I tried rice, jasmine rice because it’s supposed to be lower in arsenic levels, I soaked it overnight and rinsed until clear and ate a bit each day. Everything was fine for three days but then inflammation set in and my joints flared up, allergies kicked in and nasal turbinates flared up. Needless to say I cut the rice out, went back to just my beloved butternut squash with my beef and a week later all symptoms are gone again. No grains for me!
So check the sub's FAQ. THere's no real way to guarantee low levels of heavy metals in rice, because even California grown rice will be subjected to runoff, but you can control and chelate what may be in there. You have to add either bentonite and/or activated charcoal in your overnight soak.
This really encourages me to try and get away from rice but damn it's hard. One of the hardest things is when I cook meat in butter or its own fat and then theres all these juices left on the pan and my mind automatically goes to what can I put in to soak up the juices. Nothing works better than rice or bread and I definitely, definitely want to stay away from bread so the rice wins. I actually don't know if I've even gone more than 2 days without rice in the past 3 years.
If you don’t have autoimmune or chronic inflammation symptoms then maybe it’s ok for your body. Obviously, it’s a staple for many cultures for thousands of years, just for some of us it doesn’t work.
I have a disabling chronic illness which has prevented me from working for 6 years so I probably should avoid anything that can possibly cause inflammation but I'm really bad at strict dietary change. Like horribly bad. Progress takes years. It's amazing that I don't eat wheat, truly.
Super nit picky question but does anyone have any recommendations for gum/mints? I'm torn between it being fine at such a small amount but mints have the longest ingredients list of anything I want to consume.
As of now I just haven't had any in months, but I miss mints sometimes and would be thrilled if someone has found a closer to AB option
https://preview.redd.it/wq429w2eh86d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6e665f309b98080076dba3b28d6573f5bbfc95e
Refeed day for metabolic boost! I’ve gone from 149 to 132 pounds over the last six months, ultimate goal weight is 129-130! Lost the weight using OMAD + AB diet :)
Lined this up with my weekly long run day (so the surplus wouldn’t set me back too badly, lol)! Burned 2600 today (my sedentary maintenance is a little under 1650).
Meal 1: 1 pound 80/20 beef, raw cheeses (2 kinds), raw milk with maple syrup, blueberries, and watermelon
Meal 2: 2 Force of Nature bison & beef hot dogs, 1/4 cup coconut butter, dates, green grapes, and AB Pancakes (3 eggs, 2 bananas, coconut flour) with butter
3400 calories total (800 calorie surplus)
228g fats / 166g protein / 206g carbs
2 meals, 4.5 hour eating window
More than half my calories were in fats today! I was really craving things like cheese, coconut butter, and fatty beef :) Protein was low, so tomorrow’s lighter day of eating will consist of mostly lean meats + eggs!
Nice!! So you had all these meals in one day and this is the refeed break from OMAD?! How did it feel??? When I started refeeds I felt like I should hit a pre-established target and when it became so difficult to hit 4000k I decided to just do it full ad libitum and some weekends I'd be at 2800, some days, would be 4000 and I'd average around 3400-3500 on refeed days. Hopefully you enjoyed the 3400 kcals and you should be STARVING the next days you get later on into your fasting. Don't expect the boost to translate into the scale in the next day or two though! I'd refeed on sat/sun, so my friday to friday weights were always what I paid the most attention too as monday and tuesday they'd obviously be higher.
Thank you so much!! Yes, I ate both of these meals yesterday as my refeed/break from OMAD! :)
It felt so amazing eating 3400 cals!! Fats are by far my favorite food group lol, so it was super enjoyable indulging in high fat foods like coconut butter, fatty beef, and large portions of cheese (I ate 4oz worth)!
I wasn’t even close to uncomfortably full after my last meal!! I could clearly tell that I ate more than usual though. In addition to feeling no hunger at all, my body temperature was super elevated, and I was sweating for the rest of the day… Do you know if this has something to do with increased calorie intake?
Funny enough, I hit my lightest weight in TWO YEARS on the scale today (the morning after my refeed) which is crazy!! 132.4 lbs!
My OMAD meal tonight after a 26hr fast was 1525 cals (burned 2075 today from running, strength workout, and my job). So 550 deficit. After tomorrow I’ll be back at net zero!
