World Powerlifting Champ Kevin Weiss and I get together at least once per week for coffee.
At our last get together I could tell Kevin had dropped a couple lbs.
“Back on the high-fat diet” I asked him.
“Yep”, he said.
You see Kevin is just several weeks out from the next World Championships and he wants to make weight for a lighter weight class. And when dieting, Kevin – who is a natural “meat tooth” (in contrast to my “sweet tooth”) – he always opts for the extremely high-fat diet approach.
Now with Kevin, I would never ask “So, you back to low carbs diet?”
That would be like an insult to him. Kevin is an astute student of the game. He knows that the term “low carb diet” has no relevance to what he is doing: it’s the extremely high fat diet that is more descriptive of his approach:
And this is the mistake 99% of people out there make. Over coffee, Kevin explained to me why he gave up trying to help people with this diet: “Scott, they just won’t take their fats high enough to make it work long-term.”
Right on top of it as always!
Weight-Loss Competition Diet
Kevin needs to drop some weight but still be able to perform at his best. And if you buy into industry nonsense you would think that since Kevin is a powerlifter his emphasis would be on getting in enough protein.
WRONG!
His emphasis is in getting in a high enough amount of fat.
In fact the protein macro ratio of his weight-loss competition diet, is just over 12%! That’s right! 12% Protein!!! Read on. This is what the “low carbs diet approach” was supposed to be all along – AN EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY HIGH FAT DIET. So I got Kevin to scribble down his meals for that day for me, but I’ll only show you two. I had a great laugh out loud moment: Check this “weight-loss diet” out:
Breakfast:
3 whole eggs
4 slices bacon
4 tablespoons sour cream
2 slices cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup heavy cream
Lunch
2 cups spinach
1 avocado
3 oz. regular ground beef
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 slice cheddar cheese
Meal Alternative
Sometimes he’ll have this meal option
2 teaspoons coconut oil
4 ounces prime rib
3 whole eggs
1 cup spinach
½ cup feta cheese
½ cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons sour cream
OK, so you get the picture: the true essence of a low-carbs approach that can actually work and not negatively impact metabolism is that it is EXTREMELY high in fat.
Kevin and I then discussed how many ladies we know who whine about being “carb resistant” would ever eat a diet high enough in fat to be metabolically constructive. On a lark, we decided to breakdown his macros for everyone to understand fully what I said in Part 1: a low carbs diet was NEVER MEANT TO BE A HIGH PROTEIN DIET!
Kevin’s “weight-loss high fat diet macro breakdown looked like this when all is said and done:
Protein: less than 13%
Carbs: 5%
Fat: a whopping 82%.
And then he corrected this by saying he forgot that later that day he was hungry so he had a whole avocado with cream cheese – this skews his macros even more, meaning his protein was less than 12%, and his fats even higher than 82%.
THIS; my friends – is the REAL intention and look of the “low carbs” diets. But how many of you are willing to adapt it in real terms. No, instead fitness industry twits, try and tweak the science of this and turn it into a “moderate fat” – “high protein” “low carbs diet” – and this was never the original structure of “the extremely high fat diet approach.” And the consequences of twisting this diet into a high protein, medium fat, low carbs diet -> is that it is metabolically destructive and creates a host of digestive issues to boot. Why? Because it is never done correctly to begin with.
Metabolic Shift
And let’s not forget metabolic shift involved in going to an EXTREMELY HIGH FAT approach. Kevin is quick to point out that when switching to his greater than 82% fat diet – the calories must be high at first to accomplish the “metabolic shift” involved with processing fats.
World Champion Kevin Weiss knows what he’s doing! Like me, he pays no attention to industry vogue trends. He follows the “low carbs diet” as it was originally designed and intended – as an extremely, extremely, high fat diet. He’s already noticeably losing weight -> digestion fine, performance fine; degree of difficulty for diet-compliance for him – negligible.
The reason industry consumers get into so much trouble with trying to go “low carbs” is because you twist what that is supposed to even mean; and unless you are willing to go extremely, extremely high fat then you should trash any notion of thinking low carbs is right for you.
Remember Web-MD and other academic sites correctly state that “the extremely high fat diet is VERY demanding and extremely difficult to follow.” They also comment that such a diet would be suited to a very limited proportion of the general public. Keep that in mind when you consider the “low carbs approach” – and realize that “fad” diets like Paleo, and Atkins, and South Beach – they are marketing “mutations” of low-carbs diets – far away from their original structure and design: and that means they will likely do more harm than good – and even more likely is that they will not be sustainable, long-term!
As usual I caution: Some of you will get it – some of you won’t want to!
UPDATE
Kevin just returned from the World Championships Raw Powerlifting, where he AGAIN won his weight class and made weight easily with “the extremely high fat diet approach.”