I'd like to see what you can add to ex150 without breaking it. Try adding things like sour cream, ice-cream, fruit, honey, and see what happens. And what sort of reaction do you get to raising and lowering the amount of protein?
My own attempts in this direction have been very inconclusive, but you have more discipline than me and might actually stick to something for a full month.
Interesting that the plans for 2026 don't include "try to go as low as possible on exfat150 + vinegar + nosauce". Is that because ex150 plateau'd before?
Sorry, I should've included that. That is actually the current plan ;) I'm hoping I'll have the motivation to stick to it long enough to bottom out on this. But shiny new stupid sounding diets are my weakness ;)
> This is due to a phenomenon when eating a super low-fat, near zero-fat diet. With dietary fat low enough, your body will start ramping up DNL (de-novo-lipogenesis) to provide the necessary fats. This is akin to constantly eating some amounts of MUFAs and SFAs (your body can’t make most PUFAs) and washes out the LA (linoleic acid) number in the test.
Explain me again how DNL fats "wash out" LA in this test when dietary fats don't?
> I ended 2025 with a higher LA% on my OmegaQuant than I started it, even on the same high-fat diet.
Exciting! I assume you haven't been swilling any sunflower oil, so this seems hard to explain. If you're not eating any, and you can't synthesise any, then the actual stored amount has to be going down at least a little? I mean the bloody stuff will oxidize *in situ* if nothing else.
Well in fairness I've eaten more somewhat-high LA foods this year. E.g. in Japan I ate a few (deep fried) gyozas, I ate a bunch of ice cream with palm fat (10% or so), whole grain bread contains some LA... but yea certainly still up there in terms of LA avoidance.
The one confounding factor is that we're basically measuring what comes out of your rain gutter, not what's on your roof. If there's more gunk coming out the pipe, that could be because more gunk is now on the roof, or because less gunk is now on the roof since more of it came down the pipe.
> Well in fairness I've eaten more somewhat-high LA foods this year. E.g. in Japan I ate a few (deep fried) gyozas, I ate a bunch of ice cream with palm fat (10% or so), whole grain bread contains some LA... but yea certainly still up there in terms of LA avoidance.
Still sounds fairly negligible in total, I mean you can literally count the number of times you ate things with LA in them!
Also why the ice-cream, Haagen-Dazs is an American brand isn't it? I think their vanilla is cream, sugar, and vanilla extract, which is hard to object to on 'real food' grounds, even if it does come out of a factory owned by a megacorporation.
My one month potato+dairy trial at the end of last year worked well enough that I’m now trying a three month version of the same to see if it continues to work or was some kind of fluke.
Thank you for your experiments. I've yo-yoed drastically over the past 5 years and your experimental method and explanations of the Mysteries of Obesity have given me something to strive toward rather than the despair that usually comes with rapid weight gain.
I've started keeping notes in addition to my weight log. Currently running ex_sweetmilkybooba and gaining weight rapidly. I'm too old and too large to be compared to chubby cherubs who are cherished for getting fat drinking milk all day.
Earlier in the year I ran a HFLCMP diet and lost 15 pounds in a month, eating mostly cheese. I was happy to lose the weight, but my mood suffered terribly, nearing insanity. Returning to the carbs, did wonders to my mood, but my weight is sitting at all time highs.
2021, I weighed 300lbs. I quickly lost 60lbs. Eating mostly bacon and eggs, lots of PUFA. Weight training 3-4 times per week. Also childishly inspired by false-promises of love, so I don't really know what stripped the weight off of me. Steadily gained weight back to 280lbs where I plateaued, likely a mix of muscle from the weight training and fat from the PUFA and loss of inspiration.
2023, frustrated with my weight and my state in life, and still fooled by CICO, I quit my engineering job to go work landscaping in the countryside. My general vitality and joy skyrocketed, even picked up skiing in the winters. Sometime during this period I was introduced to Peat and PUFAS, so I was LA depleting too, but I never lost more than 20lbs. A situation like this is especially frustrating because my massive 'functional' strength increases must have constituted a muscle gain, so I suspect I lost much more than 20lbs of fat and gained reasonable amount of muscle. Wishful thinking?