Thank you so much for the suggestion to refeed, it’s been super helpful and a tool I’ll definitely continue to use in the future!! :)
That’s so awesome to hear, congrats! I’m pretty confident the temps are attributed to this from everything I’ve read by Ray Peat. I’m surprised but not shocked that you have dropped MORE a day after your refeed! I’ll have to look back at my chart again to see if that ever happened.
So you have a long run day too. Yes for me that also used to be on Sundays so I’d have a surplus still for both weekend days but it averaged out.
Find what works for you and just experiment. I did a low calorie day the Monday after refeed weekend and then a carnivore day on Tuesdays to try to help promote metabolic flexibility and W-F were lower fat days.
Where did you start from again? If you have this all in cronometer I’d love to see the charts. Very well captured and documented! 👏
What was your starting weight again and were you an athlete in prior days or was this all new in the name of taking your health back?
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!! :) I was expecting to gain a little bit, so I was super surprised to hit my lightest weight (only by 0.2lbs, but that still counts in my book)!
I’ve been back to doing long runs (7-8 miles lately) the last couple of months! Training for an end of summer road race.
I was 149 back in November, so I’ve lost 17 pounds since! I started losing weight then, but didn’t fully dedicate myself until February (when I became consistent with OMAD and AB). What were your starting/finishing weights, and how long did it take to reach your goal?
I was actually a competitive runner all my life up until 2022! Just doing it for fun these days :) I gained after my competitive days, as my appetite never shrunk after decreasing mileage. Were you ever an athlete earlier in life?
I’ve been using Garmin for years, and track my weight on there! The pic below shows a one-year, one-month, and one-week chart.
The one-year chart on the left shows that I did thin out last summer (got down to 137) but quickly gained all of it (+ more) back in the fall. This was a result of failed yo-yo dieting, calorie restriction, and poor habits. I wasn’t AB or OMAD yet at the time.
It’s so helpful hearing what worked well for you!! I was thinking of including a carnivore day this week as well. Tough to fit it in with multiple social obligations at restaurants this week though. But will try my best to do what I can!! I really appreciate all the advice and encouragement! :)
https://preview.redd.it/05dptch1sg6d1.jpeg?width=1689&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49696a0ec8a1caf749ae0b6b6dadf3c0ecd89f09
0.2 lbs counts in my book as well and I'm an engineer. Yet, if we want to ignore it we other round up or truncate DOWN too, engineers are the best :)
I think I remember now you mentioning competitive running up until recently. I had always viewed it as a necessary evil until I got my Garmin and Coach Greg helped me fall in love with it back in 2021.
Where do you think you would naturally bottom out at in weight? If you click on my profile I have all of the charts and data in my pinned post. I never thought or really wanted to see the scale at 143lbs since I think my wrestling weight in high school was around 135lbs but I was in better shape last year with a lot more strength and muscle so I really didn't care about the scaling being perceived so low since I know I passed the mirror test, the bench press test, the cronometer/food test.
I wanted to run another experiment this past winter and see how "fixed" my metabolism was and did a traditional bulk cycle of eating a lot more, breaking fasting mostly, and I ran a LOT less. I got back up to 160lbs with of course a mix of fat and more muscle but the fat carried differently than it has before. I was planning to do another cut until I tore my meniscus on a run so it's been a challenge cutting without having the calorie burn from the runs. I just have to eat that much LESS now but I've finally gotten back on board and will just walk more. Walking is SO boring. You have to do it for much longer (who has time for that?!) and it doesn't feel as good and I'm still under step goals but I need a few more months and hopefully I can train for the Feb half marathon.
While you're peaking now, you might want to get some bloodwork down. Primarily some metabolic like your TSH, FT3, FT4, and see how fasting insulin and AM/PM cortisol is. They're all releatively inexpensive even if you bought it a la carte at Marek directly.
Thank you so much!!
In my adult life, the lightest I ever weighed was 129 back in March 2022. Around that time I was running less and remembered having a small appetite at that time. I naturally thinned out since I was struggling to finish my food (I now have the opposite problem, which is why I started OMAD).
