs at home after pulling
them out of the fridge, put them in the microwave for a just a few
seconds to take the chill off and bring them to room temperature.)
Both the yolks and the whites are healthy. Eat whole, fresh eggs.
You can cook eggs in any way you wish: hard-boiled, scrambled,
fried, poached. If scrambled or fried, be sure to avoid seed oils in
cooking. Use butter, ghee, or olive, avocado, or coconut oil.
Free-range eggs are somewhat healthier than regular eggs, but
they’re pricey, so if you can’t find them or can’t afford them, don’t
worry about it, and eat regular supermarket eggs.

Cheese, yogurt, and milk

Cheese is a healthy food, and can be part of a fat-loss diet.

Any kind of hard cheese is acceptable. Be aware that cheese is
high in calories, so don’t overdo it. (That leads to the much-disputed
question whether calories are important. Short answer: yes. Longer
answer: it depends. We’ll discuss this later.)
Soft cheeses may not be good for fat loss, depending on which
ones. Cream cheese, for instance, is a calorie bomb; it’s made by
adding cream to cheese, so it has a lower ratio of protein to fat.
Ricotta cheese has less fat and is acceptable; ricotta cheese is also a
great option to add protein to build muscle if you lift weights.
Yogurt is great, but be aware of what I’m talking about here,
which is full-fat, plain yogurt. In other words, made from whole milk,
with no added sugar.
Low- or non-fat yogurts can be good too, possible even better,
assuming they have no added sugar. They have a high ratio of protein
to energy, which is what bodybuilders seek for that lean and muscular
body composition. (Note: this is different from the original version of
this plan. I’ve reformulated my position on lower fat yogurt as new
information has come to my attention.)
Pig farmers use skim milk and grains to fatten pigs, so
remember that and don’t drink low-fat or skim milk if you want to
lose fat.
Milk: avoid for fat loss, even if whole milk.
Does that contradict my advice above about cheese and yogurt?
No. The difference is that cheese and yogurt (and kefir, which is
similar to yogurt) are fermented, so most of the carbohydrates,
mainly the sugar lactose, are missing from cheese and yogurt, and
other fermented dairy products.
Plain, unfermented milk is the sole animal food that I
recommend people avoid for fat loss.

Non-starchy vegetables and low-sugar

fruit

Eat as much as you want of:

• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• salad greens
• and similar foods.
Don’t drown them in butter or sauces or oils, though. But small
amounts are acceptable.
Don’t eat starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet
potatoes, yams, or cooked carrots.
Berries such as blackberries and blueberries are low in sugar.
But don’t pig out on them.
 Avocadoes and olives are also low-sugar fruits, but if you want
to drop a serious amount of fat, avoid them. While they have healthy
fats, they are high in calories and low in satiating protein.
Regular, store-bought fruit, such as apples, pears, bananas, and
peaches, are big bags of sugar. Don’t eat them, whether fresh, canned,
or as fruit juice. You will not lose weight if you do.

A word about nuts

Nuts are generally healthy foods, and studies have shown better
health in people who eat them.
However, they are terrible for fat loss. They’re high in calories,
contain large amounts of polyunsaturated fats, and they’re “ditto
foods”.
Ditto foods are those foods that you can’t stop eating.
Have you ever tried eating just one smoked almond?
Impossible.
In a state of nature, nuts come protected by shells that must be
cracked. In a state of non-nature, like the one we live in, factory
machines shell the nuts so you don’t have to, leaving nothing but
glorious calories.
So, in a way, nuts as we get them, in bags or cans, are processed,
since much of the work of getting them and eating them has been
eliminated.
Nuts are out on this fat-loss program. Nut butters, even more
so. In fact, when someone asks me how to gain weight, I tell them to
add almond butter to a whey shake.
Nuts are also high in omega-6 fatty acids, which can lead to
inflammation. Despite the fact that nuts are associated with better
health, I consider them a suboptimal food.
 Peanuts, by the way, are not nuts. They are legumes. Avoid
peanuts too.