2025, moved back to the city to get another engineering job. Went on a fast-food bender and gained 75lbs in less than a year, now weighing 335lbs. Hair falling out. Skin devolving to scales. The fast food bender was maybe only a month or two, been PUFA free most of the time, but I've been living in the swamp, at least it's a swamp with whole foods!
Plan on starting ex_plainrice shortly. Very tempted to modify it, cooking the rice in skim milk and ACV with some salt. Better to be scientific about this though, one thing at a time.
I'm down to be one of your experimental subjects, some days it feels like my entire life is on hold until the obesity is cured. We can't let future generations suffer the same fate.
> We can't let future generations suffer the same fate
Well said!
Wow that's an interesting journey, maybe even more severe than mine :) Hope you find a diet that works! Sounds like the boba is not it ;)
On the fast food thing, are you saying the fast food binge was PUFA and you were low PUFA since? Or did you eat only low PUFA fast food? What sort of fast food was it?
The hair/skin stuff sounds severe, if you're not starving yourself or high PUFA, I'd almost imagine some sort of vitamin deficiency?
On the plainrice, I'd just add ACV supplementation. Either a tablespoon per day, or the equivalent (=1 dose) of e.g. Bragg's capsules for convenience. Why not push all the buttons. I'd also supplement vitamin B1. In fact I did when I did my rice trial.
I'd go plain first, if it works well, you can try adding the skim milk. or other things.
The fast food binge was heavy PUFA, but the time preceding and following it has been low PUFA. Perhaps I'll try an OmegaQuant test to see what I'm made of.
I've found that 1tbs of ACV per cup of dry Jasmine rice is pretty tasty, also found some extra flavor adding a few sprigs of fresh rosemary to the rice cooker
Grant Genereux's "cowboy diet" refers to a highly restrictive, low-vitamin A (often called low-vA or vitamin A elimination) eating pattern that he personally followed and described in updates on his blog (ggenereux.blog). Genereux, an engineer-turned-health researcher, developed this approach after concluding that excess vitamin A (retinol and carotenoids) contributes to chronic illnesses like autoimmune conditions, eczema, and toxicity-related issues. He experimented with drastically reducing vitamin A intake to near-zero levels, claiming it led to major health improvements (e.g., resolving his own severe eczema).The term "cowboy diet" appears in community discussions (on his blog forums and related low-vA circles) as a nickname for his simple, repetitive, "boring prison / cowboy"-style meals—evoking basic, rugged staples like those a cowboy might eat (beef, beans, rice). It's not an official name he coined but a shorthand used by followers for his ultra-minimalist regimen focused on low-vitamin A foods.Core Components of His Diet (from his 2021 seven-year update and later descriptions):Beef or bison (usually ground; lean cuts preferred; regular/conventional beef over grass-fed to minimize beta-carotene; ~300–400 grams per day).
Rice (mostly white rice, sometimes alternating with brown; ~¾ cup dry measured).
Black beans (organic canned; ~250–350 ml or ¾ of a can).
Seasonings: Salt, occasional onion powder.
Beverages: Black coffee, water.
Occasional additions/snacks: Toasted white bread with honey (rare); later mentions of minimal expansions like apples in some interviews.
He typically ate two meals per day without much snacking. The diet avoids:Liver/offal (very high in preformed vitamin A).
Dairy, eggs, colorful vegetables/fruits, carrots, sweet potatoes, or anything rich in retinol or carotenoids.
Fortified foods, seed oils, and most plant sources of vitamin A.
Variations appear in discussions:Some describe it as "black beans, white rice, lean beef" (sometimes with a tsp of olive oil).
Earlier phases were even stricter (e.g., beef and rice primarily).
He emphasized cheap, regular beef (not grass-fed) to limit trace beta-carotene from greens in the cows' diet.
This is part of his broader low-vitamin A protocol, detailed in his blog posts, ebooks (like Poisoning for Profits or related works), and interviews. Followers sometimes adapt it (e.g., adding low-vA items like potatoes or specific beans), but Genereux has noted his personal version isn't necessarily "ideal" for everyone and expressed concerns about slow detox progress or setbacks in others.
Not sure. It would be interesting just for that reason, but adding the capsules is so easy and sometimes the results are so muddled just by tiny variation anyway... so I'm not sure it would prove much if not much happens.
