Roadmap/08 - Bodybuilding & Weight loss

This page provides guidance on bodybuilding and weight loss from a metabolic-friendly perspective, inspired by Ray Peat's principles. The approach emphasizes minimizing stress, supporting anabolic processes, and maintaining a high metabolic rate through non-destructive resistance training, proper fueling, and sustainable habits. Bodybuilding focuses on building quality muscle mass to enhance strength, metabolism, and overall health, while weight loss prioritizes slow, toxin-minimizing fat reduction without compromising muscle or thyroid function. Many principles overlap, such as resistance training's benefits for both goals, and adaptations for fat loss are highlighted in the second section.

Training

Train 2 to 3 times a week, concentric-dominant, and stop before fatigue rather than pushing to failure. A one-hour outdoor walk with friends does more for stress and enjoyment than an intense gym session. Keep goals enjoyable and sustainable, not punishing.

Principles

Concentric resistance training has an anabolic effect on the whole body. Sprinting is probably o.k. Endurance exercise is the worst. I don't think martial arts are necessarily too stressful.

— Ray Peat

Do's

• Concentric, anaerobic activities
  • Concentric = muscle shortens under load
  • Less injury, less tissue damage, stronger metabolic support
• Weight lifting
• Bodyweight exercise
• Walking in stimulating environments
• Uphill hiking, deadlifts, sled pushes (anabolic exercises)

Mind–muscle connection

• Visualize workouts
• Flex in mirror
• "No weight" mental training can still cause growth
• Kinesthetic control → direct stimulation signals
• If high level, use microdoses of DHEA/testosterone with aspirin/nicotine; thyroid boosts reflexes (Ali's method)

Don'ts

• Prolonged aerobic work (hypothyroidism, lactic acid, catabolism)
  • Training to failure (produces excess lactic acid)
• Train fasted: intense fasted training triggers TNF-α and IL-6, with no extra benefit for muscle gain or weight loss
• Heavy bulk-and-cut cycles

More in harm reduction

Recovery

Forty minutes of moderate exercise can drop T3 to zero if glycogen isn't replenished.

— Ray Peat

One of the overlooked things is that muscle activity increases your body temperature and the increased body temperature increases your calorie burning ability. And so it's similar to what thyroid supplementing does. The good body warming effect of physical activity keeps your metabolic rate going with an anti-inflammatory effect. If you're sedentary, your body's temperature falls and you go into a pro-inflammatory state.

— Ray Peat

Muscle recovery depends on glycogen restoration.

• Sleep enough: one night of sleep deprivation reduces muscle protein synthesis by about 18%
• Avoid stress buildup; use nose-breathing as a fatigue gauge and stop workouts before fatigue
• Prevent glycolytic exhaustion; warm body temperature is a sign of good metabolic function
• Cold hands/feet = metabolism tanking, add milk/juice
• Limit prolactin/growth hormone with aspirin, baking soda, caffeine, and carbs; reduce tryptophan/serotonin from protein
  • One study found lifters did 27% more reps on squat using baking soda
• Eat enough carbs to avoid raising cortisol and adrenaline
• Consistently low energy and sleep disturbances are the primary indicators that a training load has become excessive.

Overload & frequency

The effectiveness of any load depends on the condition of the muscle at the time the load is applied.

— Bryan Haycock

• 2–3 days/week
• Volume vs. intensity must be managed: moderate-intensity training (60% 1RM) stimulates both muscle quality and quantity, whereas lower intensity (40% 1RM) only increases size
• Avoid prolonged eccentric/trauma

Breathing / form

• Nose breathing as fatigue gauge
• Maintain tongue posture
• Slow, controlled lifting (no momentum; longer TUT)
• Check asymmetries ("trauma patterns")

Minimal stimulation needed

• High-metabolism diet → minimal inflammation/stress → anabolism more default
• Muscles "itch" when needing activation
• Feel for correct reps/resistance instead of counting

