The Apex Predator Diet, In Glorious Detail Part 1

Jamie Chaos

February 11, 2012

In the event that you’re not one of the readers hanging on my every word or who is new to the blog, this spinoff originally started with the Evolution Of My Diet series, which starts here. In it, I outlined the diet I’m currently following, which I’ve called the Apex Predator Diet due to the fact that it consists of little more than that which an apex predator would eat, supplemented with protein shakes because I’m much more inclined to hedge my bets with a protein sparing modified fast than place my faith in the clinically unsupported yet theoretically sound Intermittent Fasting approach. The following blogs will expand upon what I’ve previously explained, give greater detail for why this diet kicks more ass than Gina Carano in Haywire.

Gina Carano knows ass.

An Overview of the Apex Predator Diet
The Apex Predator Diet is a at its core a cyclical ketogenic diet, not unlike those I’ve supported in the past. On this diet, you’ll be keto dieting on 30 grams of carbohydrates or less per day for 5-6 days a week (or more, depending on your bodyfat levels). During the non-carb days, you’ll be consuming 1-2 meals of fatty, preferably bone-in meat per day, supplemented by 5-7 low carbohydrate protein shakes. The other day or two are referred to as “Rampage” days, during which time you’ll replenish your glycogen stores and satisfy your desire to wreck pizza and cookies.

The reasoning behind this methodology of dieting is that I found protein-sparing modified fasts like the Velocity Diet gave me just enough energy to put in a workout that would embarrass an undergraduate girl trying to drop her freshman 15 before going to the beach for cock over the summer- I was truncating my workouts horribly and thinking about nothing more than fucking killing myself out of shame. Thus, I did some research and discovered those diets are really only suited to the morbidly obese and people who suck at lifting weights, rather than people trying to be so fucking superhuman they make Superman seem like a shiftless, limp-dicked, weaksauce layabout by comparison. As such, I experimented with a variety of evening meals and finally settled upon beef ribs and bone in steaks, which are eminently satisfying, calorically dense, and restorative in ways you cannot possibly imagine.

This shit works.

This diet, though similar to many you’ve likely seen, is vastly superior (if you’re training hard 4+ times a week) to existing frameworks for a couple of reasons.

My macronutrient percentages are different. Conventional wisdom on CKDs is that 65-75% of your calories should come from fat. Fuck all that. According to my biggest fan on Earth, Lyle McDonald, “when subjects are told to limit carbohydrate intake but to consume “unlimited” quantities of protein and fat, they automatically limit caloric intake and consume between 1400 and 2100 calories.”(Ketogenic Diet 101). I don’t give a fuck who you are, that shit is not going to support heavy training. Not only is that a caloric intake suitable only to the Olson twins and 19th Century hunger artists, but at the macros suggested by the gurus, you’re not getting nearly enough protein, either. 2100-1470=630/4=157.5 grams of protein. My protein shakes have more calories in them than that, for fuck’s sake, and I mix them in water. The Predator Diet is much higher calorie (3000+), most days, with 50-60% of your calories coming from protein and the remainder from fat.
I cycle calories. For those of you who are not already incredibly lean, calorie cycling kicks in to keep your metabolism humming. I’ve not seen another CKD or TKD diet that tinkers with calories in this way to accelerate fatloss.
It’s fucking easy. One of the things I see people constantly blabbering on about with the IF diet is how easy it is to not eat for half the day. I guarantee you it takes no more time to make a shake than it does to make a cup of coffee, and those fuckers must be chugging coffee if they’re not eating. As such, their argument’s as fucking stupid as the Predator Diet is anabolic.
It’s anabolic. Though you’re operating in a caloric deficit for the majority of the day, you’re getting a constant influx of protein to stave off muscle catabolism, and the high fat meats at the end of the day provide saturated fat and cholesterol, both of which boost testosterone levels, which in turn increase aggression, which in turn makes you tear shit up in the gym, making your system even more anabolic. Basically, you become a perpetual-motion machine of badassery.
You’re not insane with hunger at all times. When hungry, “people tend to conserve energy rather than expend it.”(Russell 148) That’s definitively not a good thing if you’re training hard, especially if you’re dieting for a competition and/or training twice a day. I used this diet to cut for two meets and ended up on the underside of 7% bodyfat, making my water cut easier, increasing my strength to weight ratio, and allowing me to look fucking amazing while lifting big weights.
You have planned, insane, gluttonous cheat meals. These serve a variety of purposes, and they match the occasional gorge of a predator nicely.

