n=2: Lean subject stays weight stable on ex150berries

Brief interview & overview of a trial with my friend, Subject 1.

Subject 1 did a slightly modified ex150 over almost 2 months while physically active.

Overview

My friend, Subject 1, let me cajole him into trying ex150. He’s always been lean, starting the experiment at 176lbs. But while slim and a very active weight lifter, he had never achieved six-pack abs. We were curious if ex150 would help him achieve that.

Initially we had planned for 30 days, but he got a bad cold about a week in, possibly because he was under-eating while doing CrossFit every day. I had to assure him that, yes, he absolutely had to eat cream until he couldn’t take any more. Every day.

After recovery he eased back into it with a light-version of ex150, then completed a full 30 days on the diet. During this period, he resumed his previous powerlifting regimen (squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press).

If we solely look at the post-water-weight-loss, post-illness, post-recovery-from-illness period of 30 days, his weight was exactly the same on the first and last day. Visually he says there might’ve been a little bit of fat loss and muscle gain (“recomp”), but nothing crazy.

ex150 modification: berries

Subject 1 is fond of mixing berries into his heavy cream, making it more palatable. Thus, a small amount of berries (~100g/day) were part of his daily routine. I estimate that 100g of berries have 5-10g of carbs, depending on the type/mix. That’s less than 1 of my typical Starbucks lattes, so I think it doesn’t make any difference, especially given his high level of physical activity.

ex150 light

After recovering from the cold, Subject 1 eased back into ex150 by adding dark chocolate and, sometimes, cheese instead of the main meal.

Interview

Let's get some basic info: could you tell us your sex, age, height, and what sort of physical activity you engage in?
Male, 38, 5’11 / 182cm, power lifting.

Can you tell us about your diet history?
Paleo with cheat days for years, then keto for 8 years.

What was your goal for the ex150 experiment?
Refine my muscle appearance, especially in the belly area.

Was the diet experiment easy or difficult to adhere to?
Easy.

Was there an adjustment period?
No. [Note: Subject 1 has years of keto under his belt, so there wouldn’t be much adjustment.]

Could you have continued, or were you happy it was over?
Yes, could continue indefinitely.

How did you feel overall?
It was great. Makes cooking/logistics predictable.

Did you continue your physical activities during the experiment, and if so, was performance diminished/the same?
Yes. Performance seems to have suffered a little, but it might be because I increased weights at the same time.

Did the experiment get you closer/entirely to your goal?
Yes, slightly refined stomach muscles. But no six pack yet.

What were some things that you found difficult/confusing/annoying about the diet?
My weight did not go down. And I’m unsure how much meat to eat after the diet.
[Note: I advised Subject 1 to eat infinite amounts of meat for a few weeks after the diet, just in case, and to help his weight lifting performance.]

Did you find any tips/insights that helped you overcome the difficult parts?
Maybe do it longer.

In the Scheme of Things

How do we integrate this into our prior knowledge?

Since I’d been the only one trying ex150 long-term so far, I wasn’t sure if it was a “fat loss diet” in the strictest sense, or a “fat normalization diet.” I.e., could you ex150 your way to six-pack abs and a fitness model look?

No such thing as free abs

Apparently, going off of this experiment, you cannot. It’s probably the case that ex150 is “just” a fat normalization diet, i.e. a diet to quit obesity. If we assume there’s a mechanism in the body to keep it at a healthy body fat level, something is going wrong if we’ve become obese. ex150 seems to just remove whatever that factor is, but once you’ve reached a normal body fat level, your appetite will likely increase to keep you there. Too bad. Abs would be cool!

What this means is that you might go from obese to normal weight. But if you want a bodybuilder/fitness model look, you might still have to starve yourself down like they do. Personally, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there ;-)

It does support my thesis that the fat loss of “normal → super lean” and “obese → normal” are very different things, and should probably utilize very different strategies. It might be analogous to shaving a few pounds off your race car vs. unloading your U-Haul truck after moving. Yes, weight reduction. But not a useful comparison.

1,500ml of cream days

To underscore the point about appetite increasing to meet energy balance: since Subject 1 didn’t have nearly as much body fat storage as I do, he had to make up for it by consuming insane amounts of cream. His food log reported several days of 1,500ml (that’s over 1.5 quarts, the big cartons!). For reference, my usual ex150 macros get me to about 500ml of cream per day, and I’m sure I’ve occasionally managed 600 or 700ml.

He was routinely tripling that. But then he couldn’t use 1,000kcal/day from body fat storage, plus he was physically active and lifting weights, whereas I am sedentary AF.

I think this comparison in cream intake nicely demonstrates a healthy metabolism’s ability to adjust food intake to meet energy expenditure.

Moar Trials?

It would be cool to run some small-scale community trials, similar to what slime mold/time mold are doing. Unfortunately, I am not a real scientist, just 3 raccoons in a lab coat. So I’m not super familiar with managing the logistics of it.

But if there’s interest in some sort of very early trial, with maybe 5 people, would you be interested, Dear Reader? It would involve something like the 30 day run Subject 1 did, hopefully sans the getting sick part, and a similar debrief interview.

Please let me know in the comments.