Drinks

This section is important. Many if not most people who struggle

with fat loss do so because of the liquid calories that they consume.
Healthy drinks compatible with fat loss are few. Please pay close
attention.
Avoid drinking anything with calories. (Exceptions in a
moment.)
Drinking calories does not affect satiety like eating does. In
other words, if you drink something with calories in it, you’ll be just
as hungry as if you hadn’t drunk anything.
In most cases, the calories present in anything liquid are
composed of sugar, which is terrible for fat loss. So not only do you
get no satiety, you get a load of sugar with it.
This goes for fruit juice as well. There’s a persistent belief that
fruit juice is healthy. It is not. Fruit juice typically has as much sugar
as soda pop. Don’t drink it.
So, what can you drink?
Water

Water is number one. If you’re thirsty, drink it. If you’re not

thirsty, don’t. The idea that you need x number of 8-ounce glasses of
water a day to be healthy is a fallacy.5 That much water may even
harm you. For instance, too much water may increase the risk of
urinary tract infections and hyponatremia (too little sodium in the
blood, caused by water dilution).
You need not carry a water bottle with you wherever you go, as
is the habit with so many people these days.
 If you need a cold summer drink, carbonated waters like San
Pellegrino are great, and the flavored (without sugar) waters by La
Croix are as well.
 Coffee and tea

Health drink

Black coffee and tea contain no calories. Drink as much of them

as you like, with due regard for excessive caffeine consumption. No
sugar though. You may add a small amount of cream or half-and-half,
but don’t get carried away with this.
If you go to Starbucks or other coffee shops, avoid flavored
coffee drinks. They’re nothing but coffee-flavored milkshakes which
cause massive weight gain. Get black coffee.
Iced tea: unsweetened only. The Southern U.S. has high rates of
obesity and that region’s consumption of lots of sweet tea likely has a
lot to do with it.
Coffee and tea have health benefits beyond the fact that they
contain no calories. People who drink them have lower rates of
diabetes and heart disease, in some cases, much lower. Caffeine also
increases the production of ketones, which benefit health and may
improve fat loss. (See the FAQ for more on this.)
Regular black tea, or green tea, are both fine. The health
benefits of both kinds of tea appear to be the same, although green tea
has more of a health reputation, perhaps because it’s exotic and has
been studied more for its health effects.
 Matcha green tea has high amounts of health-giving
compounds, more than regular green tea.
Pro-tip: whole leaf tea made in a teapot tastes vastly better than
almost anything in a tea bag. My personal choices are PG Tips, Tetley,
and Ahmad teas.

Alcohol

A daily glass or two is compatible with fat loss.

Many people like a drink now and then, and that can be
compatible with fat loss given a few caveats.
1) No excessive drinking. What’s excessive? In terms of fat loss,
more than a couple of drinks.
2) No sweet drinks. You can’t drink gin and tonics or White
Russians and expect to lose weight. You’ll gain weight
instead.
3) No beer. Beer contains maltose, a sugar.
4) Dry wine and/or plain highballs only.
 Dry wine, whether white or red, is very low in carbohydrates, up
to 4 grams per glass. (A common misconception has it that alcohol =
carbohydrates, and that is false. Alcohol is not a carbohydrate,
although many alcoholic drinks contain carbohydrates, usually
sugar.)
Wine, especially red wine, is a healthy beverage if drunk in
moderation.
Most red wines of decent quality, such as California, French,
Argentinian, or Chilean wines, are dry, and dry wines are the ones
you want. You have to go out of your way to find a sweet red wine, a
good example of which is Manischewitz.
Dessert wines, as their name implies, are high in sugar and
should not be drunk. Port is an example.
Highballs are plain liquor on ice, with perhaps a splash of water
or club soda. There are no sugars, carbs, or calories in water or club
soda either. So, a scotch on the rocks, one of my favorite tipples, is
fine if you don’t overdo it. Another drink gaining in popularity is a gin
with La Croix Key Lime Sparkling Water instead of tonic water. This
drink comes in at 97 calories and zero carbohydrates, all from the gin
only.
Below are some examples of alcoholic drinks that contain zero
carbohydrate.
 Please enjoy responsibly.

Fat-loss stalls

Some people eating a diet like the one I’ve described sometimes
lose some, and sometime a lot, of weight at first, then stall and reach
a plateau.
In most cases, that’s because they’re trying to have their cake
and eat it too, so to speak.
If you eat a low-carbohydrate, whole foods diet like I
recommend, don’t try to substitute your favorite foods.
 That means no low-carb cheesecake or brownies, for instance,
made with almond flour and artificial sweeteners, for example. These
types of foods, no matter how low-carb, will keep or make you fat.
Many low-carb or keto diet sites and forums are loaded with
special recipes designed to imitate favorite high-carbohydrate foods.
Cakes and pies, for example. Cookies.
I highly advise against going that route if you’re trying to lose
fat. They keep the sweet tooth alive, and are loaded with calories.
Another reason is they may cover their foods in mayonnaise or
cook everything in gallons of fat. Be sensible.
Or they may eat tons of nuts. Low carb, right? Yes, but very high
calorie and relatively low in high-quality protein, and you won’t lose
fat eating them.
If you do have a fat loss stall, and are not eating any of these
things, try eating just meat and salads. That’s a nearly guaranteed,
and tasty, way to lose fat.

