The candy of meats. There are so many adjectives to describe how delicious the stuff is, I could probably dedicate a whole blog post to the subject. However, I just included that picture because I feel like people consider it to be a food that should be eaten only on special occasions if at all. The stigma of bacon is essentially that it’s a heart attack on a plate. Now while all bacon isn’t created equal, and you should buy the best quality you can find preferably without nitrates, I’ll have you know that I personally eat pounds of the stuff every week.
“What’s that, Mr. Personal Trainer?” You read right, I eat bacon. I eat whole eggs. I eat chicken wings with ranch dressing. What don’t I eat? And I don’t just mean I don’t eat bread. I’m telling you on an average day, I eat 15-20 grams of carbs or less. Why? Well, a few reasons. The first reason is the human body doesn’t actually need them to survive no matter what you’ve been told. The next reason is when you keep your carb count that low, your body becomes a fat-burning machine, and in conjunction with proper intake of protein, you lose very little muscle mass.
Fat loss. Not weight loss. The two are very different things. On most traditional diets, you lose weight. “Weight” means fat and muscle. You count your calories, do all the cardio you’ve read was great for you, half-heartedly lift some weights and you see the number on the scale change to something lower. This is weight loss. Unless you’re a trainer like me, have a good trainer, or are very knowledgeable on the subject, you see this as a positive sign. And it very well maybe if you’re dedicated to your cause. There are plenty of people out there who have used the first 2 diets listed, as well as others, and are in great health and carry a preferable amount of lean body mass.
However, there are ways to take a chance out of the equation, and in turn, achieve true fat loss. When you switch your body over to a fat metabolism by incorporating a diet extremely low in carbs but very high in fat and protein, like our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the fuel source it will use as long as it’s there is fat. There are a few cultures still roaming the planet that use these methods and are the pinnacle of health.
Ultra-low-flour people are generally a much healthier sort for a few main reasons. People tend to eat less, which in scientific research, generally leads to longer life as opposed to people who overindulge too frequently. This has a lot to do with fat being a lot more powerful in satiating hunger than carbohydrates. Another reason healthy is because of the aforementioned muscle-sparing qualities of the diet. The more muscle you have, the more calories your metabolism burns at rest, which makes it easier to lose weight and keep it off. People with a generous amount of muscle and a less generous amount of body fat are healthier as a whole and develop diseases less frequently than our less muscular counterparts.
The ability once or twice a week to eat whatever you want, whether it be pizza or donuts, not only does not gain fat but in many instances ramps up fat burning. I’m aware it sounds too good to be true, but strategically timed carbs will only assist in fueling and building your muscles and turning your metabolism into a jet engine while almost completely avoiding the fat cells. It works this way because you haven’t punished your pancreas as I spoke of yesterday, and your body is wholly adapted to using the fat in junk food as its primary source of fuel while using the carbs to store as fuel in your muscle tissue instead of your fat cells. All of which I believe to be very high quality, but I also think there is one that is better suited to each individual person on a case-by-case basis.