Cardio & movement

• No formal cardio, e.g. running/cycling on treadmill/stationary bike
• Cardio should be incidental, e.g.
  • Beach swims
  • Hikes/rucking, uphill or stairs
  • Roaming cities/marinas
  • Lindy walks
  • Wind sprints
  • Dogwalking
• Walking, rucking, dancing, chopping wood
• Making love, wrestling, gardening
• Gym focus needs scrutiny; see Activities for the fuller list

Metabolic toxins & CO2

• Ammonia toxicity: during exercise, ammonia can double, inhibiting mitochondrial energy production. High-protein meals (e.g., 60g) significantly increase ammonia levels in the blood and breath compared to 30g meals.
• Nitric Oxide (NO): while small amounts are useful, high-resistance training can spike NO for up to 48 hours, potentially inhibiting cytochrome oxidase and impairing energy production.
• CO2 and recovery: in rats, transcutaneous carbon dioxide application increased endurance performance, mitochondrial DNA content, and capillary density. A separate hydrogel-based transcutaneous CO2 trial has shown accelerated fracture repair.
• Train like a sprinter
• Preserve muscle to support fat loss
• Low-carb undermines thyroid and metabolism
• Avoid PUFAs (interfere with digestion and enzymes)
• Build muscle to raise metabolism
• Back training emphasized (posture, V-shape, metabolic demand)

Fig. 1 Relative telomere length of master sprint athletes and age-matched non-athletes. effect size (Cohen's d). Data expressed as mean ± SD.

Plans

Novice (2-3×/week)

• Concentric-dominant compounds (push, pull, squat/hinge)
• Slow tempo, no momentum, stop before fatigue
• Add 30–60 daily minutes of pleasurable walking

Template

PUSH DAY:

• 3 sets, 12-15 reps, overhead press (barbell or dumbbell) 3 sets,
• 12-15 reps, tricep pulldown 3 sets,
• 12-15 reps, chest press or chest fly (machine)
• 3 sets, until you feel the forearms burning, wringing something both clockwise and counterclockwise (a stick or a very light dumbbell)

PULL DAY:

• 3 sets, 12-15 reps, bicep curls
• 3 sets, 12-15 reps, dumbbell or seated rows
• 3 sets, 12-15 reps, dumbbell shrugs
• 3 sets, 5-10 reps, pull ups

LEG DAY:

• All bodyweight, calf raises, stretches to touch toes,
• If glute dominant, workout only the quads.
• If quad dominant, isolate and workout the glutes.

4x a week Wayjacked Machine - If I had to start over by Geoffrey Verity Schofeld on Boostcamp App (free)

Intermediate

• Add sled pushes, uphill walking
• Moderate load increases
• Emphasize technique and mind-muscle awareness
• Track body temp/pulse

Garage/Home Options

• Dumbbell pullover (ribcage expansion, Landshark approved)

• Bodyweight squats
• Bands for concentric work
• Slow push-ups, rows
• Sled pull (homemade)
• Walking inclines outdoors

Equipment

• Glass bottle
• Fat grips
• Non-plastic workout clothes

Fueling

Eating guidelines

• Pro-metabolic diet = minimal inflammation/stress, anabolism is default
• Pre-workout:
  • Milk powder protein shake (Recipe)
  • egg yolks + yogurt 1h before, honey right before
• Post-workout: chocolate milk

Lean protein after lifting raises muscle protein synthesis more than high-fat protein; lipid-rich meat blunted the post-exercise response in a controlled pork comparison.

