How to lose weight and keep it off

  Have you ever asked “how can I lose weight, and keep it off??”

[ TL; DR ] Change your diet; stay in ketosis.

1. Avoid “white” carbs : no bread, no pasta, no rice, no potatoes, etc. – only exceptions are cauliflower & garlic
2. Drink water : no beer, no juice, no milk – you can drink coffee with heavy cream & 1 stevia, and you can have 1 glass of dry red wine at/near dinner
3. No Fruit : even though they’re natural, they have sugar – you’re minimizing sugar for ketosis
4. Eat the same meals, repeatedly (especially breakfast) : I eat 3 eggs with shredded cheddar atop w/ 3 slices of bacon & a glass of water every weekday morning for breakfast. Then I make bulletproof coffee to take with me to work (“bulletproof coffee” = 2 cups of coffee w/ 2 truvia, 2 scoops of MCT oil powder, and a tablespoon of grass-fed butter – blended for uniformity & frothiness). Most days my lunch is an all-natural smoothie & a quest bar. The only meal that is different each day is dinner, but it’s always low-carb (Sun-Friday).
5. Take 1 day off each week (“Cheat day”) : All the crap you crave throughout the week – hold off until cheat day, and go wild. I call this “Faturday.”

“You lose weight in the kitchen; you gain muscle in the gym.” – Tim Ferriss

Ketosis is the state where your blood ketone level is at least 0.5 millimolars triggering your body to begin burning the fat in your body instead of burning sugar. You achieve ketosis by following a low-carb, low-sugar, high-fat diet. The quickest way to enter ketosis is through fasting. After about 24-48 hours of fasting (depending upon how much excess sugar your body has to burn through first), your body will enter a state of ketosis and begin using the fat in your body as fuel instead of glucose. As long as you maintain a low-carb (less than 50g of net carbs [total grams of carbs – grams of fiber = net carbs]), low-sugar (less than 20g) diet, you should remain in a state of ketosis, continuing to burn fat instead of glucose.

IMPORTANT NOTES: Some people’s genetic makeup does NOT respond well to ketosis. The keto diet is not for everyone! (For elaborate medical details, lookup the conversations of Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, Peter Attia, and Dr. Rhonda Patrick online; they discuss ketosis with Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan, and with each other in several podcasts. Search for their names with The Tim Ferriss Show, Joe Rogan Experience, and Found My Fitness.)

I changed my diet 18 months ago, and I was able to lose over 20 pounds within the first 90 days – and I've KEPT IT OFF! Since changing to a low-carb diet with intermittent fasting (i.e., having at least 12 hours of nothing but water between dinner and breakfast the next morning), I’ve gained lean muscle, reduced inflammation, and felt better than ever. Improving my gut health with a variety of pro-biotics (e.g., kombucha, yogurt + probiotic chocolate, supplements, kimchi) has prevented me from getting sick as often as I used to, help me sleep better, and feel lighter.

The key to changing your diet is to replace the high-sugar / high-carb foods with low-carb & low/no sugar, high-fat alternatives. Get your carbs from green leafy vegetables whenever possible. After losing 20 pounds and keeping the weight off for several months, I started drinking Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s micronutrient-rich smoothie every day. I use a 64oz Vitamix blender to blend 4 servings, of which I drink at least one (16oz) cup each day. This smoothie provides all the micronutrients your body needs that you will not get from other foods in a typical diet, which (over time) will reduce inflammation and promote longevity. 

The really strange/cool thing about drinking this smoothie every day is that I now crave vegetables (WTF?!). I used to hate vegetables… that’s because your gut craves what you regularly give it. So if you habitually eat junk food, you will always crave junk food. Once you replaced junk food with vegetables and low-carb, low-sugar foods, you will crave the new alternatives and no longer want the junk food. 

The micronutrient rich smoothie shared by Dr. Rhonda Patrick has the following ingredients (for a 64oz blender):

• 1 apple
• 1 banana
• 1 tomato
• 1 cup of blueberries
• 1 avocado
• 2 carrots
• 1 shot glass (¼cup) of flax seeds
• 3 cups of flax milk
• 3 cups of baby spinach
• 8 leaves of kale
• 4 leaves of rainbow chard

I also add two scoops of the chocolate flavored Garden of Life (raw, organic) protein powder (from sprouted vegetables) to my smoothie. But, you should not add this smoothie to your diet until you’ve lost all the weight you want to lose from ketosis – there is sugar in the fruits!

Making all these changes at once is a sure way to fail and fall right back into your poor dietary choices. I encourage you to make 1 change per week… the first week just replace beer with dry red wine or just water, and cut out all the ”white carbs” – bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, tortillas, chips. The second week reduce your soda intake to 1 diet cola per day (at most), and replace all your other drinks (milk, OJ, etc.) with water. The third week establish a simple carb-free breakfast you’re comfortable with preparing and eating every morning. The fourth week… well, you get the point – just make one positive change per week. It’s much easier to stick with it when the change is gradual.

Intermittent fasting is another effective “multiplier” for fat-loss & gaining lean muscle. Intermittent fasting is when you consume nothing but water following your last meal of the day for at least 12 hours until the first thing you consume other than water the next day. So, if you finish your dinner at 7pm, the only thing you can have until 7am the next day is water. You cannot even have your morning coffee until 7am at the earliest – or whenever it’s been 12 hours since you finished dinner. The longer your intermittent fast, the better. Just remember – only water!

The final thing I recommend to improve your health and help you lose weight is to regulate & enhance your sleep cycle. If your phone doesn’t have blue-light reduction embedded in the OS (like in the Google Pixel & iPhone) then you should download & install “Twilight” for your phone, and f.lux for your laptop. These apps will transition your electronic device to gradually remove the blue light during sunset, and gradually remove the blue-light filter during sunrise. This effect helps you maintain your circadian rhythm so you can fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly at night (as long as it remains completely dark in your room – no blue lights anywhere).

Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night, and try to wake up on an even-numbered hour from when you fall asleep…. So if you fall asleep at 11pm, wake up at 5am; if you fall asleep at 10pm, you can wake up at 4am or 6am – but avoid waking at 5am because that means you got an odd number of hours of sleep. This may sound petty or silly, but it helps match the typical transition of brainwaves throughout the night. When you wake up in the middle of a 2-hour period, you make an abrupt transition from a deep sleep to an awake state, leaving you groggy & sleepy all day. You will feel more refreshed & alert with 4 hours of sleep than with 5 hours of sleep.

Also, I recommend using the “Gentle Wakeup” app on your phone as your alarm. It mimics the sunrise to gradually awaken you, instead of startling you awake with loud noises like more alarms do. Doing 10 minutes of stretching after your Gentle Wakeup alarm will help wake you up and get your blood flowing.

These tips I’ve provided will not only help you lose weight and keep the weight off, they will make you feel better and live longer. I hope you make positive changes to improve your health & wellness. Leave a comment if you've got some more tips for losing weight or enhancing longevity. If you want more background and details on the diet, check out “The 4-hour Body” by Tim Ferriss. Stick to it for at least 2 weeks, and you'll see results. Good Luck!