Hunger

We have such an ingrained prejudice against eating high-fat

foods like meat that we may not eat enough of them. Years of low-fat
propaganda are difficult to overcome.
If you’re eating foods that are high in protein and low in
carbohydrate, meat for example, don’t be afraid to eat your fill. It will
fill you up and ensure that hunger doesn’t return for a good while.
The main problem with regular foods, which are high in
carbohydrate, is that you get hungry again more quickly than with low
carbohydrate.
That’s why your garden-variety low-calorie diet fails most
people.
“Eat less, move more” is a fraud.
 In studies of low-carbohydrate diets, one thing comes up over
and over among those who cut their carbohydrate intake:
“spontaneous reduction of calories”. That means that people who cut
carbs and eat the way I’ve described are less hungry, so they don’t eat
as much.
“Calories in, calories out”, or CICO is the doctrine that weight
(fat) loss is always due to burning fewer calories than you take in. In a
strict sense, it’s correct.
But it tells us very little useful information. It’s like saying that
the only reason a ship sinks is because it can’t float. This is true, but
helps you not at all when you’re out on the water in a ship. Why it
can’t float is the real question.
If you ingest fewer calories on a standard diet, your metabolism
will slow until you burn as many calories as you take in. Makes
perfect sense, as your body realizes it’s not getting enough food and
compensates by burning fewer calories. That’s why people sometimes
lose weight at first but then their loss stalls and they hit a plateau.
It’s also the reason that virtually every person on the TV show
The Biggest Loser gains their fat back.
Likewise, exercise means you burn more calories. But exercise
also makes you hungry, and it’s trivially easy to ingest more calories
than you burned in an exercise session. You need to run 5 miles to
burn as many calories as you might consume in a typical commercial
bran muffin.
What a diet must do is control hunger, and the diet plan you’re
reading about here does that. You will experience “spontaneous
calorie reduction”.

Protein and Muscle

Protein is critical in fat loss for a couple of reasons.

 Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, so eating more
protein keeps hunger at bay longer.
And protein helps maintain muscle, which is important when
losing weight.
The three macronutrients, fat, carbohydrates, and protein,
differ in the degree to which they satisfy hunger. Protein satiates the
most, then fat, and carbohydrate the least. So, emphasize protein.
Rule of thumb: don’t eat any food that doesn’t contain a substantial
amount of protein. Avocados don’t, for instance, and neither do olives
or nuts, so if you’re going for maximum fat loss, don’t eat them.
Fats and oils like butter and olive oil are acceptable on this diet
program, but be reasonable. Use small amounts for flavoring or
cooking only. Do not put two tablespoons of butter in your coffee
(“Bulletproof Coffee”), and do not deep fry any of your food.
Another rule of thumb is that when someone loses weight, from
one quarter to one half of the weight lost is muscle.
Do not lose muscle at all costs.
Muscle loss results in worse health and lower metabolism. If
done repeatedly, as in “yo-yo” dieting, you can turn your body into a
wreck.
High amounts of dietary protein can protect against muscle
loss. Muscle is largely made of protein, so it makes perfect sense.
How much protein should you eat?
Since you’re trying to lose fat, generally you need to eat more
protein than a person who is not trying to lose fat. Target 2.0 grams of
protein per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. Thus an 80 kg (176
lb.) man should eat 160 grams of protein daily.
That’s a fair amount of protein, so you need to emphasize high-
protein foods to meet your target.
High-protein foods include meat and fish. Types of these foods
that are especially high in protein include chicken breast and tuna. I
don’t necessarily recommend ultra-high sources of protein like
chicken breast and tuna for regular eating, as they’re low in fat and
tend to leave people less satisfied. But they’re not forbidden by any
means so eat them when you want.
Whey protein is, as its name suggest, high in protein. In fact,
almost all of its calories are protein. Whey can make a great meal
substitute for fat loss, or it can be added to your diet to get extra
protein with little increase in calories.
Protein and satiety

