Zane Griggs | Diet Evolution, Body Adaptation & Effective Fat Loss | September 2, 2025 Ep. 21 - The Low Carb Consultant

Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
All right guys, welcome back to the Low Carb Consultant podcast.
So joining us today is Zane Griggs, a 25 year veteran in
metabolic health, fitness coaching and author of Kicking
Ass after 50. He's the brain behind the fit
over 40 framework and free free guide how to build muscle after

(00:32):
40. As host of the Healthy After 50
podcast, Zane coaches professionals over 40 to build
muscle, boost energy and maintain longevity using
practical low carb align strategies that are smart,
sustainable and effective. So Zayn, man, it's it's great to
finally meet you. Great to have you on here.

(00:53):
Excited for jumping into everything with you.
Thank you, Max. I appreciate the invitation.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And maybe before we get into everything health, fitness,
Wellness, nutrition related, could you give the listeners
just a real brief background on yourself and maybe you know why
you went this specific health and fitness route with, with

(01:15):
your with your personal life. Wow.
Well, yeah, I was going back a ways man, back to my mid 20s.
So back in the, in the 90s, I, Isaw some, several of my older
relatives, mostly my dad's brothers struggling with heart
disease. One of them had diabetes, just
had different health issues, most of them related to

(01:36):
metabolic health and saw that onmy, on my mom's side too.
But I saw this distinct pattern with my dad's older brothers
struggling with this. But he was always like watching
his diet, you know, as well as we knew back then in the 70s and
80s. And at that point and, and, and
exercise, he's always been like running, hitting the gym.
And I thought, OK, OK, there's something here, there's

(01:57):
something to this like I don't want to end up struggling with,
with these metabolic health issues in my 60s and 70s like
my, my uncles are, what can I doto, to avoid this?
And so I just started experimenting at an early age.
I mean, seriously, mid 20s, thisbecame a kind of point of
curiosity for me where I would just experiment.

(02:18):
I was vegetarian for 3 1/2 years.
I was reading books and experimenting, talking to
people, trying new things That kind of didn't end well for me,
but but I learned a lot from it and then started moving into, I
decided I wanted to get into personal training, helping other
people to do this so I could kind of continue my own
curiosity, my own curious journey into the into the health

(02:39):
and avoiding metabolic disease. And that really kicked off in in
98 when I became a trainer and Ijust kept experimenting.
I've been experimenting ever since and I continue to make
changes to my diets, different, different things with exercise,
but, and continuing to learn andread and, and, and listen to
other people. So I would definitely say it's

(03:01):
been a, a, a journey of, of learning and experimentation and
failure and, and learning from all of that for the last
probably 30, almost 35 years. So it's it's that's basically
like what got me here. Yeah, it's interesting when you
say experimenting too, because, you know, I've been thinking a

(03:23):
lot about, you know, just my ownpersonal like health Wellness
journey and diet and working outover the years.
And I, I think that's really thekey here that people need to
kind of embrace is like, you know, you're, you're not going
to be on the same diet or the same workout program for the,
for the entirety of your life. You know, some diets will work.
You know, you'll have to switch things up.

(03:44):
You're constantly aging, your cells are turning over, You
know, the, the body that you have at 40 wasn't the same body
at 35 and that wasn't the same body at 30.
Like I think that's what people need to embrace is the
experimentation and being curious around trying new
things, being being willing to kind of jump into new things

(04:06):
that then maybe haven't tried. And through that, I think you
kind of find what is ultimately working.
Like what, what, what are your thoughts on that 'cause I feel
like that's kind of how you're essentially going about things.
Yes, and and that we have a tendency to get stuck.
Like if something works at firstor something works well, we we
tend to like get a little too attached sometimes to a certain
method. Of course.

(04:28):
And and our The thing is, our bodies are constantly changing
and adapting. It's not just age, whatever you
put in front of it, it will, it will try to adapt to and it's
that process of trying to achieve homeostasis that really
can take what initially might turn out to be a, or start off

(04:48):
to be a great strategy or tool. OK, I'm talking about a diet or
an approach, whatever's you're doing and you know, initially
the the benefit or the benefits you receive are from the change.
And so there's that kind of that, you know, the system like,
oh, we got to adjust here. We got to make some changes to
adjust to this new stimulus. But over time, our body gets

(05:11):
really good at adapting. And that adaptation process can
take you to a point where you lose some of those initial
benefits and you start incurringsome downside, some negative
consequences of your body adapting.
And that that usually starts with hormonal changes, which

(05:32):
then lead into, you know, thingslike thyroid, sex hormones, just
how you know your body's response.
And so it, it's most strategies that that elicit some sort of
immediate response or change. They're they've, they're
limiting something, right? They're limiting a particular

(05:54):
factor, whether that's like vegetarian and vegan diet,
eliminating animal foods. With the low fat diet, you're
obviously limiting or greatly diminishing fat.
Low carb and keto and carnivore,all these you're, you're
eliminating or reducing carbohydrates.
And so again, there's a, there'sa shift in energy, right?

(06:17):
Where your energy sources comingfrom or whatever that nutrient,
those nutrients are, your body has to change.
And that initial change is, is like, oh, we got, we got a, we
got a scramble here. And so you might see some
benefit moving in a, in a certain direction, but then as
your body adapts to that, what happens is the effectiveness of

(06:39):
that change isn't, isn't the same.
So there's an effect, but it's not the same effect because you
have struck, your biology startsto adapt to it.
Hormones have shifted and how your body uses and and
metabolizes energy may have shifted.
So, and the problem is we, we think that these positive

(07:04):
effects or, or we, we have a tendency as I did, because I'd
hang on to some of them a littletoo long, but these are going to
last forever. Like this is this is a great
effect. This is wonderful.
I found it. I have found the magical diet
that's going to take me into health the rest of my life.
That's not how that's not how itworks.
That's not how it works. Now, if you want to make some
subtle changes or I'd say subtlechanges, you want to make some

(07:25):
common sense changes like we're talking about replacing
processed food or ultra processed food, you know, seed
oils, highly processed grains covered in glyphosate, all
these, you know, highly processed chemicals and you're
replacing those with whole food.Like, you know, we basically, we
go back 120 years and eat like we ate from the farm, you know

(07:47):
what I mean? Or, or from like what would be
available in nature, Whole Foods, single ingredient food.
That's not a, that's not what I'm, I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about it. That's not a drastic diet to me.
That's called common sense. That's just going back to eating
real food. And that's, you know, and that
could be balanced and there's, there's, because there's a
number of variations of how to do that.
Those can all be, if you could, just going back to whole food,

(08:09):
those can all be vegetarian, lowcarb, low fat, whatever those
can, those can fit under all those tools or strategies or
frameworks, but it's just going back to real food.
You're just going back to beforeprocessed food was created.
And that would create a great, in my opinion, a tremendous
change in the health of our entire population, right, just

(08:31):
by eliminating processed food. And then I don't consider that
an extreme diet or a, or a strategy or a dietary tool.
I consider that common sets because all we have to do is
look back at the history lesson.We didn't have obesity and type
diabetes or the level of heart disease that we have now prior
to those processed foods being created.
What I'm referring to is when we've we start eliminating or

(08:54):
greatly reducing a certain macronutrient or food group that
humans have traditionally eaten in order to create an effect.
I'm not saying that's bad, but we don't need to place too much
dependence on that type of strategy for a long period of

(09:15):
time because we need to understand their bodies to
adapt. And it will, it will over time
lose some of its effectiveness. And we might need to either
reset or come out of it and comeback in, you know, stagger it,
cycle it in some way for it to, for it to continue to be

(09:35):
somewhat effective. So it has, so it has the same
effect it did at first. And so I mean, if I were to put
in a nutshell what I've learned of the last 30 years, it would
be just. That yeah, no.
And, and, and that's great. It it was so it was.
That reminds me of a podcast I did with a trainer named Tanner

(09:56):
Shuck. And he was basically like, if
the food didn't exist 200 years ago, don't, don't eat it.
And that's a great way to kind of simplify things all the way
down. But yeah, like if it wasn't
directly, if it didn't directly come from an animal or if it
wasn't directly grown from the ground or on a tree, like just

(10:17):
don't eat it. And that might fix the majority
of the issues that you're dealing with.
I would say from everything fromweight loss to autoimmune to gut
issues, that's kind of that's kind of move the needle probably
more than any single strategy you you could come up with.
Totally. Let's go back to the

(10:38):
experimentation part and then what you went through the routes
that you tried in order to stumble across how how you're
eating right now. So I know you mentioned earlier,
obviously you've been doing thisfor a long time.
I think you said you started offor you tried like a vegan diet
or a vegetarian based diet for afew years and then what?
What changes? How did you feel when you were

(10:59):
eating like that? And then through the course of
time, where did you do and how did you stumble across how
you're eating right now? Oh wow, that's that's a lot of
time. But the vegetarian, the
vegetarian, I'm 54, man, we're talking about I started playing
with vegetarian vegan, like at 23.
You look. Great by the way you look.
You look great for 54 When when when I'm 54 man.

