"An understanding that nothing on Earth beats the fundamentals, a commitment to regular, measurable improvement in everything that a gym trainer won't teach, for fear you'll walk away bored: push-ups, pull-ups, bench presses, squats, dead lifts, and even such military-seeming tests as just how fast you can run a single mile.
Shaul's guys out in Wyoming get massively strong and powerful on precisely three gym sessions a week, each lasting an hour and no more. Louie Simmons, the single biggest name in gorilla-style competitive power lifting, will tell you that 45 minutes is the max length of any smart training session."
"It can be hard to believe a true strength coach the first time he tells you that by pressing and dead-lifting on even days, squatting and doing chin-ups on odd days, avoiding all other exercises, and adding a little to the bar each time, you'll be stronger than you've ever been in only a month's time. Thanks to the fitness industry, we're so conditioned to equate sophistication with complexity – and to think we've got to "work each body part" – that our gut just says, No way; that can't work. But it works like magic, and the entire body hardens up in unison."
I've recently returned to the gym myself. I found this article so cool. Maybe it's also interesting to you :)
Thank you for sharing your experiments with us. I was not expecting to read "weight loss" when I saw the protocol. My personal experience aligns very well with Pontzer's work (his book "Burn" is great): any training (strength, HIIT, running, endurance, power, etc) will not correlate with weight loss or fat loss. After a week or so, your caloric needs revert to your regular set point.
Exercise is fun, and exercise does one thing very well: it fights inflammation. I have been doing 5x week workouts (2 full body HIIT, 2 strength, 1 cardio) since 2015 and it has really helped with some health conditions I used to have, while my weight has remained pretty much the same at my maintenance calorie level. I do a 55% complex carbs, 30% protein and 15% fat macro-wise, but I am not too dogmatic about it. Zero highly processed foods, though, using the NOVA nomenclature.
"Frequent strength training doesn’t go well with low protein intake,"
Are you sure about that; according to Chris Knobbe -Sinnett 1973- the Tukisenta only eat around 3% of protein. Now, even if that were double We still would be talking about <40 g/day of protein.
In hindsight; wouldn't it have been better to stick to your normal diet and add strength training to that?
I don't know how much strength training the Tukisenta do. I was fine on hyper low protein when being somewhat sedentary, as well.
Yea, it might've been better in terms of isolating variables. But I think even this was too low in protein, and my normal diet was even lower. Maybe with 2x/wk.
I've never really felt a "pump" I think, or at least I haven't recognized it :) But could be, yea. Since I trained 4x/wk, it was likely within 6-12h of a workout.
Very interesting! Wondering if it could be because you weren’t getting ENOUGH calories during the exercise period. Lots and lots of reports of people going too low in deficit and it slowing down the metabolic rate. But it seems as though it would be very difficult to eat enough cals if you’re just not hungry 🤔
Somebody suggested it might just be the "pump" which you can get for several days after a hard workout. Also I think I've basically discovered that DEXA is insanely dependent on hydration/glycogen levels, just like the scale - and so it's very noisy. So it might mean nothing in the short term.
I have an update for you, roughly 6 months after trying out your eating approach. Summary is that it was really promising for about 2 months, then could not get back on track after a vacation.
I wrote some comments here early on.
I am a mid 40s dad with a desk job. I am a former athlete and stayed in in decent shape into my late 30s, before life and injuries got in the way. I started your plan in April at about 205. I am 6 feet tall, and my ideal weight is probably around 190.
During the first 2 months, my weight dropped to about 195, and the pain in my knees and ankles dropped dramatically. I felt the best I had in the last 5 years and was really optimistic. Then I spent most of the month of July on vacation. I learned that a) this diet is very hard to adapt to regular shared meals, and b) only small deviations had a huge effect. One meal off of the diet felt like it took 2 days to recover.
I started August at 210, 5 pounds above the original weight, but I wasn't worried since I had had success before. But now I can't seem to stay on the diet for more than about a week. Cream just isn't as satisfying. I will be starving, but the thought of more cream is revolting. I wonder if there is some deficiency that didn't show up at first.
I may try again when I feel like I am up to it. For now, I will be going back to a mostly meat, vegetables, eggs and cheese diet.
Thanks for the update! You're right both that the diet is very anti social (I'm a HUGE asshole in real life!) and that even tiny deviations take days. I had one meal once that took 5 days to come off, lol.
That's quite limiting, especially with kids or other shared situations.
Hope you find something that works for you, just keep experimenting, and please keep me up to date!
I interpret the tomato sauce craving as a vitamin craving. That's probably what your body lacks to run the extra metabolism for lifting and to build muscle; rather than macros. try a multivitamin.
I'm very skeptical of vitamins in general, and multivitamins in particular. Lots of potential to do more harm than good. Especially E, A, and C. B probably fine.
Do you track your HR? Even with a poor wrist based sensor. I'd be interested in a baseline of how you are in your normal routine vs what you laid out here. Both from a resting HR perspective and (imprecise) recovery score.