As we’ve noted, protein is the most satiating nutrient, that is,

the more protein you eat, the more satisfied and less hungry you are.
Dilution of protein may be one of the major causes of the
obesity epidemic.6
When health authorities recommended eating low-fat foods,
that led to avoidance of meat and other animal foods that are high in
protein.
As a consequence, people had to eat more calories to get the
same amount of protein, which they did, and then obesity exploded.
By eating foods that are higher in protein and lower in
carbohydrates – and to an extent, fat – you are able to satisfy your
hunger with less calories. That’s one of the most important reasons
that this diet plan works: by satisfying your natural need for protein
with fewer calories.
Ultra-processed foods are generally low in protein, the reason
being that protein is relatively expensive and carbohydrates are very
cheap, and food manufacturing companies need to make profits.
Big Food is the collection of 11 large companies (e.g. Nestle,
Coca-Cola) that dominate supermarkets worldwide, and they largely
produce carbohydrate-based ultra-processed food. Sugar and seed
oils are also cheap, and that’s one reason they use these ingredients in
their food as well.
In contrast, meat, egg, and dairy producing companies are
generally small and local. (With some exceptions, such as a few
companies that make sugar-sweetened yogurt.) That’s because these
products are relatively costly and have lower profit margins.
So, there’s an inherent bias in what we’re being told to eat.
Large companies that make profitable ultra-processed food products
advertise, and convince people that these foods are what a normal
person eats.
Back to satiety.
By avoiding high-carb foods, you also avoid low-protein foods,
and you are able to satisfy your hunger better.
By avoiding ultra-processed foods and eating whole, minimally
processed foods, you also get more vitamins and minerals and other
micronutrients, and that also satisfies your hunger more.
Calorie-counting has a very poor track record.
Simply trying to eat less of the same foods that made people fat
is difficult, because it makes people hungrier. Then, at the first
opportunity, they gorge on tasty foods that they can’t resist because
they’re hungry.
Most people eat enough protein for their needs, but they eat
low-protein foods, so they consume more calories to get their protein,
and then become overweight.
The combination of high carbohydrates, high fat, and low
protein is used to make lab animals obese – the “cafeteria diet”.
High carb + high fat foods are irresistible to most humans and
animals, and lead to overeating.
In human overfeeding experiments, people have difficulty
eating too much if their food is high in protein, but if it’s high in fat
and carbs, it’s no problem.
When experimental diets are manipulated to increase protein
level, people eat less.7
A small can of tuna, packed in water, has 90 calories and 20
grams of protein, so virtually all of the calories are protein. By eating
foods such as these, you can satisfy your protein needs with fewer
calories.
Other foods that are very high in protein include:
• Whey protein
• Eggs
• Fish
• Chicken breast
• Shrimp
• Non-fat yogurt
Foods that occupy a middle ground in protein are foods such as:
• Steak
• Processed meats like salami
• Cheese
• Beans.
Finally, in the category of lowest protein for a given energy
intake are foods like:
• Bread
• Potatoes
• Sugar
• Fats and oils, mayonnaise
• Sugar.
Many ketogenic diets advocate consuming extra fat, and that
may work well for people already lean. But for the reasons explained
above about protein, I advise avoiding extra fat to the extent possible.
This is also why I exclude some otherwise healthy foods, such as
avocados and olives. They’re low in protein so in a way they’re a form
of empty calories. Someone who needs the energy will be fine eating
lots of avocadoes and olives, or nuts, or butter and olive oil, but for
someone who wants to lose fat, these foods should be minimized.
 Resistance training

Hopefully, you are already doing resistance training, aka weight

lifting or strength training, as part of your health and fitness program.
If you are not already, I strongly urge you to do resistance training as
part of your fat loss program.
The reason for this is not because exercise will make you lose
weight, but to preserve your muscle. Weight training is the number
one best thing you can do to prevent muscle loss when losing fat. (Or,
in another context, to build muscle when you’re not dieting.)
Weight training is even better than eating more protein for
muscle preservation.
Since this is a fat-loss guide, how to train with weights or
resistance training machines is somewhat beyond the scope of this
guide. But I’ll give you a few pointers for both beginners and
intermediates.
Do compound exercises, which are exercises in which the
weight or resistance requires more than one set of joints to move.
Compound exercises are opposed to isolation exercise, which only
involve one set of joints.
Do the following compound exercises:
• Squats or leg press
• Rows, machine or barbell
• Lat pull-downs or pull-ups/chin-ups
• Bench or machine chest press
• Overhead press
The following are optional but I urge people beyond beginner
stage to do them:
• Deadlifts
• Dips
All of these exercises, with the exception of deadlifts, can be
done using free weights (barbells or dumbbells) or machines.
 How often should you do them? The answer is highly variable.
But if you are only aiming for prevention of muscle loss while losing
weight, once to twice a week is enough.
Do each exercise at one set to volitional failure, meaning you
can no longer complete the final repetition.
This minimalist program should take you only about 20
minutes or so to complete, so don’t use lack of time as an excuse.
If you absolutely positively can’t get to a gym, an exercise
program using body weight can work. Exercises consist of push-ups,
pull-ups or chin-ups, body weight squats. Add some dumbbells for
overhead press, and do dips on the kitchen counter. They can be done
daily if desired.
Please note that this is not my final word on a good strength
training program, but only comprises the minimum that someone
should do to prevent muscle loss while losing body weight.