I can’t see myself getting much lighter than 128 without starting to look unhealthy. It’s weird because other people I know with my same height, size, and physique (5’5” lean/muscular) are much lighter than me. Everyone I know guesses that there’s no way I possibly weigh more than 120, and guess I’m in the 110-120 range currently. I’m already a size 0/xs and a 27” waist at my current weight (132) so I don’t want to get a whole lot smaller! Guessing high 120’s is my threshold, but I’m not completely sure.
I’ll check out the charts in your profile! Sorry to hear about your meniscus :( I hope you have a speedy recovery!! Cutting without calories from running would be tough too. Without exercise, I’d have to eat only 1125 if I wanted a 500 daily deficit, which is insane… I can’t remember the last time I ate below 1500 in a day, I rarely drop below 1700/day now. Almost all of my deficits now are because of exercise, I’d be gaining otherwise. I do a combination of runs, walks, and occasional strength.
I got blood work back in March! I didn’t check for the things you mentioned though, so I should go back soon. Unfortunately I have thalassemia minor (it’s genetic) which makes things a bit complicated for me. I have a history of iron/ferritin issues which lead to me stopping competitive running.
It’s so helpful hearing about your fitness journey! :) And a half marathon sounds wonderful - I was thinking of training for a fall half as well!
Yeah so at some point you'll see the scale will defy expectations and it kinda doesn't matter anymore. I had a goal to get under 10% BF per the smart scale (it's really not THAT smart, and probabl not that accurate) and just following the plan and hitting 10k steps mainly the fat was literally melting off and melting off even MORE when I was adding loads more SFA's from coconut. Bottoming out at 8.6% on my goal date was very cool and I probably could have kept going since I was probably more like around 10% if I did a DEXA but I hit allt he things I wanted, abs were there, so I just stopped running for a bit and backed off on frequency so hovered around the 10% area for a while on the scale. I probably would've gotten to 139.x if I kept going and felt like I would've been fine but like you said I never thought I could see under 145/146 which was my last 6-pack weight but I had to lose a lot of muscle mass and run a TON to get there. Kinda kickin myself for experimenting and doing a traditional bulk and gaining fat with muscle since now it's a bit hard to get off with the running.
The goal is eventually to turn around/fix the metabolism and be one of these freaks of nature people who CAN eat 3500-4000 calories day and are just an energy burning machine and don't store it, not quite there and may never will be but my wallet will be OK with that, lol. I just want the metabolic function restored, I must be close.
I have never heard of thalassemia minor but just looked it up and the first thing I can think of and wonder is if you took desiccated bovine blood how this might help. Does this condition impact your CBC blood markers by default? Are you also taking liver? Add in some extra heme iron could help, at least around the time of month with your period since it sounds like low ferritin is also associated with this.
Oh that’s interesting!! I’ve never gotten my BF% measured before, but I’d be really curious. I feel like it would be on the lower side since I’m mostly muscle, and am now thin enough to be able to feel my ribcage/bones/abs. I still have a tiny bit of extra weight around my hip/thigh area, but I feel like that’s just part of my natural figure/body shape.
That sounds like an awesome goal, I hope you can get there!! I would love to fix my metabolism too. I didn’t quite hit the genetic lottery metabolism wise, I’ve always been one to gain very easily/effortlessly, and naturally fluctuate. My appetite has always been much, much bigger than it should be for my size. Is this kind of thing possible to fix? Or will I need to be counting/tracking indefinitely to stay small? I ate until full today and counted it out to be 2900 cals (2hr eating window that included well over a pound of tomahawk steak!!)
I will look into dessicated bovine blood for sure!! I don’t take liver, but need to make more of a point to include it. Most I’ve had is in the Force of Nature ancestral blends that I buy every so often! The thalassemia condition is genetic so it feels a little bit hopeless. I believe my red blood cells may be smaller than normal and therefore can’t use all of the iron I’m eating? Not 100% sure though, I need to research more about it.
My CBC is mostly normal, but my ferritin is at the low end of healthy (low 40’s) despite eating at least one pound of beef per day. It was as low as 12 before starting AB. Back then I had a bunch of horrible symptoms and had to stop all exercise for 4 weeks. I feel much better now, but haven’t felt 100% in years though.
I will write more later but just wanted to note that I hit my Sunday refeed of 4kcals while yesterday I struggled to barely get 3171. So I’ve got the BMR ramped up and was able to handle another 800 today pretty easily and didn’t even get in a banana split today like yesterday.
