Yesterday I completed my third week of the 6-Week Cure For The Middle-Aged Middle — the first all-meat (nearly) week. This morning I weighed 200 lbs. on the gym scale, and my waist measured 38.5 inches around the biggest area. I started at 205 lbs., 41 inches.
That’s only one pound lost in the previous week, but there are some likely explanations:
- I’m lifting an extra 20 or 30 pounds on several weight machines since starting the diet, which means I’ve probably added some muscle.
- I was already on a low-carb diet, so an all-meat (nearly) diet isn’t a dramatic change.
- I cheated on the diet.
Friday was my wife’s birthday, but I maintained good discipline at the restaurant where we celebrated. I had a 10-oz. prime rib, a small Caesar salad without croutons, creamed spinach, and one glass of red wine. The wine was my second serving of alcohol for the week, which means it was also supposed to be my last.
But on Saturday, I met my best friend of nearly 40 years (egads, I’m old!) at a local pub. As often happens when lifelong chums get together to enjoy themselves, the conversation soon turned to the causes of fatty liver disease. I’m a big believer in the power of visual aids, so I had the waitress bring a succession of Yuengling beers and deep-fried snacks to our table in order to emphasize my points.
After finishing off my third pint of Yuengling and some mozzarella sticks, I tapped my empty glass and said, “You see? This is how people put fat in their livers. Bad idea.” My friend agreed and likewise finished off his third pint to demonstrate his comprehension of the science.
The waitress doubted that either of us actually has a fatty liver, but as far as I could tell, she has very little medical training. Also, I think she was angling for a sizable tip.
When I got home from the pub, I confirmed that beer and other carbohydrates make you hungry by consuming a big bowl of almonds and cashews without feeling particularly full. So my three weeks on the cure haven’t exactly been three weeks on the cure.
Anyway, I’ll happily take the one-pound loss for the week. Back to the meat.
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Thanks for posting your Week Three results. Great liver demonstration.
Caffeine preferences aside, I’m wondering how closely you followed the regimen for weeks 1 and 2 as suggested by Drs. Eades. Along with your whey shakes, were you able to include the recommended electrolytes, DAG oil, ribose, luceine, & followup blood donation?
I myself have yet to begin the 6-Week Cure and was curious how the above may or may not be factoring into your current outcome.
In the meantime, I think I’m ready for a Warsteiner.
I drank the shakes, which had luceine in them. I never found DAG oil or any of the other stuff. I didn’t give blood yet, but I probably will. I’m type O, and they always need that stuff since it’s universal donor.
If you’re doing weight training a certain amount of carbs prior to training can be useful. See Lyle McDonald’s site for all sorts of useful info on this.
That may be true, but I doubt he had Saturday night beers in mind.
Tom, good job on the weight loss. My husband and I have just started the 6 week cure this Monday. My poor dh, he is just miserable. After the coffee withdrawal subsided, his back began hurting. He can’t sleep and is just ready to give it all up. I know he’s been eating more carbs than I knew about, so I’m thinking this is “induction flu”, but I’m wondering if anyone else has had the experience of the aching back?
I couldn’t say for sure, but it does sound like withdrawal. Giving up sugar and caffeine at the same time is tough. I hope he can stick with it. Among the many little ailments that went away when I gave up sugar and strach were lower back pain and restless legs at night.
Enjoyed your witty report of Week 3. I’m on Week 6 and treating it as Week 1 sort of. It’s actually quite encouraging to hear others’ reports, because you can see that most people don’t stick to it exactly. I, too, couldn’t find some of the items and didn’t bother ordering online. I AM branching out on the shake flavors, though, and I think that’s a good thing about the diet. I’ve had some success but weight has fluctuated somewhat due to not being strict enough.
I’m still not following it exactly. Despite being in an all-meat week, I’m still drinking a big protein shake on the days I work out. I’ve noticed a real difference in my workouts, and I like it.