Because I realize experimentation is scary, and I’ve already done plenty of experimenting, I’ve got four basic permutations of this diet- Fat Fuck; Not Too Fucking Fat, But Not Too Fucking Lean; Lean As Shit; and Whiny Bitch. The first three are fairly self- explanatory, and will be broken out by bodyfat percentage (see the chart below). The last is because I get a lot of emails from people whining about pre-and post-workout carbs. They’re of the opinion that they’re indispensable, though I would dispute that opinion. For those ladies out there who absolutely must have your carbs or you will turn into a raging ball of hormone-fueled fury, laying waste to everything in your path as you make for the counter at Auntie Annie’s in the mall, this should suit your purposes nicely as well.

Components of the Apex Predator Diet

Before we get into the finer points of the diet, let’s cover a couple of basics- food and supplement choices. The reason why I’ve christened this diet the Apex Predator Diet is due to the awesome food choices you’ll be making. Nowhere will you find bland, tasteless, rubbery bullshit like chicken breasts and steamed broccoli. Fuck it- on this diet, you won’t even need utensils, most of the time, because your food should come with a built-in handle- bone. Bone is an integral part of meat, and ripping an animal’s flesh off its bones with your teeth is a primal, visceral, ethereal act that stands in stark defiance to modern life and harkens to a time when men were men and women appreciated real men, in addition to being tougher than most of the “men” you see waddling their sloppy asses around the mall these days. As such, it would stand to reason that if we want to regain that former glory, strength, and aggressive awesomeness we had in times past, we should eat like our forebears.

For those of you who are staring, incredulous, at that statement, consider the following:
“The connection between flesh and bone is primordial and fundamental. Yet today, bones have fallen out of favor. We are all familiar with the expression, ‘The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat,’ but we demand everything precut and prepackaged, and that is, increasingly, all we can buy. Our world is full of recipes for boneless, skinless (and often tastless pieces of meat, chicken, and fish, and we can scarcely recognize whole fish or birds. We have become so obsessed with ease of preparation and speed that we have lost touch with the visceral appeal of cooking with- and eating- bones.” (20 McLagan)

They understood this, because they were stronger, smarter, and tougher than the lot of us.

“There is a universal understanding that bones and meat are inseparable. Yiddish: Bones without meat are possible, meat without bones is not possible. Hebrew: There is no such thing as boneless meat. Greek: Meat is sold with bones. Norwegian: He who buys the meat has to take the bone with it. English: Bones bring meat to town. He who eats the meat let him eat the bones. You buy the land you buy the stones: you buy the meat you buy the bones.”(119 Bones)

Eating boneless meat is thus not only effete, ridiculous, artificial, and offensive to the soul of the slaughtered animal, but it’s fucking stupid. Bone in meat tastes better and is healthier, as cooking it in that fashion “enables the bone nutrients to infuse into the meat, imparting wonderful flavors”(Shanahan) in addition to added nutrients. After you’ve cooked it that way, you eat it with your hands, as your primal ancestors did, using the bones as the handles for bearing meat to your mouth as they were fucking intended. Eating becomes more satisfying because you’re restoring the tactile sense in your hands to the process of eating. As such, it becomes a richer, more natural, more intimate experience and produces greater satiety as a result. As one probably hot hippie put it, “eating with your hands gives you a deeper sense of your food, because you are bringing more sense receptors to the table. Temperature and texture become more profound when you can feel them on your fingers first, and the experience of consumption is extended even longer for a more pleasurable process.”(Urban)

Worries about a mess on your hands? Buy some fucking Wet Wipes and be glad you have fewer dishes to do.

Additionally, you’re going to be consuming a shitload of low-carb, blended source protein shakes, multivitamins, EFAs, and fatburners, and will try to mix in some offal if at all possible. I’ll get into all of that good shit in the next installment, however, leaving you with the fact that offal tastes fucking awful, so I generally just take a shitload of multis.

Exactly.

Sources:
McDonald, Lyle. Ketogenic Diet.
McLagan, Jennifer. Bones: Recipes, History, and Lore. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010.
Russell, Sharmen Apt. Hunger: An Unnatural History. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Shanahan, Cate. http://drcate.com/deep-nutrition-the-ancient-science-of-human-engineering/the-four-pillars-of-world-cuisine/
Urban, Shiloh. “Eat With Your Hands.” http://www.organicauthority.com/eco-chic-table/eat-with-your-hands.html

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Jamie Chaos

I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

28 responses to “The Apex Predator Diet, In Glorious Detail Part 1”

AG85

February 11, 2012

Excellent.
AreThoseNewShoes?

February 11, 2012

The Chinese weightlifting team eats only a few times a day (3 meals, generally), and contrary to popular belief, it sure as fuck isn't soy and rice. They know what it does so they limit that shit.
They eat a ton of meat, according to a lifter from China (where I got this info.)
IF, Keto, etc… moral of the story: don't eat like a fag.
Alexandro

February 11, 2012

Good shit man, liking these in-depth blogs. I'm having good results with your diet philosophies, I gained 9 lbs of scale-weight in three months while leaning out, and I was at 8-9% to start with.
Imperator

February 11, 2012

First of all, let me state that I've been doing this diet for a while now and it does kick ass. I'm eating one big meal at the end of the day, nothing but protein shakes during the day. All while squatting at least 5 days per week.