• Avoid tryptophan excess (reduce serotonin)
  • Don't eat muscle meats without adequate gelatin for a good tryptophan:glycine ratio
• Don't under-eat protein: methionine-restricted diets (and elevated FGF21) are linked to smaller musculoskeletal development in animal studies, eat enough meat and dairy to avoid this
• Avoid combining starchy carbs with PUFAs
• Avoid fasting
• Maintain high Ca:P ratio
• Eat nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest foods
  • Milk, fruit, gelatin, seafood, liver, eggs
• Use food to recover, not willpower

From ReciPeatsMilk powder protein shake

A quick 5-minute blended drink combining whole milk, milk powder, and gelatin for a high-protein shake with a balanced calcium:phosphorus ratio.

Link to Food pyramid

Outputs:

• Maintenance calories
• Carb/protein/fat distribution (e.g., 80/15/5 template in the weight-loss section)
• Milk/juice/gelatin targets
• Mineral targets (Ca, Na, K, Mg)

Red flags

• Feeling hungry all day
• Feeling cold (hands/feet)
• Excessive sweating + stress
• High prolactin (spiked by B6 deficiency during training)
• Crash dieting

Muscle gain

Effective bodybuilding focuses on anabolic efficiency and mitochondrial health rather than just external muscle mass.

Muscle quality vs. mass

• Muscle mass loss only explains about 10% of the associated loss in strength, indicating that mitochondrial function is a more critical factor.
  • Proper resistance training can actually reverse genetic markers of aging in human skeletal muscle.
• Optimizing the Anabolic State:
  • T3: Can maximally stimulate protein synthesis in skeletal muscle at both transcriptional and translational levels (increasing initiation and probably elongation rates) even in the complete absence of measurable circulating insulin or growth hormone.
    • Ray said that young hardgainers are often hypothyroid, thus impairing ATP and the ability to retain magnesium; supplementing T3 alongside it fixes this.
  • The T/C Ratio: Prolonged training can halve testosterone and double cortisol, creating a catabolic state similar to illness.
    • High cortisol specifically targets fast-twitch (Type 2) muscle fibers for atrophy.
  • DHT (Dihydrotestosterone): This potent androgen is essential for maintaining bones and muscles; resistance training has been shown to double DHT levels in older men.
  • Coffee: Consumption increases total testosterone and acts as a dopamine booster, which lowers the catabolic and anti-fertility hormone prolactin.

Bulking / gaining weight

Hardgainers are often hypothyroid: a low thyroid raises the caloric requirement just to maintain weight, so correcting thyroid function first can matter more than eating more.

I've known a few men in their 20's to early 40's... they would weigh maybe 140 pounds and be five, eight... And no matter how much they ate, they couldn't gain any weight. I suggested they try thyroid, and every one of them immediately started building muscle and growing.

— Ray Peat

I often ate several thousand calories per day without getting fat, and small noises would shock me awake. Taking thyroid reduced my caloric requirement, and immediately allowed me to sleep deeply. Deficiencies of magnesium, vitamin A, and selenium probably contribute to that metabolic pattern.

— Ray Peat

Taking thyroid can help thin people gain weight by improving protein metabolism, and it often helps with deeper sleep too.

Beyond correcting thyroid, the same pro-metabolic foods used elsewhere on this page work in a surplus instead of a deficit: milk and orange juice sipped throughout the day, gelatin alongside muscle meats, and frequent small meals rather than a few large ones. Zinc (as in oysters) and the B-complex vitamins and potassium in brewer's yeast are sometimes worth adding on top of that, though it isn't a calorie-dense food itself.

Supplements

Key supplements:

• Zinc: Supplementation increases both testosterone and thyroid levels and mitigates their decline after exhaustive exercise.
• Magnesium: High-dose magnesium (500mg) can lower the inflammatory marker Interleukin-6 (IL-6) during training.
• Collagen: Supplementing with collagen peptides (high in glycine and proline) during resistance training significantly increases fat-free mass and strength in sarcopenic men.