I'd guess, and based on your pullback i think you may agree, that you had a little too much training volume out the gate. For me, I've found that negatively impacts my day to day weight tracking, e.g. weight increases or plateaus.
Yea agreed on the volume. It's been much better now that I cut back down to 2x/wk, and I'm down below the baseline weight of this experiment already now. The tomato cravings also disappeared!
I do not track my HR. I generally dislike many of these gadgets, I had the Oura ring and was really disappointed.
3 spoonsful.... Ten minutes before I read this drank a pint and a half of tomato passata straight out of its jar. I usually buy about twice as much as I anticipate using for cooking. If you add Worcestershire Sauce you can tell yourself you're having cocktails.... If you add vodka as well you actually are having cocktails.... No point getting fancy glasses dirty, that's just making unnecessary washing up.... You're practically saving the planet...
You probably know this, but I hear that 'weird cravings' are a symptom of protein deficiency...
Quantum tunneling is real. Or the moon phase is in waning nightshade..
Yea, my theory too @ protein deficiency. I never had it much during my 1 year of non-exercise ex150, but the last month (w/ exercise) it was quite intense.
Interesting! How was your appetite? If you've been building muscles you might be short of protein even though you've been eating more than usual, and I think that excess protein sets off your hyperphagia for some reason, so I could guess either way.
Like I write in the article, I had more appetite for cream the first week or so, but then it actually got lower than normal. So I ate less cream but more tomato sauce.
Hmm, maybe you're not adding enough protein to make up for the extra needed for weights? Not sure how all that works....
Weird how you gained 3lbs of fat though, and it seems to have happened at the end when you say you were eating less. I am confused. It seems to be confusion week. Still "that's funny" is always an exciting thing to think! I wonder what it is that we are wrong about?
I do think that the last week to week and a half were when things went sideways. Until then, I'd progressed in every workout. Suddenly, I got worse, my appetite went sideways, and I started gaining weight.
Maybe that's when the overtraining/unterrecovery caught up with me?
"An understanding that nothing on Earth beats the fundamentals, a commitment to regular, measurable improvement in everything that a gym trainer won't teach, for fear you'll walk away bored: push-ups, pull-ups, bench presses, squats, dead lifts, and even such military-seeming tests as just how fast you can run a single mile.
Shaul's guys out in Wyoming get massively strong and powerful on precisely three gym sessions a week, each lasting an hour and no more. Louie Simmons, the single biggest name in gorilla-style competitive power lifting, will tell you that 45 minutes is the max length of any smart training session."
"It can be hard to believe a true strength coach the first time he tells you that by pressing and dead-lifting on even days, squatting and doing chin-ups on odd days, avoiding all other exercises, and adding a little to the bar each time, you'll be stronger than you've ever been in only a month's time. Thanks to the fitness industry, we're so conditioned to equate sophistication with complexity – and to think we've got to "work each body part" – that our gut just says, No way; that can't work. But it works like magic, and the entire body hardens up in unison."
I've recently returned to the gym myself. I found this article so cool. Maybe it's also interesting to you :)
https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie-20120504
Thank you for sharing your experiments with us. I was not expecting to read "weight loss" when I saw the protocol. My personal experience aligns very well with Pontzer's work (his book "Burn" is great): any training (strength, HIIT, running, endurance, power, etc) will not correlate with weight loss or fat loss. After a week or so, your caloric needs revert to your regular set point.
Exercise is fun, and exercise does one thing very well: it fights inflammation. I have been doing 5x week workouts (2 full body HIIT, 2 strength, 1 cardio) since 2015 and it has really helped with some health conditions I used to have, while my weight has remained pretty much the same at my maintenance calorie level. I do a 55% complex carbs, 30% protein and 15% fat macro-wise, but I am not too dogmatic about it. Zero highly processed foods, though, using the NOVA nomenclature.
Makes sense then that I was extra hungry the first week, but it settled down after that.
"Frequent strength training doesn’t go well with low protein intake,"
Are you sure about that; according to Chris Knobbe -Sinnett 1973- the Tukisenta only eat around 3% of protein. Now, even if that were double We still would be talking about <40 g/day of protein.
In hindsight; wouldn't it have been better to stick to your normal diet and add strength training to that?
I don't know how much strength training the Tukisenta do. I was fine on hyper low protein when being somewhat sedentary, as well.
Yea, it might've been better in terms of isolating variables. But I think even this was too low in protein, and my normal diet was even lower. Maybe with 2x/wk.
They're on an all (sweet) potato diet though. More of a win for SMTM.
Definitely one in the camp for HCLF can produce healthy populations, yea.
> My t-shirts began getting tight in the chest, arms, neck, and even back.
How long after a workout? The "pump" is real and can last days
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_hypertrophy#Temporary_swelling
I've never really felt a "pump" I think, or at least I haven't recognized it :) But could be, yea. Since I trained 4x/wk, it was likely within 6-12h of a workout.