Intermittent Fasting

One of the causes of the obesity epidemic is 24/7 availability of

(crap) food.
If only healthy food were available all the time, there might not
be a problem.
And our recent ancestors, and even myself in my youth, had lots
of crap food available, but not 24/7.
Combine the two – crap food that’s available round the clock –
and you’ve got a recipe for obesity.
Added to that, health authorities have urged us to eat many
small meals, a practice known as “grazing”, in order to keep our
metabolism high, allegedly.
 Grazing is a recipe for disaster and completely defies common
sense. You should not eat if you are not hungry.
Intermittent fasting is highly recommended, though not
required, for this fat-loss program.
Intermittent fasting means going without food for some longer-
than-normal period of time.
The number of variations of intermittent fasting routines is
nearly as high as the number of people who practice it, so you can
easily personalize your own routine to fit your schedule.
The most basic and commonly practiced fasting routine is the
16-hour fast, which looks like this:
1. Finish the evening meal at 7:00 P.M.
2. Eat nothing afterwards that evening, then sleep as usual.
3. In the morning, you may have black coffee, tea, or water, but
nothing with calories, i.e. no breakfast.
4. At around 11:00 A.M., you may eat.
5. You’ve just completed a 16-hour fast.
If you eat finish your evening meal at 6:00 P.M., and don’t eat
until noon the following day, your fast is 18 hours long.
Sleep time counts toward your fasting hours.
Intermittent fasting of this type may be done daily, or you may
want to do it just a few times a week. Many people make it a practice
to fast like this during the week, and then relax a bit on the weekend.
You may also extend the fast longer if you wish. Many people
have found success with “OMAD”, or one meal a day. If your one meal
takes you one hour to eat, you are effectively fasting for 23 hours a
day.
Another way to look at fasting is through the idea of an “eating
window”, which merely refers to the time during which you’re allowed
to eat. For instance, an 8-hour eating window means that you’re
fasting the other 16 hours. During the eating window, you may eat as
much and as often as you like, providing you eat the foods that are
allowed in this program. The eating window is not a license to eat
anything you want.
Some people do multi-day fasts or 36-hour fasts, but if you’re
new to fasting, try getting a handle on 16-hour fasts before you
advance to a longer one. These longer fasts aren’t necessary, however.
Personally, I’ve never fasted longer than 23 hours, and most of the
time I fast for 18 hours.
Intermittent fasting is generally quite safe, but if you feel unwell
at any time, you should stop the fast. Importantly, if you have any
health condition or take any medications, check with your doctor to
see if he or she will allow you to fast. Medication adjustment may be
necessary.
Integrating your exercise program with intermittent fasting can
be challenging. I have two rules for this:
1. If you do low-intensity exercise, such as walking, there’s no
need to change anything. You can fast while doing the
exercise, and, if tolerable, you can continue fasting
afterwards.
2. If you do high-intensity exercise such as weight-training, or
vigorous team sports like soccer, you may do so while fasting
but you should eat afterwards. You place a stress on your
body in those kinds of exercises, and adding the stress of
fasting to it may be too much. Especially in the case of weight
training, your muscles are primed for growth at the end of a
session, and you should feed them so they do grow.
Continuing to fast after intense weight training will actually
contribute to muscle breakdown.

Intermittent fasting will help you greatly in your fat loss

program.

