I am not a wet bench scientist. I live in the real world and I work with people one on one. I do respect the hell out of mechanistic research as it helps us ask better questions and plays a fundamental role in pushing the field forward and I am excited to see what the fat adaptation research brings into the realm that is exercise science and nutrition in the coming decades.

Yet, ultimately two questions drive me…what does the person across from me need and what can they do…long-term?

This is where the dance begins.

And I see a lot of gentlemen stumbling right now because their feet aren’t firmly planted on solid ground.

If you are a male above 180 and you train like you have half a pair, you will likely need to average somewhere around 3,000 calories a day depending on your goals.

At the prototypical intake of 1g/lb of protein (perhaps a little high) and 30% fat (which we know works very well) that would be…

~ 20oz meat
~ 3.5 to 4 pounds of cooked sweet potato, 2ish pounds of cooked rice or plantains, or 1.5 pounds mashed yucca and as many vegetables as you can fit in your mouth.
~ 5TBS oil or 1 pound of avocado

Now to remain in ketosis you will probably have to stay under 25-50 grams for net carbohydrate intake. That means the above morphs to…

~ 20oz meat
~ Likely zero tubers or grains and around 6 to 10 cups of non-starchy vegetables
~ 15 TBS oil

Finally, let’s say you are 10-12% body fat. We still need to bring the amount of protein down to the maximum that would allow you to stay fat adapted, which bring us to about…

~ 15oz meat
~ Likely zero tubers and around 6 to 10 cups of non-starchy vegetables
~ 17 TBS oil

*if you went with fattier cuts, meat would go up and oil would go down. For example, switching from leaner choices of meat to 80/20 ground beef would push you back up to 20 oz of protein and down to 12-13 TBS of oil.

I’m not saying you can’t do this. Frankly, I don’t care. Yet, if you are going to do it make sure you eat enough because if you don’t, you just started an entirely new experiment and I know how that one ends …poorly.

P.S. I haven’t met a male American high school, college, or professional mixed energy system athlete that could maintain the above intake for a day in a free-living environment, let alone a week, a season, or a career. But, maybe I just know a bunch of spineless twerps who can somehow run in warp drive and lift tonnage off the floor. I’ve been wrong before.

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