Very interesting! Wondering if it could be because you weren’t getting ENOUGH calories during the exercise period. Lots and lots of reports of people going too low in deficit and it slowing down the metabolic rate. But it seems as though it would be very difficult to eat enough cals if you’re just not hungry 🤔
Could be, hard to say. I'm still doing the strength training now, just at much lower volume. Still making strength gains.
I'm getting doubtful about your dexa results.
you describe visible muscular gain. so I would rather trust your own lying eyes over the dexa.
multiple ways how this can go wrong
even possible: disorganized muscle tissue reorganized to become " real muscle"??
Somebody suggested it might just be the "pump" which you can get for several days after a hard workout. Also I think I've basically discovered that DEXA is insanely dependent on hydration/glycogen levels, just like the scale - and so it's very noisy. So it might mean nothing in the short term.
reading your blog is deadly fascinating!
unreal. keep the good work!
I have an update for you, roughly 6 months after trying out your eating approach. Summary is that it was really promising for about 2 months, then could not get back on track after a vacation.
I wrote some comments here early on.
I am a mid 40s dad with a desk job. I am a former athlete and stayed in in decent shape into my late 30s, before life and injuries got in the way. I started your plan in April at about 205. I am 6 feet tall, and my ideal weight is probably around 190.
During the first 2 months, my weight dropped to about 195, and the pain in my knees and ankles dropped dramatically. I felt the best I had in the last 5 years and was really optimistic. Then I spent most of the month of July on vacation. I learned that a) this diet is very hard to adapt to regular shared meals, and b) only small deviations had a huge effect. One meal off of the diet felt like it took 2 days to recover.
I started August at 210, 5 pounds above the original weight, but I wasn't worried since I had had success before. But now I can't seem to stay on the diet for more than about a week. Cream just isn't as satisfying. I will be starving, but the thought of more cream is revolting. I wonder if there is some deficiency that didn't show up at first.
I may try again when I feel like I am up to it. For now, I will be going back to a mostly meat, vegetables, eggs and cheese diet.
Thanks for the update! You're right both that the diet is very anti social (I'm a HUGE asshole in real life!) and that even tiny deviations take days. I had one meal once that took 5 days to come off, lol.
That's quite limiting, especially with kids or other shared situations.
Hope you find something that works for you, just keep experimenting, and please keep me up to date!
I interpret the tomato sauce craving as a vitamin craving. That's probably what your body lacks to run the extra metabolism for lifting and to build muscle; rather than macros. try a multivitamin.
I'm very skeptical of vitamins in general, and multivitamins in particular. Lots of potential to do more harm than good. Especially E, A, and C. B probably fine.
How was your sleep through the 30 day trial?
Pretty normal, I'd say. I.e. usually a 7-8 out of 10.
Do you track your HR? Even with a poor wrist based sensor. I'd be interested in a baseline of how you are in your normal routine vs what you laid out here. Both from a resting HR perspective and (imprecise) recovery score.
I'd guess, and based on your pullback i think you may agree, that you had a little too much training volume out the gate. For me, I've found that negatively impacts my day to day weight tracking, e.g. weight increases or plateaus.
Yea agreed on the volume. It's been much better now that I cut back down to 2x/wk, and I'm down below the baseline weight of this experiment already now. The tomato cravings also disappeared!
I do not track my HR. I generally dislike many of these gadgets, I had the Oura ring and was really disappointed.
3 spoonsful.... Ten minutes before I read this drank a pint and a half of tomato passata straight out of its jar. I usually buy about twice as much as I anticipate using for cooking. If you add Worcestershire Sauce you can tell yourself you're having cocktails.... If you add vodka as well you actually are having cocktails.... No point getting fancy glasses dirty, that's just making unnecessary washing up.... You're practically saving the planet...
You probably know this, but I hear that 'weird cravings' are a symptom of protein deficiency...
Quantum tunneling is real. Or the moon phase is in waning nightshade..
Yea, my theory too @ protein deficiency. I never had it much during my 1 year of non-exercise ex150, but the last month (w/ exercise) it was quite intense.
Interesting! How was your appetite? If you've been building muscles you might be short of protein even though you've been eating more than usual, and I think that excess protein sets off your hyperphagia for some reason, so I could guess either way.
Like I write in the article, I had more appetite for cream the first week or so, but then it actually got lower than normal. So I ate less cream but more tomato sauce.
Hmm, maybe you're not adding enough protein to make up for the extra needed for weights? Not sure how all that works....
Weird how you gained 3lbs of fat though, and it seems to have happened at the end when you say you were eating less. I am confused. It seems to be confusion week. Still "that's funny" is always an exciting thing to think! I wonder what it is that we are wrong about?
I do think that the last week to week and a half were when things went sideways. Until then, I'd progressed in every workout. Suddenly, I got worse, my appetite went sideways, and I started gaining weight.
Maybe that's when the overtraining/unterrecovery caught up with me?