What? How does that even make sense, right? I also considered another title:
"Why your low-fat vegetarian diet works..for a while"
or
"Why any successful weight loss diet is an animal fat diet"
Figured it out yet? Let's have some fun with numbers and you'll see what I mean. Take for example a typical adult male who needs about 2000 calories a day to exist. Let's assume he's overweight and The China Study (thorougly debunked here) finally convinced him to start 'eating healthy' and become a vegetarian.
So our example new vegetarian starts chowing on broccoli, brussel sprouts, and spinach and just in general eating like a goofball. Without being smeared or cooked in butter, that stuff all tastes like crap. Trust me, I tried it years ago. Eating steamed broccoli without butter (and preferably Kerry Gold at that!) is not too yummy.
As a result, he manages to squeeze in 800-1000 calories a day and the weight starts coming off. In fact he loses about 2 pounds a week! Success! And after a bit of adjustment he claims to feel great and have more energy. How can that be?
Simple: He's getting about half his calories from animal fat! Still haven't figured it out? IT IS HIS ANIMAL FAT! That's right, if he needs 2000 calories to cover his energy expenditure and he only gets 1000 from his veggies, the other 1000 has to come from somewhere. It comes from his fat stores (and some from breaking down muscle as well) and that means he's getting 50% of his calories from animal fat.
But ask ANY new vegetarian how they feel, and they will tell you they feel fantastic. Well of course they do, they're finally getting adequate amounts of saturated fat. Now that works for a while, but then what happens when they lose the weight and their body starts becoming increasingly insulin resistant from the constant exposure to carbs as the only source of food and fuel?
Well, for that you can just ask Lierre Keith. Or read her book, which you can read more about on her website. In a nutshell, if you don't give your body what it needs for long enough, your body won't work well. Seems to make sense.
So what to eat? Well, the new vegetarians who claim to feel great and lose weight aren't lying. So instead of getting a high animal fat diet from your own fat, buy some tasty animal and eat it's fat instead. Some avocado and some coconut oil wouldn't hurt either, but make the source of your fat healthy saturated fat, preferably from grass fed beef or other natural sources.
Start getting 5-20% of your calories from plants, preferably slowly absorbed veggies. Get 15-25% of your calories from protein. Finally, get 55-75% of your calories from good fats. 'Good' means that the vast majority of it will come from animal fat.
Take the vegetarian's brussel sprouts, steam them, slather them in butter, and eat 3 or 4 along with a pound of grass fed beef. Sounds like a lunch I could be okay with.
How smart! I never thought of it that way but you are absolutely right.
ReplyDeletevery interesting!! I like it!!
ReplyDeleteMight explain why as a very underweight individual moving towards vegetarianism I did not do well right from the get-go. I had no fat to live off!
ReplyDeleteHi Bill,
ReplyDeleteThis is a topic I'm trying to figure out for myself. I like meat, but don't like the idea of the way animals are raised today, and things like antibiotics and chemicals in my meat. I find buying ethically raised, pasture-raised meats to be a bit challenging, since the grocery story right beside my house doesn't sell them. Which is the lesser evil, eating meat that has that crap in it, or relying on beans, legumes, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds to make up the bulk of your diet? And do you think it's necessary to eat meat every day? Is there some middle ground, e.g. eating meat twice a week? Would love your thoughts.
Ann Marie & Heather:
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Kat:
Interesting. That makes sense to me.
Natty:
If I can't get grass-fed beef and naturally raised meats, I still eat meat. In my experience, meat and/or eggs every day works best for me.
I think the anti-nutrients in beans and legumes are worse than conventional meat, but I still strive for grass-fed beef or free-range chicken.
Part of my support for this is assessing how I feel when exercising. If I eat legumes, even just a few tablespoons of peanut butter, my performance at CrossFit plummets and I feel like crap.
I'm also striving for 140-180 grams of protein a day, so meat twice a week isn't an option. All of my protein comes from meat and eggs.
This is a great blog post. Thank you very much for the excellent information you shared! I was looking for this information for a long time, but I wasn’t able to see a reliable website.
ReplyDeleteI realize this is old now, but I just wanted to say to Natty that you can get properly raised meat and eggs delivered to just about anywhere. Just find a good farm that has an online store. eatwild.com is a great source if you're in the US.
ReplyDelete