Simplicity vs Complication
 You can make this diet simple, or you can make it complicated.
Many people have the mistaken idea that you need to eat a
variety of foods from meal to meal or day to day in order to have a
healthy, “balanced” diet.
That is not the case, depending of course on which foods we’re
talking about.
If you ate nothing but avocados and broccoli all the time, you
would likely become ill before long, because these foods don’t have
enough required nutrients, especially of protein.
If you ate nothing but meat and eggs, with occasional other
foods thrown in from time to time, you’ll do just fine. They have the
protein and healthy fats that you need, as well as micronutrients in
the form of vitamins and minerals.
Carbohydrates are not a required nutrient. The body’s
requirement for carbohydrates is zero.
The so-called “zero carb” diet, which is an all-meat diet, is a
variation of the diet program I’m discussing.
Nothing but meat, and maybe some coffee or red wine as
appropriate.
The reality is this is a healthy diet, as meat contains an
abundance of all the nutrients you need. It contains next to no
carbohydrates, as well as healthy fat.
The zero-carb diet also has the virtue of simplicity: you always
know what you’re going to be eating – meat.
The bodybuilder Vince Gironda was famous for advocating a
slightly different version: the steak-and-eggs diet.
Diet programs become needlessly complicated when they
assume that you need to eat a huge variety of foods all the time.
And, one of the problems many people have when sticking to a
fat-loss program is planning and shopping. Keeping things simple
makes adherence easier.
 What if you like a variety of foods, and often? That’s fine, so
long as you stick to the foods I’ve outlined earlier. For instance, if
you’re used to eating a salad with dinner every evening, and feel like
your meal is incomplete without it, by all means do so.

Is this diet healthy?

Many people might be concerned about whether eating in the

way I advocate for fat loss is healthy. They might wonder about
saturated fat and cholesterol and fiber.
Saturated fat has been unjustly vilified over the past several
decades. Recent scientific research does not support the theory that is
causes heart disease. In 2010, a review of studies concluded that
“there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated
fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD [ coronary heart
disease] or CVD [cardiovascular disease].” (“Meta-analysis of
prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat
with cardiovascular disease”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).
So, rest easy on that score.
A ketogenic diet, i.e. one with very low carbohydrate content,
similar to what I advocate here, extends lifespan in lab animals, and
improves blood lipid markers in humans. (“Carbohydrate Restriction
has a More Favorable Impact on the Metabolic Syndrome than a Low
Fat Diet”, Lipids, April 2009. “A Ketogenic Diet Extends Longevity
and Healthspan in Adult Mice”, Cell Metabolism, September 2017.)
Fiber is very overrated, if it’s even important at all. No
controlled trial has found lower health risks with fiber. Most of the
basis for authorities telling us we need fiber comes from
epidemiological studies, and the evidence is weak.
The real health problem with the typical American diet –
commonly known as the SAD, Standard American Diet – is the high
concentrations of refined carbohydrates, sugar, and industrial seed
oils (“vegetable oils”) that it contains. Those are the true causes of
obesity and disease, not meat or other animal foods. So-called “plant-
based” diets are healthier than regular diets because they avoid the
processed food trifecta of carbs, seed oils, and sugar, not because they
avoid animal foods.
The fact is, the type of diet advocated here is a supremely
healthy way to eat, whether for fat loss or all the time.

Sample Meals

If you’re not used to this way of eating, here are some ideas for
meals.

Breakfast

1. Coffee or tea. One or the other of these is a perfect way to

start off a fasting day. Ideally, they should be black, but a
small amount of cream (emphasis on small) won’t hurt you.
No sugar ever.
2. Scrambled eggs, with or without bacon or sausage. Great for
when you need to work all morning. I often have 4 scrambled
eggs for breakfast. Eggs can of course be cooked in many
other ways.
3. Meat. Pull out last night’s steak or hamburger patty, heat it
in the microwave, and there you go.
4. Hard-boiled eggs. If you’re in a hurry, or you need to eat in
your car or on the bus or train as unfortunately many of us
do, grab some of these out of your fridge and bring them
along.
5. Whey protein. Use a scoop of whey protein in water for 25
grams of protein and about 100 calories. Keep in mind that
whey powder is a form of processed food, so I don’t
recommend you eat this daily for breakfast, but it will do in a
pinch.
 Lunch

1. Leftovers. My favorite thing to eat for lunch is some of the

dinner from the previous night.
2. Hamburger patties. If you’re on the job, you can get
hamburger patties a la carte from most if not all of the major
fast food joints, such as McDonalds. If you have a cafeteria at
your workplace, you might be able to get them there.
3. Deli snacks. Go to your local deli – again, this works well if
you’re at work – and pick up some salami, roast beef, cheese,
olives, a pickle.
4. Yogurt. Plain, full-fat yogurt, of course.
5. Skip lunch. If you’ve had a decent breakfast, or even if you
haven’t, you could skip lunch. Definitely better than falling
for the nearest sandwich or pastry.

