While Muscle & Fitness has lost a lot of readers over the years, and rightfully so, they still rank among the top 15 “fitness” websites in the world. One of their featured “nutrition” articles aimed at fat loss is called “10 things you need to know when starting a new diet plan,” written by Emmie Satrazemis.
As most brainwashed nutritionists, dieticians, personal trainers, and coaches, the staff at Muscle & Fitness, including Emmie, are still trapped in the pseudo-science and bro-science of “dieting,” as in reducing your food intake over long periods of time while simultaneously increasing activity in an effort to force the body to rely on body fat for extra energy. While that strategy work for at least temporarily losing body fat, it’s one of the dumbest things you can do, as it likely will cause and/or worsen nutrient deficiencies and destroy your metabolism.
So, let’s see her “10 things” you “should” keep in mind when planning on losing some blubber.
1. Start Small
“Start with one or two small goals that you think you need to work on and aim to stick to those for two to three weeks, with the intention of making them a habit.”
Forming habits are good, as long as they actually serve you. And as for goal-setting, it comes down to personality. If you currently are consuming carbohydrates, vegetable/seed oils, and/or any food that contains plants, as in vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grain, you are damaging your body severely. And if you are overweight, it’s even worse. The important thing is to realize that you are hurting yourself and brutally shortening your life expectancy, and that you need to make a change.
2. Systems Make it Easier
“One of the best things you can do for your long term health and fitness goals is to build systems. Systems are routines built into your everyday life, helping you remove obstacles and build habits.”
Indeed, everything is easier with a plan, with a daily schedule, instead of simply winging it. However, if you do things right, as in actually eating nutritious animal-based foods, you simply need to make sure that you get enough nutrition on a daily basis and that you have your last meal at least 4 to 6 hours before bed, so you go to sleep in a fasted state to aid your body in detoxing, healing, and recovering. Fat loss should come from simple strategic fasting, as in fasting one or two days a week, all while consuming fully normal, but only species-appropriate foods, on the other days of the week. No need to restrict portion sizes or your intake of energy (often wrongfully called “calories.”)
As for the systems, they should include the best times for doing meal-preparation, any kind of exercise if necessary, and when to have your meals without any kind of stress. Simply how to make your daily life as easy and seamless as possible while still reaching your goals.
4. Cravings Are Normal
“As soon as you start restricting something, it’s human nature to start craving that exact thing. And the more you restrict, the more you crave — especially when it comes to sugar cravings!”
No, cravings are not normal. Initially, when you switch to a new way of eating, you will have psychological cravings as you have been programmed through bad behavior to enjoy and consume shitty and toxic foods. However, that usually go away after about three weeks (deprogramming period.)
If you have cravings after that, it’s because you still are not consuming the right foods, as in animal-based foods, and thus you have nutritional deficiencies. If your food plan sucks, and you have one or perhaps several nutrient deficiencies, you will be both hungry and experience cravings. That is your body telling you to eat more to make sure you get the nutrition you need.
On a species-appropriate, species-specific diet, that accommodate your physiology, as in only consuming animal-based foods, you will never experience hunger or cravings, as you will always be fully nourished. Even when fasting, you will be satisfied for days as you are running on your nutritional stores.
When I healed myself back in 2018, I only consumed raw meat, raw animal fats, raw organs, and raw eggs, and when I fasted for 9 days, of which 6 days were dry fasting without a sip of water, I never felt hungry and I never experienced any sort of cravings – because I went into the fast fully nourished.
5. Your Energy May Fluctuate
“While eating better usually results in increased energy levels, this may not always be the case at the start. If you’ve had a poor diet for some time now, changing things up can do a number on your energy and your mood. Your body is learning to rely on different fuel and this may take an adjustment period.”
Yes, if you have abused your body by feeding it toxic carbohydrates, it is damaged and not used to run on its natural fat metabolism; as it has been forced to clear out toxic glucose all the time.
This is one of many reasons why we use a “transition phase” when going from any kind of damaging way of eating to our ketogenic (fat fueled) and natural species-appropriate diet of animal-based foods. It can take a few weeks up to a couple of months before you are fully “fat adapted” and have tons of more energy than ever before. But until your reach that stage, you might experience fluctuations in your energy or even feel drained and nauseated at times.