(11:20):
My goal is to look like you 1000%.
Well, thank you, appreciate it. It's it's you know, and vegan,
vegetarian. That was probably, I was
probably 20-3 ish 24 and I did it for a few years and it was
just a good experiment. I was trying to lean out.
I had a friend who was eating this way and I thought I'd give
it a shot. And at first, I think my energy

(11:43):
level went up a little bit. I had more, I could eat more
food. Obviously I needed more food and
I got lean really quick. Actually end up losing, not
really realizing it, losing, notrealizing in the moment until it
already happened. I look back and go, oh wow, look
what happened. I lost a lot of muscle and it

(12:05):
was and I found myself very hungry all the time.
Energy was up and down a lot, like it was just up, down.
I had to eat often. I was making my own almond milk
at the time because it wasn't instores back then.
So I was blending up dry almonds, trying to find ways to
get protein out of plants. And I wasn't eating a lot of

(12:25):
processed food. I wasn't doing a bunch of
shakes. So they didn't have all those
things that we have now for vegetarians.
So it was like coming from beans, lots of black beans and
rice, blending up almonds, making my own almond milk and
eating a lot of whole, whole food.
And I learned. It taught me how to cook, it

(12:46):
taught me how to prepare food. It taught me to pay attention to
food. And so I learned a lot from
that. But at the end, towards that 333
and a half year mark, I picked up this virus and my mouth that
created these like these ulcers basically my, my throat that I
didn't want to eat. Like I didn't eat for three
days. I didn't even drink water for
about 36 hours. It hurts so bad until I got some

(13:08):
antibiotics and painkillers and my doctor had surprising insight
thought you know it, you probably would have been able to
shake this virus except that your immune system so depressed
from your vegetarian diet. And I'm like, oh, and that was
it was like it was it was the truth I needed to hear and it

(13:30):
would made me go. He might very well be right and
added in a little bit of salmon,some whey protein and some eggs.
That simple, like really light. What would now these days people
consider that, Oh, that's vegetarian.
Back what, in the 90s, that wasn't vegetarian.
Those were considered meat, right?

(13:50):
So that was a lacto. Oh, we had to specify a lacto
over or pescetarian. You know, that was it.
But but a little fish, little whey protein and some eggs.
And within two weeks, it was like the lights came on in my
brain, more energy. I was suddenly feel like I was
recovering from workouts. I actually forgot to drink

(14:10):
coffee for a few days because I just didn't need it.
I didn't, I had the energy in the morning and I was, I mean,
and it was like, oh, I've definitely been missing this
part of my diet. And as I started working
protein, animal protein back in,it was like the recovery, the
muscle, the strength, all of that began returning again,

(14:31):
trying to take from that what I learned and my new skills
cooking and preparing food and moving forward to help, you
know, people, you know, eat morewhole food.
As I, as I started shortly, shortly after that, started
working as a trainer. Within a few years, probably

(14:53):
about four or five years down the road, I've been married.
Wife's, I just had a third childthis like 2002.
And she, she was trying to lose some weight.
She's I'm gonna try Atkins. I'm gonna try low carb Atkins.
This has kind of made a comebackat that point.
And, and I'm like, sure, give ita shot.

(15:13):
Go ahead. And all my and my trainer, you
know, the other trainers I've worked with, they're like, oh,
that's dangerous. You got to, you know, watch out
for that. You got to have car.
You got to and, and I'm like, well, but OK, but she lost
weight. You know, she she, you know, she
did it for like pretty steadily for like 6-8 months.
I bet she felt amazing too. She felt better, but the, but
the thing in the process of doing it, she cleaned up her

(15:35):
diet. So she was eating like eggs and
strawberries and you know, like a little, little fruit here and
there at 1st. And then it was like you just
become more mindful of what you're putting in your body.
And she wasn't eating all the the weird snacks and stuff, but
it was, it was definitely a moremindful approach to, to diet.

(15:57):
And, and she'd been working out before, after, you know, through
that type whole thing before, before she shifted her diet and
after it worked out before then.And just with the third child
was just things were sticking a little bit more.
We were a little older, but thatcaused over about a three to
five month period, the weight tofall off that she was looking
for. And so it worked.

(16:18):
And so I started trying to work that in with my clients as well,
like take who or who wanted weight loss.
Let's take a low carb approach start, you know, here, here's
how to cut these out 2000 and nine 2010.
I started playing with intermittent fasting personally,
and then eventually started intermittent, you know, working
that in with some of my client strategies, the ones I thought
could, could take it on and wantto lose weight.

(16:40):
And then fasted workouts followed shortly.
And, and by probably, you know, by my mid 40s at that point,
well, a few years into that in my mid 40s, I was doing fairly
low carb with intermittent fasting and fasted workouts.
And I probably pushed that needle like that for at least

(17:01):
eight years, maybe close to 10. And until I hit a wall and I
just was like overtrained sleep was disturbed, muscles burning,
you know, I hadn't worked out, you know, and when I looked,
started looking at blood work atthat point, SHBG, which is sex
hormone binding globulin was very high and which is a usually

(17:23):
a can be caused by high cortisollevels.
But again, sleep was disturbed, wasn't recovering.
Just started seeing some of the side effects of them.
Like, OK, I'm over leveraging metabolic stress.
You know, there's a there's a there was a point where some of
this was helpful and I was a little bit younger, but as I got
in my late 40s, pushing up will fit really into fifty.

(17:45):
I was like, this is I'm hitting a wall, like something's not
right. And I didn't want at first to
admit what it was. I didn't want to admit it was
the way I was approaching my diet and the fast work because
this was like my mantra. This was the thing I told
everybody to do. I was like married my diet
dogma, you know, and. I feel like we all fall into

(18:06):
those traps, especially, you know, that people that are like
carnivore keto or whatever the case, like that's just, I feel
like that's common human nature,you know, to get like something
works, you find it and then it'slike you're married to it and
you're telling everyone about itand you don't want to come to
terms that it's actually not working for me anymore.
I got a like we were talking about earlier.
Make some shifts change. Some shifts, make some changes

(18:29):
and that was like, that was a hard reality.
And but when I, I mean, it was, it was one I knew I needed to,
to face and kind of start makingadjustments.
So I started tracking doing someblood work and I, I increased, I
stopped the Internet fasting, stopped doing faster workouts.
Things improved, you know, with,with recovery and I thought,

(18:53):
well, what happens if I increasecarbs?
And at this point I was kind of back and forth a little bit with
a guy. Some people have heard of
pulsility, you know, and, and I wasn't eating super local, but I
had plenty of fruit in my diet. Definitely whole food, avoiding
seed, seed oils for, for a number of years.
And, and just I, I, I hosted a retreat for him at one point in

(19:20):
Costa Rica and I ran into him onthe beach and in Miami Beach and
start batting some stuff around.I had already increased my carb
intake by about a good hundred 120 grams a day.
So I was up between 2:00 and 2:00 and 200 two 5300 sometimes.
And what were the carb sources? Was it mainly fruit or was fruit

(19:40):
thrown in potatoes? And sweet potatoes, sweet fruit
and sweet potatoes mostly. I wasn't doing a lot of white
rice then, but I, I'm, I'm probably doing a little more of
that now, but mostly it was justfruit and sweet potatoes and
regular potatoes. And I'm like, man, I had, I had
taken a, I'd done this for about10 months tracking, looked at my
blood work. My fasting insulin had always
been low, like right around 3. But my blood sugar, my fasted

(20:05):
blood sugar for many years during that low carb time,
especially with all the intermittent fasting had been
often in the low to mid 90s. And that's not it.
I wasn't too happy about that. I was too happy about having the
blood sugar up in the 90s and because I knew like the ideal
range was like 6585 right now. And so.

(20:27):
I'm like, OK, so when I got my blood work back after 10 months
of increased carbidate, you know, I said 25275 average, my
fasting insulin was still right around 3 really hadn't budget
maybe dropped a 10th of a of a point at but my fasted blood
sugar was down at 79. It had dropped a good 15 points

(20:47):
from my previous blood work 10 months before, when I was still
eating below 200 grams of carbs a day.
And so it had dropped back. I was feeling better, I was
sleeping better. My sleep scores had improved.
And I'm like, this is pretty, this is, this is interesting.
This is not, I mean, it's kind of what I'd hoped, but I didn't

(21:08):
really know what to expect. How did you overall feel just
like bringing the carbs up? Did you feel like any sort of
inflammation, stiffness, or wereyou just feeling really, really
good? More energetic.
OK. Better sleep.
Probably better, maybe workout performance in the gym, pump
energy, strength. Muscle back on, you know,

(21:29):
strength coming back and it was it was like, OK, this is and and
with no metabolic downside, likeeverything looked better.
Cholesterol dropped. I mean, not that I was worried
about it, but it was like total cholesterol and LDL dropped.
I'd say you know, maybe 3040 points.