I have started on ACV just to see if it affects anything, I can certainly report. Curious about combining ACV with matcha or green tea extract. As you pointed out none of this was part of the standard human diet a century ago, when people were on average significantly leaner.
Regardless I plan to continue to read you with interest, a ton of respect, and curiosity. Thank you for doing this.
Here are three videos that might be of interest to you regarding additional fat loss mechanisms including a possible mechanism as to why ACV increase fat loss.
First 15 minutes of this video touches on the effect SIBO has on fat gain/loss, and the last 5 minutes is a good summary.
And finally the most relevant video with regard to the possible mechanism of how ACV increases fat loss and possibly a more effective three step mechanism
Yep, got it, thanks. You touched on my biggest concern, flavor. Smells fishy, tastes fishy, even the more expensive brands. If I go through with it, I'll check back in.
I'd like to see what you can add to ex150 without breaking it. Try adding things like sour cream, ice-cream, fruit, honey, and see what happens. And what sort of reaction do you get to raising and lowering the amount of protein?
My own attempts in this direction have been very inconclusive, but you have more discipline than me and might actually stick to something for a full month.
Discipline? Never heard of 'im
Also Happy New Year! Hang on in there. We got this.
Interesting that the plans for 2026 don't include "try to go as low as possible on exfat150 + vinegar + nosauce". Is that because ex150 plateau'd before?
Sorry, I should've included that. That is actually the current plan ;) I'm hoping I'll have the motivation to stick to it long enough to bottom out on this. But shiny new stupid sounding diets are my weakness ;)
The only goal for 2026 should be to put on 5kg of muscle. 😀 and complete a 5k race. It is time ex.
Why?
It's called experimentation ex. Try the best and the worst experiment you did in 2025 with the addition of exercise. Prove it doesn't work
I don’t see why I’d have to. Why don’t you prove that it does?
Really looking forward to following some more of your experiments
> Just as a feeler, let me know in the comments or via email if you’d be interested in participating in such a 30 day trial.
For sure wouldn't mind, as long as it's feasible within my (low) budget, haha.
Truffle & caviar diet.. can't afford the carolies!
Ahahaha, I bet I'd lose a lot of weight on that. 🤣🤣
> This is due to a phenomenon when eating a super low-fat, near zero-fat diet. With dietary fat low enough, your body will start ramping up DNL (de-novo-lipogenesis) to provide the necessary fats. This is akin to constantly eating some amounts of MUFAs and SFAs (your body can’t make most PUFAs) and washes out the LA (linoleic acid) number in the test.
Explain me again how DNL fats "wash out" LA in this test when dietary fats don't?
Oh, dietary fats do. But you can fast over night and have minimal to no fats from dietary intake in the mix, but you can't fast from DNL.
Oh yes, that makes perfect sense, thanks.
> I ended 2025 with a higher LA% on my OmegaQuant than I started it, even on the same high-fat diet.
Exciting! I assume you haven't been swilling any sunflower oil, so this seems hard to explain. If you're not eating any, and you can't synthesise any, then the actual stored amount has to be going down at least a little? I mean the bloody stuff will oxidize *in situ* if nothing else.
Well in fairness I've eaten more somewhat-high LA foods this year. E.g. in Japan I ate a few (deep fried) gyozas, I ate a bunch of ice cream with palm fat (10% or so), whole grain bread contains some LA... but yea certainly still up there in terms of LA avoidance.
The one confounding factor is that we're basically measuring what comes out of your rain gutter, not what's on your roof. If there's more gunk coming out the pipe, that could be because more gunk is now on the roof, or because less gunk is now on the roof since more of it came down the pipe.
> Well in fairness I've eaten more somewhat-high LA foods this year. E.g. in Japan I ate a few (deep fried) gyozas, I ate a bunch of ice cream with palm fat (10% or so), whole grain bread contains some LA... but yea certainly still up there in terms of LA avoidance.
Still sounds fairly negligible in total, I mean you can literally count the number of times you ate things with LA in them!
Also why the ice-cream, Haagen-Dazs is an American brand isn't it? I think their vanilla is cream, sugar, and vanilla extract, which is hard to object to on 'real food' grounds, even if it does come out of a factory owned by a megacorporation.
