Cut carbs & calories but NOT protein to keep muscle and lose fat.....

Today's post:  Thursday, 8-10-2017

A.  Mike Matthews has been successful both personally and with his many clients in helping people BOTH lose fat and add muscle.

His protocol for losing fat while maintaining or gaining muscle is to KEEP the high protein intake and while restricting carbohydrate foods and overall calories enough to cut calories 25% below what a person uses.

His method has worked for him and his clients.  But it is lower carb rather than almost no carb and not aimed at producing ketosis.  AND it supports the overall goal of adding muscle or at least keeping it by maintaining 100% of the high protein intake at the same time.

So my current plan was to try Mike Matthews’ method combined ensuring the calorie cut back by fasting each day of that 6 day week from 3 pm to when I have breakfast at 6 am.

None of my four week protocol will cut my high protein intake or cut out any of my anabolic whole milk & whey from grass fed cows in my high protein breakfast. 

But to make the first of the four weeks lower in carbs and calories, I’ll take extra bilberry extract and have no fruit at breakfast as I usually do.

The second week will maintain the 3 pm to 6 am fast and other carbohydrate restriction but will add back the fruit at breakfast.

Then I’ll do two weeks where I eat normally with more calories and carbs when I’ll focus most on adding muscle.

B.  My preference is to do it Mike Matthews style because of some drawbacks to ketogenic eating.

Here are my notes on the Nutrition Authority article I read on ketogenic eating:

"Staple foods on a ketogenic diet include meat, fish, butter, eggs, cheese, heavy cream, oils, nuts, avocados, seeds and low-carb vegetables.

In contrast, nearly all carb sources are eliminated, including grains, rice, beans, potatoes, sweets, milk, cereals, fruits and even some higher-carb vegetables."

1.  If the foods in the ketogenic diet are organic, nonGMO, & or wild caught or fed only organic, nonGMO foods in their natural diet and NOT given routine antibiotics the foods on this list are health supporting to eat, particularly wild caught fish and avocados and low carb vegetables.  

Otherwise they may NOT be safe to eat and can even have ingredients that stop or slow fat loss such as harmful and fattening bacteria.  

It's also important to only include extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil in the oils and completely avoid the omega 6 oils that are health harmful and even contain some hydrogenated fats and harmful chemicals such as canola, corn, soy, safflower, and peanut oils.

Milk if it's whole, not homogenized and from cows fed only their natural diet from unpolluted organic nonGMO sources can be health supporting however.  

Cow’s milk is also anabolic for people adding strength and muscle or ensuring they keep it.

And, the whey from such milk is even more anabolic in part because its protein profile is the same as human proteins; and the high leucine content in it is particularly anabolic.

Also very important, whole fresh fruit if organic when eaten daily is hugely protective reducing the rates of BOTH kinds of strokes. It’s very powerful and is the most effective way to prevent strokes. 

Of course eating fruit daily works best for stroke protection if you also ensure your heart attack protection is very high without taking statin drugs. 

The only way to keep this benefit on a ketogenic or very low carb diet is to take fruit concentrate supplements.  Mercifully there ARE many good ones:  Bilberry, cherry, elderberry, & cranberry concentrates are all available & have robust health benefits.  I take all hose daily even when I have real whole fresh fruit too!

C.  I’ll not have the results of my two week carb & calorie cut back plan until I measure my weight & chest, waist, and hip measurements on Saturday, 8-19.  I’ll post them the following Monday, 8-21, in my monthly fatloss report.

But I’m more than half way through the first week of my two week carb & calorie cut back plan.

This is my report on what I’ve done and what it’s been like.

*I have cut back to a very low carb intake by deleting EVERYTHING that had the tiniest bit of carb content AND the calories in everything I deleted.

*To make it doable, I made it less of a daily fast and did wind up cutting a bit of protein along with my carbs & calories.

*Besides the protein in my whole unpasteurized organic milk and my whey from cows fed only grass, I kept the cheese from cows fed only grass; I kept the wild caught salmon two days a week; and I ADDED some cheese listed as organic.

However, I dropped the protein I’d been getting once or twice every day from whey from cows fed only grass and organic Greek yogurt.  They both have some carbs; but the organic Gouda cheese I added this week does not.

 (I think this added cheese added back about the same protein that dropping the yogurts removed.)

The pasta sauce I have three times a week has no added sugar but does have carbs from the cooked tomatoes and it has calories.  I deleted it.

The Parmesan Cheese that’s been pre-ground that I’ve used as no carb or very low carb protein source has been a significant part of my weekly protein intake from the six days a week I’ve been eating it. 

But it also has a lot of calories. So except for once a week on Sunday, I’ve deleted it for this week and will do so next week.

This will cut my protein intake a bit but overall I kept most of my protein intake including ALL the anabolic whole milk and whey.

*Walnuts & pecans tend NOT to be fattening at all by actual test and they have so much fiber, health ok oils, and protein, despite have some carbs, they are zero glycemic.

*But for these two weeks, since they do have carbs and calories, I’ve temporarily deleted them except for Saturday.

*This first week I did delete my daily serving of fresh fruit and added the 3 capsules of Oregon Wild Harvest bilberry extract to partly replace the stroke protective ingredients of the fresh fruit.

*The five weekdays and Sunday of this first week I also deleted all of my red wine with dinner.  I’m not sure how fattening the sugar and alcohol in them is because red wine has so many protective ingredients.  BUT for sure they do have carbs and calories.  So this first week I deleted them also.

*I’ll take a weight measurement only this Saturday to see how I did this first week.

*Next week, the second week, I’ll eat exactly the same but I’ll add back the fresh fruit and wine.

*Then the Saturday at the end of that week will be my monthly measurement day with weight and chest and waist and hip measurements.

*This plan has worked well in two ways. 

I was only extra hungry a bit and it went away when I got busy. 

AND,  I was able to keep up my performance on my strength training 100%!