(21:53):
So do you. Think it was maybe do you do you
at all remember like maybe reducing the amount of fat
intake or animal fat intake to to bring in more the carb
sources? Did any of those shift or you do
you kept like the protein in themeat side of things pretty
consistent? I kept the protein higher, like
still doing at that .1g per pound of body weight give or
take, like maybe .81g per pound BIOS.

(22:15):
So I'm still eating about and I wasn't eating trying to eat
leaner. I was still eating, you know,
hamburgers, pork, some rib eye, some, you know what I mean?
Like they're fattier meats. So my fat intake was probably
when I'm tracking anywhere from 90 to 120 grams a day.
So fairly high fat to me that seems not, certainly not low

(22:37):
carb. So it's almost, and I started
looking at the, I don't know if you remember, maybe a little
before your time, but there's something called the Zone Diet
that came out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK. Berry Sears Zone Diet.
It was like 4030, forty carbs, 30 fat, 30 protein.
And it wasn't too far off from that.
It wasn't too far off when I hada, you know, 100 grams of fat,

(23:00):
200 grams of protein and maybe 25275 carb.
That's right around A-403030. And I was like, OK, this is like
a balanced diet, whole food animal protein and I feel great
numbers are improved. And I said I ran into Saladino

(23:22):
and he I know he had increased his around the same time I had
or, or maybe a year before. Yeah, he wrote, he wrote the the
carnivore book and then a coupleor the, yeah, the carnivore
code. And then I think it was a couple
years after that. And the one thing I will say
what I, what I do appreciate it about Paul Saladino is that he
was very transparent and open and one, not one of those people

(23:43):
that was religious to his diet. Like he was the carnivore guy.
And then he started running intosome, I think he was running
into some blood marker issues and that's when he started
bringing in like the fruit and the honey and some
carbohydrates. Testosterone and thyroid, right,
and those kind of things, yeah. Yeah, So what did he tell you?
Well, he just said, hey, go, go for the, go for 3:50, go for

(24:04):
400, go on up, give it a shot, go take it on up, see what she
can do. And he said, you know, see how
you feel. And he knew, I mean, we, I, I'd
been to his first retreat. I hosted the second one for him
out in Costa Rica. I mean, you know, he, he knew
who he was talking to. He wasn't talking to somebody he
knew. He wasn't talking to somebody
with food addictions or with whowas gonna go off and start

(24:28):
eating Donuts and and and Frenchfries And, you know, he.
I mean, you know, he knew he's got to be a whole.
Yeah, he knew you're. He knows.
Yeah, you're a fitness. Guy and so I was like, all
right, and let's let's think about this.
And it took me a second to really like munch on that.
And it wasn't that I was going to do it just because Paul's

(24:49):
told me to do it, but it was almost like someone who has been
through the same kind of experimentation, like said, gave
me permission to continue to experiment.
And it wasn't permission like you've been blessed by Paul
Celadino. I'm just saying.
And through a conversation, let's bat some ideas around and

(25:09):
then go keep going. Like keep experimenting.
Don't hold back, don't stop there.
What else? Like what else you going to
learn? So it's like it's, it's kind of
like keep exploring and see whatyour body does.
It wasn't like this is the answer.
It was find out what, how your body responds to that.

(25:29):
Don't, don't, don't stop exploring, don't stop
experimenting. And it was don't get stuck,
which is what I'd done in previous times and what he had
done with carnivore. And before that he was a
vegetarian, you know, And so it,and it was like, OK, OK, so
this, this was still part of my,my journey, you know, of like

(25:53):
realizing there isn't a way or one way or one diet or one thing
that fits for everybody every, or you all the time or you at
every age or you. And so this is what's led me and
playing with different diets in different ratios to realizing if

(26:16):
when we get stuck on one, when we develop our relationship with
our diet, which is been wrapped around our community, our
community is wrapped around it with our identity, we get stuck,
We don't, we stop making good decisions, we stop making
objective decisions and we're making emotional decisions about

(26:39):
our diet as it relates to again,our identity, our community.
What am I doing wrong? Do I just need to diet harder?
And really what's happening is your body has adjusted or is
adjusting, or you're going through a process where there's,

(26:59):
whether it's run the course of adapting to it or it's just that
you've healed this thing, now it's time to move on and get
stronger. OK, Rather than worry about a
reductionist diet to to try to or elimination diet to try to
eliminate some sort of issue, whatever it is it might be you
might be dealing with, there's there's always room for for

(27:22):
change and improvement. Not because the other way was
wrong, not because a new way is more right, but because your
body doesn't. Your body doesn't stop changing.
Yeah, dude, I, I, I, I, I don't think I can agree with you more
on that 1000%. And this is one of the reasons
why I chose like the low carb consultant handle when I went on

(27:45):
my own personal journey of trying to like my heal myself
like I did. I did strict carnivore for a
year. I did keto.
I had played around with OMAD eating one meal a day.
I played around with intermittent fasting and long
term fasting and all those different types of things.
And, and guess what? They, they work.
They, they, they all work, but Ithink when you're stuck on one

(28:05):
diet for one specific period of time, going back to what you
were saying, what does the humanbody want to do?
The human body wants to find andwhat you said earlier in terms
of like homeostasis, your body wants to run as effectively and
as efficiently as possible. And it's going to consistently
try to evolve and change based off of what you're eating, your

(28:27):
energy output, the environment that you're in, all of those
things. And by the way, like your body
is just getting older and changing naturally day in and
day out, but your body wants to find something that it can kind
of almost like a self regulationstandpoint.
So what I'm saying here is at every point a diet will run its
course and what you have to findthe ability to do.

(28:50):
And, and really at the end of the day, if you really just
settle on a like a animal based Whole Foods approach, single
ingredient approach, that's what's going to get you to where
you want to be. Like we were saying earlier, but
it's like you have to, you also have to get comfortable with
changing how you eat because your body is going to adapt to

(29:12):
what you're doing. And also too, are you training
for like your interests are going to change, right?
Like your workout interests are going to change.
You might want to get into bodybuilding and then you might
want to get into a different type of strength training, or
maybe you want to train for a triathlon or a marathon.
All of these different things take are going to require

(29:32):
different energy inputs, right? And so those are those are the
things you have to take into consideration like so 100% man,
I, I absolutely agree with you. That makes all the sense in the
world. So when it comes to let's talk
about how you're eating now, right?
So like, yeah, yeah, I would love to get into how you're
eating right now. You know, you were talking about

(29:53):
your age. You look great for your age.
And I'm sure everybody would want to know.
OK, Like, what does Zane's day-to-day look like?
And I'm curious to know, like, what your day-to-day looks like.
You were talking about training fasted.
So like when you get up in the morning, like do you eat
breakfast? Do you fast?
Like, what are you eating? When do you work out?
Like, tell me. Tell me what like a day-to-day
looks like for you. You know, I mean day-to-day.

(30:14):
I don't even know if I I, I, I lock into a day-to-day too much
anymore because it's, it's just,it's, it's, it's between
variables. But I, I don't fast anymore.
I'm not that sold on it to be honest with you anymore.
I think there's, there's some atthis point, I need to keep some

(30:35):
distance from it because the, the cortisol impact and the
impact of how my sleep. I think I'm still correcting.
And so could be as I've done other things where I see, see my
sleep correct or, or change or improve through a much higher
carb approach. And then depending on how much
I'm training. So my focus, I think my, my, my

(30:56):
greatest or my most of my focus on, on what I'm trying to
improve right now is really my sleep.
And I'm looking at the ordering data.
And so I'm basing a lot on that as well as making sure, hey,
I'm, am I getting stronger or asis this, am I, are my workouts
improving or they might not justgoing backwards, you know,

(31:18):
making sure at least I'm holdingground in certain areas and
where's it, you know, can I add some variety to that energy?
Am I getting more, I want to work on more mobility.
So I'm, I'm backing off on really pushing strength training
all the time and working in moremobility movements for ground
moving and, and just trying to improve my, my range of motion

(31:39):
and moving in extreme ranges of motion and being comfortable in
those in those ranges with my diet.
You know, you probably, if you're paying attention to
YouTube social media, you've probably heard all the buzz
around the sugar diet, you know,coming out, Mark Bell, Jay
Campbell talking about it, this guy Joe Bentley out in Miami,
who's pretty much developed it, who's, who's helping these,

(32:01):
these bodybuilders get ready forshows and, and increase.
And I'm like, well, OK, I'm listening to these guys and I'm,
I'm like, there's foods in this diet I wouldn't touch.
There's foods inside that I don't, I have any desire to eat.
I wouldn't feel good if I ate them.
I don't think they belong in my gut.
But but I'm already playing withdiet.

