Nick Heaz

Thats great work! Keep doing what you’re doing. If you have no desire to get on a statin, do some research on the two supplements I mentioned in another comment. Omega-3 fish oil is another option or tool in your toolbox. Probably not the wisest decision to try to live off a high protein low fat carnivore diet, even if this were to further reduce your cholesterol. Citrus bergamot - nattokinase - fish oil I believe could be beneficial for your situation. Investigate these on your own and decide if you’re willing to try them or not. And if your body tolerates dietary fiber I’d add that as well. I also think it’s still reasonable to check your Lp(a) via bloodwork. If it’s high, this could be an indication that the carnivore diet doesn’t suit your genetics. This marker tells us about your genetic propensity to promote plaque formation, increase inflammation, and enhanced blood clotting.

The NHANES II mortality study and the Framingham heart study both include a cholesterol-mortality graph. Cholesterol over 240 mg/dL is associated with increased cardiovascular death. Sweet spot for lowest all cause mortality is 160-240 mg/dL. Don’t think you can high sky high cholesterol levels and never experience any issues.

Can you tolerate fiber and/or would you be willing to include psyllium husk, citrus fruits, or melons into your diet? You could also consider supplementing with citrus bergamot or drinking a couple cups of Earl Grey tea with real citrus bergamot oil in it. Nattokinase, while doesn’t directly lower cholesterol, is known to decrease arteriole plaque and thin the blood.

Fasted insulin and/or c-peptide, Lp(a), apo(b), hsCRP and ESR, as well as homocysteine could all be ordered to better asses your current cardiovascular health and risk of reinfarction. In 3 months time once you’ve been able to recover you should absolutely run a full comprehensive panel and then again in 6 months. Your risk of another heart attack is now significantly higher. Be smart with monitoring your labs and continue to be open to making changes to your health and lifestyle.

My bad. I’m going to simmer down. @Meathead on me. Apologies

Meathead - you really don't like me I can tell. I'm happy to be the only person in this thread to have actually given the original poster actionable advice on assessing his heart attack risk in the future. You do understand that when you have medical imaging done x-ray exposure is tracked in your health records for the sole purpose of not receiving too high of a dose in a given time period? But go ahead Meathead, keep telling us about being healthy as you suck on that vape every 37 seconds like you did on video last night.

We're all on our own journey 👍

Yes! This made me laugh, ty. I think I have been in your shoes. I've been overweight for 3 years, felt my health and energy plummet, my joints have ached when I never injured myself, and witnessed my body turn into a jiggly blob. I did periods of a ketogenic diet going back over 2 years and experienced good things so I decided to go deeper. Ten months ago I adhered to Ken Berry's BBBE diet and followed it for 9 months. Things were great 5-6 months. Steady weight loss, improved energy & mental focus, and less pain. I was super happy. Then all the positives just seemed to stop. Weight loss plateaued and energy tanked. At month 8 the rash along my sides and armpits happened. I sought advice and gave it another couple week, but nothing changed. I could hardly sleep the itch was so bad. After trying to get through the rash for 4 weeks I gave up and ate carbs and the rash disappeared.

Scott - I appreciate you and your approach. This is really great advice. The semantics of it all is a big problem. We can agree on that! Let me break it down: Sugar Fasting--think 'water fasting.' Water fasts are a fast from all macro groups but still includes water. Sugar fasts exclude fat and protein but includes sugar (i prefer fruit, fruit juice, maple syrup and honey). This can be a 24 hour sugar fast or be run consecutively for days on end. The more obese someone is the longer than can theoretically get away with sugar fasting. Rapid weight loss with sugar fasting. Sugar diet--think temporal eating... fruit, fruit juice, maple syrup, and honey morning through lunch followed by protein in the evening. This strategy would used by someone who is coming off of sugar fasting as they begin to approach their weight loss goal. Or as a way to maintain a desired body weight. Less rapid / slowed weight loss OR maintenance. The end goal is to find balance. Like all dietary strategies, some people with find success with it and others will struggle. Again, I don't think that it's for everyone. And for those on carnivore who are curing autoimmune disease, have food intolerance issues, or struggle with sugar addictions this approach just doesn't suit these types of people.

Your mention of fat people failing the sugar diet is spoken about directly by Nick Norwitz in the video and he offers a potential reason why. I’m posing the question of why he didn’t offer the same caution to obese people trying keto considering he provides the same mechanism for fat loss while in ketosis, elevation of FGF21. Perhaps this is the same mechanism for people not having success in ketosis.

seem. In order for this sugar diet to work, you have to eliminate fat and protein, two essential components, and these components are replaced by a non essential component, void of nutrients that are found in the aforementioned macro nutrients. No wonder people lose weight, it's called wasting away. It is not as such that we can't lose weight on carnivore, it just takes longer, and is more challenging. I also hold the opinion that it’s not a strategy that should be utilized long-term. As you mentioned, glycation is something to be factored in. I still hold the opinion that short bouts of the sugar diet does not lead to irreversible effects caused by glycation and this can easily be monitored by taking a look at HbA1c every 3 months. I surely don’t believe 2-3 days of sugar fasting followed by meat consumption is causing AGE accumulation.

Really appreciate your responses.