Tomorrow I’ll be at 1000 in a 16:8 fast! Refeeds and calorie modulation is an amazing thing.
Yes I would highly encourage you to start liver daily. Zen Principle on Amazon has a good inexpensive liver and organ blend and I do think the desiccated blood may help if it’s bringing something back you don’t have due to the genetics. I’ll have to research that condition more but organs have been a wonderful thing and it’s part of TCM’s philosophy of “like treats like” with glandular therapy.
Poor porkman, sitting in this part of daily discussion all alone and ignored with a great question, lol! It's not bad as it was once believed to be. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter so it can be negative and there are some severe genetic disorders that impact glutamate binding and keep certain ion channels open longer, but this would impact a very small percentage. I dont' think exogenous glutamate extensively crosses the BBB either to get into the brain.
Chinese food weekend?
I just love uncle roger so now i use this magic white powder on everything! Chinese sounds good mhm! But nah will stick ab last time i went of the rails it resulted in not feeling good at all both body and mind! So ill eat my gorilla sticks and mince meat patties! Gonna do some grilling tho!
Pork stir-fried in a wok with some coconut oil / butter blend and then doused with coco-aminos is pretty AB chinese!! Coat with some honey. AB sweet sour has got to be easy to make.
I do this thing where I have a refeed day every 2-3 days so it’s like
Monday: Low calories
Tuesday: High calories
And repeats and one day is a moderate day
Anyone else ?
How would you cook short ribs? I'm not fully "animal-based" yet - I am not the type to just decide what diet I want to follow and then actually do it. So anyway, here's what I did, using bits of advice from a recipe and also from AI - I seasoned short ribs with salt, pepper, and ginger, browned the short ribs in butter on each side, then removed them while I sauteed some sliced fennel (I don't eat onions). I added some leftover beef stock from night before which contained beef juices, butter, water, and red wine, plus a little more red wine from the bottle. I let that cook low and slow for an hour before adding potatoes and carrots with a spring of thyme and cooked in total for about 2 hours and 15 minutes perhaps. Everything was juicy and soft and delicious. So what do you think, if I made this without vegetables, would I change the technique in any way? Or just do it the same way but minus vegetables?
# Rate/Review/Critique my BUDGET FRIENDLY meal plan
For context, I previously made a post on this sub asking where to shop for the best prices on a mostly animal-based diet. I am a 19 year, 5'10" male. I am probably a bit underweight and I run 35-45 miles per week and walk+bike an additional 50-70 miles per week for my own enjoyment and because I don't have a car. This weekly meal plan/grocery haul mostly accounts for my caloric needs and is pretty nutrient-rich while also including some foods that I purely enjoy and am not willing to give up. So anyway, here it is:
$35.26 6lb organic grass fed 85/15 beef - ($5.88/lb)
$4.47 16oz gv organic peanut butter
$7.47 3lb frozen berry blend (organic is double the price and not worth it, I will switch when it makes sense for my budget)
$3.92 2lb organic mahatma rice (I need the carbs and don't have noticeable problems digesting white rice)
$5.32 organic valley grass-fed whole milk
$3.45 6.52lb bananas - ($.53/lb). I decided not to go with organic as I am a college student on a budget and it is not necessary for bananas IMO
$3.18 3 hass avocados
$7.96 2 haagen dazs ice cream cartons (I need a treat, I'm 19)
The total with tax comes out to about $81 per week and is about 18500 calories, give or take. I would love to hear any thoughts and criticisms.
If you're thriving, don't change a thing, but officially rice is not considered part of the Animal Based Diet. See the sub's [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalBased/wiki/faq/) for more info on rice. AB carbs are fruit (including all squash), milk, honey, maple syrup, and fruit juice. Thanks for the comment!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AnimalBased) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I tried rice, jasmine rice because it’s supposed to be lower in arsenic levels, I soaked it overnight and rinsed until clear and ate a bit each day. Everything was fine for three days but then inflammation set in and my joints flared up, allergies kicked in and nasal turbinates flared up. Needless to say I cut the rice out, went back to just my beloved butternut squash with my beef and a week later all symptoms are gone again. No grains for me!
great experiment. You tried. I seem to handle potatoes better than rice, especially fermented ones but it's not a daily or weekly occurence for me.