(32:24):
I'm I've, I've increased carb. I didn't reduce fat when I did.
And initially when I increased my carb intake and I was walking
around, I was like listening to this.
I'm walking around at that pointprobably close to 12 or 13% body
fat, which is a little high for me.
And so I realize it's not high for everybody and and that's a

(32:46):
relative thing. But for me, as far as across my
lifespan, that's on the high side and I don't need to carry
that much. Am I stronger, going to carry
more weight? Yeah, I'm like 210 at that
point. But I'm like, I bet I could, I
bet if I play with this, I couldprobably drop five, 6 lbs of fat

(33:06):
if I do this correctly and not and, and try not and, and in a
way that does not over train me or a way that's more
sustainable. See if I can get down to like a
nine to 10% body fat and see howsustainable it is for what
period of time. Because I've had clients say I
want to get down to 9% or 9 1/2%.
I'm like, you might touch on it,you might get there and go, hey,

(33:30):
this is great. Take a picture, go to the beach,
take your vacation, but you may not like staying there or what
it takes to stay there because it's for many people, it's not
sustainable depending on what the the stress in their life,
what's going on in their life, what their age.
That is not the the other every factor.
You're not just your diet and exercise, but your job, your

(33:51):
family, all the other stressors in your life play a part in what
your body can sustain. And so I'm like, how can this be
a sustainable way for someone toreach a low body fat at least
for a period of time? And, and how would you, how
would I do it without getting stuck or having the, the
downside? Because with this sugar diet,

(34:14):
what's happening is they got a very high carb intake, low to
moderate protein, depending on the phase it's in, very low fat.
And you won't get a lot of thesedetails.
Maybe listening to some of the, some of the, the big talking
heads, right? Because they're just kind of
playing with it and they're talking, They're not getting the
nitty gritty, but digging deeperinto the guy who, who created

(34:37):
this, I was like, OK, so he has different phases where he's
doing these high carb, low low, low protein, very low fat
phases. And then he has a refeed after
maybe sometimes four or five days, comes back out of it,
pushes some protein, pushes a little more fat and then dives
back in. Now, OK, he's figured something

(35:00):
out. He's figured out how to maintain
the edge of the diet without over leveraging it so that
you're, you know, your, your body's when you cut that fat
back, you're not, you don't stopproducing hormones.
Your, your body doesn't start tanking energy wise.
You are you're creating a refeedalmost weekly to allow then go

(35:23):
back in and allow the effectiveness of that diet to do
its work. And so I played with this diet
for about eating whole food. So fruit, sweet potato, white
rice, sometimes some sourdough, fruit juice, honey, those kind
of things. Not doing candy, not doing
sodas. Stick in and played with about 6

(35:48):
or 7 seven weeks. I had a little travel in between
there. So I had a week of two on two
different trips where there was like 3 days here, 5 days there
of travel where I just couldn't be, couldn't do it.
And kind of worked my way through it of a very high carb.
So high carb being somewhere to 3 to 400 grams of carbs a day,
moderate protein on certain phases where it was like maybe

(36:11):
from my way to 200 ish to just slightly over 200.
I was probably doing 100 one, 120 grams.
There were days when it was as low as 30 grams of beef, beef,
not collagen, but beef gelatin. And there was A and then there

(36:32):
was a phases where it was like amore put the 120 maybe, but
certain times of the day. So basically you're, you're
playing with this diet and over about six or seven weeks, I did
a, a scan kind of a biometric, anice, a nice, a bioimpedance
machine, very high end, like $20,000 bioimpedance machine in
a doctor's office before and after.

(36:54):
In the middle of that, I did a DEXA scan just because it came
up. I was at a podcast and the guy
said, hey, I've got this. Do you want to come see my
facility? We'll get a DEXA scan.
So I was pretty much on track and beginning to end.
In that seven week period I lost6 lbs of body fat and it said
picked up .8 lbs of muscle. Now I know better than to know

(37:15):
that I didn't put on muscle tissue.
But what I felt right away when I increased my glycogen or
increased my carb intake and reduce the fat, I felt the pump
in my muscles right away. So I felt the sudden pump go in
without all this hydration, all this glycogen come into my
muscles. And my workouts were like, I was

(37:37):
I was suddenly adding reps to the weight I've been using for.
All of a sudden reps are coming on within the first two or three
weeks. Interesting.
Yeah. And it was fueling, obviously.
And that was the initial like, like we have was every diet
where we put in the new diet andsuddenly our body responds in
this way. You're like, Oh my gosh, this is
amazing, right. And so that immediate response

(37:58):
was for the most part positive is a little odd.
It was a little there's times you just I couldn't even eat cap
maintenance calories because I just got sick of eating carbs
and sweet things. I'm just sick like didn't want
it. I'd be 4 or 506 hundred calories
well below maintenance. Didn't want to eat no appetite.

(38:20):
That killed it. You just tapped out of like, I
can't do anything more sweet. I wanted like cucumbers with
vinegar because that was carb, but it was like salty, you know,
covered in salt. I just wanted salt and crunch.
But it would it was this very interesting experiment to push
this, but to go in to these extreme moments of very low, low

(38:46):
fat, high carb for about four orfive days, come out, push up the
protein, eat protein 4 meals a day on one refeed day and then
evenings one day before that evenings of animal protein one
day after that with with fruit on the in the morning and then
dive back in for about four or five weeks.
I did that as I progressed into this.

(39:07):
And that's when I hit the the 6 LB weight fat loss, 1 LB said
muscle increase, which was glycogen, obviously.
And my sleep scores improved, somore deep sleep.
My HRV initially bumped up to where my old highs were.
My new lows started going up andthen it kept creeping up from

(39:28):
there over the period of time where it practically doubled my
HRV and I. Wonder why the sleep increase
and I wonder if. Maybe.
Cortisol lowering cortisol, OK. And my heart rate dropped when
it would might bounce between like occasionally high 40s to
mid 50s. I had entire weeks where I was

(39:49):
down between 44 and 49. My resting heart rate at night
dropped at least six point average.
And I'm like, there's something going on here.
So I'm thinking, OK, I'm improved sleep scores with lower
heart rate, improved HIV, losingbody fat, and I'm not
overtraining. I'm actually getting stronger

(40:10):
and I'm not burning up muscle. So.
Did you know though? Did, did you know though for a
fact that you weren't burning upmuscle?
Because so I'm, I'm familiar with the sugar diet.
I'm, I'm, I'm very much intrigued by it.
I'm a big fan of Mark Bell. I'm a big fan of Jay Campbell.
Watch their videos in, in, in the sugar diet is very, very

(40:31):
interesting. And I want to get your thoughts
on this because just in, in, in my opinion, though, I think for
Someone Like You that's in shape, that's sitting at 13 or
14% body fat, it the diet makes sense in my opinion, or could
make sense because in you're almost hacking your own
metabolism by by dropping, by dropping the protein, by

(40:55):
dropping the fat and increasing your carbohydrates and sugars,
right? You're almost forcing your body
into like an OverDrive type of body fat burning stimulation
scenario. Thermogenesis as well.
Yes. But what's, so here's what's
interesting and where I think itcould be.

(41:16):
And I want to get into like the muscle potentially like muscle
wasting situation people might run into because the protein's
low. But I know there's a refeed
here. So here's my question though.
So for people that are like, let's say obese, right, Maybe
they've got £100 to lose, OK, Which would be completely
different than your situation and even Mark Bell's situation

(41:38):
where he's trying to get down tolike 200 lbs.
So it's like. He dropped like 2025 on it I
think, yeah. Yeah, exactly.
But would this be a Would this approach be a smart way to go
for someone that's got to lose like a hundred 200 lbs?
That's a great question. And, and I, I, I look forward to
experimenting with that actually, if I get, so I could
to take me on it. But they, I've, I've heard some

(42:00):
of these people, these guys talkabout that and say, yeah, I've
watched people, I have people telling me they're dropping who
are overweight and insulin resistant diabetic coming off of
with a higher carb or even with a bioenergetic diet, a higher
carb, lower, lower fat, moderateprotein diet, reversing insulin
resistance and, and, and continue to drop weight because

(42:25):
you're getting the fat out of way.
So fat and carbohydrates competefor from, from metabolism in the
cell, right, the vandal cycle. So they basically they compete.
And so it's, it's a, one of the,one of the issues that's keeping

(42:46):
blood sugar high in an insulin resistant person is that they're
insulin resistant at the liver, OK, which I believe initiates
for most people from the seed oils causing low energy
availability in the cell. And the, the body starts pulling
blood sugar out of the bloodstream and to feed the
cells so they don't die. And then the brain is telling

(43:08):
the liver kick up gluconeogenesis.
We have an elevated gluconeogenesis in which we see
in type 2 diabetics, they have very elevated gluconeogenesis,
elevated stress hormones, cortisol, adrenaline and
Glucagon. Not only does that increase
blood sugar production from the liver, but it also releases free
fatty acids. And so you have free fatty acids

(43:28):
going through the bloodstream atthe same time as this high sugar
production. And so those are now competing
for metabolism. And, and this is when they
haven't even eaten something. So, you know, we, we know
diabetics can wake up to it. We call the dawn effect like you
and I, we get a little burst of blood sugar in the morning
because cortisol goes up, it wakes us up.
It might pop up to 100, maybe 95, maybe 110, who knows?

