The Protein-Sparing Modified Fast Method: Over 120 Recipes to Accelerate Weight Loss & Improve Healing

by Maria Emmerich

There is no correlation between blood ketones and weight loss. You can have very high blood ketone levels and be gaining body fat if you’re drinking bulletproof coffees and eating high-fat foods.

Beta-oxidation or lipolysis is the process of burning fat for fuel.

doing a fat fast, or eating a low-protein keto diet. The body doesn’t have enough carbs or protein coming in, so it doesn’t have enough oxaloacetate to burn fat in the Krebs cycle. Plus, some of the oxaloacetate is redirected to fuel more gluconeogenesis (GNG) to make glucose for the cells that have no mitochondria and can only run on glucose, like the brain neurons and red blood cells. This is why you lose muscle and lean mass when fasting for long periods.

When you eat more protein, your ketone levels drop because the protein gives your body more precursors to make oxaloacetate. So now, fat goes through the Krebs cycle to be used for fuel instead of having to be turned into ketones first. Adding more protein to your diet allows your liver to work more efficiently and your body to burn fat for fuel more efficiently.

getting enough protein not only ensures that you won’t lose muscle and can even build new muscle, but also provides your body with the oxaloacetate it needs to burn fat directly

as ...

Don’t fear protein, and don’t limit protein! You need protein to build and maintain muscle and to have enough substrates to make oxaloacetate so that you can burn more fat directly in your cells. Protein is the most essential macronutrient for health and weight loss, and the PSMF method makes sure you get enough of it.

you need about 3.2 grams of leucine, an amino acid that signals mTOR to start building muscle from the protein you eat. You can get that amount by eating 7 ounces of steak or a whopping nine heads of broccoli!

Another claim is that if you reduce your intake to, say, 1,200 or 1,100 calories a day, you will start to lose muscle. This will happen only if the calories you are eating are coming primarily from fat or carbs. If you get enough protein, you will not lose lean mass.

if you eat in a large calorie deficit for months at a time, your BMR will drop, and you will require fewer calories to maintain or even fewer calories to lose weight.

This is where overfeeding days can be a good idea. Getting 400 to 600 extra calories from fat and protein can help limit metabolic adaption.

Doing this every other week, or even every week, can be helpful for some people, whereas others may need to keep it to one day a month

The idea behind starvation mode is that if you drop your caloric intake to a certain level—1,200 a day or whatever—your body will freak out and refuse to lose weight,

or even start gaining weight.

restricting calories a lot, like under 1,000 calories a day, for months and months, can result in incremental reductions or adaptions to the metabolism. But overfeeding days will help reduce those effects. Adding overfeeding days limits metabolic adaptation and keeps the metabolism going. That being said, if weight loss is your goal, you should never eat if you’re not hungry.

you simply never get hungry, add an occasional overfeeding day to prevent too much adaption.

you are a lean person who is only 5 or 10 pounds from your goal weight, you want to limit PSMF days to perhaps one a week.

your body will start converting protein to fuel, which means you will lose muscle.

If you have a lot of weight to lose, like 50 pounds or more, adding one to three days a week of PSMF is a good idea.

If you are doing three PSMF days a week, adding one overfeeding day once a week or every other week is a good idea. That will give you the results you’re looking for while limiting metabolic adaptation and preserving your lean mass.

I did extended fasting (for 72 hours, or two 42-hour fasts a week) for a while, and I almost always gained back 90 percent of what

I “lost.”

Protein-sparing modified fasting isn’t something you want to do every day; you want to do it a couple of days a week—

you are eating very little—typically about 600 to 700 calories—so you aren’t getting many vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

plant foods that are low in carbs and fat, such as asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, garlic, lettuce, mushrooms, tomatoes, and spices, can be added to meals as long as the macros remain in line.

Avoid too much strenuous exercise. Exercise is great, but too much intense exercise can increase blood sugar, which results in a glucose drop to compensate. Falling glucose increases hunger. Stick to leisurely walks or gentle yoga.

Cut out all caffeinated drinks. Caffeine increases blood sugar by 8 percent, and later in the day, when blood sugar starts to fall, it will cause hunger and sugar cravings. Caffeine also lowers insulin

if you cut out coffee, you likely will be able to lose weight if you have been stuck for a while—not to men...

when we asked how long they slept, they often said five or six hours. You need at least eight hours of good sleep to repair your body and thrive. Sleep deprivation increases sugar cravings and can make weight loss very difficult.

When you don’t get good sleep, your hunger hormones will cause you to crave and eat more food the next day.

Try essential oils, such as lavender oil—a dab of it on the big toe can help with sleep.

Add salt before bed, as low salt will cause poor sleep.

Take chelated magnesium, such as glycinate or topical magnesium, about an hour before bed. Magnesium is very calming and often helps with sleep.

Too salty! Use 1/4 tsp only

Can use any of my coffee flavors! Banana Caramel Blueberry Raspberry Mango Key lime cherry Chocolate cherry Brown sugar cinnamon

Pork Chops

OMG! This sauce is to die for! Love love love this recipe

Or coconut aminos (soy sauce)

about 3 minutes.

2:30 min on my stove. They were slightly over cooked. Thin chops 1/3-1/2”

set aside to rest,

I put them in the oven on a plate, covered with a glass pan lid to keep warm

P/E ratio 2.3 • calories 406 • fat 18g • protein 54g • carbs 6g • fiber 0.4g

My calculations came out different. I had 3.6 oz (one thin pork Chop) and 1 oz of the sauce. It made 3.2 oz. 295 (pork) + 54 oils = 349 cal. 27.5 protein 15.5 (pork) + 0.2 (sauce) + 6.8 (oils) = 22.5 fat 5.4 carbs (sauce)

A little too salty for me I would use half what it calls for

on Cronometer

this was WAY too spicy! I used 1/2 TB chili flakes. is that the same as red pepper? idk but I'd use a fraction of this, like 1/4 - 1/3 teaspoon

This spicy sauce tastes great with chicken, pork chops, or a juicy steak.

This is awful! just watery and way too spicy. you are better of using Primal Kitchen BBQ sauce.

This stuff is awful! I did try making it with white wine vinegar instead of ACV, but I don't think it would be much different. It is all sour bitter and too strong. I even tried adding keto honey to it (lots of it), but it didn't help.