If things continue at the rate they're going now, I'll likely need another 3 -4 months to achieve my weight loss goal. I started at 226lbs 1 month ago. Current weight is 215lbs. Goal is 175-180. I'm eating meat 2-3x / week right now. Usually a hanger or skirt steak for dinner. My assumption is that short bouts of high carb (2-3 days straight) offset by a meat day will reduce any negative effects from glycation or fructosylation. For the amount of weight I need to lose an entire year on the diet seems excessive. I'm not trying to turn into a malnourished soy boy lol The plan is to achieve my weight loss goal followed up by a diet that resembles Paul Saladino's, though I likely won't require that many carbs at that time. To distinguish myself and my goals from many on carnivore, I do not suffer from any autoimmune conditions, sugar addiction, and I have no food intolerance issues. I'm not on the same health journey as many that may be in this forum.

We all know this was due to the huge increase in ultra-processed and hyperpalatable foods that pair carbs with fat. No one wants to talk about the huge excess amounts of fats the SAD diet includes. Sugar is blamed 24/7 but the next time you're at the grocery store take a look at the ingredients on the processed food. I think you'll be surprised by the amount of fat in there. Sugar diet leans you out primarily because it doesn't drastically cuts that amount of fat intake.

Sugar diet is not designed to be sustained for a lifetime. Nobody is recommending anyone become vegan. The difference that I see is many people on carnivore and keto diets deal with extreme disordered eating in their past like sugar addiction or they suffer from abnormal food intolerances and cannot consume other foods. Most people on the sugar diet that I'm aware of are just wanting to be less fat.... and it's working 😎

I commented a lengthy response. I typed out my thoughts as you went so I apologize for how it reads.

This reminds me of the movie Elf

This is a really great video and definitely something anyone should watch and understand if they’re considering trying keto or sugar fasting. In the video, Nick Norwitz explains that both high-carb, low-protein (sugar fasting) and high-fat, low-protein (keto) diets elevate FGF21, which is the hormone responsible for increasing fat metabolism by raising energy expenditure. He also notes that genetic variants in FGF21 are extremely common—present in about 44% of people. If you have one of these variants, your FGF21 levels may not increase as expected on either diet, which means you might not experience the same rise in energy expenditure—and could even gain weight. So why does he only offer caution about the sugar diet? That seems incredibly biased. I believe the same level of caution should be applied to keto as well, especially since, by his own explanation, the mechanism behind weight loss and increased energy expenditure is the same—FGF21. He also mentions that obesity is a state in which FGF21 resistance is likely. So, if you're obese and part of the 44% with a genetic variant, it’s very possible that neither of these diets will work as intended. Based on his interpretation of the study, the warning he gives about the sugar diet should absolutely apply to keto too.

Great video by Nick Norwitz. I mentioned on the other thread that anyone interested in the sugar diet should be aware of the genetic variances in FGF21 and also the low protein-high fat approach to raise FGF21.

This post should have way more interaction....

It’s a weight loss strategy and not a forever diet. Vegans and fruitarians are the examples of individuals who have turned it into a way of eating for a lifetime. I’m not aware of anyone talking about sugar dieting and sugar fasting who is recommending it for a lifetime. I think most of the talking heads would tell you meat is essential for optimal human health. It’s simply different from carnivore. I believe the people with most success on carnivore and keto diets are those who suffer with autoimmune diseases, extreme food intolerance, and sugar addiction. I’m being redundant here but I thinks it’s necessary, sugar diet/fasting is a weight loss strategy. It’s not meant to be a forever diet. So many people who are carnivore are on health journeys for a variety of reasons, but mainly because other interventions have failed.

Great video and something that people who are attempting a protein restricted diet should be made aware of.

Get well soon! The carnivore community needs to stop with the CAC score and start utilizing CT angiography. CAC does not visualize soft plaques, only what’s been calcified. It’s like catching a disease when the disease is already in full swing of things. Soft plaques turn into hard plaques over time, like a slow burn. If you’re carnivore get yourself a CT angiogram scheduled.

I’m experimenting with the sugar diet and sugar fasting after coming off 9 months of ketovore followed by two months of the SAD diet where I gained back 10 pounds from what I lost while keto. There are a number of small unheard of channels of normal people experiencing huge success with sugar diet. Latchkey Gen Xer, Skeleton city, Sweet Truck’n, and more. These aren’t athletes and they aren’t health and fitness influencers. They certainly aren’t hammering their bodies with high amounts of exercise. In my opinion, the most important thing to remember with the sugar diet is that it’s a weight loss diet. It’s not meant to cure autoimmune disease. It’s not meant to be an elimination diet in the same sense as carnivore. It’s helping people shed body fat at higher rates. The idea isn’t to become a vegan. No one is promoting that. Sugar fasting (no protein and no fat other than what’s in fruit) is designed for expedited drops in body weight. Sugar diet (fruit in the morning with lean protein in the evening) is meant for slowed and more controlled weight loss. Then people have the freedom to eat what they like when they reach goal body weight. If the scale creeps up they can fall back on sugar fasting or dieting to lose what they gained. TLDR: sugar dieting and fasting is a weight loss strategy, not a cure to chronic autoimmune disorders or food intolerance.

I have not experienced fluctuating energy during the day. After coming off a keto-carnivore diet and then spending about a month on the standard American diet, now going on 4 weeks with the sugar diet—and honestly, my energy feels better now than it ever did on keto-carnivore.