(43:54):
They're, you know, a diabetic can wake up TO18020250.
They haven't eaten for six or eight hours.
Yeah, you know what is where's that coming from?
It's not because they ate something 12 hours ago or eight
hours ago. It's because their liver is
dumping blood sugar because their cortisol levels are
through the roof. They're insulin resistant to the
liver. The liver is not shutting off

(44:16):
when insulin is released. It's not shutting off that sugar
production. And so you've got insulin
resistance that the liver just pumping sugar out and an
elevated cortisol levels, as well as again, it's breaking
down fat and releasing free fatty acids to the bloodstream.
And so they've got energy toxicity.
They got an overabundance of energy in the bloodstream and

(44:38):
high stress hormones. And the brain is, is cutting
what should be a shut off switchfor the liver, the brains
overriding it because it's like we're still worried about the,
the lack of energy from the, theimpact of the seed or the polyp,
the POUFA, the high level poufa that is oxidized in the

(45:01):
mitochondria in the cells, that is, that is impacting
metabolism. Basically, instead of turning
that fat into energy is being stored as fat.
And you have a low energy production.
You know, there's plenty of energy around.
There's no ATP, right? We have fat and we're carved,
but there's not ATP being produced on the level to keep
the cells alive. So now we have pump up the blood

(45:21):
sugar. So with a lower by reducing the
fat and an increase in carbohydrates, the carbohydrates
are going to help shut off at some point shut off that
cortisol. So when, you know, when you,
when you have carbs, I mean, that's why we go when we're

(45:42):
stressed, we reach for the, the sugar, the carbs, it, it turns
down cortisol, the insulin will turn down cortisol.
And it, it, you have enough insulin to finally push that
fuel into the muscle cells are the other cells also, if you
get, if you move the fat out of the way, then there's, there is
more cells available to take on that sugar.

(46:03):
And so we've seen a hit with a huge history of low fat diets
working to reverse insulin resistance, hypertension and
obesity, starting with the rice diet back in 1949.
I'm familiar with Doctor Kempner's rice diet in the
1940s. If if if you're right about
that. I'm not familiar with that, no.

(46:24):
OK, so basically they ate all hehad about a several 100 people,
but this is 1940s North Carolinaput people, they had a bunch of
people who are hypertensive and back then this before we had
hypertensive medication, hypertension would kill you in
six months to a year, right? If you had high blood pressure,
you'd die. It's a death set six months to a

(46:46):
year, you're going to die. So we put some on this rice,
white rice, fruit, fruit juice ad libitum.
OK, They can eat as much as theywant.
Where where the where where Where was the protein at just
non existent? The white rice, it was 5%
protein, 0 fat, pretty much 0 fat and 9095% carb. 98% carb.

(47:08):
Interesting. And he reversed, saved their
lives, reversed the hypertension.
He had about 100 and 2000 and 120 people that were insulin
resistant diet 2 diabetic, obese, basically obese that lost
an average of 140 lbs on this white rice diet.

(47:32):
Adding limited, get rid of the fat, all the carbs that were
mostly white rice with all the fruit and fruit juice and sugar
they wanted. And the only protein was from
the white rice. And then he had several that
were like, you know, reverse their hypertension or their
neuropathy, that kind of thing. You know, things relate to
diabetes, but it was hyper startwith hypertension, then a lot of

(47:56):
weight loss for the average lossof 140 lbs and then reversing
diabetes. And then they develop
hypertension meds shortly after that.
And this kind of like lost some of its edge because they didn't,
they didn't need the diet. They can just give the drugs.
We've, we've heard that story before, but there's several
diets over the last several decades that have been a low fat

(48:16):
diets were effective at reversing its resistance, which
there's plenty of of, of documentation where there's
plenty of literature on these. And so we have to basically, if
we're going to choose, if we gotto choose one or the other.
When you have like what I was doing, which was a, a, you know,

(48:37):
the, the, the zone diet, we havea really balanced carbon fat.
That's not ideal for somebody who is insulin resistant or type
2 diabetic. In my opinion, it's not ideal
for weight loss. It's fine for two.
Sources. You got two sources of energy
coming in. The body's never going to want
to tap in a stored body fat. If you've got a high level of
carbs and a high level of fat, that's like.
No, you don't need anything. Yeah, that's why I got up to 13%

(48:59):
and I was, so, you know, if someone acting now, if it, if
I'd been more active or, you know, was out surfing 3 hours a
morning like Paul, then that probably wouldn't have, I would
have been perfect, right. If you're a, if you're an
athlete, that's why I would wantto feed an athlete.
That's why I'd want to feed somebody who's super active and
young and, and, you know, but soreversing disease and you're

(49:21):
reversing weight, you've got to pick a fuel source.
You've got to either go with, gowith carbs and cut the fat back
or go with, or you can try goingfat and cut the carbs back.
But you can't have an equal amount or a high amount of both,
right? You're, you're, they're
competing for, for a place to bemetabolized.

(49:42):
You're competing for cell space,essentially to be metabolized
for your energy. And if you got both, there's no
reason for your body to, like you said, to burn off fat.
And so with this low fat, I was reducing body fat.
If you have someone who weight and needs £100 to lose and you
want them to burn off their stored body fat, one of the very

(50:05):
simple and documented ways to dothat is to eliminate the fat in
their diet or greatly reduce it so they're whatever fat they
need, their body has to pull from body fat.
Is that a long term sustainable diet?
No, Yeah. Is being obese and diabetic a
long term sustainable state? Not in my opinion.

(50:28):
Pick your poison. Sure.
So if you can. Correct the ailment with a
unsustainable diet and then reincorporate a more sustainable
diet that's clean and full of healthy food and doesn't put the
toxins back in that started the disease to begin with.
I said we got a fix. It just doesn't look the same

(50:49):
from point A all the way to Point C, right?
There's going to be A at point somewhere at point B.
You got to shift your strategy. And so that's, this is, this is
how this is where I am right now, where there is no, with a
diet that creates an effect, there's no such thing as
sustainable. It's like, what do you want to

(51:11):
solve? It's a tool, it's a strategy.
Pull the lever for what you needit for and then correct.
Or like I was doing coming in and out of it to reset on a
weekly basis and then going backin, getting the effect of it and
then resetting and then getting the effect of it and resetting.
That doesn't sound like fun to most people.

(51:32):
Most people don't want to tinkerlike that.
But that's how, that's how, that's that's why it worked and
it worked in a short period of time.
I I honestly agree with you so much with what you said.
Like all these diets are tools. That's what they are The the the
sugar diet, sugar, fasting, ketogenic, low carb, high carb,

(51:53):
whatever it is zone if it fits your metro.
All these diets are tools. And I think what the problem
here is, is a lot of people don't have necessarily maybe the
willpower or discipline that youmight have in regards to doing
the tinkering that you're doing,you know, going in through to
40, Like people just don't want to do that.

(52:13):
People want to. They want to set it and forget
it. Exactly, that's what they want
to do. And, and, and, and I think it's
because the human brain, the, the brain wants like a routine.
The brain wants to get. That's why people like to diet.
They're like, oh, I'm on this diet.
I'm going to be on it for 30, sixty, 90 days, whatever the
case is. And sure, that's what whatever
the brain likes the routine. But at some point you're going

(52:36):
to lose weight and then for you to get it past plateaus or you
to get down from 13% to like 9 or whatever the case is, you
will so absolutely have to make shifts and flips with the macros
and the energy in order to get the body to want to move through
that. And I, I, just what my, my point

(52:58):
is, I just don't think people have that discipline and
willpower. And, and you know, most people
don't, I would say. No, however, how to to 9% No,
but if you get somebody who's 30% or 35% down 18% by saying
here's your food list, here's when you can eat this, here's
where you can eat that. Simplify a diet and you're going

(53:19):
to work out. And if you don't want to work
out, I'm sorry, how bad do you really want to lose weight and
change your health? So with that diet, especially
with a high carb diet, you have to strength train, you need to
do, it was helpful to do some high intensity interval cardio
and you need to be doing some low level carb to burn some fat
as well. There, this is not a I'm just

(53:41):
going to do this and not where I'm just going to do the diet.
I'm not going to work out. I'm not going to worry about
it's like, well, then good luck to you.
I'm not your guy. I'm not here to I'm not going to
be able to help you if you're not willing to, to, to do what
actually is required of you to be healthy long term.
Exercise is not just a tool for weight loss.
Exercise is a tool for longevity, and it's a strategy

(54:04):
for longevity, but you absolutely need it for healthy
weight loss to maintain muscle. Obese people, they're eating
their muscle, They're break their glucidogenesis on high
gear like that. They're breaking down muscle and
turning it into blood sugar. They are literally eating
themselves. That's why calories in, calories
out doesn't work for many of these people, because they're

(54:27):
creating calories from the lean mass with the glucidogenesis.
They're breaking down muscle, turning into sugar.
They didn't eat that sugar that day.
They turned it sugar. They they turned muscle into
sugar that created calories thatthey didn't eat.
That's stored lean mass. That's what their body's doing.