Taurine	Improves protein utilization, increases anabolic hormones (LH, testosterone, thyroid hormone), stimulates muscle protein synthesis, reduces cortisol (directly catabolic)
Creatine	Supports ATP production, improves strength and lean mass, buffers lactic acid, reduces myostatin (inhibits muscle growth). Improves maximal strength by 5-15%. Increases muscle size through multiple mechanisms. Enhances glycogen storage by ~82% when combined with carbohydrates. Supports cognitive function. Pairing with ~1g sugar/kg bodyweight during loading boosted total muscle creatine retention by about 60% over creatine alone. Dose: 5g daily
HMB	Anti-catabolic leucine metabolite that reduces muscle breakdown, supports recovery, preserves lean mass during caloric deficits or stress, improves nitrogen retention, supports mitochondrial function
Vitamin D3 + K2	Supports testosterone synthesis, calcium metabolism (important for muscular contraction), reduces inflammation, improves insulin sensitivity, supports bone strength and muscular function
Aspirin (low dose)	Lowers systemic inflammation and prostaglandin production (catabolic mediators), supports thyroid function, reduces muscle breakdown via COX inhibition, protective against excessive stress response
Vitamin B3 (Niacinamide)	Increases NAD+ and mitochondrial respiration, anti-lipolytic (preserves glucose for energy use), reduces cortisol and free fatty acids
Vitamin B6	Avoid prolactin spike during exercise
Vitamin E	Protects against PUFA-induced oxidative stress, supports testosterone and pituitary function, enhances recovery, reduces muscle damage and inflammation after training
Gelatin / Collagen	Provides glycine and proline (supportive amino acids for tendon, ligament, and connective tissue recovery), anti-inflammatory, balances methionine intake from muscle meats, supports thyroid and liver detoxification
Redbull//Coffee	Great pre-workout
Choccy milk	Post-workout recovery

Women

Hard training can suppress the menstrual cycle. Progesterone can become chronically deficient in women who exercise hard, showing up as scant or prolonged menstruation, or amenorrhea. Since progesterone converts into cortisone to meet the added stress of training, well-trained athletes, who need a lot of cortisone, often miss periods for exactly that reason.

In male and female athletes who become infertile from training, progesterone (or its precursor pregnenolone) combined with thyroid support is a reasonable therapy.

Any stress, including heavy exercise, triggers a protective slowing of the thyroid. The slow heart rate often seen in trained runners is largely this adaptive hypothyroidism, not necessarily a sign of superior fitness.

Track temperature and pulse alongside the menstrual cycle itself as a feedback signal, and back off training or add calories if periods become irregular or stop.

Weight loss

The metabolic impact of food quality

From a bioenergetic perspective, weight loss is not merely a matter of calorie expenditure (CICO), but a result of maintaining a high metabolic rate and minimizing chronic stress.

The modern obesity epidemic is heavily linked to the 300% increase in polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) consumption, along with high iron and high-fructose corn syrup, rather than refined sugars alone. Studies show that even when controlling for calories, people in high-PUFA environments are significantly heavier than those from previous decades.

Micronutrient deficiencies and adiposity

• Thiamine: There is a strong correlation between obesity and thiamine deficiency; reported deficiency rates range from about 16% to 47% of bariatric surgery candidates. Thiamine is essential for carbon dioxide (CO2) production and ATP synthesis.
• Iron and copper: Consuming drinking water with high levels of iron and copper can intensify weight gain and increase adipose tissue mass.

Hormonal roadblocks to fat loss

• Cortisol and hypoglycemia: Low-carbohydrate and calorie-deficient diets can trigger hypoglycemia, which causes a surge in cortisol.
  • Cortisol promotes fat storage while breaking down healthy muscle tissue through gluconeogenesis.
• Parathyroid Hormone (PTH): Elevated PTH is associated with weight gain and reduced strength.
• Estrogen: This hormone promotes fat storage and can increase the uptake of harmful endotoxins (LPS) from the gut.
• Endorphins: Often praised in exercise, endorphins are actually heavily associated with obesity and can inhibit protective hormones like progesterone and testosterone.