Weeks 3 and 4 were my favorites, I substituted Week 6 with what I’m calling the “Disney Diet – 5 Pounds in Five Days.” Unfortunately the five pounds were gained and not lost. I honestly had no say in matter, though, It simply isn’t possible NOT to overeat at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Argentina’s beef skewer over mashed potatoes and France’s chocolate creme brulee made it all worthwhile.
I gave blood after week 2 and had more blood work done after week 5. Just got my results along with a note from my doctor urging me to give up and just go on a statin. My HDL went from 54 to 61. My Trig went from 176 to 90. But my LDL (calculated, of course) went from 162 to 182. Now she’s freaked, of course. I’m trying to figure out a polite way to tell her to go jump in Lake Winnipesaukee. I have the Iranian LDL formula Dr. Eades posted, and I turned it into a Javascript form. I’m planning to add it to my blog in the very near future, after I finish my Disney Diet article.
The ignorance of doctors is depressing. HDL of 61, Trig of 90, she should be congratulating you. Let us know when you’ve posted the Iranian formula as a online form.
I disagree with Anonymous. I don’t think carbs are useful for anything except making you hungrier. Especially when you are working out.
Maybe not while on a diet, but surly there is room for a little indulgence now and again. Since seeing your video, and others on the net, I have been watching more what I eat, cutting sugars mostly, but every now and then I’ll have ice cream at home or beers with my friends. I have also stepped up my exercise and I have lost four pounds and added some muscle.
There was a guy I listened to on the radio that had a strict diet during the week and exercised a lot, but on weekends he said he ate whatever he wanted within reason. It seemed to go well for him and it was something he started doing in his 30s.
It seem the phase “everything in moderation” keeps coming to mind.
I stick to a pretty good diet most of the time. I’ve even given up diet sodas, which I liked. But yes, the occasional indulgence is part of enjoying life.
Ok, here’s some easy math…
162/54 = 3
182/61 = 2.98
Trig going 176 to 90 = #!$%ing fantastic.
So even with the BS about LDL and the fact that that measurement is probably wrong anyway, your LDL/HDL ratio still went down which I thought was what “modern medicine” tended to take stock in. Did this occasion comment from your doctor?
“I’m still not following it exactly. Despite being in an all-meat week, I’m still drinking a big protein shake on the days I work out. I’ve noticed a real difference in my workouts, and I like it.”
Actually, I think this is ok. It says in the book that you can substitute a shake for one meal.
Guess I’d better re-read that chapter. Thanks.
TonyNZ,
My doctor didn’t actually speak to me. Her comments were in an email. I’ve mentioned the ratios to her before about Trig and HDL ratios, and she only wants to focus on LDL.
Using the Iranian formula that Dr. Eades blogged about, my LDL calculates to 173. It’s still close to the 182 the lab calculated, but it’s not a dramatic increase. Then again, I still have 20-30 lbs. to lose. In my opinion, the numbers are only going to improve.
I found another post by Dr. Eades that talks about ratios. He said he’s concerned about Trig/HDL (your ratios were LDL/Trig), the lower the better. So I went from 176/54 (3.26) to 90/61 (1.48). The ratio got cut in half. As Dr. Eades warned, I will not allow her to “mule” me into taking a statin. In fact, I’m looking for another physician. If anyone can recommend someone in Central New Hampshire, let me know.
Tom,
I posted the cholesterol calculator on the sidebar of my 6-Week Cure blog. It should be pretty self-explanatory. It includes a link to Dr. Eades’ blog post where I got the formula. http://mdc6weeks.blogspot.com/
Let me know if you find any issues with it.
Mike
Nice piece of work. It put my LDL at 112, based on scores from my last test. The calculated LDL on that panel was 130 — not that I worried about it.
Silly docs! I finally ponied up for a NMR Lipoprofile this summer (after a full carnivore stint of 3 months) and eating high fat Paleo for over a year. My HDL was near 100, and all of a very very large type, my LDL was “elevated” at a measured 140 according to Conventional Wisdom, I “should consider statin drug therapy”, but it is 100% large fluffy type, with ‘zero detectable small pattern LDL’. My Trigs were somewhere below 50 if I recall, and my total at 280+. Happy as a clam, I am, especially with C-Reactive Protein very very low.