(54:49):
And so to we have to shut that down.
You've got to shut down the gluconigiosis.
That's why we're seeing carnivores and keto people with
high blood sugar, blood sugars in the 90s, hundreds, 100 and
10115, some of them with A1 CS that are at 59661 and they are,

(55:10):
they have low fasting insulin. They saw the low fasting
insulin, but they're but their body, their gluconeogenesis in
the stress response to a lack ofglucose coming into their diet,
they're cranking up the gluconeogenesis.
They're breaking down the mass from muscle, skin and bone and
whatever meat they're eating andthey're cranking up the blood
sugar so much at night to recover from the lack of glucose

(55:34):
in their diet and maybe whateverexercise they're doing.
That's probably adding to the problem.
Now their bodies all night long,cortisol is up.
Who could be Genesis is cranked.Their blood sugar levels, their
fasted blood sugar is high and their A1 CS are high because it
doesn't come back down. And so those, those red blood

(55:54):
cells are being exposed to blood, higher blood sugar on a
more consistent basis throughoutthe day.
We see this a little bit with athletes where they have maybe
have a higher A1C because they're training so much that
their blood sugar goes up because of the stress of
training. And they come up and peek and
hit it. And they might be pushing like
5657, but they're healthy. And it's because they're

(56:14):
training so much with carnivore Aikido.
And then I, I mean, I've been, and I hate I, I'm not trying to
poke holes or pick fights, but I've, I've been at keto
conferences, you know, and I've,I've been in the line watching
people put food on their plate And they've got a big, and they,

(56:34):
some of these people had 20-30, forty, £50 to lose with a big
hunk of fatty meat on their plate.
And then they put a chunk of butter on top of that.
That was 508 hundred calories ofbutter right there just in that
meal, 500 to 800 calories. Of fat of fat on top of the.
Fatty meat. There is no way their body is

(56:58):
going to burn up that much fat in one day, let alone if they're
eating that much in one meal. They're not going to use.
Their body is not utilizing, butthe percentage of calories
coming from fat in their active day is not going to offset the
amount of fat that they're eating.

(57:19):
Oh, and and are you familiar with Craig Emmerich?
Oh yeah, and Marie. Marie.
I mean, I've met Craig, I mean, once, right.
But I know Maria. I mean, I've met Marie a couple
times. Yeah, we've.
Yeah, yeah. So I had him on.
We were literally talking about this exact same thing because
like they, they consult with people on ketogenic diets, low
carb diets, carnivore diets, allthose types of things.

(57:40):
They're seeing people coming to them from the high fat carnivore
space, like you were just alluding to that are actually
gaining weight. And it's just like, and it's the
simple, it's the simple in my opinion.
It's a simple thought of like, OK, if you've got 50 lbs to lose
and you're throwing a steak likea like a super high fat steak,

(58:01):
cut a cut a meat and you're putting like a stick of fucking
butter on top of it, right? Why do you why in the fuck would
your body want to tap into stored body if weight loss is
your goal? Why in the fuck would your body
want to tap into stored body fatwhen you have so much excess fat
coming into and through the diet?
Like, yeah, it's there's no way.And I think people have that

(58:23):
very, very backwards. Can you use a high fat carnivore
for for other things? It's a tool, right?
Like we were just saying, can you use it for other things like
maybe healing, you know, go on aketogenic diet for like mental,
autoimmune, all these types of things, all sorts of 1000
percent, 1000%. But when the goal is weight
loss, when the goal is weight loss, you're you will, you might

(58:47):
lose some weight initially, but the body is not going to want to
tap into stored body fat. If it's sensing that you are in
an environment where you're where food is abundant and
you're eating that amount of fatcoming in through the diet, it's
just not going to lose weight. You only need so much fat your
body is that you don't have any.You don't have an infinite
demand on fat. Even the best ketogenic diet,

(59:10):
the most pristine ketogenic diet, your body is only going to
use about maybe 6570% at the best, 70% of your calories
coming from fat. Yeah.
Then you got a little offset, but mostly it's the energy is
coming glucose, glucose is thereyour, your brain, you got

(59:30):
aristocytes, your red blood cells don't burn fat because
they don't have mitochondria, right?
So and then certain parts of your brain, kidney, eyes,
testes, glucose is being used. If you exercise glucose type 2
muscle fibers, you got to store some.
You are going to use glucose. You never stop using glucose.
That's why you have blood sugar and you're using it constantly.

(59:52):
It's just why gluconeogenesis ramps up with a low carb or KJ
diet. It ramps up to offset the lack
of glucose coming into your diet.
You need glucose. You are always going to use
glucose. You're not going to have 90% of
your calories that you're burning coming from fat.
It's impossible. It's impossible.
And so you, you know, I, I, I'veit's, it's a rude, it's a crude

(01:00:16):
analogy, but the person in the starving in a concentration camp
has it, it's imperfect ketosis because, but they have
gluconogenesis elevated. They're breaking down some
protein to offset their glucose needs.
They're probably breaking down somebody fat for kids and

(01:00:37):
they're eating whatever they're eating.
But they are, they are, they arestarving.
And so if you create a Weight Loss Diet, the diet where you're
supposed to weight lose weight, you are creating some element of
a starvation response because you're eating, you're trying to
eat tissue. Even though the low fat, high
carb one, you're creating some level where you're because

(01:00:59):
you've got to use the fat right.You, you don't have, you have a
lack of fats. You got to use your own body
fat. The thing about the high carb is
that because insulin is elevatedand you have plenty of room for
glycogen, it supports the muscletissue.
The insulin is a tissue sustaining or, or supportive,
you know, growth hormone and theglycogen keeps the muscles full.

(01:01:24):
So your blood Sugar's up and theglycogen is available and the
insulin is helping you hang on to muscle tissue and it's
shutting down the cortisol, which is what breaks down the
cortisol was part of it breaks down the muscle lean mass to
turn into glucose for gluconeogenesis.
So if you're turning down the breakdown hormones, the stress

(01:01:44):
hormones and Glucagon, which is another big one, and you're
lifting up the hormones that like insulin that's supporting
lean mass, but there's not enough fat on board dietarily.
Your body's got to pull fat fromsomewhere.
It's kind of fat from your fat stores.

(01:02:05):
Am I trying to I'm not trying totell people what to do.
I'm saying take look at this through a different lens and
maybe a lens that you had not considered before.
Look at the history we have on it, the literature we have on

(01:02:26):
it. We have and and consider how the
might be a different way and that but but a little bit of
common sense like what you just mentioned, where if you are
eating, you know, twelve 1300 calories, 1400 calories from fat
a day and you're trying to lose body fat.
You have not given your body anyreason to burn fat because you

(01:02:51):
are supplying all your fat needsin your diet.
And so and so I not to interruptyou, but I, I mean, it was like
that kind of helped the thought the first question you said what
if you could you lose muscle on this is like if you do a fruit
fast too long where you're doingsuper high carb, very low
protein, almost no fat for a long period of time.

(01:03:15):
Yeah, you'll start, but but I but by coming in and out of it
and then and then resetting backto a maintenance phase of
moderate protein, high carb, lowfat, you can still keep burning
fat and maintain the muscle. And we see this with these
bodybuilders who are doing this,this, this diet with with eating

(01:03:36):
more carb. You don't need as much protein.
You don't need a gram of proteinper pound of body weight to
sustain your muscle because you've got insulin and glycogen
supporting that muscle tissue. And you're not trying to turn
protein into glucose on the samelevel you would be if you were
on a low carb diet. Yeah, and and, and I've heard

(01:03:56):
and I and I think it's a smart way for bodybuilders to diet
down and get in in in shape for a show, right?
Because it seems to me like going like the the sugar diet
route would enable them to feel not as depleted and potentially
have a little bit more better ofa look, if that makes sense.

(01:04:18):
They won't show up as flat because they're they'll have
more, a little bit more water, but also a little bit more
glycogen. They'll be fuller, basically.
And your veins are like popping.Real quick here, Zane, I want to
be respectful of what we got going on here because the time
just flew by. We're a little over an hour.
Are we still OK to go for a little bit longer?
Because I did have some other questions here that I want to

(01:04:39):
get. Sure, I know I kind of like ran
away with the with the little with the experiment, but I mean,
I. Know I want to kind of go back
into it, but I just want to makesure you're OK on time.
Yeah, we're good. We're good.
That's fine. So, so go, so going back to into
the initial question, then this is how we kind of got on the the
sugar diet route. So in terms of like your
day-to-day now are you kind of like flexing the sugar diet in
like 3 or 4 days a week and thendoing like a protein wheat

(01:05:01):
refeed? Yeah, go ahead.
What I'm doing currently, and I'm, you know, subject to
change, right, Subject to adjustment.
Like I think at this point anything I'm going to put that
sticker on just about everythingthat I'm doing a higher carb
fruit, white rice, sweet potato type diet, honey and stuff.