The problem with endurance training

• Intramyocellular lipid: both sedentary/diabetic people and highly-trained endurance athletes can accumulate high muscle fat content, but only in the former is it linked to insulin resistance; in trained athletes it coexists with high insulin sensitivity (the "athlete's paradox"), so this marker alone doesn't indicate a metabolic problem.
• Endotoxemia and leaky gut: Strenuous or prolonged exercise increases intestinal permeability, allowing bacteria-derived endotoxins to enter the blood, which triggers inflammation and further promotes fat storage.

Core principle

Always balance stress with nourishment. Restrict calories without slowing metabolism, and avoid feeling hungry, day or night.

If fewer calories yield no weight loss (and it isn't fasting damage), intensify Peating to address root causes (estrogen, stress, gut issues, thyroid) rather than cutting further. Prioritize body repair over weight loss; natural loss likely follows. Temporary weight gain is possible during this process.

Diet

"The ratio of calcium to phosphate is very important; that's why milk and cheese are so valuable for weight loss, or for preventing weight gain. For people who aren't very active, low fat milk and cheese are better, because the extra fat calories aren't needed."

— Ray Peat

• Eat enough to feel satisfied, not stuffed. Weight loss needs a calorie deficit relative to a raised metabolic rate, not just lower intake; if normally overeating, restrict slightly by lowering fat and maybe starch first.
• Pro metabolic, easy to digest, low PUFA, smaller more frequent meals to keep the metabolism up.
• Protein from milk/cheese/low-fat dairy; limit grains/meats to ~3-4 oz. Milk, fruit, gelatin, seafood, liver, and eggs are the typical Peat staples; ensure minerals and vitamins (especially vitamin D) are covered too.
• Add cooked leafy greens (Ca/Mg), gelatin, fruits, shellfish, occasional organs.
  • Ray Peat's leafy greens recipe
• Use food to recover after training instead of relying only on willpower.
• Maintain high Ca:P ratio. High dairy intake can speed up fat loss even at the same calorie intake: a high-dairy diet increased weight loss by 70% and fat loss by 64% versus a low-calcium diet at the same calorie deficit. This can allow maintenance calories to rise from around 1500 to 2000. It increases whole-body fat oxidation after meals and suppresses PTH, enhancing mitochondrial uncoupling and T4-to-T3 conversion; evidence for a direct thermogenic (metabolic-rate) boost is weaker and less consistent than the fat-oxidation effect. A chronic diet high in dairy calcium increases whole-body fat oxidation from a meal specifically, and increases in fasting parathyroid hormone relate to decreases in that effect.
  • High phosphate (grains, muscle meats, excess dairy) causes calcification, weak bones, elevated PTH/FGF23/IL-6, slow metabolism, and fat gain, even with calcium buffering.

Macros

• High carb, low fat, moderate protein
• 80% carbs / 15% protein / 5% fat

Hunger cues

Consume quick calories at the first sign of hunger rather than white-knuckling it:

• Cup of juice
• Cup of skim milk
• Sugary creamy coffee with coconut oil
• Raw egg with milk and maple

Activity

• Walking uphill/stairs burns meaningfully more per minute than flat walking, with less stress than running, no equipment, and no excuse not to; whether it beats running depends on the pace you'd otherwise run at.
• Strength training as the main stressor; add manageable cardio (e.g. 30-min walks) if desired, or any movement you find fun, including swimming
• Get sunlight, good sleep, and spend time with supportive people; vitamin D via sun/tanning is required, not optional.
• Use stress wisely: avoid piling on unnecessary stress (long fasts, excessive cardio, under-eating) beyond training itself
• Train sustainably; increase physical activity outside the gym too, and raise volume/intensity gradually rather than all at once
• Track body temperature, pulse, and energy levels as signs metabolism is staying supported

Slow, steady loss

Don't lose fat too quickly. Rapid loss releases stored toxins via free fatty acids, overloading the liver and risking a metabolic crash that can cause diabetes and liver disease. Aim for 6 to 12+ months. Use how you feel and the mirror as guides rather than daily weigh-ins.

