Taubes’ Keto diet recommendations significantly restricts all types of carbs – not only “bad” carbs like bread and sugar, but also vegetables and fruit. The goal is to try and to reduce your carb intake to 20-30 grams per day. Vegetables are okay – but only if they are grown above ground … no potatoes, carrots, etc. Also, no beans, including soy and peanuts. Exercise– high intensity exercise rapidly depletes glycogen (stored glucose). When glycogen is low, our bodies exponentially increase fat burning.

My fat itake is significantly less – no more “bullet-proof” coffee, lots of olive oil pesto or 2 avocados/day.I like this better. It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective to be more alert, active, and energetic when you have the highest need to look for food. And this response may be why some people describe feeling more mentally alert and energetic on a very low-carb diet. You can eat these in moderation – nuts, nut butters (no peanuts), seeds, seed butters, nonfat, unflavored greek yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese Like Taubes, Naiman doesn’t encourage calorie counting and does encourage eating to satiety. You should never feel hungry on the P:E diet.

At first, I put the transformation down entirely to the fact they had dramatically reduced the carbs in their diet. But after a while, I realized that when you reduce your carbs in your diet, you automatically increase the percentage of protein you are eating. My adult “natural” weight has been 160-165 pounds. I’m 5’7″ (on a tall day) … and have a mesomorph build – naturally muscular – which adds to my weight. I’d love to get down to 145-150 pounds as my “natural weight.” I wrote The P:E Diet to clearly set out the relationship of protein to energy and to point out all the ways that our modern food environment clashes with our body’s needs for both. Don’t eat … refined sugar, grains of any type (rice, wheat, oats, corn, etc.), no sauces that use corn syrup/sugar, no veggies that grow below ground, fruit except avocados, tomatoes and in-season berries, no beans or legumes, sweetened yogurts

If you look at a graph of obesity over the past 50 years and zoom in on the macronutrients, you can see that beginning around 1970, the calories consumed from carbs AND fat went up equally and significantly but not protein. (The fat percentage did not go up, but the absolute amount consumed in the diet did.) Absolute protein rose slightly but the average protein percentage of diets actually dropped from around 14% of calories to 12.5% in America. Based on FAOSTAT data. Figure and caption reproduced from Simpson and Raubenheimer (2004) This is based on my clinical experience and that of many other practitioners familiar with low-carb nutrition. It is also supported by a few studies, but more research is needed. [weak evidence]Jillian’s personal testimonial –I was only able to do 20 knee-push-ups in December of 2019. As of March 23rd 2020, I can now do 15 regular push-ups! I was able to accomplish this by doing 3 sets of 5-10 reps of push-ups to failure 5x a week. This takes up about 2 minutes of my time per day. I like how I can do these high intensity workouts anywhere in a very short amount of time! I became obsessed with figuring out what was happening with my patients who tried low-carb or keto eating but did not get good results. If you are experiencing most of these benefits, congratulations! Right now you don’t need to alter anything much about your macros or the percentage of protein, fat, or carbs in your diet. You might consider upping protein a bit, as an experiment, but you may be getting enough already. What this looks like in practice is: a daily workout that can be done at home in 15 minutes or less. This is based on the consistent clinical experience of practitioners familiar with low-carb nutrition. [weak evidence]