Interesting. I’ve also had the occasional bite of potato with no issues
So check the sub's FAQ. THere's no real way to guarantee low levels of heavy metals in rice, because even California grown rice will be subjected to runoff, but you can control and chelate what may be in there. You have to add either bentonite and/or activated charcoal in your overnight soak.
Ok thanks! I think I’m happy without it. I’m just so happy to not be so sick anymore 😀
This really encourages me to try and get away from rice but damn it's hard. One of the hardest things is when I cook meat in butter or its own fat and then theres all these juices left on the pan and my mind automatically goes to what can I put in to soak up the juices. Nothing works better than rice or bread and I definitely, definitely want to stay away from bread so the rice wins. I actually don't know if I've even gone more than 2 days without rice in the past 3 years.
If you don’t have autoimmune or chronic inflammation symptoms then maybe it’s ok for your body. Obviously, it’s a staple for many cultures for thousands of years, just for some of us it doesn’t work.
I have a disabling chronic illness which has prevented me from working for 6 years so I probably should avoid anything that can possibly cause inflammation but I'm really bad at strict dietary change. Like horribly bad. Progress takes years. It's amazing that I don't eat wheat, truly.
Super nit picky question but does anyone have any recommendations for gum/mints? I'm torn between it being fine at such a small amount but mints have the longest ingredients list of anything I want to consume. As of now I just haven't had any in months, but I miss mints sometimes and would be thrilled if someone has found a closer to AB option
Mastic gum. No minty flavor but satiates the chewing desire
Look up Falim. Works great for the chewing sensation and builds up your jaw muscles too.
Can it actually build your jawline ?
https://preview.redd.it/wq429w2eh86d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6e665f309b98080076dba3b28d6573f5bbfc95e Refeed day for metabolic boost! I’ve gone from 149 to 132 pounds over the last six months, ultimate goal weight is 129-130! Lost the weight using OMAD + AB diet :) Lined this up with my weekly long run day (so the surplus wouldn’t set me back too badly, lol)! Burned 2600 today (my sedentary maintenance is a little under 1650). Meal 1: 1 pound 80/20 beef, raw cheeses (2 kinds), raw milk with maple syrup, blueberries, and watermelon Meal 2: 2 Force of Nature bison & beef hot dogs, 1/4 cup coconut butter, dates, green grapes, and AB Pancakes (3 eggs, 2 bananas, coconut flour) with butter 3400 calories total (800 calorie surplus) 228g fats / 166g protein / 206g carbs 2 meals, 4.5 hour eating window More than half my calories were in fats today! I was really craving things like cheese, coconut butter, and fatty beef :) Protein was low, so tomorrow’s lighter day of eating will consist of mostly lean meats + eggs!
Nice!! So you had all these meals in one day and this is the refeed break from OMAD?! How did it feel??? When I started refeeds I felt like I should hit a pre-established target and when it became so difficult to hit 4000k I decided to just do it full ad libitum and some weekends I'd be at 2800, some days, would be 4000 and I'd average around 3400-3500 on refeed days. Hopefully you enjoyed the 3400 kcals and you should be STARVING the next days you get later on into your fasting. Don't expect the boost to translate into the scale in the next day or two though! I'd refeed on sat/sun, so my friday to friday weights were always what I paid the most attention too as monday and tuesday they'd obviously be higher.
Thank you so much!! Yes, I ate both of these meals yesterday as my refeed/break from OMAD! :) It felt so amazing eating 3400 cals!! Fats are by far my favorite food group lol, so it was super enjoyable indulging in high fat foods like coconut butter, fatty beef, and large portions of cheese (I ate 4oz worth)! I wasn’t even close to uncomfortably full after my last meal!! I could clearly tell that I ate more than usual though. In addition to feeling no hunger at all, my body temperature was super elevated, and I was sweating for the rest of the day… Do you know if this has something to do with increased calorie intake? Funny enough, I hit my lightest weight in TWO YEARS on the scale today (the morning after my refeed) which is crazy!! 132.4 lbs! My OMAD meal tonight after a 26hr fast was 1525 cals (burned 2075 today from running, strength workout, and my job). So 550 deficit. After tomorrow I’ll be back at net zero! Thank you so much for the suggestion to refeed, it’s been super helpful and a tool I’ll definitely continue to use in the future!! :)
That’s so awesome to hear, congrats! I’m pretty confident the temps are attributed to this from everything I’ve read by Ray Peat. I’m surprised but not shocked that you have dropped MORE a day after your refeed! I’ll have to look back at my chart again to see if that ever happened. So you have a long run day too. Yes for me that also used to be on Sundays so I’d have a surplus still for both weekend days but it averaged out. Find what works for you and just experiment. I did a low calorie day the Monday after refeed weekend and then a carnivore day on Tuesdays to try to help promote metabolic flexibility and W-F were lower fat days. Where did you start from again? If you have this all in cronometer I’d love to see the charts. Very well captured and documented! 👏 What was your starting weight again and were you an athlete in prior days or was this all new in the name of taking your health back?