Avoid

• Crash dieting (T3 plummets, metabolic rate downregulates, famine response)
  • The Minnesota Starvation Experiment showed the side effects of heavy calorie restriction:
    • Heart mass ↓ ~15–25%
    • Liver size ↓ ~13% (of fat-free mass)
    • Skeletal muscle ↓ significantly (up to ~40% in some)
    • Metabolic rate ↓ ~30–40%
    • Thyroid output ↓
    • Testosterone ↓
    • Brain structurally preserved, but function altered
• Keto/fasting (raises stress, hair loss, burns muscle too); intermittent fasting has been shown to worsen glucose, triglyceride, and cholesterol control specifically in people who already have diabetes, not necessarily in healthy people.
• Extreme cardio
• Chronic stress lifestyle
• Obsessive calorie counting
• Expecting quick fixes (3 months doesn't undo 10 years)

Hunger & satiety

• If always full, it's a sign of "Peating too hard"; reduce fat/snacking
• If cold hands/feet, eat more milk/juice

Ray's quotes

Let's say you were about 50 or 60 pounds overweight, what would you do to lose weight? Go on a low-fat milk and cheese diet, with a little bit of orange juice and an occasional egg and oyster. Calcium and vitamin D are supportive of the thyroid hormone.

— Ray Peat

1,000 calories a day while still getting all the RDA protein, vitamins and minerals isn't good for your health if you have to lose weight that way, but it's an effective short-term option. Keeping the minerals up is very important. Calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium are very protective against too much of the stress reaction.

— Ray Peat

What should be the focus if a person is gaining weight? Not to eat too many calories first, and then to gradually shift towards a lower fat intake, whatever keeps your temperature up without having an excess of calories.

— Ray Peat

Sucrose itself, some experiments show that you can increase the metabolic rate by 20% just with sucrose. And so when you do it just right, sugar is a very powerful weight loss instrument.

— Ray Peat

As your ability to burn fat decreases with your falling thyroid, the cortisol eats up your skeletal muscles that burn fat, and so the unburned fat gets laid down in your trunk and neck and face area.

— Ray Peat

I saw people lose weight stably when they had the habit of eating large amounts of tortilla chips fried in coconut oil, but those chips disappeared when their producers were pressured into switching to other oils.

— Ray Peat

The anti-obesity effect of coconut oil is clear in all of the animal studies, and in my friends who eat it regularly.

— Ray Peat

If a person really wants to concentrate on losing weight, using milk as their main protein: milk and gelatin are the most favorable for weight loss, partly because the milk comes with such a generous supply of calcium, and calcium powerfully stimulates the metabolic rate.

— Ray Peat

Q: What about weight loss for women in menopause, if they lose that weight do they then poison themselves with estrogen as it comes out of the cells? Ray Peat: Just temporarily, but it's better to get rid of it and have it local, because inside the cells it produces things such as breast cancer, lung cancer, uterine cancer.

— Ray Peat

So even as a matter of weight gain, the worst fats for gaining weight are the polyunsaturated vegetable oil fats. The saturated fats don't stimulate weight gain to the same degree.

— Ray Peat

One thing that often surprises people who want to lose weight is that milk drinkers as a group are the least likely to be fat... Calcium itself is a major factor in preventing the inflammation process which is important in turning on the fat storage business.

— Ray Peat

Q: So you're okay with cow dairy? Ray Peat: That's the best practical major protein because of the very high calcium ratio to phosphate.

— Ray Peat

The starch isn't quite as stimulating to the metabolic rate as sugar. So the things that I chronically mention in connection with a therapeutic diet happen to be ideal for a weight-loss diet: low-fat milk and orange juice.

