The carbohydrates you eat are immediately broken down into glucose. Protein can also convert to glucose, but it’s a slower and more energy-intensive process. Here’s a shocking fact: one cup of basmati rice is equivalent to ten teaspoons of sugar! Yet, your blood only needs about one teaspoon of glucose to maintain homeostasis. Anything beyond that is excessive and puts stress on your body. Nutritional labels be like: Total Carbohydrates: 45g Total Sugars: 0.1g Sounds harmless, right? What they don’t tell is the bitter truth: those 45 grams of carbohydrates still get broken down into blood sugar. If nutritional labels were honest, they would say: Total Carbohydrates: 45g Total Sugars: 45g Your body is designed to defend itself against excess sugar, but it comes at a cost. When glucose levels spike beyond the concentration gradient, your body scrambles to pull the sugar out of your bloodstream to prevent damage. It stores some as glycogen, but when your glycogen stores are full, the excess is converted into fat. This process is not harmless; it’s a survival mechanism triggered by the constant assault of excess sugar. “Sticky” blood—caused by too much sugar—is where chronic health problems begin. It thickens your blood, damages your arteries, and sets the stage for heart attacks, diabetes, dementia, and even hormonal imbalances. Your body’s natural systems are overwhelmed, leading to chronic systemic inflammation, obesogenesis, and disrupted metabolic processes. And here’s the kicker: foods marketed as “healthy” because they have “no added sugar” are often just as harmful. Whether the sugar is instant or comes from carbohydrates that break down into glucose, your body treats it the same. Whole grains, “heart-healthy” cereals, and even so-called fitness bars often have the same effect as candy bars when it comes to your blood sugar. We weren’t designed to handle this constant bombardment of glucose. Historically, humans consumed carbohydrates only seasonally or in limited quantities. Our bodies evolved to thrive on nutrient-dense, whole foods, not the processed, sugar-laden options dominating the modern diet.

You’re better off losing nothing than you are losing muscle. Muscle is metabolically active tissue. There’s no point losing weight if your metabolism drops because you’re going to gain all the weight back (and probably more) by losing muscle. We want to lose as much fat as possible whilst holding onto as much lean mass as possible. You want to be aggressive but not too aggressive because it starts to create more harm than good. The entire theory is based around this study: A Limit On The Energy Transfer Rate From The Human Fat Store In Hypophagia. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15615615/ Basically, how much energy can your body fat provide from its fat reserves when you’re eating below maintenance calories (hypophagia). This is possibly one of the most important studies for those who are interested in losing body fat because it tells you exactly the maximum amount of food you can eat each day in order to maximise fat loss without losing muscle mass. In other words, your fat reserves provide you with only a limited amount of calories per day and you have to provide the rest, otherwise you will lose lean tissue. The study actually came from the Minnesota Starvation Experiment Data which was titled The Biology of Human Starvation. They had 36 volunteers who were given 1570 cal per day to eat for six months and they lost 25% of their body weight. Using this data, they created the following mathematical model: “A limit on the maximum energy transfer rate from the human fat store in hypophagia deduced from experimental data of underfed subjects maintaining moderate activity levels and is found to have a value of (290+/-25) kj/kgd. A dietary restriction which exceeds the limited capability of the fat store to compensate for the energy deficiency results in an immediate decrease in the fat-free mass (FFM). In cases of a less severe dietary deficiency, the FFM will not be depleted.” What this is saying is that you will lose body fat if you eat enough calories to help your body fat feed you.

I was at the carnivore conference in Adelaide and heard Anthony speak and was impressed by what he had to say and so have taken the next step and joined Lean Seven. I am down 40 kg on the carnivore way of life and still have much to lose, but I know it is time to concentrate on changing my body shape. I want to be proud and self-confident when I look at myself in the mirror or stand in front of a class of students (I am a teacher). If anyone has words of wisdom or tips that they wish they had at the start of this journey, I would be grateful if you could share them. Thanks in advance, John

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