Low-Human-Intereference diet (Lo-HI)
Folk ask occasionally, it’s easier to post my manifesto here and refer to it when necessary.
It’s not some fad diet, not about losing weight, not radically restricting stuff, it’s not unsustainable, and “food groups” as defined by govt/media are stupid.
This is simply my version of a lifelong baseline strategy for the art and science of eating – tweaked to suit my lifestyle.
Food Rules
Basic Guidelines
For those who wonder if I’m a picky eater, well my only real rule is:
- is it an unadulterated animal part or product thereof? I’ll eat it.
- if not, it’s flavour – not really food. But sometimes worth eating it.
If you can’t eat it without just cutting/heating it, and it can’t be eaten alone as a meal, it ain’t food.
So yes, I can eat a fucking vegetable, if it’s tasty. But for the most part I generally won’t bother. I don’t specifically avoid plants – but 90% of my home cooking doesn’t include veggies and such because they’re just a pain in the arse and usually not worth it when I can just cook and eat a slab of meat. I still like them, but most of the time I just don’t see the point of prep/clean/etc of the damn things.
Eg – before and after of a typical dining out steak meal:
Otherwise I just eat meat.
I’m not “low carb” or “doing keto/Atkins”, I just eat meat. Simple enough?
And yes, I’ve killed gazillions of animals that I’ve eaten. I’ve killed many that others have eaten. I have no moral quandaries with eating meat, and I like to use as much of the animal as possible.
You could sum up my eating strategy thusly: Low Human Interference.
Specific Guidelines
After that my diet is proscriptive – it’s simply a matter of avoiding excess of the worst stuff, things I consider rich in so-called “anti-nutrients”.
People obsess about getting X amount of nutrients once they start going “#Paleo” or “keto” etc, but 90% of the battle is won by avoidance of the worst stuff (ie, fodder in a box/Crap In A Bag™). Once you’re eating “whole foods” there’s very little to worry about, the obsession with “healthy eating” (orthorexia) will cause more metabolic damage via stress than having the occasional junk food will.
In order of personal importance for dodging:
Sidebar: I’m starch agnostic.
I see no logical reason to consume much of it, plus I prefer how I feel when ketogenic so I mostly avoid it, but I’m not militant about it, I do enjoy an occasional spud or other starchy veggie (think like a couple times a month), but wouldn’t make a habit of it.
Intakes
Energy
0-6,000 cals/day, average probably 2,500-3,000 maybe.
Macronutrients
– ~70-85% fat, mostly saturated
– ~100-150g protein
– as few carbs as I can manage – typically ~10-30g but often zero and occasionally up to 100g+ (usually because having jugs of beer with mates or something)
Sidebar – I consume what I call “Beneficial Carbs”, as in those that come with items that the taste/social/mental/spiritual benefit outweighs the metabolic damage. Basically, stuff that just makes living life a little bit better.
Examples:
- Frequently:
- red wine
- flavour plants (eg garlic, onion)
- mushrooms
- Occasionally:
- 85% dark chocolate
- popcorn (gotta love the movies)
- beer
- Once in a blue moon:
- social finger foods
- fine dining experiences
- dessert tastes
- whatever meal someone has prepared for me if I’m a guest
So yeah, if I turn up at your place I’m not going to bitch and moan about your fettucini carbonara and potato bake and grilled foccacia, or have some hissy fit like a vegan at a BBQ who’s tofudog got inappropriately touched by a burger. I’ll go ahead and enjoy whatever the host is providing as much as I can.
Just saying this isn’t what I choose to eat in my daily life, and I’m not going to obsess and make you do something to cater to my nutritional peccadillos, I’m happy for the opportunity to sample stuff outside of my usual now and then – so be it.
Meal size and frequency
Probably average 1.5 meals a day, ie often just one but sometimes two.
I tend to eat either BIG or small – I call it Intermittent Feasting. Bitch.
My hormones are pretty good at telling me so I just trust them.
For the most part nowadays I tend to fast all day and just eat a big meaty meal in the evening. Sometimes I like a super egg yolky breakfast, but that’s typically a social thing, I’m seldom hungry until around sunset.
Satiety/fullness
I don’t often get “full”, I get metabolically/hormonally sated, and then just don’t tend to eat for another 12-48 hours.
Actual food
In general order of quantity/frequency these are my staples:
– beef
– fish
– eggs (often just yolks)
– lamb
– shellfish
– bones, marrow, offal, gristly bits, etc
– pork
– chicken
(anything below here is just occasional additives)
– cheese
– onions
– cream
– mushrooms
– garlic
– dark chocolate (~85%)
– leafy green veggies
– broth
– nuts (macadamias and cashews mostly)
– orange veggies
Sidebar – I nearly always select the fattiest cuts of meat, and either cover in butter/oil or make sauces from them. For eg I’m quite happy to put 50g (2oz) of butter on a 300g (11oz) steak.
I eat as much of the gristly bits as I can, eg bone and marrow and cartilege and skin and guts and exoskeleton etc. I’d go as far to say that is what I consider the actual nutritional food, and just consider meat to be what I eat for taste and filling out a meal. Think of how a normal person eats rice and bread and noodles – those make up the bulk of the meal, but they aren’t the point of it.
Supplements
Other than caffiene, none habitually.
Charts
Here’s 3 months of MyFitnessPal data – circa mid 2014.