Dinner

Or supper, or whatever the evening meal is called in your neck

of the woods.
1. Meat and vegetables. For fat loss, this can be your go-to
meal. Any type of meat is acceptable. Vegetables should be
low-carbohydrate, such as broccoli, onions, and/or salad.
(No potatoes or carrots, as they’re high in carbs.)
2. Deli roast chicken. This is a good one for grabbing on the
way home from work when you’re rushed. Most
supermarkets now have them too.
3. Antipasto salad. A big salad with plenty of cheese and/or
meat and eggs. Salads in general are great but please be sure
to include adequate protein.
4. Omelet or other eggs. Eggs work just as well for dinner as for
breakfast. Be sure to make plenty of them; some people get
confused by outdated advice to refrain from eggs and then
don’t eat enough. Then they’re hungry two hours later.
 People often get hung up on having a lot of variety. Don’t be
afraid to just eat meat for dinner, for example; it’s perfectly healthy
and you won’t miss out on anything if you eat nothing else.

Vegetarian options

Many people have asked me about vegetarian options for this

fat-loss plan.
Eating vegetarian on this plan is certainly possible, though
somewhat more difficult. Assuming someone is a lacto-ovo-
vegetarian, that is, they eat eggs and dairy but no meat, eggs, cheeses,
and yogurt can be substituted for many of meals.
For example, a large salad made with eggs and cheese (in
addition to the usual salad ingredients) can work well as a main meal.
Omelets, stuffed bell peppers, and other dishes can be made;
however, as mentioned above with regard to food in general, beware
of vegetarian low-carbohydrate foods that try to mimic other foods
using almond flour or flaxseed meal or similar ingredients, along with
artificial sweeteners. These kinds of dishes are fine for those with no
need to lose fat, but are unlikely to help you if you do need to lose it.
There are a number of websites that have vegetarian low-
carbohydrate recipes and meal plans, such as
https://www.ruled.me/25-vegetarian-keto-recipes/
https://www.healthfulpursuit.com/roundup/keto-vegan-
vegetarian-recipes/
https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/101-best-keto-vegetarian-
recipes-low-carb/

Many people from India have asked me about low-carb

vegetarian options, and there’s an excellent website for them,
featuring many recipes and meal plans:
https://www.dlife.in
 Why does this fat-loss plan work?

It’s helpful to know something about how this plan works, since
if you understand it, you’ll be more likely to stick with it, or indeed to
try it in the first place.
I already mentioned the idea of spontaneous calorie reduction:
the food that you eat in this plan leaves you more satisfied and less
hungry, and therefore you eat fewer calories. This appears to be the
most reasonable explanation of how this diet plan works. The higher
protein content of the foods eaten make you less hungry.
Alternatively, the lower carbohydrate content does the same thing.
Another explanation for how this plan works, not mutually
exclusive to the first, is a reduction in so-called hyperpalatable foods.
In this scenario, certain foods cause brain reward circuits to light up,
that is, they are highly rewarding foods. Very pleasurable. And this
fact makes you eat more of them, thus increasing calorie intake,
overriding hunger signals, and leading to weight gain.
No doubt most of us have experienced being full from a steak
dinner or something similar, declaring that we have no room for
anything else. Yet when cake or pie or ice cream is being served for
dessert, suddenly we find room for it. Steak and similar foods do not
have that quality of being hyperpalatable, while sweets do. The deadly
combination for hyperpalatability is sugar plus fat; indeed, almost
any combination of some type of sugar with some type of fat, plus
some other flavors, makes a food hyperpalatable and obesogenic.
This could be the reason that some people drop off of this diet
plan: because they are used to the pleasurable stimulation of highly
rewarding foods. In fact, some people may even be addicted to it and
have great trouble weaning themselves off of it. These people are
faced with the choice of dropping those foods from their diet or
remaining overweight or obese.
Food plan for life
 This fat-loss plan should not be thought of as a diet that you do
for a while and then go back to eating as you did before.
Think of it as a lifestyle, a way of eating that you adopt
permanently. Even if ultra-processed foods don’t cause any one
individual to gain weight, they’re associated with poor health, such as
cancer.
To be sure, when you have lost the amount of fat you need to
lose, you can be less strict, for example by incorporating olives, nuts,
and avocados into your diet. Even having the occasional cheat meal or
snack. But be wary of cheats, as they can become a habit, and then
you find yourself back on the old road to weight gain. I rarely cheat on
any of this myself, other than on Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Fortunately, this way of eating is sustainable, featuring plenty of
tasty foods, though not hyperpalatable ones.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in eating this way is socializing
with others. Few people avoid ultra-processed foods, and outside the
home, they’re everywhere. You need to make a commitment to eating
this way for permanent fat loss.
 3: Summary and Conclusion