(01:05:21):
I'm doing high carb in the morning or or higher carb by
starting my day with that. No, no protein in the morning
that would have any that would stimulate muscle protein
synthesis. So it's really a a gelatin or
collagen based protein. So it doesn't have isoleucine

(01:05:44):
essentially and it's a lot of fruit.
And then by say 2-3 o'clock, I start incorporating the animal
protein as part of my recovery work in workouts with some
strength training, low end of cardio and then some higher
intensity cardio sprinkled in there.

(01:06:06):
And so that's I'm, I'm enjoying right now with a lower fat and
my fat is staying at around. So I'm basically like 60 to 70%
carb at the moment, about 20. Sometimes it fluctuates to 2025%
protein and about 10 at most 15%fat.
But a lot of times it's around 10% fat during the week.
And then the weekend I let off the gas, I let off the the

(01:06:29):
brakes a little bit on the fat. I don't feel the need for as
much carb when I do that. My body kind of just actually
regulates. I have a little more protein, a
little more animal fat is let inand would but not more than say
5040%. Like I won't go over
intentionally unless I go out toeat with my family, in which

(01:06:51):
case I can't control what I'm eating.
But I I have no reason to go over 40 grams of fat in a day.
And most of the time I'm stayingunder 30.
And I think most people like honestly.
Oh, I want to get on another tangent, but the carb intake is
going to be between 3:00 and 400grams a day for the most part
during the week. The I said the fats staying

(01:07:12):
below 20, maybe below 30 and theproteins at 12125 right there
and I'm I'm maintaining. That's a day.
That's a. Day.
That's a day OK. And I'm maintaining right around
the 2O2 to 2O4 weight, which is what I dieted down to from the

(01:07:32):
with the 13% when I dropped to 6lbs, I think I got a lot, maybe
a pound lower than that, the lowest end of it.
But I'm maintaining comfortably at this lower body fat and lower
weight, which I really am enjoying.
I'm I kind of liking being a little bit lighter, not bounced
around at 2:10, but staying right around 2, two to two O 4
and and noticeably leaner through the middle, through the

(01:07:55):
through the ABS on the shoulder.I mean, I'm noticeably leaner
and more vascular and I'm enjoying it and I'm doing it in
a way that I don't, I'm not feeling currently feeling any
downside. If I did, I'd know what to do.
I just got to refuel some with some animal protein and some and
some animal fat. But I'm doing a little bit out
on the weekend. So I, I'm really being me.

(01:08:19):
Like I don't mind break gas, break gas, break gas a little
bit through the week. You know what I mean?
You know what I'm talking about.You know what I'm saying?
Like just making adjustments andthen letting my body figure out
on looking at the sleep scores, looking at the but maintaining
basically a low fat diet. But I was saying in general,
most people who need to lose weight, which is the majority of

(01:08:41):
our country and who are metabolically challenged, don't
need to be eating more than 50 grams of fat in a day.
If they were to start tracking, if they ate more than 50, they
they would lose weight if they could produce And you look at
someone who starts tracking who's just eating, I'm going to
eat out here with this family. I'm going to eat a little bit of
this here. I'm going to grab that there.

(01:09:01):
They're well over 100 grams of fat if they're not eating a
healthy diet, but they're well over 100 grams of fat.
And I'm not saying putting it below 50 grams without having a
healthy diet as well is the is the magic sauce definitely a
healthy whole food diet with animal protein, right?
I'm all for it, but if we could take we still have people doing

(01:09:23):
that who who aren't losing weight as you and I know we
could take it down to 50 grams or less.
If you have a weight problem, take your fat down 50 grams or
less and eat whole food. I'd say you're going to lose
some fat. Absolutely 100% couldn't agree
more and I have some rapid fire questions that don't necessarily

(01:09:44):
need like a rapid fire answer sofeel free to tell me.
That because you know, I can go down the buddy trail.
Yeah, well, it's OK. It's OK.
As long as we're good on time, that's fine.
So let's let's go into it. What is the single worst habit
men over 40 do that's killing their progress?

(01:10:04):
Oh, alcohol. And if that's on end, then it's
the fast. It's reaching for the fast food.
It's reaching for the it's reaching for the greasy seed oil
food, ultra processed food, Yeah.
Yeah, I would agree with you on that one.
What's the What's the fastest way for someone over 40 to look

(01:10:27):
and feel 10 years younger? Same answer.
I mean get rid of the highly ultra processed foods, seed
oils, highly oxidative. We talked about oxidative stress
is what creates disease. It is not a macro.
Nutrients don't create disease. We have indigenous populations

(01:10:48):
all over the world that eat carbintake of 60 to 8085 gram, 85%
of their diet, lower protein, maybe it's lower fat, some have
coconut oil, higher fat. They all eat whole food.
They don't have disease. Ultra processed food is what's
oxidative. That's oxidative.
Stress is what causes disease inour cells or mitochondria.

(01:11:10):
This is where disease starts. Oxidative stress comes from the
highly ultra processed food are inflaming our mitochondria
trying to process these, these really industrial fats.
If we can eliminate the oxidative stress, so much
disease, so many of our issues start to diminish and go and go

(01:11:33):
away and and look back 120 years, we didn't have them,
we've created them. So that's my long winded answer
to that one. No.
And and this goes I, I think I know then the answer to this
next question. If you had to take just one food
to cut forever for better health, I'm going to guess here,
would it be seed oils? Or would it be Ding, Ding, Ding,
Yeah, yeah, you are correct. I think we would see a

(01:11:57):
tremendous, not that, not that glyphosate isn't an issue go out
that you know, or being over medicated isn't an issue.
But that's where it started. It started with the Crisco.
It started with the fake lard. It started with all the oil, the
soybean oils and the and the corn oils and the margarines.
That's what started 1910 to 1930.

(01:12:19):
Because before that we didn't have the obesity and the
diabetes and the heart disease, you know?
Yeah. All right, next one What's the
biggest lie or misconception thefitness industry tells people
about losing fat after 40? Wow OK the biggest lie is the

(01:12:40):
calories in calories out that that still perpetuates.
Blows my mind. It's completely annoying
Hormones. It's completely ignoring how
they just explain to you about insulin resistance.
It ignores insulin resistance, which is what night night 8090%
of the population is dealing with.
So calories in, calories out. Big fat lie.

(01:13:01):
Yeah, well, and here here's the interesting thing about I was
actually thinking about this while I was shopping at the
grocery store today. The calories in, calories out
thing. It's like, yeah, it's, it's good
to know. Like the amount of energy or the
units of energy in the food, thecalories, the carbs, the fats,
the proteins. Yeah, those, those, those are
definitely important. And I think some people, yeah.

(01:13:21):
And I think, and I think people should track for sure for a a
period of time just to kind of get a good sense of like, what
what they're eating. But the reality of the situation
is everyone's got different engines.
People are going to burn calories.
This is just my my two cents. People burn calories at
different rates based off where they're at.
Someone that's like 600 lbs isn't going to burn calories
like Hussein Bolt, You know whatI mean?

(01:13:42):
Different people have different engines.
And you can you can increase calorie burning just tracking
the calories. Yeah.
I feel like there's some truth to it, but the the problem is
it's different for everybody because people burn calories
different. What are your thoughts on that?
One, food quality, it makes a difference. 2, Your engine.
Like you said, if you're insulinresistant, which most people

(01:14:03):
are, you're not turning the foodyou're eating into ATP, you're
destroying it as fat. That's the thing, we do not have
a closed system. We are not lawn mowers.
All the gas you put in a lawn mower for the most part turns
into energy in the engine. All the food that you give to of
the human body depending on what's the state they're in
disease state or or athletic state or the quality of food

(01:14:27):
you're putting in. Not all that turns into ATP.
Some of it is turned is just stored as fat because of the
inefficiency of the metabolism of the oxygen stress going on in
the, the, the, the metabolic process in those mitochondria
where they can't, they're, you're being damaged.
And so that energy is not being not turned into energy, cellular

(01:14:50):
energy, it's just being stored as fat.
And that's why they can be on 12/15/16 hundred calorie day
diets and still gaining weight, not losing weight, still
diabetic. And as I mentioned before, the
diabetic or the highly insulin resistant person is creating
calories from their lean mass even when they're not eating.

(01:15:11):
And we see that with the dawn effect when you have 200 blood
sugar, right? 200 milligrams per deciliter
blood sugar first thing in the morning, you haven't eaten for 8
hours. Good friend of mine, Brad Kearns
tells the story. Brad Kearns, you know Brad is, I
mean, he was a champion triathlete.
He's now still competing at 60. Track and field wrote New York

(01:15:31):
Times bestseller keto books, just wrote Bookmark Sisson.
The guy when he was doing keto would waking up to blood sugar
of 130. Waking up he hadn't eaten for
9-10 hours and when he did it was keto and he's got a blood
sugar of 130. OK, that's elevated
gluconeogenesis on a very healthy person, trans like that

(01:15:55):
to an insulin resistant diabeticobese person.
Don't tell me it's about the calories because their blood
Sugar's through the roof and they haven't eaten any.
We'll put we didn't even get into I might have to have you
back on because one of the crazyparts about your Instagram is

(01:16:15):
you're obviously a very, very inshape guy.
You've you've graced the cover of Men's Fitness.
We didn't even touch on that part.
Top ten exercises. So if you've got 10 exercises
and I'd like to ask this question to a lot of like the
fitness guys that I, that I interview, you've got 10
exercises that you can do for the rest of your life.
They don't necessarily need to be any and any specific order,

(01:16:37):
but what are they for you? OK, boy, I would go, I would go
with a single leg. I'd work on a single leg squat
for both mobility and the the movement.
So like to the. Floor like a split squat or.
Something one leg or a pistol squat.
Pistol squat, Bulgarian split squat.

