Yes! Isn’t that a funny thought. There’s freedom in limitation. And it frees up mental bandwidth too. This concept is known as “food freedom” in many circles. Food no longer controls you, you’re no longer thinking about the next meal, you no longer waste any time or mental energy deciding, it’s just “What am I eating? Oh yeah: meat and eggs”.
Would every 3 days still work?
I honestly can’t say. I haven’t ever done that before. I do once a week, which stretches it long. Vince says every third or fourth day, which would permit it. It’s worth appreciating that the purpose is to refill glycogen stores, so it would need to coincide with periods of training hard enough to deplete glycogen. If I ate a high carb meal and then skipped the gym for 3 days and went on a bunch of walks, I wouldn’t feel like there’s a need for another high carb meal. Consequently, I have my meal on Sunday night, and hit the gym for my first lifting workout of the week on Monday morning, follow it with a high intensity session on the rower, and then Tuesday is another high intensity conditioning session, so I try to make the most of that glycogen.
Worse comes to worse: experiment and find out what works for you. If you’re leaning out at a meal every 3 days, it’s working. If not: change it. For me, I run into the issue that, by the end of the week, I am totally washed out and flat, and it’s easy to think “Crap, I’m not getting lean anymore, I better stay away from the carbs”, but it’s actually that carb meal that GETS me lean again.
One thing I’ve realized is I need to eat bigger portions. Seeing your McDonald’s comparison showed me why my meals aren’t sticking with me longer. I’ve only been eating about 6 oz of steak.
Yup! This is huge. We’ve been conditioning to believe that meat (especially red meat) and eggs are bad for us and should be eaten in small portions, but when it’s ALL you’re eating, you need to eat until you’re done. You’re a larger individual than me: you most likely need MORE fuel than I do. I’m eating 12.5oz of meat and 3 whole eggs, 5 whites and a tablespoon of tallow at breakfast in order to gradually lose some weight, and I was actually losing at 16oz of meat at the start, so that’s about 1300-1500 calories in breakfast alone, and then a similar meal at dinner. And it’s because it’s so substantial I have zero issues going from meal to meal. In truth, I could skip dinner and still feel satiated.
And with that, you are eating some leaner cuts of meat at the moment, so it’s even less energy. A good avenue for fattier cuts, more whole eggs, or butter as needed. Ideally, the time away from carbs gets you into a fat adapted state, where you’re using fat for fuel.