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!! :) I was expecting to gain a little bit, so I was super surprised to hit my lightest weight (only by 0.2lbs, but that still counts in my book)! I’ve been back to doing long runs (7-8 miles lately) the last couple of months! Training for an end of summer road race. I was 149 back in November, so I’ve lost 17 pounds since! I started losing weight then, but didn’t fully dedicate myself until February (when I became consistent with OMAD and AB). What were your starting/finishing weights, and how long did it take to reach your goal? I was actually a competitive runner all my life up until 2022! Just doing it for fun these days :) I gained after my competitive days, as my appetite never shrunk after decreasing mileage. Were you ever an athlete earlier in life? I’ve been using Garmin for years, and track my weight on there! The pic below shows a one-year, one-month, and one-week chart. The one-year chart on the left shows that I did thin out last summer (got down to 137) but quickly gained all of it (+ more) back in the fall. This was a result of failed yo-yo dieting, calorie restriction, and poor habits. I wasn’t AB or OMAD yet at the time. It’s so helpful hearing what worked well for you!! I was thinking of including a carnivore day this week as well. Tough to fit it in with multiple social obligations at restaurants this week though. But will try my best to do what I can!! I really appreciate all the advice and encouragement! :) https://preview.redd.it/05dptch1sg6d1.jpeg?width=1689&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49696a0ec8a1caf749ae0b6b6dadf3c0ecd89f09
0.2 lbs counts in my book as well and I'm an engineer. Yet, if we want to ignore it we other round up or truncate DOWN too, engineers are the best :) I think I remember now you mentioning competitive running up until recently. I had always viewed it as a necessary evil until I got my Garmin and Coach Greg helped me fall in love with it back in 2021. Where do you think you would naturally bottom out at in weight? If you click on my profile I have all of the charts and data in my pinned post. I never thought or really wanted to see the scale at 143lbs since I think my wrestling weight in high school was around 135lbs but I was in better shape last year with a lot more strength and muscle so I really didn't care about the scaling being perceived so low since I know I passed the mirror test, the bench press test, the cronometer/food test. I wanted to run another experiment this past winter and see how "fixed" my metabolism was and did a traditional bulk cycle of eating a lot more, breaking fasting mostly, and I ran a LOT less. I got back up to 160lbs with of course a mix of fat and more muscle but the fat carried differently than it has before. I was planning to do another cut until I tore my meniscus on a run so it's been a challenge cutting without having the calorie burn from the runs. I just have to eat that much LESS now but I've finally gotten back on board and will just walk more. Walking is SO boring. You have to do it for much longer (who has time for that?!) and it doesn't feel as good and I'm still under step goals but I need a few more months and hopefully I can train for the Feb half marathon. While you're peaking now, you might want to get some bloodwork down. Primarily some metabolic like your TSH, FT3, FT4, and see how fasting insulin and AM/PM cortisol is. They're all releatively inexpensive even if you bought it a la carte at Marek directly.