(01:16:58):
I would probably keep them both and a pull up a wide row
overhead press and I would do a cable or band driven dynamic

(01:17:19):
band, you know, driven chest, chest press, single one, single
one. I feel like that's six.
That's that's six, right? Yeah, a plank.
For the for the ABS specifically, or just core
strength in? General core strength and
stability and for flattening outthat spine because so many of us

(01:17:41):
are cranked forward from sittingtoo much, right?
You know, pelvic do like so perfect pelvic and back
stability. Then to get outside of those
planes, I would do some sort of side lunge, like deep side
plunge and a boy, you got me. Maybe I'm trying to think of

(01:18:11):
what to do here. Reverse reverse fly, you know,
like us like to get open up the the the chest and then a dead
hang. Really interesting.
Yeah, shoulder health, grip strength.

(01:18:33):
Paul Saladino's a big, big, big dead hang guy.
I know he likes those. Yeah, Yeah, I know they're,
they're, I think there's, there's a longevity component
there that and I'm thinking in terms of, you know, I that that
has to be woven in with how we approach strength training is,
is longevity and keeping our, our stability and our, our

(01:18:59):
agility, our ability to move in extreme ranges, right?
Because that's where we get, that's where we usually get
hurt. Is it like that side lunge
stepping off the curb? You know, it's, it's those
things where we're like we're, we're a little bit outside of
our normal plane of movement andwe get thrown off as we get
older and that's where we get injured, you know, so. 100%

(01:19:20):
agree. In terms of supplements, I had
the 11 last one that that I wanted to talk to you about.
What what are in your opinion are like the top maybe 3 to 5
supplements all men should be taking or people in general?
Doesn't have to be just men, it could also be women.
What are like the top three to five supplements that men should
be taking? OK, So what were the top ones?

(01:19:43):
What the top ones would be? You know, like creatine, are you
a big creatine guy at all? Or like, I know everyone's
raving about creatine, all the studies that show all the, the
positive benefits in terms of just, you know, the, the mental
side of things, the body composition side of things in
terms of performance. You are you not buying it?
I mean, I have it, I've used it off and on.

(01:20:05):
My kids use it, my wife's used it.
It's not like I don't think it'sa bad supplement.
I don't think it's a necessary supplement.
I'm much more I leaned, I think sleep is the component of our
we've, we've, we've, we've done diet and exercise to nearly
death and yet sleep still remains the big mystery.
So anything we can do to help with improving our quality and

(01:20:29):
tracking and understanding of sleep quality.
So my, my supplements are usually geared other things like
a good magnesium glycinate or three in eight.
I and I do a little extra tryptophan and some GABA to help
stimulate those GABA receptors for the melatonin production,
which tends to diminish as we get older.

(01:20:50):
And the receptor, the GABA receptors which tend to get get
a little dull. And so my my supplementation is
geared more around improving, bringing break, basically
putting myself in a more parasympathetic state for sleep.

(01:21:10):
We get the sympathetic very easily, man.
I mean stress, right, stimulation, the screens, work
kids, life puts us in sympathetic.
What we what we neglect is the parasympathetic.
We we seem to reach for substances to get us there.
And I think there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a
lifestyle met, you know, habits or things we can do, but there's

(01:21:33):
some supplements which help thataren't real present in our diet
anymore. And we might need more of just
because the level of stress is increased.
And for, to me, for me, and I think for most of them, because
most of them and I trained that are like well over 40, they're
professionals. They're sleep is the thing where
they're like, man, I just can't,I slept like crap, I never sleep
well. My deep sleep doesn't exist.

(01:21:55):
HRV is like, you know, it's likea metronome on, on speed.
And so it's, it's the magnesium,the which I is, is probably the
lesser of the, of all of them. But the tryptophan, the GABA
and, and, and things that help reduce stress cortisol and help

(01:22:20):
our bodies kind of get in that more relaxed state.
That's that's where I lean. I, I think creatine is
beneficial. I don't know that I would call
it, I'm not convinced it's necessary for or as necessary as
as as is being currently hyped. You know what I'm saying?

(01:22:44):
I would need to see more long term data on the benefits to
brain health. If it helps brain, yes, 100%.
But that's where I think those are things that I have a hard
time replacing with my diet is, is the magnesium, the

(01:23:06):
tryptophan, the GABA, wherever those came from before, whether
it was just our our better paying, paying more attention to
sunset, not not less, less fluorescent light, less stress,
less screens. Circadian Rhythm.
Things that that, that, that feed our circadian rhythm and

(01:23:26):
help us adjust those. Those are the supplements.
I think where I would, I would put more emphasis than anything
else because I think it's the biggest neglected part of our
lifestyle. There's big three, there's diet,
exercise and sleep. And I think sleep is the most
abused and neglected. What, what would you say then on
this notion of sleep? Then what?

(01:23:46):
What would be like your number one sleep hack?
Like what's like the number one thing you do?
I, I know we were talking about the supplements, but is it like
cold room special mattress? Like what?
What would be your number one thing you you do to optimize
your sleep? I, I, I, I, I don't want to
answer you this. I I hate to answer you this way.
We can't just do one thing. It's like just it's like, I, I

(01:24:09):
want to lose weight. I just want to do one thing.
Yeah, yeah, sure. I just want to diet.
I just want to work out and you're going to go.
That's not going to work. So if we just do one thing for
something as important as sleep that we do for we're supposed to
do for like a third of our life,I, I, I, I, I mean, I don't.
Maybe maybe there's a better wayto ask that question.
Maybe there's a better way, Likewhat is what's maybe one thing

(01:24:32):
everyone can do to the what is the one thing everyone can
implement that's easier for themto implement to improve sleep
like tonight when they go to bed?
That might be the kind of the same question, but.
It is I mean, here's here's I'm going to give you 3 that I tell
people sure limit the the fake light.

(01:24:52):
So whether it's a device light up close or fluorescent light,
whether you blue light blockers,dim lights, change lighting 3
hours before bed. Don't eat your last meal, heavy
meal 3 hours before bed. Keep the room below 65° and
those three things will help most people's sleep unless

(01:25:16):
you're dealing with something like apnea, restless leg
syndrome. I know those those kind of
things, but it's like those willthose will improve the natural
circadian rhythm more than most other lifestyle choices.
So reduce the room temp, reduce your light exposure, reduce

(01:25:38):
heavy food three hours before bed and, and those three things
will help your circadian rhythm.What I have found that adding
ink as I increase my carb intake, especially early in the
day, that also reduced my cortisol, which then in turn
helped my sleep. So it's what we do during the
day that sets us up to have a better night's sleep at night.

(01:25:59):
Well put. Beautifully said, Zay.
I mean, this is awesome. I do.
There's so many different thingsI want to talk to you about.
So I, I got to get you back on here.
Where can people find you online?
Get in contact with you, work with you, and I'll put
everything in the show notes, but feel free to drop whatever
you'd like. Well, thank you.
Well, so I have a free download if people want want that.
It's kind of it's it's like a quick like a few page PDF of how

(01:26:22):
I approach my clients. It's called Free 40 plan,
free40plan.com is where you can find it and basically look at
diet, exercise, some elements ofrecovery and even talk a little
bit about give some biomarkers for fasting.
It's like metabolic biomarkers, hormone biomarkers.
If you have some targets for hormone replacement therapy,
something we didn't talk about either, but but it give you some

(01:26:45):
like optimal versus normal ranges.
Your doctor might be looking thenormal ranges and you want the
optimal ranges. So those are all in there.
It's an easy resource for most people, but free 40 plan.com.
You can find most of my socials at at zangregs.com, but I'm most
active on Instagram, Zangregs Fitness, and then YouTube.

(01:27:05):
I'm at Zangregs, so that'd be the easiest place to kind of
pick me up. Perfect.
And like I said, I'll put everything in the show notes.
So yeah, yeah, Zane, appreciate the time.
Thank you also too, for giving me a little extra time here and
dive into some of those last components like the sleep and
stuff. I think that's going to be super
valuable for people and everyoneelse out there.

(01:27:26):
Yeah. Thanks guys for listening to the
Low Carb Consultant podcast. We'll catch you guys on the next
one. Thanks Max.

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Zane Griggs | Diet Evolution, Body Adaptation & Effective Fat Loss | September 2, 2025 Ep. 21

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Zane Griggs | Diet Evolution, Body Adaptation & Effective Fat Loss | September 2, 2025 Ep. 21