My focus (over a year now) has been to totally eliminate any sugars/sweeteners, and omega 6 veggie oils/fake fats, and legumes/grains/starch. Seems to be the way we were built to eat, or rather the way our eating built us.
I just don’t know how I’d implement the 6 week cure to cut down that last 8-10lbs of fat, as I try to just eat whole foods (so the shakes?). But I read the book, and it makes sense to keep that liver clean and running smoothly 24/7/365.
Silly docs indeed. Most of them would see the 280 total cholesterol and start force-feeding you statins.
You guys are funny. Way to go Tom. You’ve lost almost as much fat as I have in the past 11 days on my experimental diet!
http://www.180degreehealth.blogspot.com
You guys are kidding about the protein shakes right? Haven’t we learned about the dangers of white powders yet?
Okay, I’ve finally got Fat Head coming in the mail via netflix. Can’t wait.
Well, my protein powder is a sort of off-white …
I’ve seen folks mention 50-100 grams of carbs to maintain ketosis. Is that grams per day, or per meal? And how much cooked brown rice or baked potato = 100 grams?
It’s an individual thing, but they’re talking 50-100 per day. A baked potato will give you 50-60 grams or so. A cup of brown rice is in about that range too.
That was quite an amazing demonstration of personal sacrifice in order to conduct fatty liver research.
I’m dedicated to the cause.
Monasmee,
A low carb diet is a no sugar and no starch diet. You’re basically allowed 50 – 100 grams of carbs per day, without any sugar, wheat, rice, potatoes, or beans. The vegetables that are allowed are primarily the green vegetables.
This makes it difficult to really get to 50 grams sometimes, and it is a meat-centered diet.
Otherwise, it is the best thing that ever happened to me. I never knew I could have so many improvements in my health from eating meat.
Instead of the Drs. Eades 6 week cure, I am coming up with my own, oh lets say, 60 week cure… I managed the first two weeks, after a few false starts, booze and coffee free. Then for various reasons, but mainly because I love my booze, the dam broke loose somewhere in the middle of week 3.
(btw, I’m sure the weeks 3 and 4 alcohol limits must have been a typo! 2 x 1 ounce drinks a week? Are you kidding me? Maybe for a small woman like my wife who doesn’t really like booze anyway, but for me? ha!)
I know I won’t be able to get in even 4 weeks on so little alcohol between now and the holidays, so I’m making up my own version of “The Cure.” Shakes and one protein meal during the week, all meat and booze on the weekends. And it seems to be working, albeit very slowly – 1 to 2 pounds a week, so far. That’s alright, I’m not in a rush! Bartender, another Manhattan, if you please!
Well, it’s not exactly textbook, but if it works …
Hi Tom,
What do you think of the whole “digesting meat requires too much calcium” issue? I’m reading on some sites that meat consumption could be part of the reason for the high rate of osteoporosis in the U.S.? And outside of the 6-week cure, do you have a limit of how much meat you can eat per day?
Thanks!
I’ve never seen evidence of rampant osteoporosis in hunting societies. When anthropologists have found the bones of hunters and farmers who lived in the same area during the same eras, it’s the farmers who had bone problems, based on the skeletons.
I’ve also read that anti-nutrients in grains can leech calcium from the body. Given that osteoporosis is a disease of civilization, I doubt meat is the culprit.
http://www.westonaprice.org/mythstruths/mtbones.html
http://www.mercola.com/article/carbohydrates/paleolithic_diet2.htm
Thanks again!
S’allright.
Can you give me some idea of how many calories should be eaten at the one meal a day please? I am eating my own menus not yours as none of your meals are normal meals for me. So i am trying to do something with similar foods. Meat, low starch vegetables with butter on them. But feel a bit unsure and an idea of calories would help.
Liz
Sorry I thought I was writing that question on the Dr.Eade blog.