— Ray Peat

On a water fast for 10 days, they found that 80% or more of their weight loss came from destruction of their muscle and skin mass. But if they had a 500-600 calorie diet with adequate minerals, almost all of the weight loss was in the form of fat loss rather than muscle.

— Ray Peat

[My weight] had been steady at 185 pounds for 25 years, but over a period of six months it dropped to about 175 pounds. I found that eating more coconut oil lowered my weight another few pounds, and eating less caused it to increase.

— Ray Peat

An increased intake of calcium is the single most important nutritional thing for losing weight. Low-fat milk and cheese should be the main foods; a carrot salad helps to reduce stress hormones.

— Ray Peat

If you lose too fast, that is going to cause damage by oxidative decomposition of the unsaturated fats as they're being oxidized at a higher rate. So I think slow weight loss is the best thing. And having enough protein and minerals in your diet during weight loss can make a tremendous difference in the amount of stress.

— Ray Peat

[Haidut] Bodybuilders abuse steroids to lose weight and gain lean mass. Considering that testosterone, DHT, and progesterone are anti-lipolytic, what mechanism lets them cause rapid fat loss without really increasing fat oxidation? Ray Peat: The liver, when it's well nourished and activated by thyroid rather than estrogen effects, can harmlessly excrete PUFA. Any PUFA that appears in your bloodstream can be recognized by the liver as a toxin and inactivated by attaching glucuronic acid to it, causing it to be excreted in the urine. [Haidut] So the androgens are basically protecting the liver and allowing it to excrete more PUFA? Ray Peat: Yeah, and thyroid and progesterone and aspirin work in that direction.

— Ray Peat

Many diet studies have found that you oxidize fat at a high rate, in some people the first 12 hours and in some people the first 24 hours... But at some point you have depleted your stored glycogen and that blocks the formation of the active T3 thyroid hormone, and from that point on you're relying for energy to an increased extent on the breakdown of tissue protein turning it into fat... a more or less starvation diet that goes on for a week or two will result in about 80% of your weight loss being muscle loss and very little, maybe 20%, fat loss. But if you eat enough sugar and have the minerals such as in fruit and keep a slight protein intake, the small amount of sugar will prevent the breakdown of protein tissues, and a 10 to 14-day diet in this case will cause you to lose maybe 80% fat and only 20% muscle... In one experiment, people were put on a treadmill [at] a steady heart rate of no faster than 120... Almost everyone stopped producing T3 in the first hour of that mild exercise, so when your T3 is turned off, whether it's by starvation or by excess activity, that's the point at which you start breaking down protein tissues.

— Ray Peat

The carbohydrate at the right amount will spare the protein. So 80 grams of protein a day, for example, if you're getting the carbohydrate from orange juice, comes with minerals. Potassium has a sparing effect on the protein besides the sugar. So fruit juice plus the adequate amount of protein will keep your metabolism up and tend to promote fat loss rather than protein loss.

— Ray Peat

[Lindlar's] idea of the catabolic diet was to choose foods for their metabolic inefficiency... he found that he could get people to lose fat very consistently and quickly by choosing certain foods that increased their metabolic rate so that they could burn calories faster than they were eating them, that was in the 1920s. A few years later George Burr, who was studying the effect of fats in the diet, found if he made his rats deficient in the unsaturated fatty acids they burned calories at a terrific rate, as much as 50% faster than normal... Lindlar advocated lots of fruits and vegetables including fruit juices... eating protein increases your body temperature and heat production by quite a bit, 15 or 20 percent, and sugar a little less than that. Coconut is a very highly saturated fat, and the unsaturated fats interfere with the mitochondrial use of oxygen in several ways by producing free radicals, inflammation, and by interfering with thyroid hormone function. So if your body is soaked in conventional seed oils then when you eat coconut oil, especially the shorter very mobile fatty acids, these move in the cells very quickly and oxidize without that antithyroid effect the seed oils mostly have.

— Ray Peat

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