Utilize fasting and eat foods that minimize insulin secretion.

Lower Insulin

Macros

Anabolic body states are those which favor building and growing, where catabolic body states favor breaking down and using.

• Carbohydrates are anabolic and sugar is extremely anabolic. Fructose specifically is mostly stored as adipose tissue, also called body fat.
• Protein is anabolic, but is generally used to grow other tissues, such as muscle tissue, rather than adipose tissue.
• Fat is catabolic.

Insulin

Insulin is the ultimate building or anabolic hormone, and is released to metabolize carbohydrates. It is also secreted to metabolize protein, but only when insulin levels are already high in the blood. Insulin signals many bodily components to pull glucose from the blood and store it. Much of this glucose is stored in adipose tissue, making you “fatter”. Metabolizing fat causes no insulin response.

Glucagon

Glucagon is the main catabolic hormone. When insulin is low, glucagon is high and vice versa. It signals cells to release energy, break down their damaged components, and generally ‘use’ rather than ‘store’.

Ketones

Ketones are one of two main bodily energy sources, and are the primary energy source produced in the liver when insulin levels are low. Otherwise, glucose becomes the primary energy source. Most body systems, especially the brain, run better on ketones as they:

• Provide more energy than glucose
• Produce less mitochondrial damage
• Generate less radical oxygen species, which cause oxidative stress

Ketosis

Low carbohydrate, with high fat and protein, consumption is the general macronutrient breakdown to keep insulin levels low. Low insulin levels allow the body to stay in nutritional ketosis, a state where the liver produces ketones as its primary energy source.

Fasting

Fasting promotes a highly catabolic state, where all energy needed to run the body comes from the body’s energy reserves. This state further drives down insulin levels; improves insulin sensitivity, meaning you need less insulin the next time you need to metabolize carbohydrates; and repairs your body in a powerful way through autophagy.

Autophagy

Autophagy is the bodily state of “self eating” where damaged components are broken down and recycled. Being in this state regularly is crucial for healthy fat loss and bodily repair. Autophagy generally only occurs in a fasted state, where there is no food in the gut and insulin levels are low.

Satiation

Nutrition is satiating, making you feel full. This is why 2 ounces of liver leaves you full, but 2 plates of pasta leaves you hungry. For many other reasons as well, eating highly nutrient dense foods is important for maintaining good health and optimal body composition.

Procedure

Eat Within a 4 Hour Window Each Day.

In this window, eat highly nutrient dense foods. Examples: Liver, egg yolks, raw milk.

Outside this window, don’t eat any calories or fiber. Drink only water, tea, or coffee, and consume at least a teaspoon of high quality unrefined salt.

Eat Less Than 50 Grams of Carbohydrates.

Avoid the Following:

Sugar

Avoid all refined sugar, as well as fructose. This means to avoid fruit, which is high in adipose building fructose.

Vegetable Oil

The high levels of Omega-6 fatty acids activate the endocannabinoid pathways in your body, making you hungrier.

Artificial sweeteners that don’t release insulin (ex: erythritol, stevia)

These are alright for overall health, but should be avoided as well because eating sweet foods regularly alters our tastebuds. Because of this, many foods which would naturally taste good because they are healthy, such as sour foods, will taste overwhelming and bad. A diet low in sweet foods will, on a long enough timeline, reset our taste palette.

Eat Fermented Foods Daily

This aids digestion and promotes a symbiotic gut biome.

Eat as many calories as your body tells you to. If you are hungry in your eating window, eat more!

When insulin levels are low, your body is not storing all the energy acquired by the food you consume. It is able to “waste” energy as heat more readily, or urinate and breath out ketones. This gives two distinct pathways for energy to leave your body rather than be stored as fat, which is almost the only option when insulin levels are high.

There is no need to calorie restrict. Give your body the energy it needs to operate.

• Calorie restriction, when insulin is regularly high, causes all body systems to starve. This means good muscle, bone, and other components are broken down in addition to fat.
• Calorie restriction, when insulin is regularly low, is generally safe as your body will prioritize breaking down fat for energy. However, it is still unnecessary. If you want to drop weight fast, utilize the power of extended fasting to also maximize autophagy, such as a 72 hour water fast.

Conclusion

To lose fat, do not starve the body. Instead, maximize time spent in the catabolic “self eating” state of autophagy and the state of nutritional ketosis.