I'm just being nit-picky, but is this really a keto diet? Especially if one is only eating one meal per day. All the plain protein (as opposed to protein+fat) consumed during the day is sure to undergo a lot of gluconeogenesis.

In re getting calories from fat – cook everything with coconut oil, lard, tallow, or butter. Eat some avocados and lots of bacon. Easy ways to get in more calories from fat.

I tried beef ribs once and they sucked. No meat at all. I guess you just get lucky depending on your provider. As a result, I just buy what type of beef I can afford and fix different dishes to change things up now and then.
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  February 13, 2012
  
  A ketogenic diet is any diet that causes your body to convert stored bodyfat to ketones for energy rather than using dietary carbohydrates. As such, anything with carbohydrates lower than 100 a day (which seems to be the absolute upper limit for ketogenesis) is a ketogenic diet, ranging from a complete fast to a targeted ketogenic diet involving pre- post- and peri-workout carbs.
  
  As you'll see- the entire diet's not simply one meal a day. That's merely for the fatties. Hold your fucking horses there, turbo.
Blobb

February 11, 2012

My main dietary focus is what makes me full for the least amount of money and keeps my number of shits per day below seven, but if you boil the bones, you can eat them too, and lamb bones are probably the ones that taste best.
Prion

February 11, 2012

This is the shit I've been waiting for. Thanks, Jaime. Looking forward to the other parts.
stew

February 11, 2012

how many cals do you eat on your cheat days? 7k?
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  February 13, 2012
  
  As many as I can.
MikeD425

February 12, 2012

How much money you spend on groceries a week Jamie? One thing I look at with diet is money viability…
Jahed Momand

February 12, 2012

that's not Gina Carano, but who really cares?

dat ass.
CJ

February 12, 2012

Would this diet be suitable for a rugby player?

This diet looks simple as fuck
BrockLeggins

February 12, 2012

Gina has a great ass, but that ain't her. Miesha Tate ftw
animalrageyeahlookatme

February 13, 2012

Other systems make a big deal of fast carbs to spike insulin after training. (Usually in the form of super fancy peri-workout nutrition protocols that you can only get from magic supplements…) You don't seem to give a fuck about this. How come?

Also offal is delicious, you pussy. You just need to recalibrate your modern taste buds.
Imperator

February 13, 2012

Because strength training is not very glycolytic.
Jachu

February 13, 2012

how does one incorporate beer supplementation into this diet?
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  February 13, 2012
  
  Rampage Day, if at all.
Hitower77

February 13, 2012

That fantassgasmic butt belongs to none other than Jamie Koeppe; she's a stunning fitness chick from B.C. Pity she's as flat as a 11 yr old boy. I've seen the hottest girls EVER in British Columbia; must be all that fresh air and the world's best pot…
Eric

February 14, 2012

Jamie, have you ever been in ketosis with 100 gms of cho/day? DiPasquale set the limit at 50 and Duchaine at 30. Furthermore, with the ~400gms of protein a day you espouse you would have a hard time to enter ketosis with all the gluconeogenesis going on. Your diet isn't ketogenic and doesn't need to be. Magical things happen when you exceed 1.5 gms protein / lbs bodyweight: You feel great, lose fat (if you need to) and/or gain weight (if you're not fat). For me the secret is to not get more than 50% of my protein from powders, particularly if you're only going to take in whey…animal flesh is the secret. Raw eggs like the chick in "Hanna" are also awesome. My record is a dozen in 2 minutes…Incredible that Jamie failed at recognizing Koeppe's ass.
Jacob

February 14, 2012

It sounds like you were suffering the affects of Rabbit Starvation[1] before you started adding the fattier bone-in-meat meals.

If you were an old-time explorer, Indian, or (I suspect) a caveman, too much lean meat would kill you within a few days from malaise, disorientation, and dehydration.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_starvation
Anonymous

February 15, 2012

>> Also offal is delicious, you pussy. You just need to recalibrate your modern taste buds.

This. Stop being a fat fatty and eat your fucking liver once a week. Soak it in milk and fry it with onions and shit. Get the farmer or butcher to grind heart 50/50 in with hamburger beef, that doesn't even taste different, just a little tougher.

Everything else is genius (You eat like I eat, and I am a genius, so by the transitive property, props to you. Now stop whining.)
mario

September 20, 2012

Iam from italy, and my family eats a lot of carb's, cam i eat 70-100gs of carbs a day, and make a very moderate rampage?
Bradley Lane

May 18, 2013

The caliber of information that you're offering is merely wonderful. tips for weight loss success
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