I read a few of his articles. It's quite crazy. He stopped eating PUFAs, his body temperature came up a lot, from 97 to 98.5F (Broda!) indicating that his metabolism fixed itself over a couple of years.
He hasn't touched a PUFA since, and his BMI magically came down from 28 to 23.
I suspect that everything else he's been doing is completely irrelevant except to introduce noise. I couldn't find a graph anywhere, which is a shame. I'd love to see his weight history with all his various experiments labelled.
Congratulations by the way! Stellar results, it's just rather hard to say what caused them.
I'm currently really really interested in the idea of PUFAs as an unnatural food that sods up our systems (and in particular dysregulates the homeostat that regulates weight), but I don't quite buy it, and I don't want to believe anything that isn't actually true, so anything you can tell me for or against that idea I'd be most grateful for.
When did you cut the PUFAs? Do you remember? You seem to have taken the idea very seriously for a while. The temperature rise over a couple of years is pretty much exactly as I'd predict if the PUFA cutting was at the start of that period. Did you feel better as a result?
This is a good summary. I’ve been reading MAS for a long time. He is a trailblazer. He is aware of and thinks through most of the trends in this diet fitness space. A good guy.
I went strict PUFA removal in 2013. Later I would add back nuts and seeds. These days I still avoid seed oil and cook most food in liquid (soups, steam, pressure cook). I do recall feeling better at a warmer temperature. I had 2 thyroid panels and both were perfect.
My weight went up after PUFA removal. But it was unrelated, as I was consuming more calories. I mentioned to Exfatloss in an email that it is possible that PUFA removal is helping me maintain the potato diet fat loss via a higher metabolism. We will never know. FireInTheBottle has some interesting posts on the topic. I hope we learn more in the coming years.
- You didn't lose weight until 2015, when you additionally went on the potato/modern peasant diet?
If so, that would be compatible with the observations from r/saturatedfat that some people can lose weight just by cutting out PUFAs, but many need to restrict protein or even stay HCLF or HFLC on top.
I don’t think I can draw conclusions from that time. I did increase calories from some Ray Peat ideas, and I also had an injury and stopped exercising to the same level that I was before. The only thing I know for certain is that my body temperature increased.
I was reading a lot of the Ray Peat stuff regarding thyroid. I wanted to check if mine was fine. It was. My only symptom was cold hands, which has gotten a little better over the years. And the 2nd test was at a time when I was just testing a bunch of things through Ultalabs.
I think that PUFAs, by clogging up the metabolism, might cause a sort of type 2 thyroid problem / thyroid resistance. So symptoms but normal blood tests.
I read a few of his articles. It's quite crazy. He stopped eating PUFAs, his body temperature came up a lot, from 97 to 98.5F (Broda!) indicating that his metabolism fixed itself over a couple of years.
He hasn't touched a PUFA since, and his BMI magically came down from 28 to 23.
I suspect that everything else he's been doing is completely irrelevant except to introduce noise. I couldn't find a graph anywhere, which is a shame. I'd love to see his weight history with all his various experiments labelled.
I wish I had done a better job at tracking data when I first started diet experiments.
The short version:
2000-2008: ~205 (pesco-vegetarian + gluten)
2009-2015: 190 - 222 (Paleo then Peat GF)
Then I dropped to 180 as covered in this article, which I've maintained.
What's the GF in Peat GF?
Gluten-free
Congratulations by the way! Stellar results, it's just rather hard to say what caused them.
I'm currently really really interested in the idea of PUFAs as an unnatural food that sods up our systems (and in particular dysregulates the homeostat that regulates weight), but I don't quite buy it, and I don't want to believe anything that isn't actually true, so anything you can tell me for or against that idea I'd be most grateful for.
When did you cut the PUFAs? Do you remember? You seem to have taken the idea very seriously for a while. The temperature rise over a couple of years is pretty much exactly as I'd predict if the PUFA cutting was at the start of that period. Did you feel better as a result?
Did you ever have any 'thyroid' symptoms https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/symptoms/ (to me these are 'slow metabolism' symptoms).
Have you seen any weight gains since cutting out the PUFAs, or has it been a fairly monotonic decrease ever since?
This is a good summary. I’ve been reading MAS for a long time. He is a trailblazer. He is aware of and thinks through most of the trends in this diet fitness space. A good guy.
Definitely fascinating to read his decades long journey and view on various diet ideas coming and going.
I went strict PUFA removal in 2013. Later I would add back nuts and seeds. These days I still avoid seed oil and cook most food in liquid (soups, steam, pressure cook). I do recall feeling better at a warmer temperature. I had 2 thyroid panels and both were perfect.
My weight went up after PUFA removal. But it was unrelated, as I was consuming more calories. I mentioned to Exfatloss in an email that it is possible that PUFA removal is helping me maintain the potato diet fat loss via a higher metabolism. We will never know. FireInTheBottle has some interesting posts on the topic. I hope we learn more in the coming years.
Is it fair to say that:
- You avoided PUFAs strictly since 2013
- Some of your hypo-ish symptoms improved (temp)
- You didn't lose weight until 2015, when you additionally went on the potato/modern peasant diet?
If so, that would be compatible with the observations from r/saturatedfat that some people can lose weight just by cutting out PUFAs, but many need to restrict protein or even stay HCLF or HFLC on top.
I don’t think I can draw conclusions from that time. I did increase calories from some Ray Peat ideas, and I also had an injury and stopped exercising to the same level that I was before. The only thing I know for certain is that my body temperature increased.
> I had 2 thyroid panels and both were perfect.
Oooh! Why were you getting thyroid tests? Did your doctor think you had thyroid symptoms?
I was reading a lot of the Ray Peat stuff regarding thyroid. I wanted to check if mine was fine. It was. My only symptom was cold hands, which has gotten a little better over the years. And the 2nd test was at a time when I was just testing a bunch of things through Ultalabs.
I think that PUFAs, by clogging up the metabolism, might cause a sort of type 2 thyroid problem / thyroid resistance. So symptoms but normal blood tests.
Nice article. I'm always interested in seeing where people with different viewpoints agree.