The ice cream was also in Japan and it was that type on a stick that often uses palm oil (maybe in the chocolate glazing?)
Nice roundup!
My one month potato+dairy trial at the end of last year worked well enough that I’m now trying a three month version of the same to see if it continues to work or was some kind of fluke.
That's very cool. Potato + dairy is a surprising combination to work, but was pretty well regarded in SMTM's potato riffs. All the best!
Thank you for your experiments. I've yo-yoed drastically over the past 5 years and your experimental method and explanations of the Mysteries of Obesity have given me something to strive toward rather than the despair that usually comes with rapid weight gain.
I've started keeping notes in addition to my weight log. Currently running ex_sweetmilkybooba and gaining weight rapidly. I'm too old and too large to be compared to chubby cherubs who are cherished for getting fat drinking milk all day.
Earlier in the year I ran a HFLCMP diet and lost 15 pounds in a month, eating mostly cheese. I was happy to lose the weight, but my mood suffered terribly, nearing insanity. Returning to the carbs, did wonders to my mood, but my weight is sitting at all time highs.
2021, I weighed 300lbs. I quickly lost 60lbs. Eating mostly bacon and eggs, lots of PUFA. Weight training 3-4 times per week. Also childishly inspired by false-promises of love, so I don't really know what stripped the weight off of me. Steadily gained weight back to 280lbs where I plateaued, likely a mix of muscle from the weight training and fat from the PUFA and loss of inspiration.
2023, frustrated with my weight and my state in life, and still fooled by CICO, I quit my engineering job to go work landscaping in the countryside. My general vitality and joy skyrocketed, even picked up skiing in the winters. Sometime during this period I was introduced to Peat and PUFAS, so I was LA depleting too, but I never lost more than 20lbs. A situation like this is especially frustrating because my massive 'functional' strength increases must have constituted a muscle gain, so I suspect I lost much more than 20lbs of fat and gained reasonable amount of muscle. Wishful thinking?
2025, moved back to the city to get another engineering job. Went on a fast-food bender and gained 75lbs in less than a year, now weighing 335lbs. Hair falling out. Skin devolving to scales. The fast food bender was maybe only a month or two, been PUFA free most of the time, but I've been living in the swamp, at least it's a swamp with whole foods!
Plan on starting ex_plainrice shortly. Very tempted to modify it, cooking the rice in skim milk and ACV with some salt. Better to be scientific about this though, one thing at a time.
I'm down to be one of your experimental subjects, some days it feels like my entire life is on hold until the obesity is cured. We can't let future generations suffer the same fate.
> We can't let future generations suffer the same fate
Well said!
Wow that's an interesting journey, maybe even more severe than mine :) Hope you find a diet that works! Sounds like the boba is not it ;)
On the fast food thing, are you saying the fast food binge was PUFA and you were low PUFA since? Or did you eat only low PUFA fast food? What sort of fast food was it?
The hair/skin stuff sounds severe, if you're not starving yourself or high PUFA, I'd almost imagine some sort of vitamin deficiency?
On the plainrice, I'd just add ACV supplementation. Either a tablespoon per day, or the equivalent (=1 dose) of e.g. Bragg's capsules for convenience. Why not push all the buttons. I'd also supplement vitamin B1. In fact I did when I did my rice trial.
I'd go plain first, if it works well, you can try adding the skim milk. or other things.
Godspeed! Keep me updated.
The fast food binge was heavy PUFA, but the time preceding and following it has been low PUFA. Perhaps I'll try an OmegaQuant test to see what I'm made of.
I've found that 1tbs of ACV per cup of dry Jasmine rice is pretty tasty, also found some extra flavor adding a few sprigs of fresh rosemary to the rice cooker
Ah, that makes more sense then. Good luck with the experiment!
1tbsp per cup is a lot of ACV, careful that you don't burn your teeth or throat! This happened to me when I used too much real vinegar haha.
I would like to see how experimenting with beans works. Cowboy diet would be interesting as well.
What is the Cowboy diet?
