My current goal — mastering my own metabolism.

What does this mean? For me to have hyperabundant energy and thriving power all day. These are some things I’ve learned thus far:

1. Intermittent fasting

Don’t eat breakfast and lunch. Intermittent fasting — only having one massive dinner at night. And when you break your fast, make sure you eat an insane amount of meats and foods to refuel yourself (for the next day of your fasting). My biggest mistakes when intermittent fasting is not daring enough meat and protein for dinner.

When I break my fast, I will commonly eat 2-3 pounds of meat, eggs, leafy greens, etc. I eat so much that I’m literally not hungry until the next day dinner (typically 6pm onwards). Also the benefit of braking my fast with dinner is this:

Once I have my massive dinner, I’m not allowed to “work” anymore.

After my massive dinner, I will usually read, or perhaps fall into a food coma and sleep relatively early.

2. Why does fasting work?

The question isn’t if intermittent fasting works or not, but why it works.

This is my theory:

Once you’ve had a meal, your body signals to your brain via hormones that you have abundant nutrition, and thus you don’t need to eat anymore or “hunt” (engage in activity).

If your goal is to maximize your metabolic energy throughout the day, you don’t want to “shut down” your body during the day.

3. Anti food coma

It is evident that whenever you eat any food during the day, you get a little sleepy. Why? Generally the insulin response after consuming foods. There are ways you can minimize the insulin response (eating mostly fatty and protein rich foods and avoiding sugar/carbs/starch), but all meals do trigger some insulin response.

Therefore the goal is simple:

Minimize the amount of insulin responses you have during the day.

This will have your body functioning far more metabolically effective.

4. Plenty of water and coffee

Essentially during the day drink a shitload of water (first) and coffee. I usually make the mistake of drinking coffee before drinking a cup of water. Now my rule:

Before drinking a coffee, drink at least 3 cups of water.

Our body is primarily water, thus it makes sense to drink lots of water. And furthermore, I think most of us are probably dehydrated.

Nobody really knows how much water you need to drink in a day, but I think drinking more water than less water is probably a “net positive”.

5. Powerlifting

My biggest discovery:

Powerlifting or weight lifting on a daily basis is highly beneficial to your metabolic power.

I think we underestimate the power of the human body. I think we can throw at least 10x more into it (in terms of weight lifting) than what we limit ourselves to.

In a world where (for the most part) we are free of military duties or physical dangers, the dangers of lifting weights at a gym are so low. You’re more likely to hurt yourself playing basketball, running (knee injury), or soccer than lifting weights.

And this is the big thing — you don’t gotta spend that much time at the gym. Just go for 30 minutes, hang out a quick and invigorating workout, and peace out. No need to “maximize” your workout — any physical movement and activity is good!

6. Insane amounts of sleep

One of our modern vices: thinking that we don’t need to sleep, and trying to figure out ways we can sleep less. This is insane. It’s almost like figuring out how to mutilate your genitals in order to feel less sexual desire.

If I had the option of sleeping 10-12 hours a night and feeling superhuman in terms of my personal energy and metabolism (and be poor) or sleeping 2 hours a night (and being a billionaire), I would choose the prior.

7. Ketogenic diet

Diet of primarily meats, eggs, protein, and fats. Only veggies are fermented things (kimchi, sauerkraut), and leafy greens (collard greens, kale, etc). No starch, carbs, sugars, or alcohol for me.

This seems optimal for me, increasing my muscular mass growth while also keeping my body fat percentage lean.

Conclusion: Never stop experimenting

We will never discover the optimally best diet and lifestyle for everyone, but certainly there are better diets than other diets. For example going ketogenic is probably 1000x better than going on a 100% white sugar or white bread diet.

So perhaps the goal is to continue to optimize your own diet for your own health, and listen to your own metabolic feedback for more strength, vigor, and power.

ERIC