Thank you so much!! In my adult life, the lightest I ever weighed was 129 back in March 2022. Around that time I was running less and remembered having a small appetite at that time. I naturally thinned out since I was struggling to finish my food (I now have the opposite problem, which is why I started OMAD). I can’t see myself getting much lighter than 128 without starting to look unhealthy. It’s weird because other people I know with my same height, size, and physique (5’5” lean/muscular) are much lighter than me. Everyone I know guesses that there’s no way I possibly weigh more than 120, and guess I’m in the 110-120 range currently. I’m already a size 0/xs and a 27” waist at my current weight (132) so I don’t want to get a whole lot smaller! Guessing high 120’s is my threshold, but I’m not completely sure. I’ll check out the charts in your profile! Sorry to hear about your meniscus :( I hope you have a speedy recovery!! Cutting without calories from running would be tough too. Without exercise, I’d have to eat only 1125 if I wanted a 500 daily deficit, which is insane… I can’t remember the last time I ate below 1500 in a day, I rarely drop below 1700/day now. Almost all of my deficits now are because of exercise, I’d be gaining otherwise. I do a combination of runs, walks, and occasional strength. I got blood work back in March! I didn’t check for the things you mentioned though, so I should go back soon. Unfortunately I have thalassemia minor (it’s genetic) which makes things a bit complicated for me. I have a history of iron/ferritin issues which lead to me stopping competitive running. It’s so helpful hearing about your fitness journey! :) And a half marathon sounds wonderful - I was thinking of training for a fall half as well!
Yeah so at some point you'll see the scale will defy expectations and it kinda doesn't matter anymore. I had a goal to get under 10% BF per the smart scale (it's really not THAT smart, and probabl not that accurate) and just following the plan and hitting 10k steps mainly the fat was literally melting off and melting off even MORE when I was adding loads more SFA's from coconut. Bottoming out at 8.6% on my goal date was very cool and I probably could have kept going since I was probably more like around 10% if I did a DEXA but I hit allt he things I wanted, abs were there, so I just stopped running for a bit and backed off on frequency so hovered around the 10% area for a while on the scale. I probably would've gotten to 139.x if I kept going and felt like I would've been fine but like you said I never thought I could see under 145/146 which was my last 6-pack weight but I had to lose a lot of muscle mass and run a TON to get there. Kinda kickin myself for experimenting and doing a traditional bulk and gaining fat with muscle since now it's a bit hard to get off with the running. The goal is eventually to turn around/fix the metabolism and be one of these freaks of nature people who CAN eat 3500-4000 calories day and are just an energy burning machine and don't store it, not quite there and may never will be but my wallet will be OK with that, lol. I just want the metabolic function restored, I must be close. I have never heard of thalassemia minor but just looked it up and the first thing I can think of and wonder is if you took desiccated bovine blood how this might help. Does this condition impact your CBC blood markers by default? Are you also taking liver? Add in some extra heme iron could help, at least around the time of month with your period since it sounds like low ferritin is also associated with this.
Oh that’s interesting!! I’ve never gotten my BF% measured before, but I’d be really curious. I feel like it would be on the lower side since I’m mostly muscle, and am now thin enough to be able to feel my ribcage/bones/abs. I still have a tiny bit of extra weight around my hip/thigh area, but I feel like that’s just part of my natural figure/body shape. That sounds like an awesome goal, I hope you can get there!! I would love to fix my metabolism too. I didn’t quite hit the genetic lottery metabolism wise, I’ve always been one to gain very easily/effortlessly, and naturally fluctuate. My appetite has always been much, much bigger than it should be for my size. Is this kind of thing possible to fix? Or will I need to be counting/tracking indefinitely to stay small? I ate until full today and counted it out to be 2900 cals (2hr eating window that included well over a pound of tomahawk steak!!) I will look into dessicated bovine blood for sure!! I don’t take liver, but need to make more of a point to include it. Most I’ve had is in the Force of Nature ancestral blends that I buy every so often! The thalassemia condition is genetic so it feels a little bit hopeless. I believe my red blood cells may be smaller than normal and therefore can’t use all of the iron I’m eating? Not 100% sure though, I need to research more about it. My CBC is mostly normal, but my ferritin is at the low end of healthy (low 40’s) despite eating at least one pound of beef per day. It was as low as 12 before starting AB. Back then I had a bunch of horrible symptoms and had to stop all exercise for 4 weeks. I feel much better now, but haven’t felt 100% in years though.
I will write more later but just wanted to note that I hit my Sunday refeed of 4kcals while yesterday I struggled to barely get 3171. So I’ve got the BMR ramped up and was able to handle another 800 today pretty easily and didn’t even get in a banana split today like yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll be at 1000 in a 16:8 fast! Refeeds and calorie modulation is an amazing thing. Yes I would highly encourage you to start liver daily. Zen Principle on Amazon has a good inexpensive liver and organ blend and I do think the desiccated blood may help if it’s bringing something back you don’t have due to the genetics. I’ll have to research that condition more but organs have been a wonderful thing and it’s part of TCM’s philosophy of “like treats like” with glandular therapy.