AI:
Grant Genereux's "cowboy diet" refers to a highly restrictive, low-vitamin A (often called low-vA or vitamin A elimination) eating pattern that he personally followed and described in updates on his blog (ggenereux.blog). Genereux, an engineer-turned-health researcher, developed this approach after concluding that excess vitamin A (retinol and carotenoids) contributes to chronic illnesses like autoimmune conditions, eczema, and toxicity-related issues. He experimented with drastically reducing vitamin A intake to near-zero levels, claiming it led to major health improvements (e.g., resolving his own severe eczema).The term "cowboy diet" appears in community discussions (on his blog forums and related low-vA circles) as a nickname for his simple, repetitive, "boring prison / cowboy"-style meals—evoking basic, rugged staples like those a cowboy might eat (beef, beans, rice). It's not an official name he coined but a shorthand used by followers for his ultra-minimalist regimen focused on low-vitamin A foods.Core Components of His Diet (from his 2021 seven-year update and later descriptions):Beef or bison (usually ground; lean cuts preferred; regular/conventional beef over grass-fed to minimize beta-carotene; ~300–400 grams per day).
Rice (mostly white rice, sometimes alternating with brown; ~¾ cup dry measured).
Black beans (organic canned; ~250–350 ml or ¾ of a can).
Seasonings: Salt, occasional onion powder.
Beverages: Black coffee, water.
Occasional additions/snacks: Toasted white bread with honey (rare); later mentions of minimal expansions like apples in some interviews.
He typically ate two meals per day without much snacking. The diet avoids:Liver/offal (very high in preformed vitamin A).
Dairy, eggs, colorful vegetables/fruits, carrots, sweet potatoes, or anything rich in retinol or carotenoids.
Fortified foods, seed oils, and most plant sources of vitamin A.
Variations appear in discussions:Some describe it as "black beans, white rice, lean beef" (sometimes with a tsp of olive oil).
Earlier phases were even stricter (e.g., beef and rice primarily).
He emphasized cheap, regular beef (not grass-fed) to limit trace beta-carotene from greens in the cows' diet.
This is part of his broader low-vitamin A protocol, detailed in his blog posts, ebooks (like Poisoning for Profits or related works), and interviews. Followers sometimes adapt it (e.g., adding low-vA items like potatoes or specific beans), but Genereux has noted his personal version isn't necessarily "ideal" for everyone and expressed concerns about slow detox progress or setbacks in others.
Ah, I’m very familiar with him and his diet. I’ve just never heard it called cowboy diet.
Do you plan to test no sauce but without ACT? I would still be curious which had the bigger effect.
Not sure. It would be interesting just for that reason, but adding the capsules is so easy and sometimes the results are so muddled just by tiny variation anyway... so I'm not sure it would prove much if not much happens.
I have started on ACV just to see if it affects anything, I can certainly report. Curious about combining ACV with matcha or green tea extract. As you pointed out none of this was part of the standard human diet a century ago, when people were on average significantly leaner.
Regardless I plan to continue to read you with interest, a ton of respect, and curiosity. Thank you for doing this.
Here are three videos that might be of interest to you regarding additional fat loss mechanisms including a possible mechanism as to why ACV increase fat loss.
First 15 minutes of this video touches on the effect SIBO has on fat gain/loss, and the last 5 minutes is a good summary.
https://youtu.be/1Vlnoq4-Sn4?si=aQveYKwsyKo7GaSA
A shorter more concise 18 minute video on the mechanism of SIBO with regard to fat
https://youtu.be/-5OEQfVDm2I?si=5dIajNRFTorrG-o
And finally the most relevant video with regard to the possible mechanism of how ACV increases fat loss and possibly a more effective three step mechanism
https://youtu.be/YuJ4XYqFYHE?si=AnxHfrudniyoT3xt
Thanks, I'll check them out
Not sure if it's intentional, but the guy in the image on top sort of looks like Brad Marshall with a cowboy hat on...
Haha maybe that's why I liked that picture ;)
I've been thinking of trying a sardine diet for a month or so. Have you ever tried this?
Not just sardines, but I've done something similar:
https://www.exfatloss.com/p/ex150sardines-mod-review-non-24-stayed?utm_source=publication-search
I've tried several times but that link appears broken.
Hm, works for me. What if you leave out the part after the "?" character?
Yep, got it, thanks. You touched on my biggest concern, flavor. Smells fishy, tastes fishy, even the more expensive brands. If I go through with it, I'll check back in.