The ideal fat-loss diet eliminates refined carbohydrates, sugar,

and seed oils. Be aware that these ingredients are found in virtually
all ultra-processed and fast foods.
Eating whole, minimally processed food is the key to fat loss.
Some minimally processed foods should still be avoided, namely
those that are high in starch, such as potatoes.
A common objection to the idea of radically decreasing
carbohydrates and sugar is that some people eat them and are not
overweight.
My reply is that if you are lean, in good health, and exercise
regularly with some intensity, then some carbohydrates in your diet
won’t harm you, at least not much.
But presumably you are here for the fat loss, which means one
or more of those conditions don’t apply to you.
Exercise is vastly overrated for fat loss, although resistance
training is highly recommended for gaining and preserving muscle.
Getting control of your diet is the key to fat loss.
Wild animals do not become overweight, because they eat the
foods that nature designed for them. (They do become overweight
when they get hold of human ultra-processed food.)
So, to treat and prevent overweight and obesity, you should eat
the foods nature designed for you. The majority of what people eat is
not natural, by that definition. Nature designed us to eat meat and
other animal foods, with some vegetables and fruit thrown in.
Hunter-gatherers, who are living representatives of our ancient way
of life, get the majority of their calories from meat whenever possible,
and they are lean and healthy, and do not expend more energy than
the typical Westerner.
Here’s the fat-loss plan summary:
 1. Avoid any foods containing refined carbohydrates, sugar,
or seed oils. That means virtually all ultra-processed
foods.
2. Eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, yogurt, non-starchy
vegetables, and low-sugar fruit.
3. Avoid low-protein, high-fat foods, such as nuts and
avocados, and go easy on added fats like butter and olive
oil.
4. Do not drink calories. Drink water, coffee, tea, and if
desired and in moderation, low-carbohydrate alcohol.
5. Eat to satiety, so you won’t be tempted by forbidden
foods.
6. Target protein.
7. Do resistance training if possible.
8. Fast intermittently to speed fat loss.
9. Keep it simple. The only variety you need is what satisfies
you.

How do I know this program works? Two reasons.

1. This is how I eat pretty much all the time, and have for
years. My BMI is 23 (normal is 18.5 to 24.9). I also lift
weights.
2. Numerous studies show that a low-carbohydrate diet is
superior to low-fat, reduced-calorie diets, even when
people eating that low-carb diet were unrestricted in
calories. Of 62 randomized controlled trials of low-carb vs
low-fat diets, 32 showed better weight loss with low-
carbohydrate, and zero showed better weight loss with
low-fat. (See here for more information.) Low-carb diets
also show greater improvement in disease risk factors,
such as blood lipids like HDL cholesterol (up) and
triglycerides (down).
Appendix: Shopping Guide

Meat
• Steaks
• Ground beef
• Pork roast
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Lamb
• Salami
• Ham
• Chicken
• Turkey
Fish
• Tuna
• Sardines
• Mackerel
• Salmon
• Oysters
• Kippers (herring)
Eggs
Dairy
• Cheese: cheddar, Monterey jack, mozzarella
• Yogurt: no sugar
• Butter
• Cream
• Kefir
Vegetables and fruit
• Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radish
 • Onions
• Salad greens
• Sprouts
• Mushrooms
• Berries: raspberries, blackberries, strawberries
Beverages
• Coffee
• Tea
• Water
• Red or white wine (dry)
Condiments
• Olive oil
• Vinegar
• Salsa, hot sauce
• Horseradish
• Salt

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(2011): 950-962.
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4 http://roguehealthandfitness.com/is-grass-fed-beef-worth-the-money/
5 Valtin, Heinz, and (With the Technical Assistance of Sheila A. Gorman). "“Drink at least

eight glasses of water a day.” Really? Is there scientific evidence for “8× 8”?." American Journal
of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology 283.5 (2002): R993-R1004.
6 Simpson, S. J., and D. Raubenheimer. "Obesity: the protein leverage

hypothesis." obesity reviews 6.2 (2005): 133-142.

7 Gosby, Alison K., et al. "Testing protein leverage in lean humans: a randomised

controlled experimental study." PLoS One 6.10 (2011): e25929.