Losing the Peatman Fifteen (25)

splithead_

"Good nutrition and sleep are sufficient therapy for a healthy young organism." - Ray Peat, Generative Energy

I started eating according to Peaty principles back at the beginning of the year in order to combat fatigue issues and low BMR. I'm glad to say that it worked, but my weight shot up from 190lbs -> 215lbs in just a couple months. Now that I feel all around healthy (despite my avg. temp being slightly low), I want to see if I can bring down my BFP.

I've begun the Haidut sub 10% dietary fat method, which frankly I don't understand the mechanism behind other than forcing carb metabolism utilizes a more efficient method of ATP creation, along with the advice of maintaining a high calcium/phosphate ratio (avg. 150mg calcium/day, working on dairy tolerance and planning to double).

Currently, I'm eating 2300cal/day with a 72C/18P/10F split along with standard strength training.

My diet consists of nearly solely:

Fruit/fruit juice
Coffee
Milk/cheese/greek yogurt (all skim/non-fat)
Nixtamalized corn tortillas
Tilapia
Pico de Gallo
Occasional eggs/beef
Occasional coconut oil

With the oral supplements (not ideal I know):

1000mg Magnesium
500mg Vit. E (dl-alpha)
B Complex
1000 mg Thiamine HCL
1.5g Creatine HCL
Occasional D3+K2

Does anyone else have experience with trying this, and are there any nutrients I'm obviously missing?

I'm trying to see how far I can get without thyroid supplementation or any other sort of serious therapy. I'm young (early 20s), so I want to get as far as possible with diet/lifestyle.

It's been two weeks and I'm down ~3lbs, although I stupidly started creatine at the same time which confounds things. Notably, last time I dropped weight from 220lbs -> 175lbs, I had to eat at 2000cal and then 1700cal, so I hope to get this number up. The overall goal is to find a diet where my maintenance weight remains low while energy remains high.

Will report back with results.

yerrag

@splithead_ said in Losing the Peatman Fifteen (25):

avg. 150mg calcium/day

Typo? Is it lacking one more zero?

This is more Deany than Peaty (Carolyn Dean, who lacks insight on metabolism and bioenergetics).

BroJonas

@splithead_ I would try to find a high maintenance calorie to stick with for a while. 2,300 just seems pretty low. Adding like 50 calories a week might be the approach to avoid too much weight gain. But it’ll be so much easier to cut after finding a high maintenance cal. Maybe add in some weight lifting and more walks but try to not cut out too many cals. And cut for 6-8 weeks at a time. Get in get out

Peatful

If you average temp is “still slightly low”
Are you healed?

Id guess - with what limited data you have shared…
That you are in the process of healing
But with temps still unstable
Not “healed” yet

If true:
Heal before restricting again
Or metabolically
You are not doing yourself any favors

DavidPS

Have you considered using a smart body weight scale to monitor the effects of your dieting on bone weight, muscle weight, fat weight, etc? I purchase one several years ago and it is still going strong.

My weight has increased over the years. I have found it useful to know that over 1.5 pounds of my increased weight is from increased bone weight. Here is a generic search for the scales at amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=smart+scale+for+body+weight

splithead_

Thank you all for the advice.

@yerrag You are correct, 1500mg. I copied a percentage over on accident. Whoops.

@BroJonas I would like to have higher maintenance, but what should I be aiming for? Just keep going until I start gaining? I don't intend to do this for more than a couple months, and will start modulating up after.

@Peatful I've assumed I was healed because the symptoms I was aiming to fix have been ameliorated. I should have been specific: My waking basal temperature started out at 95.9F and has risen to 96.8F. I'm using Barnes's target range of 97.8F - 98.2F. I hope with this stricter diet it should continue to rise, even with the lowered calories.

@DavidPS That sounds quite useful. I'll get one of those, thanks.

asterbolic

@splithead_ I think shrimp or scallops would be better than tilapia

dapose

I’d vote stop all your supplements except D&K. Keep B complex if you’re sure it’s well formulated and no bad “additional ingredients. And cut the coconut oil. Not cuz it’s bad but you have coconut oil on your body you’re trying to loose.
1000mg of Mag is displacing calcium and you aren’t eating that much Cal.
Good luck that’s my two cents.
And walk more!