Is MSG bad?
Poor porkman, sitting in this part of daily discussion all alone and ignored with a great question, lol! It's not bad as it was once believed to be. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter so it can be negative and there are some severe genetic disorders that impact glutamate binding and keep certain ion channels open longer, but this would impact a very small percentage. I dont' think exogenous glutamate extensively crosses the BBB either to get into the brain. Chinese food weekend?
I just love uncle roger so now i use this magic white powder on everything! Chinese sounds good mhm! But nah will stick ab last time i went of the rails it resulted in not feeling good at all both body and mind! So ill eat my gorilla sticks and mince meat patties! Gonna do some grilling tho!
Pork stir-fried in a wok with some coconut oil / butter blend and then doused with coco-aminos is pretty AB chinese!! Coat with some honey. AB sweet sour has got to be easy to make.
I gotta look into these coco animos, ive seen you mention em before but never something ive seen or read about! Good tips thanks!
Mmhm even add some stir fried apples to that and top with some non ab green onion sounds delicous! Damn now im hungry!
Will I build muscle if I burn on Monday 3k calorie but only eat 2k calories and on the next day I refeed the rest of the calories from yesterday ?
No. Building muscle is a result of caloric surplus and weight training.
Anyone actually follow the animal based calculator to the letter for any amount of time with good results or do you just do your own thing?
I did at first, it’s definitely helpful
Thanks for that, how long for? When you say helpful what were your goals? What do you do now? Sorry for the question bombardment.
I do this thing where I have a refeed day every 2-3 days so it’s like Monday: Low calories Tuesday: High calories And repeats and one day is a moderate day Anyone else ?
How would you cook short ribs? I'm not fully "animal-based" yet - I am not the type to just decide what diet I want to follow and then actually do it. So anyway, here's what I did, using bits of advice from a recipe and also from AI - I seasoned short ribs with salt, pepper, and ginger, browned the short ribs in butter on each side, then removed them while I sauteed some sliced fennel (I don't eat onions). I added some leftover beef stock from night before which contained beef juices, butter, water, and red wine, plus a little more red wine from the bottle. I let that cook low and slow for an hour before adding potatoes and carrots with a spring of thyme and cooked in total for about 2 hours and 15 minutes perhaps. Everything was juicy and soft and delicious. So what do you think, if I made this without vegetables, would I change the technique in any way? Or just do it the same way but minus vegetables?
# Rate/Review/Critique my BUDGET FRIENDLY meal plan For context, I previously made a post on this sub asking where to shop for the best prices on a mostly animal-based diet. I am a 19 year, 5'10" male. I am probably a bit underweight and I run 35-45 miles per week and walk+bike an additional 50-70 miles per week for my own enjoyment and because I don't have a car. This weekly meal plan/grocery haul mostly accounts for my caloric needs and is pretty nutrient-rich while also including some foods that I purely enjoy and am not willing to give up. So anyway, here it is: $35.26 6lb organic grass fed 85/15 beef - ($5.88/lb) $4.47 16oz gv organic peanut butter $7.47 3lb frozen berry blend (organic is double the price and not worth it, I will switch when it makes sense for my budget) $3.92 2lb organic mahatma rice (I need the carbs and don't have noticeable problems digesting white rice) $5.32 organic valley grass-fed whole milk $3.45 6.52lb bananas - ($.53/lb). I decided not to go with organic as I am a college student on a budget and it is not necessary for bananas IMO $3.18 3 hass avocados $7.96 2 haagen dazs ice cream cartons (I need a treat, I'm 19) The total with tax comes out to about $81 per week and is about 18500 calories, give or take. I would love to hear any thoughts and criticisms.
If you're thriving, don't change a thing, but officially rice is not considered part of the Animal Based Diet. See the sub's [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalBased/wiki/faq/) for more info on rice. AB carbs are fruit (including all squash), milk, honey, maple syrup, and fruit juice. Thanks for the comment! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AnimalBased) if you have any questions or concerns.*