Also, dips in energy can come and go on a “fat loss plan” simply because toxins are stored in fat tissue, and as you break down your fat tissue into energy, those toxins are released and your body has to expel them, which is an energy-demanding process and it can also cause acute toxemia at times, making you feel sick and tired. However, if you understand why, you know that it will pass, and that it is actually a good thing, as you get those toxins out of your body – toxins that otherwise could have ended up forming tumors or causing severe disease, such as cardiovascular disease or organ damage years down the line.
6. It Is Possible to Be too Hungry
“A little increased hunger is a natural part of calorie cutting, but if you’re starving and straight-up hangry, you’re setting yourself up for diet failure.”
We covered this in the last point, and you should never be hungry. Hunger is an indicator that your food plan sucks, that you do not get enough essential and bioavailable nutrients. In other words, you do not consume enough animal-based foods. And therefore, again, it’s impossible to get hungry on our natural carnivorous species-specific diet of animal-based foods.
Even when using fasting for a day or so, once or twice a week, you should not feel any hunger if you are nourished.
7. Sleep is Essential
“If you aren’t sleeping well or enough, you can kiss your willpower and good intentions goodbye. The act of dieting already takes some self-discipline and it is significantly harder to stick to a diet, get a good workout in, and support your health when you are tired. Rest is also crucial for muscle recovery and growth.”
Agreed, but this is also a bit of a trap. Most people only think of sleep as in how many hours you are in bed sleeping, when in reality it’s all about sleep quality, about getting those phases of deep sleep and REM sleep.
When you get all your sleep in a fasted state, as in when having a correct meal timing and/or when fasting, your need for sleep decreases and the quality improves manifold. Personally, I have my last meal around 3 p.m. and then I go to bed before 9 p.m. in a fully fasted state. I usually wake naturally around 3 a.m., I immediately go out and walk my dog, then I have a light breakfast as I sit down to write my daily free article for you guys. In other words, I get about 5,5 to 6 hours of sleep at the most, but out of 6 hours I always get at least 1,5 to 2 hours of deep sleep and 2 to 2,5 hours of REM sleep. That is double of what most people get when sleeping for 8 hours.
This is why I have a separate chapter in my coaching guides dedicated to sleep quality.
8. Failure Is Part of the Process
“Failure is not only not a big deal, but crucial to your success. Without failure, we never learn how to get better, stronger, and more equipped. Besides, only you can decide when you’ve truly failed.”
It’s actually quite rare to fail when doing a correct transition phase to our natural way of eating, and once you are fully “carnivore” you will always be fully nourished and satiated, and you will hardly think about food at all. However, small mistakes or transgressions can happen before you reach that point, and if so, simply acknowledge it, put it behind you, and return to your plan.
9. The Scale Can Lie
“Weight fluctuations are 100% normal and not always in your control. Depending on your macro intake, workouts, stress, sleep, hormones, etc. water retention can cause some drastic swings in your bodyweight.
Not to mention, if you’re gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time, the scale won’t budge even if your pants are fitting looser. So instead of living and dying by the scale, measure your progress in other ways.”
Yes. If you have a lot of fat weight to lose, I usually recommend that you weight yourself no more than once a week, and always on the same day, on the same time, and under the same conditions. And with that said, taking tape measurements and photos (in the same light conditions) are better indicators of your progress. Also, documenting by photo and/or video, will really inspire you as your results becomes visually evident, not to mention the value of looking back at where you once where and appreciate the journey you have done.
10. Consistency Matters Most
“Real change is the result of consistency and patience, not perfection. Remember, your health is the result of all the decisions you’ve made in your life thus far, not the last meal you ate.”
This is not really an issue if you transition into your natural way of eating and then use strategic fasting to lose your excess of body fat. Doing it this way is extremely simple and there is no need to even strive for consistency, as it will be a natural component of the journey.
You only need to consume two or three nourishing and normal meals a day, and then have one or two days a week when you fast and only have a little water or nothing at all. There will be no hunger, no cravings, and once you have transitioned and are ‘fat adapted,’ there won’t even be any dips in energy or mood. It’s simple, yet way more effective than any “energy restriction” diet.
Hopefully this helps when it comes to chose the best path for you going forward. Your first step should always be to fully nourish your body, which is only possible with our species-appropriate foods, as in animal-based foods. Once that is achieved, any fat loss goal is easily met by using strategic fasting.
And if you need help with a plan or any other aspect of such a journey, I’m available for coaching and/or consulting.
Online-Coaching and Education – Animal-Based Nutrition